AVID restructures, Cuts staff - TV Technology-- Aug 8

Here is the print wording from the article on page 58

Avid Technology Inc. said it is laying off about 150 staffers in the process of restructuring the company.

Avid is transitioning it's video server engineering group from Mountain View, Ca to existing facilities in Tewksbury and Edmonton, Alberta and reducing space within certain facilities. The company said the realignment would result in restructuring charges of $8M to $10M.

The copany which released it's second quarter results in July. posted a $6M loss on revenues of $225M compared to $222M for the same period last year.

The news follows a recent announcment that David Krull would step down as CEO and president at the end of July. Nancy Hawthorne, current board member and former chairman will serve as AVIDs interum CEO as the board searches for Krull's replacement.

The company also appointed Joel Legon to serve as vice-president and chief financial officer.
Since joining AVID in 2006, Legon has served as vice-president and corporate controller.

Not as profitable when your product has competition and you continue charging premium prices.

Apple & FCP continues to have a major impact on "the industry standard" (and they call US "elitists"

Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I'm not so sure people look at Apple zealots as though we're elitists as much as trying to figure out why FCP users think they had much impact on Avid's market share at all.

The overwhelming amount of broadcast television, movies and commercials are still edited with Avids. Unfortunately this is more indicative of the overall malaise within the entertainment industry.

As much as some might like to think this is Avid versus Apple, keep in mind that 150 of our friends just lost their jobs.

That sucks!

"I'm not so sure people look at Apple zealots as though we're elitists"

Spend an hour on the Avid.com forums or on the Avid-L. You eyes will be opened to the hate that lives within for FCP & it's Editors.

"As much as some might like to think this is Avid versus Apple, keep in mind that 150 of our friends just lost their jobs."

Don't get me wrong...I am not laughing at my brothers & sisters that have been put out. They won't be out of work for long. Steve Bayes (Avid's ex-Product Manager / now Apple's FCP Product Manager) jumped ship early on and came over "to the good side". HE was VERY high up in the Avid development food chain. He saw something brilliant in the FCP software & Apple (and probably the culture) that drew him to us.

The truth is that the Apple Final Cut Pro culture is much more of a nurturing sharing culture that opens up to newbies & shares much more information & experience to all who ask. I don't think in the years I have been on the LAFCPUG that I have seen or been involved in any viscious "Mac vs PC" (or "Avid vs FCP" wars. The Avid-L was shut down briefly because of one. It's one of the reasons why I came over "to the good side".

I personally was reprimanded by Avid.com Forum Admins several times for pointing out Avid short comings and boasting about FCP's benefits in open discussions. I was asked by Avid.com Admins to relinquish my Moderator status (fancy term for being asked to bugger off) because they did not appreciate my positive views of the competition (FCP) in discussions in an Avid forum. The PC users called me a troll and an "Apple Elitist" for expressing my opinions. That was a year and a half ago & haven't been back since (I don't miss it one bit).

I didn't like FCP at the beginning when I was an Avid Editor. I hated the simplistic plain interface (...which still needs a major upgrade, IMHO ) and the non-specific processes involved and I fought tooth & nail against conforming. I figured that everyone will be using this and it will cut us Avid users off at the knees as everyone will have FCP and call themselves "Editors". Then I got into the Apple culture & the LAFCPUG. I drank the koolaid. I got incredible insight from Mike, Shane, Jude, Tom, Loren, Nick, Derek, Ben & the rest of the cast members and knew this is where I wanted to be. I learned from a bunch of nice folks on the other side of the country (and in some cases the other side of the world) that it's not about the software or the platform...it's about sharing. It made me want to give of my own experiences as well. Now I happily use both NLE's and the Avid.com forums are a distant memory.

So all 150 of you Avid castaways...if you are listening...come on over & drink the koolaid. All are welcome.

Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

> I figured that everyone will be using this and it will cut us Avid users off at the knees as
> everyone will have FCP and call themselves "Editors".

That did happen, unfortunately...although what we didn't foresee was the iMovie/Pinnacle culture coming in and lowering the bar even more! But the market is oversaturated and the general level of skill has gone down because of the influx of amateurs who didn't put in the time to learn their craft but have instead jumped into the "YouTube" DIY culture, fed by too much MTV, commercials and animation, and too little study into the basis of it all, narrative editing.

There are also Avid vs. FCP discussions in here...except that as far as I can see, they never turned ugly. Probably because what we have are Avid editors looking for help making the transition, and they're not troublemakers by a long shot. There really isn't any reason to get incensed or confrontational about these things...some people like Avid's interface and operations. I don't, but that's just me. And I think Final Cut Pro users in here are more than welcome to point out FCP's shortcomings...how the hell else would we let Apple know what's wrong with its product? Of course, it's best if they're actual shortcomings, not people who neglected to read the manual or use Google.


www.derekmok.com

Maybe a bit off topic, and by no means is this a rant, or a rage, or an attack. I merely want to point out some flaws on Derek's comment:

"...what we didn't foresee was the iMovie/Pinnacle culture coming in and lowering the bar even more! But the market is oversaturated and the general level of skill has gone down because of the influx of amateurs who didn't put in the time to learn their craft but have instead jumped into the "YouTube" DIY culture, fed by too much MTV, commercials and animation, and too little study into the basis of it all, narrative editing"


Derek, there is, and always will be posers.

I know, because I'm one of them!

I'm an pro audio guy, and very little information passes in front of me that I don't have some kind of handle on, as I have been doing audio production for over 15 years, and at 33 years of age, that is almost 50% of my life. If you called me an audio newbie or a poser, I'd be "waiting in the parking lot for you!" (joke)

But FCP, and video in general is new to me since 2000, I have no doubts at all that I am still a newbie, with lots of idiotic questions for this board, posing as a video editor.

I DO call myself an editor, because I've paid the big bucks for the hardware and the software, I've made some bucks from that hardware and software, and I spend a good deal of time in my life making editing decisions.

Do I deserve to call myself an Editor, Derek? Or is that only defined by trophies and awards?

If you compare me to someone who has been doing this to the same extent as I have been doing audio, than I am definately a big stinky poser, and like a lot of people, I cut my teeth on iMovie, and Quicktime, before I finally clued in that these programs were seriously holding me back, and that they had served their purpose, which was to allow me to explore something I was always interested in, but very intimidated by.

If "johnny" uses iMovie to capture,edit and burn home movies to DVD, displays no talent at all has no interest in video production and calls himself an Editor, how is that an insult or a threat to you? Or me, for that matter? Its more of a reflection on him, than anything else. 

The same thing happened with Audio about 5 years ago.

As soon as sound cards became cheap for computers, every Tom Dick and Harry called himself a producer. Is that a slap in the face for me? Hardly.
I can suss someone's ability within a 5 minute conversation, and I'm sure that if Derek did a "Treatment" search on this forum, he may not be able to assess my talent, but he could probably asses my skills pretty quickly based on the questions I ask.

People in the know, recognize ability in others instantly. I could never pull off being some kind of video guru until I become one, and even at that point, it is just another title to get myself all wrapped up in. If you compare my mixing skills to Bob Ezrin, or Eddie Kramer, or Bob Rock, I know nothing at all, and I pose no threat to them whatsoever.

I call myself a "newbie" out of respect to people like you Derek, who obviously are not new to the game, simply because I don't want to offend you. (But you won't find "newbie" written anywhere on my Resume)

If you and I ever apply for the same job, most likely your experience would sell itself, and you'd beat me to it. Or maybe my charming personality would get me through the door, and that might be more important to the employer.

Am I making sense, here, or is it as clear as a Guassian Blur?

Treatment

I think the problem with people who haven't had any sort of education or apprenticeship in editing is that they don't know what they don't know. Often, too, they bluff their way into jobs and convince producers who have no training or education that they know what they are doing. Then they do a sub-par job that looks really amateur, and even though they don't want it to look that way, they have no idea why it does.

The producer is also clueless, and figures the job is OK. Then is gets let out into public and looks terrible, which makes the company it was made for look amateur and small time.

And I realise that sounds really snobby - like I'm some big famous editor that can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, and that's not true. I'm a working editor just like most of you, but I've had the advantage of being taught by other editors and having a uni education in film, which gave me the rules.

I know why I make every cut. It's not a random decision. I know when I *can't* cut. I know which take is better and why. I know the point on a camera move I can move away. In know about composition, colour matching, light and dark cuts, when to use a dissolve, when to use black and white, when to use slow mo, when to use music. I also know the laws that govern what I do. I know what is slanderous, what is seditious, how much of a naked body I can show in what timeslot, what kind of swearing I can allow in what timeslot, the laws of copyright.

I know about the history of film, so I can use techniques to make a statement or set a mood that have been planted in the general consciousness, I can pay homage to the guys that I think were the greats, and I can understand what a director wants when he talks about his vision and why he wants it.

But I'm still not a fabulous, world famous editor. Not even in my small part of the world. Just a working editor.

And then I see a commercial on TV that has no idea what it has done wrong. And its annoying. It's a waste of money and it lowers the bar.

I'm sitting here wondering if I should post this, because I realise it makes me sound like a pretentious wanker. But I really feel this. The craft of editing is important to me. It hurts when people think that they can throw three things together on a timeline and call it editing.

And this is probably not an attack on anyone here. Almost by definition, all of you (us) are here because we want to get better at what we do.

*flame retardant suit donned*

Hear hear Jude.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Groovy thread. Beautifully written posts by both Jude and treatment. Great points made.

One of the cool things about the creative arts is that anyone can wake up one day, stretch their arms out, give a good yawn, and exclaim to the world, "I think I going to be an editor today!" or, "I think I'll be a writer or director or painter, or actor." On the other hand you CAN'T wake up and say, "I think I'll be a doctor today or lawyer, or biologist or nuclear physicist or mechanical engineer." Not without going to University, and then taking a battery of exams afterwards.

What draws people to the creative arts is that basic human need to create something. Hell, anyone can edit. Anyone can direct, act, write and paint. It's just that most can't do it very well. We can study craft and "rules" and history and be mentored by the best of the best and immerse ourselves hours on end learning the tools of the trade, and still, most of us will not be very good at it and even more will not make a living from it. And eventually most will give up because they finally realize they are not good at it. Even some of those that ARE good at it will give up because they can't handle the lifestyle any longer. It's hard to live life not knowing when your next paycheck is coming.

Education is a wonderful thing. No one can argue with that. You need to know your craft and know the rules before you can break them. Fine. But each and everyday someone/somewhere who does not understand the craft or knows the rules or even what in the hell he/she is doing, creates a piece of art that is nothing short of wonderful and transforming. This person somehow, someway took these cheap tools given them and created something beautiful. Might of taken a few tries or maybe not. Doesn't matter. It only matters that they did it.

Yeah, anyone can call themselves an editor, but very few will last much longer than it takes to wake up, stretch your arms out, give a good yawn, and exclaim to the world, "I think I'm going to be an editor today!" It's much easier to just go back to sleep.

Michael Horton
-------------------

This IS a great thread.

The one thing I do like about the low cost of making a movie today...DV cameras, iMovie and even FCP, is that it gives more and more people access to the tools to make films. And more of a chance that they GOOD ones will surface. When I was in college, it was very cost prohibitive to make a movie. Even video was expensive, and edit systems? Nothing really for the masses except for a possibly a VHS deck to deck system...which wasn't cheap.

But now things are cheaper and more available to the masses making it possible for good stuff to be found. Unfortunately we must suffer the 97% of the CRAP that is thrown at us to find that talent. Worth it? I think so. Well...maybe. Wading thru the crap can be daunting...but finding the one thing does make all that go away.

At least the availability of this cheap production equipment will give people the shot at the dream, and make them realize maybe it wasn't meant to be. I know I wanted to be a director...until I directed a couple HORRID films, and realized that to be a director meant a lot more than directing the direction the camera is pointed...the main goal is story and getting performance from your actors. So then I tried being a DP, and found I wasn't good at that either. Getting discouraged, I tried editing, and found I had the knack for it. So here I am.

Production isn't easy...and yes, you need TALENT to make something good. And if you don't make something good, at least you can have fun trying. Filmmaking is a fine hobby. Can be expensive, but fun. Now to make it as an editing PROFESSIONAL requires a LOT more.

Many people don't realize this...thus the "I just landed a job editing a commercial after editing a few short films and a couple weddings, now I am lost as to how to make a BROADCAST master." WOrking professionally requires a lot of TECHNICAL know how that only comes from working in a professional environment. Learning how things are done as you work your way up. ON the job is how you learn how to properly format an output and what legal levels are and how to attain them. I can tell you that more than once I have worked on a job where an editor was brought in for his "creativity," but they didn't have ONE CLUE how to format a show. What an ACT was or that commercials need to be 30 seconds, or 29 seconds, not 33 seconds.

Even working in film you need to know about keycode and telecine logs and conforming cuts and change lists and breaking films up by reel...stuff ONLY learned by working on films.

Professional editing is much more than assembling a story.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Yeah - I'm also very happy for anyone to make films, to express themselves and to learn about how to put pictures and sound together. I teach it all the time. I just get .. I dunno .. sad.. when I see people who have bluffed or bullied themselves into a job, and then completely mess it up by not really understanding the job at all, or caring enough to find out. They see it as a quick buck and they do shoddy work and think it's all OK.

I've been thinking about master craftsmen cabinetmakers. They learnt their craft and made good, strong, useful furniture. Along comes flat pack furniture and for millions of people it's wonderful. It saves them lots of money, it does the job adequately and they don't really care that it's made of woodchips and glue. But it makes you kind of sad that there's no time, no love, no care and no skill invested. It's just a machine making lots and lots of planks that fit together.

1. I own a lot of flat pack furniture.
2. I'm not a master (mistress?) craftperson. Yet.
3. I don't want to discourage, offend or hurt anyone.
4. I've seen some *brilliant* ideas on youtube that would never have had a chance at life if not for the way things are now.

I often argue that the good jobs will always find skilled editors to do the work, and that the stuff that people who are willing to massively undercut others on, and do poor work on will get what they pay for. But that doesn't mean I don't feel a bit sad when I see glue and tacks where there could be dovetails.

Bravo,Bravo,Bravo.....

One of the best thread of the Café...

And with your permission, i'm going to print it and place it in a few places around here.

Back in 1996 i started in NLE world with Accom's Stratasphere, only 4 systems were sell here, and i worked with it for 5 years.
When i left the Post House and went to another where Avid was the main system, it was very hard to get into the "New Galaxy" because of the same reasons pointed in this thread and some others due to our "latin spirit".
In fact, on the credits of the programmes, the editors were called "Avid Editors" reflecting the snobbish behavior.
Reading a manual and working hard was never a problem for me, so i did learn the Avid. On the forums i had a similiar situations like Joe, i could never question the guys about some bugs of the software... In here, i feel like in home.
As i have learned Quantel, different from the all, and a bit similar, Fire from Discreet and later Final Cut Pro...
No matter wich tool that we work on it, what really matters is what and how it cames out of it.
This is the big difference between a "button pusher" and an editor. Oohh, the "YouTube Generation"...

Rui Barros
Editor Colorist Trainer
Lisbon, Portugal
RTP Post-Production
Apple Certified Trainer FCP 7
Apple Certified Pro FCP 7

Quote
I've been thinking about master craftsmen cabinetmakers. They learnt their craft and made good, strong, useful furniture. Along comes flat pack furniture and for millions of people it's wonderful. It saves them lots of money, it does the job adequately and they don't really care that it's made of woodchips and glue. But it makes you kind of sad that there's no time, no love, no care and no skill invested. It's just a machine making lots and lots of planks that fit together.

Great analogy Jude. I'd hate to have a debate with you. You'd kick my ass.

Michael Horton
-------------------

As the barrier of cost and complexity are lowered, so too is the quality. Its too easy to purchase some equipment, hang out a shingle and say your in this business whether your a DP with a shinny knew HDV camera, an editor with FCP or a producer with a black American Express card. As Micheal pointed out occasionally someone will do something amazing with a new perspective that was never thought of before. But that is the exception to the rule.

All of this leads to a major consolidation in the marketplace. There used to be hundreds of independent post facilities in LA, most were purchased by Ascent Media, Kodak [Laser Pacific Media corruption], Thompson/Technicolor, and Point 360. And these new larger corporations don't want to do business with small system integrators and software developers so those companies get bought up or die. Avid purchased Parallax [and a whole host of other smaller companies that I can't recall], Autodesk purchases Alias [Maya] Discreet Logic [Flame], Apple purchases Nothing Real [Shake], Silicon Grail [Motion], [actually every product they offer was developed by someone else] until there aren't any small innovative developers left.

And the cycle continues.

Yes there are many more people in this industry today than ten years ago but the percentage of people who can produce something that is better than their competitors is getting smaller, not larger.

For anyone who thinks [and you know who you are] that you can produce quality programs on a consumer HDV camera and a Mac your simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. YOU are the problem...

I don't want to imply that Jude and I are saying the same thing, but I'll bet a large percentage of the people on this site don't even know what dovetails are.

That is a woodworking term, right? A type of joint. My dresser drawers have those.

My dad did all the woodworking...sad to say that I do not.

Not long ago it wasn't too hard to find qualified people to fill a job. Nowadays it is becoming increasingly difficult with all the people out there who claim to know how to work in a broadcast or film environment. Turnover is high.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Quote
Not long ago it wasn't too hard to find qualified people to fill a job. Nowadays it is becoming increasingly difficult with all the people out there who claim to know how to work in a broadcast or film environment. Turnover is high.

My point exactly. Lots of people coming in, few staying in, and few good at it if they stay in. But then it is no different than most professions, even those that require years of education and rigorous exams.

Michael Horton
-------------------

The Ikea plank analogy is an interesting one...

Let's say I need a cabinet to put in a bedroom so that I can just use it to store old computer parts, cables etc. I go to Ikea, find what I need, take it home and assemble it and fill it with my junk. It works. It solves the problem albeit at a very basic level. But it does work (I have this exact thing that has been serving it's purpose for about 10 years now). It was cheap. That was part of the goal. It does not look good but that is fine - It's in a back bedroom where only I will see it.

In my home theater I decide that I need a cabinet that will cover a wall for storing Laserdics, DVDs and HT gear. The requirements are this:

It has to look great.
It has to accommodate media of mixed sizes.
It has to accommodate HT gear (amps and such) and facilitate cooling for that gear.
It has to be built in such a way as to allow for the window in the wall and the subwoofer that is against the wall on the floor.

Ikea cannot help me here. For this I need a custom cabinet. I hire a carpenter to create this. The result is stunning and meets all of the stated goals.

Now I could have bought Ikea here and just had a bunch of their cabinets strung together to accommodate the needs. But that would have been a significant compromise that did not meet all of the goals. But it would have been a minuscule fraction of the cost of the carpenter. But I would be embarrassed to have any guests in that room... At the end of the day, the Ikea approach applied here is a failure.

Now, let's try this with editing.

I have decided that I want to create a low cost instructional DVD on Kung Fu. I set up a camera and tape myself demonstrating a bunch of Kung Fu moves and I announce what each move is before I perform it. I don't know jack about making a DVD or editing this into a program nor do I have the facility to do it.

I find someone who claims to be able to take the footage and make a nice DVD out of it. They have some PC/Mac editing software suite and they cut it all together using canned lower 3rd templates and other out of the box graphics. They deliver the result to me and I am happy. They charged me $15 an hour to do this.

I develop a show concept and sell it to Discovery channel with the proviso that I will be filming it with my crew and off I go. I hire an editor for $80 an hour that has a great reel and lots of credits doing this type of show. The end result is stunning and exactly what I had envisioned.

Now I could have hired the guy that did the DVD for $15 an hour. The project would have failed and I would have gotten what I paid for.

But the thing is... The guy that charges $15 an hour might be the guy that charges $80 in a few years. I'll never be that carpenter...And, yeah, I know what a dovetail joint is...

Additionally, the field of editing, is not huge. Jackasses do not succeed. Sure, there are a ton of wannabes out there. And that is fine. When you look to hire someone, you can look at their reel, look at their credits and talk to previous clients to get a feel for what you are getting.

"I'll bet a large percentage of the people on this site don't even know what dovetails are."

Yep...it's a wood joint. It's a lot stronger than a standard glue & nail joint as the wood planks are cut & fit into each other like puzzle pieces shaped like "dove tails".

Anyway, yes it is hard to find qualified people. When there's an advertisement "Editor wanted"...everyone's an "Editor". There's a ton of Liars out there too. It is especially annoying & counterproductive to hire someone based on their demo / resume / interview only to find that when you throw them into the fire, they are nothing like their demo / resume / interview perpetrated them to be.

...and turnover is high.

Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Even with dovetailed furniture there was always a difference between hand crafted one-offs, custom produced, and mass produced stuff. The shops where furniture using dovetails was turned out on a mass production basis were always as industrialized as possible, and always tended towards reducing the level of skill required by the craftpeople making making the furniture- that?s the nature of the industrial process.... Efficiency was always the goal, even if the materials and tools of the day didn?t permit the same sort of mindless construction process as flat box technology does today.

In just the same way as media production today, at some point furniture construction hit a time where tablesaws (and maybe routers) made it possible for anybody with a few thousand dollars and some space in their garage to make their own furniture for a reasonable cost and without a horrendous amount of labour. That depended on media and materials as much as tools- it was the advent of plywood that made that possible, as much as that of inexpensive tools. Working with hardwood lumber is far more difficult than working with plywood- although making the same style of furniture as you can buy at Ikea still takes a fair amount of skill. (Assembling it and making it are two different things?)

I?ll bet a similar disscussion as here occurred in a lot of cabinet-making shops around this time, I?ll bet it?s still going on among cabinet makers who do custom work for others as a business, and I?ll bet the results are roughly the same- skilled and experienced craftspeople make a living at it- the rest don?t, or only do it as a hobby.

The analogy between the tools is easy.

So was Digital Video plywood?

randy

I think we've taken the woodworking analogy as far as we should...

You make s good argument, what's happening to this industry is not unique to this industry.

Its strange, at a time when we should all be taking money home in bushel baskets, where there are new revenue channels coming online every year, Broadcast HD, HD-DVD, IP distribution in the form of pay-per-view, interactive television, wireless broadband etc., there is more demand [not less] for content than ever before yet the profitability and stock prices of the aforementioned production companies is in the toilet and Avid is laying off 150.

To continue flogging the woodworking analogy, in a former life I used to be a finish carpenter and over time people began trading in their planes for orbital and belt sanders, hammers for nail guns and lacquer for epoxy because we had to build more, not better cabinets. Now try to get your kitchen remodeled. many (most) of the craftsman are gone. By the time the consumers realized that maybe getting your cabinets from Home Depot wasn't what they really wanted the craftsmen have left.

So don't be lulled into thinking that maybe because your an active participant in support sites, a guest lecturer at trade shows, or a better editor than most that one day you won't go to work to find some twenty something sitting in your edit bay - because now your forty something and he/she purchased an iMac and figured out how to spell FCP and took your job for a quarter of your salary.

I'm not bitter.

So don't be lulled into thinking that maybe because your an active participant in support sites, a guest lecturer at trade shows, or a better editor than most that one day you won't go to work to find some twenty something sitting in your edit bay - because now your forty something and he/she purchased an iMac and figured out how to spell FCP and took your job for a quarter of your salary.

Wow...that's a very bleak outlook...and that's going a bit overboard, I think.

Hiring a button pushin' "twenty-something" at a smaller salary for an open workstation is one thing...having one REPLACE someone because they are a "forty-something" is a bit far fetched to say the least. Only an imbecile of a Studio Manager would replace an experienced editor to save money on the salary. In my 8 years of staff "Designer / Editor" experience, I have only seen people get let go because of of 3 reasons: bad attitudes, lack of production and unwillingness to conform to new systems. I have never seen anyone get "replaced" because of budgetary concerns or their age.

Some of the greatest Editors in our Industry are 50+. Are they in danger too?

Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

The people who would use a "twentysomething" editor to replace a "fortysomething" editor, just because the youngster is cheaper, tend to regret it. Experience is experience, and ability doesn't just come flying through the air, or get imbedded in your genetics, especially when it comes to technical skills like editing and cinematography.

Sure, I've met older editors who I didn't think were necessarily very good at certain aspects of editing. But there are many, many more young editors who have that affliction.

To quote James Caan's character from The Way of the Gun:

"The only thing you can be sure of about a broken-down old man...is that he's a survivor."


www.derekmok.com

>>YOU are the problem...<<

I don't think is completely true. I think that WE are also part of the problem. How many of us have apprentices? How many of our employers invest in training young people to do the job properly, and how many of them just employ a kid who wants to be an editor and yell at them when they get it wrong?

I've been seeing this a lot in the camera world over the last few years too. There's no assistant camera position anymore. Especially in something like news, there used to be a few years where a kid would get to tag along, carry gear, and complain that they never got to do anything interesting.

But the reality was that they were learning from the older guys. Not just what colour temperatures to shoot, but how to behave in certain situations, how to avoid conflict, how to position talent and interviewees, how to get useful cutaways, how to not throw up in a helicopter, how not to run backwards with a heavy camera on your shoulder and one eye on the eyepiece without someone guiding you and so on.

Now they get young guys and show them the buttons to push and then put them out in the field. And it's the same with us. Here's an editing program. Here's how to drag things from the viewer to the timeline. Now make me a program. And make it cheap cause I'm on a tight budget.

Also
>>The guy that charges $15 an hour might be the guy that charges $80 in a few years. <<

Absolutely. I'm all for people taking the time and putting in the effort to learn the craft and I think there do need to be people who will do these jobs for people who really only need Ikea editing. It's the Ikea editors who charge $80 an hour that I get jack of. The more corporate videos I see the more disgusted I get at these people who claim to be top flight production houses doing crappy work and charging big bucks for it. For the most part they are just ripping people off. I mean simple things like a shot that sits for five seconds then pans off and cuts in the middle of the pan so it's obvious that they don't even realise that's a bad thing to do. Sad.

>>took your job for a quarter of your salary. <<
And that's another part of the puzzle, I think. People who undercut because they don't have, or don't realsie they have, the same overheads as a professional outfit. This makes it possible for producers to get cheaper jobs and therefore expect cheaper jobs, which forces the whole market down until someone says, sorry, I won't do it for that.

I don't think a lot of people comprehend that from your prices you have to take out things like tax, insurance, gear replacement and maintenance, holiday pay, sick pay, electricity, consumables and so on. Good business people don't actually run off with the full fee and buy a jet ski - they invest it in their business so they'll be here next year when you need the job done again.

And that's another thing being an Ikea editor doesn't teach you. And another thing that used to be learnt at the knee of your mentor.

The solution?

> Now they get young guys and show them the buttons to push and then put them out in the
> field.

It's true. I've seen so many cheap producers and directors put out ads for non-paid assistants "for the chance for a permanent position later" and expect those assistants to be completely battle-ready right out of the gate. For no money. They get scolded if they mess up, so their morale goes into the toilet and so does their ability to learn, because the producers lose patience and end up asking the main editor to do the job instead of letting the assistants learn. Even young people need to make money (you might say, especially young people -- they have no savings but big student loans), so they end up leaving before they've learned anything.

> And it's the same with us. Here's an editing program. Here's how to drag things from the
> viewer to the timeline. Now make me a program. And make it cheap cause I'm on a tight
> budget.

Those last words are why the learning process has become so much harder in post-production. "We have no money for an assistant, we have no money to pay for a day of proper logging, we have no money to hire a real effects person, we have no money, we have no money, we have no money". Well, if you have no money, what the hell are you doing shooting a show/commercial/any professional visual work? And what the hell are you doing asking for "cinematic magic" and professional-calibre work?

> people off. I mean simple things like a shot that sits for five seconds then pans off and cuts in
> the middle of the pan so it's obvious that they don't even realise that's a bad thing to do.
> Sad.

Now, it's not always a bad thing to do. But I know what you mean. When uneducated editors do it, you feel the jar. When it's done at that elusive sweet spot, you don't notice. With these guys, they probably also shot the thing in such a way that the pan is impossible to use. Bad shooters lead to bad editing. These days, the bad shooters tend to also try to do the editing themselves, and they just need a professional editor to kick their ass so hard in the cutting room that they'd revise their entire way of shooting.


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