The Video Editor’s Digest | Edition #41

Hey there and welcome back to the Video Editor’s Digest! In this edition we cover 4K workflow in Avid, Resolve’s Boring Detector, camera humor & more.

Read more

Networking for Video Editors

Networking for video editors is literally the most important thing you can do for your career.

Let me say that one more time for those in the back.

📣 NETWORKING FOR VIDEO EDITORS IS LITERALLY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR. 📣

We all have different career paths. Two editors can be working at the same post house at the same seniority level making the same amount and they both got there in dramatically different ways.

One editor got their job through Indeed and 1,000 online applications. The other editor got their job over a beer with someone from their network. I know plenty of editors who are the former. They apply to everything on Glassdoor and eventually land a gig. Me, I’m the other editor.

For me, every single job I’ve ever had or gig I’ve landed is because of networking. It was because I knew someone else who was in need of my skills. Those people knew I had those skills and was looking for work. I wasn’t annoying about it (at least in my opinion I wasn’t). And it was because I never stopped networking.

If you take anything away from this post I hope it’s the following:

  1. The most important thing you can do for your career is to network
  2. You have to tell people about your skills, what you can do, and what you want to do
  3. The people you tell about your skills must know you’re looking for work or are interested in doing work in the future
  4. Don’t be annoying to these people you’re networking with
  5. Never stop networking, even when you have more than enough work

The rest of this post will focus on the why’s and how’s behind these networking fundamentals for video editors.

Read more

The Video Editor’s Digest | Edition #40

Hey there and welcome back to the Video Editor’s Digest! In this edition we cover a free audio syncing tool, Stranger Things FX in AE, artsy movie trailers, & more.

Read more

The Video Editor’s Digest | Edition #39

Hey there and welcome back to the Video Editor’s Digest!

In case you’re new around here, in the Video Editor’s Digest you get the lowdown on some cool happenings from around the internet on things related to video editing, video production, or just being a creative professional. It also gives me a chance to update you about new pieces on the EVF website and YouTube channel and tell you any freelance, work, or life stories I may have.

If you have a resource of your own or one you stumble across that you want to share in a future Video Editor’s Digest, you can submit it here.

Alright, let’s get into it!

Quick Tip!

Always fiddling with the settings in Adobe Media Encoder? Create your own presets by clicking the button that’s circled in the picture. After you save your preset it’ll appear at the top of the Preset dropdown list for that format. I have 10 or so presets saved for what it’s worth.

Adobe Media Encoder Export Settings with Save Preset button circled

Read more

The Video Editor’s Digest | Edition #38

Hey there and welcome back to the Video Editor’s Digest!

In case you’re new around here, in the Video Editor’s Digest you get the lowdown on some cool happenings from around the internet on things related to video editing, video production, or just being a creative professional. It also gives me a chance to update you about new pieces on the EVF website and YouTube channel and tell you any freelance, work, or life stories I may have.

If you have a resource of your own or one you stumble across that you want to share in a future Video Editor’s Digest, you can submit it here.

Alright, let’s get into it!

Read more

The Video Editor’s Digest | Edition #37

hand holding video camera

Hey there and welcome back to the Video Editor’s Digest!

In case you’re new around here, in the Video Editor’s Digest you get the lowdown on some cool happenings from around the internet on things related to video editing, video production, or just being a creative professional. It also gives me a chance to update you about new pieces on the EVF website and YouTube channel and tell you any freelance or work stories I may have.

One last thing before getting started. I created a form for you to submit resources of your own or ones you stumble across for publication in future Video Editor’s Digests. You can access it here.

Alright, let’s get into it!

Read more

Recent Life and Career Changes

Eight months ago my personal life got flipped upside down. Four months ago my professional career took a drastic turn. And a few weeks from now every waking second of my existence will forever be altered.

You can probably guess one of the changes already — my wife and I are pregnant. Our son will be here before we know it. Man, I’m nervous and excited and every other emotion in between.

crib in nursery

The other twist of fate life threw at me was a career change. I traded in the edit bay for another role. In February I started transitioning off of editing projects and over to the producing / project management side of things. I’m with the same company and working on the same product but in a completely different role. As of mid-March I moved over to this full-time and started growing a team under me.

Read more

The only thing you need to succeed in 2019

(Sorry for the clickbait-y title… I’m rusty at writing good, catchy titles)

It’s early in 2019. The confetti is still falling. Most of us are back to the office. Ready or not it’s time to begin another year in our careers. Another year of our lives.

Looking back at 2018 maybe there was something you didn’t do. Something you didn’t learn. Or something you didn’t accomplish. A project, a habit, a new NLE to master, a documentary to edit. So we look to 2019 as our saving grace. We have a whole fresh calendar for us to get X done. And that fills us with a glimmer of hope. That we can make that change this year. Heck, we have 12 whole months.

As the confetti is swept up and the hangovers from NYE are cured, we head back to the edit bay or cubical or home office. We got this in 2019. Then…we check our email.

Read more

Increment and Save in After Effects

This tutorial explains how Increment and Save works in After Effects. It’s a simple method for backing up your AE projects.

Finding Your Path from Student to Professional Editor with Grace Novak — Command+Edit Podcast Episode 86

Hey there! This is a very special episode of the Command+Edit Podcast. I interview Grace Novak. Grace is in the midst of one of the scariest points in her life — trying to figure out how to make the jump from student to professional. Our discussion focuses on topics such as networking strategies, how to make … Read more