Curmudgeon. Loner. Keyboard monkey. Cave dweller. Hermit.
These are just some of the selection names many have come to affiliate with these of us who edit for a residing.
And so they’re not 100% incorrect. Stereotypes usually emerge from a grain of fact.
There’s no query that editors are distinctive inventive creatures which can be usually misunderstood by producers, administrators, and shoppers:
- We most of the time want to work alone.
- We don’t get a complete lot of solar (not acquainted with “The Solar?” Right here, let me Google that for you).
- We may be ridiculously OCD about “our method” of doing issues.
- We don’t prefer to be informed what to do.
- And we get actually snappy whenever you contact our keyboards (sorry about that, it’s nothing private).
In the event you’re a producer or consumer sitting on the sofa in an edit suite struggling to grasp what makes your editor tick, and also you’d like a greater understanding of how we function, I hope the next “commandments” gives you some necessary insights.
[Author’s Note: I totally get that “editor” encompasses a wide range of job types. For those of you specifically in the Fortune 500 agency world, for example, it may be routine for the editor and producers to sit together during a session. I assure you, whether you’re with your editor every day in his or her suite, or collaborating cross-country with a tool like Frame.io, you will have a superior working relationship with your editor if you adopt the spirit of these commandments—which will yield a superior end product. And that’s something we all want.]
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- Thou shalt respect each editor’s unique personality.
- Thou shalt understand the creative process takes time.
- Thou shalt be patient and understand that “we will get there.”
- Thou shalt not micromanage the process.
- Thou shalt understand we report to multiple people.
- Thou shalt maintain the position of “collaborator.”
- Thou shalt not “play around” with our cuts (or touch our stuff).
- Thou shalt accept that editors are not technical wizards.
- Thou shalt accept that not everything can be “fixed in post.”
- Thou shalt accept that editing is our career and our passion—but it’s not our life.
All editors should not created equal. We’re not machines with a single manufacturing unit setting.
In a preferred article from 2016, producer Damien Dayton (condescendingly) outlines The Four Types of Video Editors You Will Meet. He particulars the strengths and weaknesses of “The Musician,” “The Technician,” “The Painter,” and “The Storyteller.” The place Damien utterly misses the mark is that we can’t be effectively put in cleanly labeled packing containers. However on the identical time, he’s not all incorrect—there are totally different tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses all of us have as inventive professionals.
Sure, some editors are dominant “Musicians” with sturdy rhythm and a novel skill to work with music, however that doesn’t imply they suck at utilizing the Avid or doing a fast shade cross.
Some editors are dominant “Painters” who embrace the visible picture and grasp their very own pictures on the wall for all to see, however that doesn’t rule them out as improbable storytellers.
And editors like me who’re primarily “Storytellers” may surprisingly even have a knack for rhythm, pacing, doing a fast split-screen comp, and even throwing in some movement graphics.
If you need an enduring (and stress-free) relationship with the editor you’re sharing that darkish room with, take a little bit of time to grasp their strengths and dominant tendencies—however with out the knee-jerk response of assuming they match into just one “sort.”
The subsequent time you change into annoyed with an editor as a result of he retains incessantly asking you “how” your particular change pertains to the story, relatively than getting upset since you simply need them to push the buttons, as a substitute contemplate the attitude that your editor’s primary aim is offering you the perfect finish product attainable.
And in the event you discover it odd that almost all editors are anti-social creatures who are sometimes awkwardly introverted, contemplate that we selected a solitary career working at midnight for lengthy hours for a purpose.
We completely get it: You might want to see it ASAP. The truth is, the various repeated requests we get to finish our work instantly has remodeled the acronym ASAP right into a verb:
“Hey man, why are you in such a rush?”
“Ugh. I simply obtained ASAP’ed once more.”
So simple as it might sound to quantify how lengthy one thing will take by the quantity of notes, the inventive course of may be messy. It’s not all the time straightforward to offer a precise to-the-minute deadline for when a lower or spherical of adjustments is prepared for assessment. An inventory of 5 notes may take a day in the event that they contain advanced story restructuring or in depth music replacements, and a distinct checklist of fifty notes may take half-hour as a result of all now we have to do is therapeutic massage just a few frames or repair glitches and pops.
We’re all the time doing our greatest to ship work as shortly as attainable—however as inventive professionals, it’s almost not possible for us to ship unfinished work that lacks integrity.
Delivering our best day-after-day takes time.
Quick. Low cost. Good.
Decide two.
You want the work to be of top of the range, however sadly, there’s no cash within the funds to cowl my OT? No downside. Simply don’t anticipate it in 5 minutes.
Additionally, needless to say permitting us to frontload the inventive work and offering us the time to actually polish and ideal our edits saves you a ton of time down the street. After I’m placing collectively my editor’s lower of any given episode of TV, I’m enjoying the lengthy recreation. I’m not doing my greatest to get you an “Meeting;” my aim is to ship a lower so polished it could possibly be mistaken as a last air grasp (minus last VFX or shade).
Permitting us to breathe a little bit bit now provides you loads of respiration house when it’s your flip.
When you perceive that not all notes are created equal and the inventive course of may be messy, it’s additionally necessary to grasp that simply because what you see isn’t working now, doesn’t imply it received’t find yourself being precisely what you wished (and extra). Belief us…finally, we’ll “get it there.”
You little doubt had a particular imaginative and prescient in your thoughts of what your venture would seem like when it was lastly lower collectively. But after viewing the primary lower, you could have a horrible pit in your abdomen (and probably the urge to vomit) as a result of what you’re watching is NOTHING such as you imagined. Possibly the director went off the rails. Possibly there have been manufacturing points you magically hoped wouldn’t be noticeable as soon as the piece was edited collectively. Possibly the primary lower is twenty minutes longer than anticipated.
The secret is embracing that this a part of the method is 100% regular. Similar to writing, you need to write “the unhealthy draft” earlier than you’ll be able to uncover “the good draft.” Enhancing is solely the ultimate writing course of and equally as necessary.
However simply because your script presumably was good, and simply because every thing went nicely on set doesn’t imply the primary lower goes to be magical with zero room for enchancment. We’ve been on this place many occasions earlier than, and whilst you won’t have the ability to see the sunshine on the finish of the tunnel, we do. Take a breath, loosen up, and permit us to information you there.
If most editors are like me, when requested to ship any type of inventive work, whether or not it’s a primary lower that can take weeks, or a small checklist or revisions that may be circled in an hour, there are solely two necessary questions:
- “What are your expectations when that is completed?”
- “When would you prefer to see it?”
As soon as we perceive your stage of expectation, and as soon as we all know whenever you’d prefer to see one thing, we’re all good.
It’s not all the time useful having somebody pop in each two hours to “take a peek” at a scene or ask how the adjustments are going.
Neither is it essential to have somebody stand over our shoulder and touch upon each work-in-progress music edit that doesn’t sound clean but.
We obtained this!
In my article 5 Things Every Editor Can Do to Build Trust and Keep Clients, I highlighted the necessity for editors to speak with administrators and producers so everyone seems to be on the identical web page with clear expectations of the method, and this recommendation applies equally to producers as nicely. When making a request, have a fast dialogue concerning the working type and your expectations.
Are you tremendous rushed and based mostly in your schedule it might be higher to simply “sit in” and assessment the adjustments one after the other? Not an issue, simply clearly talk that.
Are the adjustments extra advanced and you’ve got 4 different conferences to attend, so maybe it’s greatest to simply allow us to “do our factor” so you will get different work completed? Incredible. What’s necessary is that we’re all on the identical web page.
Inform us what you anticipate, inform us when you anticipate it, after which talk about the perfect course of for all of us. Then we’re all good.
Facet word…simply because we’ve stepped away from our workstations for a fast stroll and our fingers aren’t banging away on the keyboard doesn’t imply we’re not nonetheless working in your adjustments.
Creativity doesn’t all the time occur on the laptop.
Calmly repeat after me: “Your emergency shouldn’t be mechanically my emergency.”
Simply because somebody wants it ASAP (consult with Commandment II), that doesn’t mechanically imply now we have house in our calendars to ship instantly.
The possibilities are fairly good that along with working with you, we’re additionally working with different producers, a director or two (relying on our workload of episodes, promos, trailers, and many others), and we additionally reply to a community, an company govt, and an EP or showrunner.
Editors are the kids trapped between many divorced dad and mom. We get suggestions from loads of locations, and each single individual’s voice is necessary, however there are solely so many hours in a day to make everybody (and thus nobody) glad.
If one thing pressing has come up and also you require an editor to show one thing round shortly, there’s completely nothing incorrect with that. You’re doing all of your job to the perfect of your skill, and being a improbable producer means pleasing the individuals you’re employed for—simply as our job is to please you. The secret is speaking with us about your deadlines and expectations (consult with Commandment IV).
Earlier than assuming that your emergency can mechanically change into our emergency, all you need to do is ask: “Hey, this simply got here up and it’s tremendous necessary. Do you assume you could have the bandwidth to deal with it?”
In case your present emergency is, in truth, a real emergency, then it’s time to have a bigger dialog with everybody concerned to correctly prioritize all energetic works-in-progress. Communication is the important thing to getting every thing completed on time and on funds—with no lack of sanity.
The #1 rule of post-production: By no means assume.
Regardless of our tendency to sulk in darkish rooms (Therefore the phrases “cave dweller” and “hermit,”) editors LOVE to collaborate. We perceive our final job is to service your wants. However right here’s the factor—we like to work with LEADERS…we don’t take pleasure in working for “BOSSES.” And whether or not or not you might be really our boss is irrelevant: don’t deal with us like “You’re the boss,” adopting a “my method or the freeway” type of perspective.
Deal with us like a fellow collaborator with the widespread aim of telling the perfect story and delivering the perfect work attainable. Asserting your dominance over us measly “button pushers” is certainly not the perfect technique to assist us attain our best inventive potential.
We editors are employed for our inventive tastes and our opinions, along with our technical talents. Treating us as if our concepts really matter (even when they generally suck) is the clearest path to getting the perfect work you possibly can from us. In the event you exit of your approach to present appreciation for the contribution we make to the work, and in the event you acknowledge the worth our concepts convey to the desk, we’ll be loyal to you till the tip of time.
Lead us—don’t push us round.
In the event you lord over us whereas we bang away at your adjustments since you assume the added strain of respiration down our necks will assist us attain a state of “inventive circulation” and ship quicker, nicely, good luck with that.
Simply because we’re categorized as “Under the Line” doesn’t imply we’re second class residents. The most effective thought wins, regardless of who it comes from.
There’s no query the inventive course of could be a delicate dance of fine concepts and unhealthy concepts that should be executed inside a decent deadline (and a restricted funds), however the secret is understanding that regardless of our usually delinquent tendencies, editors love working with you…however we hardly ever love working for you.
Yeah, I heard… Avid Media Composer now has a free model. Or perhaps you found there’s a free trial for Adobe Artistic Cloud. Oh, your brother-in-law has a duplicate of Closing Reduce Professional X? Good for him.
Right here’s the factor: having access to enhancing software program makes an individual an “editor” about as a lot as gaining access to QuickBooks makes an individual a CPA.
Think about standing alongside Michelangelo as he crafts a stupendous canvas proper earlier than your eyes. Now think about somebody stepping in with a paintbrush they purchased at Dwelling Depot to allow them to “polish” the painter’s work. Sure, I do know that individual was most probably “simply attempting to assist,” however clearly he doesn’t have the inventive eye, nor the years of expertise and experience.
Respect the period of time, power, and a focus we’ve put into perfecting our craft and follow giving us suggestions, not steering the ship for us.
Whereas we’re with reference to “enjoying round,” please needless to say our edit suite is our habitat. It’s our dwelling.
Don’t contact our keyboards.
Please don’t contact our displays.
And please don’t use our workplace as your personal private convention room whereas we do your adjustments. We don’t tempo round your workplace for an hour making our physician’s appointments whilst you attempt to get work completed. We anticipate the identical respect in return.
Belief us, we desperately want that we may merely “flip off” the vocals observe and use simply the instrumentals on that incredible music you discovered on iTunes for the act 3 montage. However the unhappy actuality is that editors should not wizards, and post-production shouldn’t be Hogwarts (to not point out the licensing issues concerned with utilizing that music).
We are able to’t do every thing.
Sorry, we don’t have a plug-in to take away the background music enjoying within the manufacturing observe that utterly drowns out the star’s dialog.
Sure that visible impact remains to be “temp,” except you could have the $25k to ship an unlocked sequence over to the VFX home whereas we’re nonetheless deep within the Director’s Reduce.
And no, we will’t shortly paint out that billboard within the background of sixty-seven totally different photographs within the first act chase sequence that was shot 100% hand-held.
We can also’t connect a 4GB HD ProRes output to an e mail so you possibly can shortly have a look. That’s what Body.io is for. Use it.
In the event you’re nonetheless satisfied we fill the position of ‘Wizard’ and might repair every thing in submit, please proceed to Commandment IX.
In the event you’re uninterested in placing out fires on the final minute and all the time feeling such as you’re chasing your tail whilst you “repair it in submit,” may we propose bringing the editors into your many pre-production conversations nicely earlier than the cameras roll? We would not spend loads of time on set (or round individuals on the whole), however we positive know rather a lot about avoiding doubtlessly disastrous errors that may value thousands and thousands of {dollars} to repair two days earlier than last supply.
There’ll inevitably be issues with each manufacturing, and in the end it comes down to at least one alternative: Do you like to pay to repair these issues now or later? The issues are inevitable and past your management. Being proactive about averting these issues is a alternative nicely inside your management.
And in case your technique is to cross your fingers and hope we will repair every thing, please consult with Commandment VIII.
Given the sacrifices (and the brutal way of life) required to successfully build and maintain a career as an editor, I’d enterprise to guess the overwhelming majority of us do it as a result of we love our craft and easily can’t think about doing the rest with our lives. This, nonetheless, doesn’t give anybody the license to benefit from our time.
We notice you and your staff might have spent years packaging this venture. We perceive you may even have a great deal of your personal cash invested (together with the second mortgage on your house and emptying out your youngsters’ school funds). None of this implies it’s okay to ask us to work unpaid extra time, or work past an agreed out-date with out extra pay, or convey a sleeping bag to the edit suite as a result of “This week’s gonna be an extended one.”
Don’t mechanically assume that our stage of ardour is the same as your stage of ardour. You’ll have extra invested within the end result of the venture, however you additionally reap the advantages far past us.
The fact is that regardless of how profitable your venture is, we receives a commission the identical fee. Even be keenly conscious that the financial institution doesn’t enable us to pay our mortgages with “Publicity Bucks.”
And most significantly, earlier than cultivating a piece setting that makes us really feel like we’re elevating our children by way of Facetime, take a second to search out a little bit perspective and notice that We Create Entertainment For a Living…We’re Not Curing Cancer.
All this being mentioned, know that in the event you adhere to those commandments, we may have the power, inspiration, and dedication to provide you distinctive work, a satisfying collaboration, and an end-product we all may be enormously happy with.
Able to get to work now? So are we.
Some decor on your edit suite. Proper-Click on to obtain, print, and grasp with delight!
Creator’s Word: A particular thanks is required for the many individuals within the splendidly supportive Blue Collar Post Collective Facebook community. You all helped me write this, whether or not you notice it or not.
