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Here is a an ad and reply I got today…
Here is a an ad and reply I got today that is a good example.(edited to conceal personal info)
“Video Editor wanted
Looking for editor that is familiar with Sony Vegas. Don’t wanna hear from you unless you know Sony Vegas and know it well. Repeat; not interested in hearing how well you can cut with FCP, Avid, Premiere, or any other application. If your reel wasn’t cut in Vegas, we’re not interested in seeing it. Both our server and our client are heavily centered around the media management found in Sony’s software.
We do long-form HD projects. If you don’t have your own computer, we can provide, but we’d prefer to provide HDD’s of raw content and you will edit our content. Telecommuting from or surrounding area is acceptable; we need you in-studio at least one day per week.”Reply
Hello ,
We are looking for someone local, and the remuneration for the work we’re wanting isn’t enough to motivate anyone to move . We’re looking for an intern-type person looking to deepen their connections and abilities in the industry, cutting corporate pieces together for us. Budget is very limited . but hope it finds us some young, new, and inexpensive talent.
Thank you for your email, and good luck with your job hunting.
=============================================Now the original ad asked specifically for an “esitor” who is experienced only who “knows it well”. They want a reel , but then say they want an intern entry level person. Anyone knows this is impossible to expect an entry level person to a reel from lack of experience and being in school. An intern is someone who attends school and works part time for free in exchange for school credits and the chance to learn on the job. The school gets a free teacher and the employer gets free labor. Any employer hiring someone as an intern who is not in school is just exploiting people for free labor and personal benefit. Some will argue that a person can choose to work for free to get their foot in the door. True, but employers should not be able to advertise for this free work and I am telling everyone that this practice to sol;icit free labor is out of control and it will affect you in the near future in a negative way. The majority if ads are not of thids nature, not as much on the COW though because there are very few ads posyed each week on the COW compared to other forums.
They also want this intern to have their own equipment. They want to hand this person a disk full of raw media and “edit” at their own place if needed and show up once a week. I highly doubt there are any interns out there that will ever be able to do all of this. What about the quality of the product from an entry level person who is left alone? I would not want any of my clients expecting high quality HD projects left to the hands of an entry level person. How long would this person take to “try” and do it? Add those hours up and compare it to a pro with experience doing it in a day instead of possibly two weeks. Plus, no one is also taking in to consideration that all the older pros out there are not demanding high salaries. Just something reasonable. Plus the kid can live at home and the older pro has a family to feed. Which leads to waht are YOU going to do with a world full of millions of 50+ people who CANNOT find any work. Fact, they cannot even get jobs at Home Depot these days.
Pleae do not try and nit pick this apart on small little segmants. The message here is typical, loud and clear. It is very wrong and you will eventually see unless things are changed and laws are enforced. An editor can be 19 and a good editor for low pay can also be 60. And a 60 year old can also unload a truck in a good amount of time. Mayne get your truck there 10 minutes earlier so an old lady can unload it, too. I can’t believe all the narrow low blow reasons being presented to justify age discrimination.
Gary
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23 Replies
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Interesting.
Welcome to the “democratized” production industry. a zillion production companies and a zillion outlets makes for commodity-priced work product unfortunately.
Also, many new production entities simply don’t understand the realities of maintaining a staff capable of a reasonable quality work product.
Ah well…keep looking. Somewhere there is a real job. I don’t know how many there are that will be this intensively Vegas-oriented, but stick with it.
It doesn’t sound like this would be much of a job for anyone out of high school who needs to make some sort of living anyway. The company probably wouldn’t be the greatest culture either by the looks of it.
TimK,
Director,
Kolb Productions,Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net -
Hello TimK,
I am not sure how my post was moved over to here when it was originally submitted to the War of the Worlds, Old Fogies vs. Young Idiots thread we had going.
The point I was making was not about me getting the job, but the way people post an ad and then change what they really said to find people to work for low pay/no pay. The first two sentences in the ad are completely contradicting.
“Looking for editor that is familiar with Sony Vegas. Don’t wanna hear from you unless you know Sony Vegas and know it well.”
“Familiar with” goes to “know it well”. An requesting an “Editor” gets a reply saying they want an “intern”.
In the original post the other day, a person says young and then he later changes it to young at heart becuase of possible legal matters. Would the employer like it if some youngster accepted the job and then did not show up becuase he changed his words to mean something else? I appreciate the fact that the poster apologized, but what about all the other fifty to one hundred people who posted in all the pro job forums in this manner the same day?
It appears that the current day editor is being pushed back down to the basement like hollywood did to the women who were the first editors in the early film days. I do understand that the industry needs interns and entry level people, but not almost all of the jobs.
Best regards,
GaryCOW, please put this post back in the original thread to maintain continuity of the subject
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I put this here as it opened up a new spin on the same can of worms that better fit a new thread and would generate more discussion as a new thread. Appending it to the thread below would have likely seen this draw little to no interest. (We’ve just been doing this for 12 years now and we have learned a bit about the rhythym and flow of this kind of thing.)
Editorial prerogative belongs to the COW; if that offends you, read our policies.
Best,
Ron Lindeboom
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Ron,
That’s fine with me. Just a little surprised at first.
Gary
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I forgot to add that I talked with Tim Wilson today and I am happy to see there are now two additional forums for low pay and jobs wanted.
Gary
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Today my local Craigslist also has an internship position available immediately. They want someone with a 3 chip digital cam to shoot 12-15 hours of nature footage up to 4 hours out of town…edit it into a 90 minute sequence to their specs. If they accept it it may lead to more contract work with royalties…
sheesh….
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Boycott is the act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with someone or some other organization as an expression of protest.
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It never ceases to amaze me hoe so many people want so much for free or for next to nothing.
I used to work for an employer who wanted an experienced editors at next to no pay. And or course all the time he was padding his own wallet, purchasing a new car and a nice big house. A coworker there also rented a place from him and had to borrow money from his in-laws because the boss would not even pay him enough to make rent. When asked about this all he would say is thats life. Needless to say when I was let go because he couldn’t afford to make payroll I was not disappointed, I already looking for work. He also got ticked off because he had to pay unemployment.
He just never understood that to keep skilled editors he needed to pay more them McDonalds.
This was my first editing job out of college, and as I look back I am actually grateful that I worked there. I did get some experience under my belt, and I did learn a lot about how a business should be run, because his business practices were horrible. And I mean HORRIBLE. How he has made it in this business so long I don’t know.
When buying a car if you asked for a Lexus and only were willing to pay for a old rusty truck with out a engine the dealer would laugh at you. I think we should do the same.
You get what you pay for, if you will only pay little to nothing then you will get little to noting of value in return.
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Yes, they were long overdue. Glad you like ’em. ;o)
Ron Lindeboom
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But a boycott of 100 people doesn’t work if one person cooperates. I’m amazed that kids cooperate for these kinds of schemes…I guess its that young eager desire to get started in the biz.
Of course, I also see things differently since my corporate job description was revised when I turned 50. I was told I could apply for the new job if I wanted to compete for it. I decided to take the severance pay and went into business for myself. Now I make less money (for the time being) but I write the job descriptions…
Of course, I could probably make more money if I could get some young and eager kids to work for free…
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