[Grinner Hester]

No programs out there put oxide on rotting tape.
Get what you get off it asap. It’s literally falling away on ya, man.

[Grinner Hester]

News stations don’t snub jr collegers, they require them.
You have already gotten your foot in the door, you just don’t know it yet.
Make an awesome demo reel with those tools you have been mastering. Master them now that I stroked your ego enough to think you actually have. Your reel and your talent is what will be purchased by the hour… not your education. It’s not something that will usually come up in an interview and if it should, it’s because you are letting the conversation drag. Half the gig of an editor is people skills. You will have to sell yourself to get that first minumum wage gig. You’ll sell yourself again when you leave that place.
You’ll be selling edits on the fly and not even knowing it. Often your job will be to say no without using the word No and concencing the client it was their idea not to do it. This is what your job will be.
May as well start with where you want to work and for how much. Go in and then tell them.
than, take the minimum wage offered, not as insult, but as education you actually get a liitle coin for now, instead of paying coin for it.
You will find News stations and small production companies to be quite the econimocally viable education process.

[Grinner Hester]

I speedramp things in Avid. You can do it in AE.
No need to let anything out the door less than perfect. It’s a matter of setting keyframes per certain syllable. Ps are your buddys… anything where their lips are together on a beat, really.
The most obvious example of this is prolly John Michal Montogomery’s “I love the way you love me”
dude was not even close to being close but the cut was done in a linear bay. Still that last starring shot witht he song’s hook… take a looksy. Horribly obvious speed changes but what’s a brother gonna do?
Sometimes we get to accentuate fine art as editors but most of the time we are just turd polishers.

[Grinner Hester]

man, if a singer can’t nail lip syncing to his own track, he just can’t call himself an artist.
I was once shooting BJ Thomas and he was too drunk to lip sync so I handed him a phat hand-held mic with a big wind screen and had him hide his mouth with it.
Outside of lots of swish pans or a storyline with actors, I don’t know what else to tell for a dude who can’t sing the same song twice.

[Grinner Hester]

you’ll shoot tha band lip syncing to the playback you will be editing to. I have used everything from DAT to their cd for this.
If just needing to key your talent, you can do that in Vegas or premiere with no need for AE at all, if you light it right.
Work flows vary for sync. I like to sync one shot one time and lay it on it’s own track. I do this per take or camera and only have to sync each one once… going through the timeline subtractivly at that point. I literally reveal the final edit, so to speak.

I shot a music vodeo not long ago where I applied visuals from a live perfoprmance to a digital track. They key is to just not stay on anything long enough to give anything away. I did several speed changes to match and I used cutaways to hide what I did not have… having just one true take for the song in sync.
heres a copy if it helps at all:
https://grinnerhester.com/ColinGilmore.wmv
Lots of what “not to dos” in this one but we shoot what we can, when we can unless given time and budget.

[Grinner Hester]

If just wanting an LCD screen, man you can get em cheap at Sams or Best Buy. You will not get a broadcast high definition NTSC monitor for close to 1k.

[Grinner Hester]

If you wish to teach, a masters will not hurt anything.
If needing to get to work, a good demo will do it, not a certification and not a degree. While college is something I feel should not be missed if given the opportunity, it should be known this is not a field that requires it.
If shoosing between the two options you listed, I get the certification and start building that demo. If given freedom and a grand, I’d buy FCP, build that demo and get started.

[Grinner Hester]

eeeeeeh I hate when I have to admit I’m wrong.
I guess what I meant to say is “dadgummit it’s a crying freakin shame these things have to exist.”
While I often claim or boast a one size fits all answer, it’s often comedic only because I was signing something I hated the night before.
I do look at it as certain gigs require them though… not certain intities. Helps the flavor of the gig wonders.
When I look bad at the burning beds I have laid on, they were indeed on fire when I laid down.

heavy.

[Grinner Hester]

Today, your biggest cost is an edit suite and, today, you’d be surprised how many edit suite owners there are in town who are willing to get creative.
You may find you can rent to own a suite with nothing down, test-driving it as you go on the clock.
The short answer is no, don’t be gettin upside down to take a risk.
The deeper answer is, you already have.

So, getting down to the basics.
“Is risk worth it?”

That’s part of what you love about it. Clip on a tie if I’m wrong.
😉

[Grinner Hester]

Your job is to complement them regardless of restrictions.