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Serious X Editors needed in LA.
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Don’t forget the live in LA part. That’d be a helluva commute for me.
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I can relate…
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill
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Wrong side of the bed Mitch?
During the first 1-2 years of X, we all saw a bunch of folks kick the tires and then head off to AVID or Premier, convinced that X was (what was the knock? Oh yeah, iMovie Pro.)
So here we are, really serious operations in LA are suddenly looking for qualified X editors because they have good JOBS they need to fill – and are having to look hard to find qualified editors with major program editing experience.
I fail to see why that’s a knock on anyone like you, who, while sure, you tend to mostly post criticisms about X, at least we both know you took the time to learn to edit properly with it.
Which puts you well ahead of anyone who fiddled with it – and couldn’t figure it out. At least as far as these specific high profile Hollywood slots go.
I know for a fact that Sam and Noah travel internationally a lot doing X training for really serious global operations. I suspect it’s a bit tiring starting editors from literally square one. And with the types of clients they’re attracting, they’re looking for higher end FCP X talent.
It’s nothing but a good sign for those with solid X skills.
Simple as that. .
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[Bill Davis] “Wrong side of the bed Mitch?”
I was thinking I could ask you the same question with regard to your original post?
So my question is: are you suggesting that your original call for editors would have been less successful without the snarky comment?
I’m thinking it would have worked just as well, and since you were the one who pointed out that Jerry Seinfeld used to spend hours trying to remove a few words to make his message more clear, I would think that you of all people would appreciate that?
Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill
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[Bill Davis] “So here we are, really serious operations in LA are suddenly looking for qualified X editors because they have good JOBS they need to fill – and are having to look hard to find qualified editors with major program editing experience. “
What are the serious operations in LA? Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my single biggest reason for not learning X is that there are barely any X jobs in LA (and I’ve yet to come across a publicly posted job for X in LA that wasn’t on the lower end of the pay scale). If there are enough good paying jobs to be had then that certainly makes X more attractive to me (and I’d assume many other freelancers in LA too).
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I wondering the same as Andrew – while I have a staff gig, I’m always on the hunt looking for opportunities both Freelance and otherwise.
I’ve seen two posts total about FCP X none of which offered anything close to a livable wage or even close to what the average day player in LA would be making. And that’s just “average day player”. There’s still many here who are making $1500 a day at the top end of the spectrum. That said, i took it upon myself to learn the software to formulate my own opinions and have used it on a few freelance gigs now where the client didnt care what I was cutting on.
As someone who doesn’t solely rely on X, but know’s it well enough to execute and deliver high end work – I reached out to Sam as well. It will be interesting to see what comes back.
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DirecTV’s promo department has moved largely to X, though I think they still have some Legacy holdouts. At least that’s the way it was last year. Sadly, my very good friend who worked there was killed during his commute this last summer, so I’ve lost track of what’s happening there. But, they seemed happy with it. And, Magic Feather, of course. Those are the two groups I know who are using X out here. I’m sure there are more, but I don’t see an explosion coming.
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[Bill Davis] “It’s nothing but a good sign for those with solid X skills”
True enough. I passed your notice on to a friend of mine. Thanks for posting it.
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[Andrew Kimery] “What are the serious operations in LA? “
FCPWORKS is…apparently. And they, according to Sam, are getting requests from people for broadcast/film professionals that use FCX.
But so far that’s the only place I’ve seen looking. Not to say that I haven’t seen people looking for FCX editors, but they are for YouTube channels or other web distributors, and the pay isn’t even half the going rate that broadcast professionals get. Not so serious, in other words.
BUT…FCP Legacy didn’t get taken seriously until after COLD MOUNTAIN and SCRUBS…so now that FOCUS is out, this might build. But I don’t expect it to boom nearly as fast, nor as much, as FCP Legacy did. Legacy took off because the only other NLE in town was Avid, and it was very high priced. So companies looked to FCP to cut costs…even tried to hire editors for LESS than the going rate because, hey, FCP is cheaper…so they should be, right? (That viewpoint went away fast).
But now Avid is cheaper, and Premiere is out there, also not too expensive. So there are more options. And the Legacy FCP editors in LA are more comfortable using Premiere, or going back to Avid. Because they are perfectly viable and inexpensive options. This isn’t to say that FCX won’t gain a foot hold here in LA on features and TV shows…I just don’t see it as booming as fast as Legacy did…nor getting nearly as widespread as Legacy got. Yes, it’ll see use. But it’ll be a small market. IMHO.
Not trying to put it down…this is just how I see things. I was one of the early adopters of FCP…starting with FCP 2. And I didn’t take it seriously as a broadcast worthy NLE until 4.5…and then I was a champion for it’s cause. And I knew all the factors involved in how it skyrocketed and was adopted…and the conditions for that boom. Those same conditions aren’t around now…so the spread of FCX won’t happen nearly as fast…nor as wide. IMHO, it’ll remain a specialty NLE that solves some workflow needs. But with Premiere and Avid handling 4K, and this town’s infrastructure built around Avid…and adaptable to PPro as it fills the gap FCP 7 left…not many people will look to FCX.
See, FCX isn’t catered to us. Apple made it clear that they WEREN’T going to cater to us…but make the features that most people wanted, not us 2%. And that made perfect sense. Now, with FOCUS being done with FCX, and a huge contingent of Apple people on hand to help with that (Like there was a huge contingent to help with COLD MOUNTAIN)…maybe this will shift. Up to that point, they could care less about our small market share of editors. We aren’t profitable to them…so how invested they are into going after our market again…when they were pretty much resolved NOT to early on…remains to be seen.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Bill Davis] “Serious X Editors needed in LA.”
What about “funny” editors in Chicago? Do they need those?
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