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Hiring an editor
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[Mark Suszko] “some of you can come in in flip-flops and a thong and get away with it,”
A thong? That’s a very scary thought for most editors. However, I have decided to allow my new assistant to wear a thong and flip-flops if she wishes… Here she is logging our current project on her Macbook.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Yeah, I have never worn a suit to an interview. Nice jeans and a button up shirt, yes. Suit, no. That actually sends the wrong signal to the people out here…they don’t want to see that. They want to see nice dressers, but not suits. Not shorts and t-shirts either, although you can wear those once hired.
In fact, when in college we were shown a film on how to interview for a job in hollywood. It showed us how to dress and how to act…and that video also discouraged the suit approach, as well as the shorts and t-shirt. Dress casual, slacks or jeans and a button up shirt or polo. This wasn’t a business job. Heck, you won’t catch a majority of producers in a suit either, unless they are meeting with BUSINESS people, like the network heads or money guys. And even then it is a maybe.
As for the “here is my Avid, put it together and you’re hired,” that says squat about storytelling ability. 85-95% of the editors out here can’t take apart and reassemble an NLE. That is not their job. Their job is to tell a story. The technicians job is to assemble the Avid. And it is the assistants job to figure the small issues with the system and address them. Because editors are hired to tell stories, not to build Avids.
if they can do all that tech stuff AND tell a story, that is a good plus, but it is not a requirement.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Mike Cohen] “Maybe here in New England we are a bit more traditional, must be our Puritan ancestry. Although it would be nice if supermarkets sold wine. But that’s another thread altogether!”
No, it’s this thread, Mike. :o)
You could move here, Mike, we sell wine. Good wine, too. Just ask Nick.
Ron Lindeboom
Self Appointed Ambassador and Wine Marketing Specialist for the Paso Robles Wine Industry™
specializing in the best wineries: Carmody-McKnight, Halter Ranch, Adelaida Cellars, Opolo, Vihuela and others as we discover them
currently refusing to represent: Peachy Canyon, Tobin James, Eagle Castle, Martin & Weyrick, York Mountain, and too many others to name here -
The dress code thing I’m getting over, but I wouldn’t say you could ever be over-dressed. I’m old school and while a suit isn’t req’d, dress casual with a tie shows me that the candidate respects me. If they did their research, they’d know what to wear. Too few applicants are not interested in me and my business, they just want a job. Not good. I really don’t care what you say you can do… what are you going to do for me.
I’m retentive about things, and I find 2 types of people out there: those so organized there’s no time for creativity, and those so creative there’s no chance of ever finding all the files to do an archive. There needs to be a methodology to file structure and management. Looking at a Pshop file can show this – is it 50 layers of “layer 1”, “layer 2”, or are they appropriately named, grouped, etc? Look at a project folder, are the 100’s of files all floating around aimlessly or are they nicely organized in subfolders? At some point we update almost every client’s stuff, it’s gotta be quick to archive and painless to re-load, batch footage and fix it up.
Client relationships. You are an extension of me/my business. I don’t want a clone of me (that would be bad for the world in general), but they have to react the way I would. This is a learned skill.
What I really want is the preditor – producer/editor. You have to be able to size-up the project and give me your input. If somebody says (there’s some great quotes in the contract thread) “this’ll only take an hour” the editor should be able to intelligently say yes or no and why. Or provide the parameters – “we can do the entire video edit, but not all the graphics you want, or skip this to make sure we have time for that.” Obviously not an entry-level skillset. If I personally say this will take 2 hours, it’ll be 2 hours for a capable person, so ya gotta know your tools.
I actually have to cull this down for my ad posting by end of the week.
Written in my t-shirt, khaki shorts and sandals eating a late breakfast at my desk – not the editing desk, that gets you booted out the door!
Steve
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I’m late to the thread but here goes:
1) [Mike Cohen] “so perhaps you could say I was looking for me.”
Yea. Good luck with that. In 30 years I’ve found one guy who is willing to work as hard as I do and of a mindset to do so day in, day out. I pay him well and treat him as the rarity he is.
2) [Ron Lindeboom] “Good wine, too. Just ask Nick.”
YES! Carmody-McKnight, Halter Ranch, Adelaida Cellars are each mind boggling, but probably not supermarket fare. (Unless you have a REALLY upscale supermarket.) Mr. & Mrs. Lindeboom truly found my weakness for fine grapes.
3) Personally I’m offering Weiss’ new assistant a position here as Senior Editor. (And Mrs. Griffin is putting her divorce attorney on speed dial.)
As to dress code, I prefer a silk tie, custom made oxford shirt, pocket square and hand-tailored suit coat worn over blue jeans and flip flops. Sends the perfect message — I can be corporate, but only to a point.
Common sense is really what’s needed in dressing for an interview. A little more dressed up than normal, clean, neat and looking orderly. Torn T-shirts send the completely wrong message. They scream: “I have no idea why I’m here so I probably can’t be trusted to know what I’m doing and especially can’t be trusted around clients.”
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[Nick Griffin] “Sends the perfect message — I can be corporate, but only to a point.”
I’m suddenly remembering something that I had almost completely blotted out of my brain…
A couple of people in here who know me better than others might remember the dirty secret that many years ago before I was a wanabe movie director I was a wanabe actor (thankfully my legal name was already registered with SAG, the upside being that people can’t look up bad movies and TV shows I was in because they don’t know what name I worked under… heh heh).
I can now remember going to many a meeting with directors, casting people, or auditions always wearing my “gosh-aren’t-I-sharp-but-oh-so-causal” garb:
the Armani sport coat over a black tee-shirt.
Thank you, Michael Mann!
Times have changed…..
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Regarding the “suit” thing. In all the years that I’ve been hiring editors out here in LA, I’ve only had ONE guy show up in a suit. He was from out of town, so I forgave him the faux pas. We actually hired him, but to this day still give him grief about it!
Dress codes are a subtle thing. It’s really very regional. What’s appropriate for one part of the country will be laughed at in another. The import thing is that the applicant know enough to figure out what’s appropriate for you. That sends the message that they will fit in.
Mark
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I always made it a point to put my resume on tie-dyed paper and show up in my comfy clothes for the interview. This way, we were on the same page as I interviewed them. And I WAS the one interviewing them. They already wanted me or I’d not be there interviewing. What I needed to know was “is this a place I wanna spend most of my waking hours?”
I found most employers loved this. All of the ones I wanted to hang with did, anyway and it was a very simple way to weed out the places I would have been very temporary at.
Dress codes are for places with power trips or clientele with power trips. Artists need to be comfy. It’s that simple to me.
A suit?
Not even at funerals, man.
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Todd – Having read both your advertisement and the posts to it here on COW, I feel you’ve put your desires very plainly out there. Your advertisement is very concise and explicit, and shows to me that you’re wanting to find only the appropriate candidates to apply, and if they’re not willing to follow what you’ve so substantially gone to the effort to explain, then no, they don’t deserve a further look.
For those who do follow your instructions, then my suggestion is this – give them a test. Start with a paper exam that elicits their actual knowledge of editing – the tools and the terms. You’ll find there are those who are knowledgeable and those who try to BS their way along.
Then give them an editing test. A 2-part test in which they do both a ‘do-your-own-thing creatively on the software you know at home’ and an in-house “direction specific” piece. At the end of the paper test, give them the footage for the creative piece to take with them. Give everyone the same footage and give them a deadline to get it back – within a time frame reasonable to what you’d expect them to complete the project in.
Upon reviewing those submissions, and you’ve gotten the field narrowed down to a few top candidates (your choice on how many, but I’d go 2-3), then bring them in to work on your equipment, with a different batch of footage and and “client-specific” instructions. By all means, give a crash course on the Premiere software before they start if they’ve never used it, but this will allow you to get a feel for how quickly they’ll adapt and how they’ll follow those instructions in-house, under time constraints. Then your final choice should be clear.
Now there are those out there who’ll think I’m nuts, but the proof is in the pudding, and I went through a similar type of test for a position once. My educational credentials were minimal, as was my reel, but I kicked the other candidate’s butt in the test and was offered the job on the spot.
It’s just too bad I’m not interested in living in the humidity of the southeast, otherwise I’d be applying for this job myself. You sound like the kind of boss I’d like to have.
Oh, and as to the interview attire – I find casual business is best, because, I’m sorry, but for those with a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ attitude, I’d be leaving it. Show me just once you respect me as a prospective employer enough to “clean up” a little. A polo shirt instead of the Hawaiian, and no flip flops. ‘Grinner’ may think he’s interviewing me, but if I’ve got the money, that puts me in the power position, and I’m interviewing him to see IF I really want him or not. Getting the interview isn’t getting the offer.
Lots of luck finding your editor.
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