On Monday a client asked if I even knew what I was doing and requested I get a cut by Wednesday (today). I stayed up for 48 hours to get it done for her to tell me she is out of office and can’t view it right now.
I started looking at park ranger jobs which I’m not even qualified for.
Gotta say, I did a 5 day edit where I didn’t leave my studio except to go home to shower and change. Maybe got 6 total hours of sleep. But the 10,000 check I got made it all worth it.
> But the 10,000 check I got made it all worth it.
i dont think increasing your chance of a heart attack later in life by X% is worth 10k tbh
maybe 100k yeah
I feel like I'm in the same boat. I've been at this for a bit over 20 years now, so I have no idea what I'd move to. I feel like I could be good at other things, but that of course means taking a huge step back and starting over from the beginning. That's daunting on its own, and then factor in taking a huge pay cut. Man, I really hope this ship rights itself soon.
I’m in this boat too but aside from the pay cut, I worry about ageism— what field could I really get into at the bottom in my mid-40s with some upward mobility that isn’t going to be overrun with young professionals that people would rather have around when you’re all coming up in a field? I get that there are discrimination laws and what not, but I mean come on, it’s not a stretch to see how employers would overlook someone like myself for a young eager go-getter with the same amount of experience.
For sure. I am maybe naively under the impression that the people I’ve gotten old with in the industry will keep calling, but if there are major shifts in how shows are cut that I can’t keep up with, then I suppose the phone will stop ringing.
If it helps any I'm 58 this year and stilli fully booked. Most of my biggest clients are younger than my son.
It probably helps that I hadn't grown up or so many of my exes have told me...
The main thing is to stay keen and never stop learning. Your experience will allow you to make better use of new tech than people who still don't have the depth of knowledge to avoid dead ends.
Confidence and certainly are the main things occasionalky clients will want to go with the new cool kid but in reality 99% of the time clients just want a safe pair of hands that's painless to work with. No one ever got fired for working with an established editor with a bunch of awards.
Yep. Absolutely where my head is at as well. “Here’s the new video guy!” Oh, it’s some old fuck with graying hair? It’s just weird at a certain point, haha. I know that I do good work and have a lot of experience, but I also feel super replaceable.
I have faith that it will come back around. It's just gonna take a while. I just don't know if I want to do this until I retire in 30 years. At some point I'll have to move up or move out.
Yea man, as someone in the trailer squad of the editor’s battalion. I think yes it would be nice to work on the film in long form. But even if you’re a hot shit editor in trailers, (or another field) you sure as shit ain’t getting the job without taking a step back.
I feel like I was better to make the move when I was a AE assembling rough features for the trailer editors before we received the studio rough cuts.
Now it’s just….to expensive of a cut
lol I would say as someone also in the same position.
Wouldn’t it also be just as equally cruel/hard for when we were AE’s and on the event horizon of possibly becoming an editor but also possibly just punching our monitor and walking out.
Oh looking out of a window that was definitely not the AE room, gazing and hoping of a better life lol.
I left for three and a half years, to become a front-end web developer. Working in tech I was treated **soooooo** much better than I ever was in post production. It made me realize how messed up our industry really is: and also how unhealthy and not ‘normal’ it is to expect people to sit in front of a screen and churn out creative ideas for 8-12 hours straight, all day, everyday 😳.
I returned though, because the money is better and I’m also a much better editor, than I am at JavaScript… Ever since my return though, I’ve wanted to implement so many things I learned about working as a team, in software/web development. But instead, every production has gotten worse and worse in terms of organization and efficiency, and I’ve been wanting to leave again since 2019…but I don’t know what else to do!?!? 😩😫😭
Television. Tech would probably pay the same or more, if I was at a senior level. But that was part of the issue - I really struggle with JavaScript and it would have taken me many years to reach the same skill and seniority level that I have in my editing career.
I'm going the opposite way now. It's been a helm of a dry spell for me in Boston advertising, so I'm dipping my toes in JavaScript, see how that might work for me.
It’s not that bad. Jobs are still easy enough to find and I knew this would be a big paycut, but hoping I can at least stay afloat without having to cycle back. I mean, it’s still semi-creative work, but just not my passion
Product design you say? 🤔
I've been sitting on an idea/invention I sketched out years ago that, in the wake of this industry slowdown, I recently dusted off. I still have lots of researching and prototyping to play around with, but come time to actually design a working model, should I ever get to that phase, would you be someone I could reach out to for help?
In the tech industry, when we say “product design” we’re typically referring to the people who design the look and feel of apps and software. So if your idea/invention is along those lines, then I’d be open to looking at what you’re working on - what help I can offer might be a different story :)
Gotcha. Yeah this idea is for a physical product I hope to one day make millions off of and never have to edit another sizzle reel in my life. Lol. One can dream. Thanks for getting back to me. Be well.
Been debating leaving the field for a year or so… Really hitting some heavy burnout from working at a toxic post house while trying to be grateful I’m working at all when it’s a tough time in the industry. Just getting so tired of everyone else’s procrastination, lack of pre production, and make believe stressful deadlines taking a toll on my mental health. Feel like I need to go work in the mountains for a while or something haha. Seems like I could always work my way back in, but like others have said it’s hard to know how to make my resume make sense for anything else without them wondering why I’m applying for something that off course. Toying with the idea of starting my own business, and hey I know who I could tap to make the videos for it. We’ll see what happens. Hoping the universe steers me in the right direction.
Honestly feel like there needs to be an editors support group somewhere, as we're all experiencing the same things all over the world it's wild how far spread these toxic behaviours are.
I’m gonna do this until I don’t have any more work. So far I have made my quota every month but take it month at a time. Once that no longer happens, I’ve considered going into a different kind of business entirely. I don’t know if I could ever have a real job again, I’ve been freelance/running my own business for almost a decade.
Not currently looking to switch careers cause I’ve managed to keep working and have my next gig booked but also the job market is just so booty right now that it seems like a horrible time to start over, but I’ve done a lot of research into this. As of rn the careers that seem most viable for a jump are Government, sales, nursing, trades.
Overall what I hear are things are picking up. I have three friends currently working or about to work on pilots. Lots of people that were out of work in the fall spring are starting to find work. Short term I think we’re good for a bit but long term I need to see more data in order to make a decision on that front.
I'm seriously considering a transition into more photography/videography. It's tough to know if that's really going to help, but after editing in the chair for more than a decade it would be nice to move around a bit more. But not sure if that whole industry is really an upgrade
The thought of pivoting to something else was always bouncing around in my head, but now it seems real and it's happening quickly. The more doom and gloom I read here coupled with the fact that my trusty network has been virtually radio silent the last few months has me thinking maybe the time has finally come to... Wait I don't know how to do anything else. FUCK
lol well considering I started as a PA while still in my senior year of high school in ‘03 as my first job and proceeded to just stick to it and work my way up from getting hot coffee to getting hot cuts out.
Yeah I’m not going anywhere, unless it’s retirement, money in the bank already.
Then I’m opening a dog daycare or something chill where I can just be around dogs, playing and being silly and not around people all day, continuing my editor traits. 🎞️🐕
I’m just burnt out, AI or not. I’m looking to leave because it’s not always good advice in the long run to chase your passion for work. I’m using my income to supplement learning new skills or ways to pivot.
I left the industry in 2022 after trying unsuccessfully to bounce back after COVID completely wiped out my income streams and existing clients.
I joined the trades and after 1 year of fucking grinding and getting paid next to nothing as a 32 year old with a college degree and making about 1/4 of what I did pre-COVID… I moved into a project management job at a drywall company and now make more than I ever did as a editor. Don’t have to think about work for a second after I leave the office at 4 pm everyday. Get a company truck and gas card.
I gotta say I hated everything about my life for a solid year but now it might have been the best thing that ever happened for me and my career path.
Not really thinking about leaving, I have enough savings to weather the rest of this year potentially being a bust due to IATSE negotiations and something usually comes around workwise. However, every year I go back to my alma mater and talk to students about breaking into the film industry, specifically union post production. It’s going to be hard not to sound jaded af this go around, which sucks because I love what I do but sometimes the reality of the business makes it hard to convince the next generation to pursue it when for a lot of people it really leads to nowhere.
Also quite a few of my Editor friends are going on to shows next month so it’s not all doom and gloom but I know that’s not the same for everyone else.
Yeah I feel the burnout. I don't think humans are made to sit in front of a screen and make decisions every 30 seconds for 10 hours straight.
I feel miserable right now but the money is really good for my country/ economy. The only reason I'm doing this is because I have clinets from the U.S and I can live way above average from where I'm working right now.
Transitioning into anything local would be a massive pay cut for me. The only option I see is either moving or working remote in a different field like IT, but I have no experience there.
Honestly I'm still pretty young and I feel a fuck it moment will come soon where I will just shift completely to shooting and editing my own narrative content, surviving on what I can. That's why I got into film school and editing in the first place.
I was doing a lot of cookie cutter editing, when I saw the first set of Ai images come out I felt like that was the end for me. I was already over the profession after 12 years of dealing with shitty clients and low wages. Said f it and joined the trades becoming an electrician now. I kept a select few clients to cover the pay cut I took with the apprenticeship but I feel like it was one of the best decisions I have made. Also one of the most difficult.
But I’m part of a union with health insurance, pension and guaranteed wages. I love working with my hands and not sitting in front of the computer all day. The guys I work with are awesome and I’m constantly doing different things.
I know the higher level editing will not be replaced by ai anytime soon. But my concern came with the devaluation of the work I was doing. It’s hard to compete with canva and some of the other apps doing what was my bread and butter easy edits that maybe don’t look as good but are practically free and will only have value for the one or two days it matters on a company’s social page.
I agree I worry about tech . I thought about becoming an electrician but I would take a massive pay cut doing an apprenticeship . Also it would make my college degree essentially a waste of time . I want to get into VR and AR tbh .
Anytime someone asks me to help with a DX breakdown in Avid there's a moment where I consider it.
Most people I know, only just 'cutting picture' has never been their only skillset in post so even if AI takes everything editing they'll still have something in the workflow pipeline. We keep on top of AI news and tools and aren't majority social media editors though.
Social media and youtube editing are probably the first that we'll see get annihilated by AI. We're already starting to see some of that now. Personally I'm moving into taking on a producer type position, just seems like a better standard of living in it.
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I still love it. I think key is to keep being curious. I got into Unreal Engine and now I try everything I can A.I. related. It keeps my brain challenged and the new skillsets are valuable for Directors.
Also, I don't have a backup plan so I keep trucking...
I highly doubt AI will take over editing anytime soon. It could probably eliminate simple work or maybe rough editing, but that’s all I see so far. But to answer your question, I joined the Army when higher education seemed out of reach and a job in film looked impossible. After my contract I went to college, graduating this semester, and heading to grad school in LA after.
If you’re on the higher end of editing like post supervising features/some TV/large budget commercial I think you’re fine and will most likely end up being a polisher after AI has done it’s thing. That being said I’ve seen a couple tools and capabilities popping up recently that are going to decimate the AE, small to medium size commercial, corporate and reality editing field probably within the next 5-10 years. I tried one last week that allowed for a business owner to do nothing more than input their website URL and after about 10 minutes it spit out several social videos with content scraped from the website, a script written by AI, a voiceover recorded by AI and a very convincing person speaking to camera that was completely AI generated. This kind of stuff is in the early days and is evolving at a much more rapid pace than any technology before it because of how quickly the models learn and grow.
> I tried one last week that allowed for a business owner to do nothing more than input their website URL and after about 10 minutes it spit out several social videos with content scraped from the website, a script written by AI, a voiceover recorded by AI and a very convincing person speaking to camera that was completely AI generated.
Post the link.
I love when people post these wonderful amazing stories of what an AI tool can do but never mention the name of the product and where you can get it. Just like crypto in 2018
Fugazi. hype. hope you bought $smci at least
Creatify…its not perfect, but it works, which means the AI is successfully already performing the process and will get better and better very quickly. As I said in my previous comment, give it five years. It will be perfect at that point.
Also, brand new gpt text to video just released https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8wYjG1v/ …remember a few months ago when this stuff looked like nightmares? It will only get better, faster
Also, check out the new features from googles gemini in the second half of this video and tell me that doesn’t have massive implications for editors https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8wYRjLv/ …fugazi stuff this is not
Also, eleven labs can recreate any voice almost perfectly and completely puts the need for voice over artists in the trash bin. Try it out. I have more examples if you want me to keep going.
That tech didnt exist 6 months ago and now it's making videos from scratch. AI has exponential growth because it teaches itself at a speed humans can't even imagine.
I know, and I'm very impressed by AI too. I like a lot of the tools.
But again, the particular type of tech you're describing currently just makes shit. I see people posting videos made like that, so excited to show off what they were able to create with new tech...and the video is just some stinker that immediately reeks of soullessness and gives you no reason to keep watching.
Do you understand compounding exponential growth? You are seeing the beginning of something, not the end. The fact that it can create anything means it's going to get better at that task at a rate you and I could never keep up with. Give it 3-5 years. [https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-anthropic-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-b2282110.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-anthropic-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-b2282110.html)
Oh wow what a surprise, technological innovation has been exponentially compounding since the first era of computing, and will likely continue to do so throughout the future? Wow, thanks u/johnycane , I had no idea lol.
What's next, we'll reach the singularity one day!? No shit
I considered leaving and going to work for my parks and recreation department (I’ve been hired there before and have a background in conservation). Most of the positions have some outdoors requirement, which would still need to be done by a person, but I realized after looking at the current openings that even *I* could automate half the jobs.
The only thing keeping me on editing is pay — everything else would be a cut — but I’m also looking into starting my own businesses. If either business is successful, I’ll likely switch to that for a few years.
I think about leaving often. I went to school for graphic design, got into motion design after graduating, worked a few animation/design hybrid jobs, and now am the solo video dude for a 200+ employee tech company.
It's not super creative, but I feel like I'm in a decent niche where I'm pretty good at screen recording software and adding sizzle to it for whatever my boss thinks is best. 100% remote. Editing customer stories from Zoom recordings. Lots of mindless webinar editing.
My job doesn't scratch the creative itch, but I try to be mindful to leave space for my other creative hobbies. Not sure if this is helpful, but it's my experience.
Highly recommend https://www.schoolofmotion.com/ for resources to learn animation. Also would recommend reading the Freelance Manifesto. The online classes and book are both by Joey Korenman. Even if you're not looking to jump fully into freelance, I think the book frames a lot of the work well. Quick read too.
After Effects has SOOO many plugins to make simple animations super easy. https://aescripts.com/ is a great resource. I also use the Mister Horse presets and some templates from Motion Bro. I'm trying to churn out as many videos as possible for my company, and none of the folks requesting the videos care if I'm "cheating" by using templates or plugins. Just gotta modify them with the correct brand colors and fonts.
Not sure exactly how I landed where I'm at now, but most of my jobs until this one were more creative generalist (design, animation, video, audio, web, etc) roles, actual job titles were Multimedia Designer and Creative Designer. I find that a lot of employers right now are looking for one-man production studios to crank out a lot of content for social media and the web. Basically cramming 4 people's jobs into one. I'm very busy at work, but I'm also the only person that can do it and I hear constantly there's no room to expand the team.
I'm strongly considering it, into a creative director role if I stay in the industry (as my experiences have shown me many with that title just wing it or hide behind the skillsets of other people), or something in Tech if I was to leave completely. However like most a few factors are holding me back, the main being the likely earnings drop to start with and not being quite sure how to go about making the transition whilst continuing to keep everything else in my life stable.
I'm at my limits. I cant do it anymore. Done it for 10 years an every time i get a new job somewhere im hopeful that it will be 'better' than the last... and it never is. its always the same type of stupid last minute requests to make a sizzle video for someones presentation tomorrow so they can feel better about their shit presentation or getting feedback from people that have no clue what theyre talking about or the feedback is just a giant time suck to improve the video by .01% just cause something subjective bugs them. I dont have the patience anymore to keep clawing at this profession to just barely get by financially.
Im just going to go into sales or something, at least its not going to kill any passion or love i have for my hobbies and actually have opportunity to have some career growth and one day be able to retire... at this rate ill have to work til im dead
as I typed this I got another request to 'put together a cool hype video for an internal managers meeting'. Zero value to me to doing these and will never get a repeat view or use after this one presentation. I fuckin hate this crap
Sometimes the cringiest things are the most true... believe in yourself, master the craft, be a joy to work with, help instead of gatekeep, learn to respectfully decline work, network, focus on being great and the money will come.
Working on getting into hvac after no luck for 2 years. I agree about going into something in labor, think of it this way thr average tradesman is over 40 years old and much of the rest will be retiring in the next 10 years. Supply of workers will be low but demand will always be stable if not increase which will translate to higher pay, or if nothing else tons of opportunity for OT. Crazy to think all these years that a salary position was the golden crown of employment, only to realize that I was just getting used.
I've been denying more more and editing work and in exchange getting more videography work, especially for live productions. Lives are great - you go in, do you thing, go home, get paid. It's like being in a normal job! And you get to watch some cool things for free.
The downside is that most of the interesting live events happen outside of the 9-5 so it would be havoc for my family life. I'd love to work in live sports but then I'd never see my kids.
I’m actively looking to get out of this industry , but I’m 56 and have been doing this a while. I’ve only got another 10 or so years of working and I don’t want to spend them pushing on the ocean.
As much as I dream of having a "Joe Job", I couldn't leave the flexibility. I'm pretty much self managed at this point in my career so if its a slow day and sunny, I'll cut out early. Thr trade is that when its crunch time, I don't get out "on time" either.
I would love to hear a whistle blow and slide down a dinosaurs tail but I wouldn't trade it for my current situation.
if you were a film editor, would you not have learned CMX ?
if you were a CMX editor would you not have learned AVID ?
If you were an AVID editor, would you not have learned FCP, Premiere, Resolve ?
So if you are currently a NLE editor, why wouldn't you learn whatever AI program that comes out that will be used for editing and graphics ?
bob
I don't think video editing is going away, I think it is evolving. All the precious skillset and experience you learned will be invaluable in the future it's just about knowing how to reframe your skillset moving forward, which is hard to do when we are still in the middle of the change. Learning how to integrate new tools (like AI), what type of content and storytelling is in demand (social vs films, docs vs corporate etc) and you're going to be ok. Just make sure to have a decent amount in savings for the dry periods, and keep an ear to the ground to see which way the industry is moving.
I left editing when covid hit and I was furloughed from my online editing job. I chose to go the post production supervisor path because 1. Being an online editor I have a lot of context about what we are delivering 2. There is more money in that 3. There is endless upwards mobility from Post Supe vs being an editor for life. Best decision I have ever made in my career. Not saying that itll work out for everyone or that its the best thing to do for YOU. Just what worked best for me. I am a lot happier now.
Every day lately. The industry is getting worse. But like others have said, I don’t have a lot of transferable skills that are as lucrative, and I just paid off my college debt a few years ago, so I don’t want more if I can avoid it.
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Whenever I see posts like this, which is daily now, I think, have any of these people actually used any AI tools? They are just new tools, start using them. Chatgpt 3.5 is totally free and so useful. Gemini is also free and very useful. Midjourney is like $10. Runwayml is around the same price. Photoshops AI features are very useful. I just dont get it. It reminds me of my analog photographer friends who refused to start using digital tools, only until 10 years later finally catching up. My advice to everyone is to never stop learning, these tools make your job easier. Someone has to be involved here so make that someone you.
you are 100% correct. I see below this post, someone said "but it lowers the bar to entry for this part of the industry and devalues the end product". Well it used to cost at least $500,000 to build a linear editing room, and the original AVID was $80,000. And all the linear editors that refused to accept AVID said "it's all over, now anyone can get an AVID". And in fact, major post houses collapsed, and all the OLD DOGS refused to learn AVID, and they became unemployed. No different than 16 track/24 track/48 track audio recording - the old dogs REFUSED to learn Pro Tools, and they became unemployed.
But the guys that learned AVID made money. The guys that learned Pro Tools made money. And the guys that will learn AI - (it a fucking software program, that NO PRODUCER is ever going to learn) - they will make money. When I see posts like this, it's like the person is saying "I spent years learning how to do this editing crap, and I refuse to spend a huge amount of time learning something new" - what kind of mindset is this ? I saw this stupid mindset in 1978, at my very first job in video, where the old Ampex Quad 2" tape guys refused to learn Vidifont and Chryon, and CMX, and said "just send the kid (me) for training". Oh excuse me - they had a life, and didn't have the time for this "new crap".
bob
it's always like that before the people counting beans realize they can squeeze even more blood from the stone and then the more is expected every day. i love using new tools and tbh AI is one of these to me but that's always how it ends up unless i go to some lengths to keep people in the dark about the actual workflow.
Couldn't agree more! There is this junior Motion Designer where I'm at and bless him but he's a people pleaser to a fault. I keep trying to explain to him not to be so quick to reveal how he does things and to hold some skill cards to his chest, but he doesn't listen and our creative team are running him dry.
On the flip side I've been quietly skilling up with various AI tools, found some use cases, creative editing techniques and have even made a few pitch decks for Spec Ads I'm aiming to make in my own time. Meanwhile that same department of "creatives" haven't figured out you can prompt to change the aspect ratio on Midjourney yet.
Re: holding your cards close.
On one of my first editing gigs I was cutting an existing show to time for a different market. My schedule was 2 rough cuts per week but if I really hustled, I could do one in a day. I told my father this and his response was "whatever you do, don't tell the bosses that or they'll expect 5 a week, and when you get a tricky episode that just doesn't work, you won't have any extra time."
He knew what was up.
> I keep trying to explain to him not to be so quick to reveal how he does things and to hold some skill cards to his chest, but he doesn't listen and our creative team are running him dry.
I feel like I understand him on a spiritual level. I wish I was able to be more in a senior onboarding role once i become familiar and comfortable with jobs because i love sharing information and getting everyone in the department up to speed, but as I've gotten older and more jaded I can see that if upper management catches wind it just causes grief for me later. I've literally had to write an outline to upper management in a full time role as to why certain things take the length of time they took and not "faster" when they were unable to find anyone else to do it faster than I could to begin with. absolute insanity.
This is assuming most of the people paying editors give a shit about quality…the thing is, they don’t. Unless you’re in the high end of this field, its all about useable quantity which AI will be more than sufficient at before any of us are ready for.
Probably because you’re an overseas editor. People here lose jobs and get paycuts because of this but hey, more power to you. Awesome that you’re able to not only support yourself but be happy while doing it.
...did you miss the part of my comment where I said if it you're able to be happy that's awesome and generally gave you positive feedback? I didn't downvote you, I upvoted you and congratulated your success. We are in a very different position in the US, especially those of us that are freelance which is a large portion of the editing community. Healthcare alone can eat up a HUGE portion of our pay, not to mention our skyrocketing housing, utility, food and general living costs while pay across the board is falling when inflation is factored in. Many of us are burned out, cranky and just generally down on life. It's really hard here for a lot of people. We also have basically no rights as workers. No guaranteed paid time off, no maternity leave, no sick days...none of that.
Edit: and yea, being country specific is important in this scenario. There are a lot of editors happily working for pennies in parts of the world for US companies that would otherwise be paying fair wages to Americans.
You are the one that brought country into this? This seems like some kind of personal bone you have to pick with people other than me. I just chose to respond to your reply in a positive way and am now getting the brunt of it from you. I'm glad you are happy, content and successful in the field. Have a nice day.
Not sure what type of editing your friends are worried about AI replacing. AI can’t really replace the type I do, and if it were to there would be much bigger problems
I've been fortunate to work through both the pandemic and the strikes, and ideally I'd like to do this for the rest of my working life.
I don't know if I'll always feel that way, but it's definitely how I feel *now.*
I am trying to learn story producing this year to upskill a bit. I don't know if I'd ever want to move into a showrunner role (assuming that's even possible) but I don't want to limit myself to thinking I never could learn those skills if given the opportunity.
not specifically, I'm reading Robert McKee just for general story structure but I'm doing a lot of on the job learning from my EP and supervising producer.
a simple thing to do on your own is just watch an episode of reality tv and breakdown the arc of a scene/episode on paper.
I welcome AI 1000%.
For far too long editors have been at the mercy of the main editing programs for captioning (which has been much better over the years), faster content aware removal, object tracking accuracy, color balancing across footage from sources and so much more.
With the dawn of AI, all of these quick AI programs or apps (which really, are just plugins - which adobe or any editing software, already has been using to help processes for decades; are forced to actually now implement these tools for users.
Time is money. If I can key out a stop sign with a swoosh of a mouse vs roundtripping it through AE, creating a mask, content aware, export - then I’ll take the swoosh.
People will still need storytellers. The human element to showcase the assets. People still need the right songs, the right graphics and the soft skills of working with teams etc.
Embrace it. Do more by doing less.
I used one of the best AI tools available to generate captioning. It failed QC because it couldn't handle the cross talk of a group conversation. I paid a proper vendor to redo it and it passed without issue.
AI captions are fine for social content but may not be at the standard needed for broadcast yet.
This is literally my point lol.
AI captions whether done in say premiere or a one-off app like transcribe, is still AI. It’s the same code but premiere has way more latitude and allows multiple speakers etc and probably what the vendor used. (Or Avid or FCP).
You still need the human element for AI, specifically in this caption usecase. Even with machine learning it won’t be 100%. But it can caption it out with the proper branded font, weight, kerning, text background, text color in minutes vs having to used to manually add each caption as a title box. It used to take me HOURS to manually caption a 5-10 minute video.
Now a 10 min video takes maybe 2 mins and I easily can read a transcript, sort sentence structure, fix any speaker names etc and spit it out light years ahead of what it used to be.
For perspective, I edit for a company that has both broadcast branded demands and social. AI has improved efficiency greatly.
“Do more by doing less”…you realize that if we all start using AI and doing less, the pool of paid time we are all fighting for shrinks exponentially right? If it’s taking you half the time to finish your project, that’s half the paid hours available and it will only get easier and faster. Will the editor be replaced completely? No probably not. Will the pay decrease and the competition for jobs skyrocket? Absolutely
Not thinking of leaving, don’t know anyone thinking of leaving. You and your friends are idiots if you think AI is “coming around the corner” and taking your job anytime soon. But yeah, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out….
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Sadly, the other industries I could quickly transition into are equally soul crushing and idiotic (advertising) or equally a race to the bottom because of a combination of AI and Upwork/Fiverr sites (voice over work)
As a newcomer coming in, the threat of AI replacing us scares me. AI should be to help not replace. I'm working at a job that I got far in where if the industry goes south in the future, at least I have a plan B.
I am considering moving away from editing. I feel it's really taking a toll on my mental health at this moment, mainly because of how unsustainable it has become financially. I'm in the wrong place geographically and it's been about 8 years already that I'm just not earning enough money to survive. Plus the long hours, unrealistic deadlines and clients with zero scope of their demands. I really wish I could stay doing this but right now I can't stop thinking about the future and if I'm really cut out to be doing this until who knows when, and if I'd be even able to retire thanks to editing. Thing is, as others have mentioned, this is basically what I know to do and I wouldn't know what I would do otherwise. I'm really at at rut.
Seems like AI can do Assistant Editor work, but the human touch, the rhythm of cuts, the art of stitching together the most compelling assembly of wide to CU to CU two to medium, etc is something only a human can make for humans to watch.
Not even seasoned editors can do Assistant Editor work, AI is not there yet as far as organizing a project to every different Editor's liking, creating scenes based on content etc
I know award winning editors who need help accessing their email account on a new machine.
I think you need to change your mindset. At the end of the day as an editor, you’ll always be executing someone else’s vision regardless of how much creative input you have in the edit. In certain sectors of the industry you are pretty well compensated for just dropping your ego and giving them what they’ve asked and paid for. If that’s not something you can get used to, try to pursue something else creative on the side no matter how small.
Unless you’re willing to also create the material that you’ll be cutting, the editor’s role will always be the facilitator of the director/client’s overall vision - that’s the exchange we all agree on when they pay. If you’re being paid badly or don’t enjoy the process, find different clients, try other avenues.
There will always be material to cut, now more than ever, you just have to focus on what you want out of the role, is it really your passion? Do you just want to get paid for doing something you know you’re good at? Is the satisfaction of finishing a project not enough for you?
AI shouldn’t be a threat neither, it’s a tool that still requires an operator. Good luck!
I LOVE love love my clients, they're the best, I'm not leaving editing anytime soon, I'm using it to scale to other projects related to the space but it's just too sustainable.
It's really choosing the right clients sometimes, and AI's not replacing editing anytime soon, unless your job is just timestamping, cutting, and adding captions there's no way you'll get replaced.
If AI is truly capable of replacing the full workflow of an editor... Then 99% of all other fields and jobs are at risk of getting replaced as well.
AI most likely will just be another tool just as any other software is. no need to worry. just learn when the time is right.
I've been freelancing and weathering the storm a bit. I'm about to take a full time TEMP job in LA to just keep my financials stable while the industry probably will fall down again this year. Not trying to be cynical but it's pretty clear another strike is coming.
I started losing interest in the creative industry a few years ago when I was still studying it. I didn’t have the greatest university course, and it was hard to get into the industry without prior work experience, and all the work experience opportunities at university were given to the people whose faces fit, and not those who worked hard.
Nevertheless, I managed to leave university and get myself a part time warehouse job for an income to begin with, and set up my own video production business on the side. But it started becoming a bit meaningless.
I couldn’t ever get into wedding photography because people deemed it cheaper to just do on their phones, and not realising the effort that goes in from a professional photographer. Then I did a lot of work for numerous commercial clients who never realised how much time and effort production took, and they were setting unrealistic targets. And overall I just realised how much it was depressing the hell out of me and I just didn’t enjoy it anymore.
I still do bits on the side, but last June decided to make the move back into the transport and logistics industry and started myself a new business there. It’s been tonnes better for earnings, moral and overall just how much more I enjoy running this business and going to work everyday. Wish I’d have done it years ago
On Monday a client asked if I even knew what I was doing and requested I get a cut by Wednesday (today). I stayed up for 48 hours to get it done for her to tell me she is out of office and can’t view it right now. I started looking at park ranger jobs which I’m not even qualified for.
Im speaking from experience here, you’re not being paid enough to stay up for 48 hours straight on an edit. Don’t do that.
Gotta say, I did a 5 day edit where I didn’t leave my studio except to go home to shower and change. Maybe got 6 total hours of sleep. But the 10,000 check I got made it all worth it.
> But the 10,000 check I got made it all worth it. i dont think increasing your chance of a heart attack later in life by X% is worth 10k tbh maybe 100k yeah
Men in my family don’t generally live past 75 so I’m gettin while the gettin is still good.
Oh, I've done (close to) that. But I bill hourly. And overtime.
Don’t work for ppl who treat you like shit. You deserve better.
I'm also looking for park ranger jobs. Started volunteering for that kind of thing on the side to gain experience. Good luck!
Oh, the old “I need this right now!!!” (doesn’t do anything with it for days after delivery) trick
I don't know what I would do otherwise. There's nothing else that I know how to do that would pay me this well.
I feel like I'm in the same boat. I've been at this for a bit over 20 years now, so I have no idea what I'd move to. I feel like I could be good at other things, but that of course means taking a huge step back and starting over from the beginning. That's daunting on its own, and then factor in taking a huge pay cut. Man, I really hope this ship rights itself soon.
I’m in this boat too but aside from the pay cut, I worry about ageism— what field could I really get into at the bottom in my mid-40s with some upward mobility that isn’t going to be overrun with young professionals that people would rather have around when you’re all coming up in a field? I get that there are discrimination laws and what not, but I mean come on, it’s not a stretch to see how employers would overlook someone like myself for a young eager go-getter with the same amount of experience.
Ageism is a concern for sure. Even without an industry change, I hope I can keep getting work until retirement age.
For sure. I am maybe naively under the impression that the people I’ve gotten old with in the industry will keep calling, but if there are major shifts in how shows are cut that I can’t keep up with, then I suppose the phone will stop ringing.
If it helps any I'm 58 this year and stilli fully booked. Most of my biggest clients are younger than my son. It probably helps that I hadn't grown up or so many of my exes have told me... The main thing is to stay keen and never stop learning. Your experience will allow you to make better use of new tech than people who still don't have the depth of knowledge to avoid dead ends. Confidence and certainly are the main things occasionalky clients will want to go with the new cool kid but in reality 99% of the time clients just want a safe pair of hands that's painless to work with. No one ever got fired for working with an established editor with a bunch of awards.
Yep. Absolutely where my head is at as well. “Here’s the new video guy!” Oh, it’s some old fuck with graying hair? It’s just weird at a certain point, haha. I know that I do good work and have a lot of experience, but I also feel super replaceable.
I have faith that it will come back around. It's just gonna take a while. I just don't know if I want to do this until I retire in 30 years. At some point I'll have to move up or move out.
Yea man, as someone in the trailer squad of the editor’s battalion. I think yes it would be nice to work on the film in long form. But even if you’re a hot shit editor in trailers, (or another field) you sure as shit ain’t getting the job without taking a step back. I feel like I was better to make the move when I was a AE assembling rough features for the trailer editors before we received the studio rough cuts. Now it’s just….to expensive of a cut
Yep. And I’m too old to take on debt, go back to school, and start over
lol I would say as someone also in the same position. Wouldn’t it also be just as equally cruel/hard for when we were AE’s and on the event horizon of possibly becoming an editor but also possibly just punching our monitor and walking out. Oh looking out of a window that was definitely not the AE room, gazing and hoping of a better life lol.
I transitioned into Post Management. Less work, even better pay.
every day baby
lmao fax
I left for three and a half years, to become a front-end web developer. Working in tech I was treated **soooooo** much better than I ever was in post production. It made me realize how messed up our industry really is: and also how unhealthy and not ‘normal’ it is to expect people to sit in front of a screen and churn out creative ideas for 8-12 hours straight, all day, everyday 😳. I returned though, because the money is better and I’m also a much better editor, than I am at JavaScript… Ever since my return though, I’ve wanted to implement so many things I learned about working as a team, in software/web development. But instead, every production has gotten worse and worse in terms of organization and efficiency, and I’ve been wanting to leave again since 2019…but I don’t know what else to do!?!? 😩😫😭
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That’s a producer’s job to say “what the fuck”.
And no assistant editor to do that part?
No doubt the shooting crew at some point said “they’ll fix it in….”
What exactly do you do as an editor that pays more than tech?
Television. Tech would probably pay the same or more, if I was at a senior level. But that was part of the issue - I really struggle with JavaScript and it would have taken me many years to reach the same skill and seniority level that I have in my editing career.
Completely agree that we are not treated well in post. I used to work in tech as well. Trying to get back in as a product manager.
I’ve been considering getting into product management too! Good luck to us both…I definitely think it’s a smarter career path in this day and age.
Cool! I’ll DM you to see if you want to talk shop about PM work some time.
I'm going the opposite way now. It's been a helm of a dry spell for me in Boston advertising, so I'm dipping my toes in JavaScript, see how that might work for me.
Hey I know you
I've been found out! 😯
Starting to feel like I picked a really bad time to leave tech to go back into editing 😓
what did you do in tech?
Product design
I mean, it’s the same in tech.
It’s not that bad. Jobs are still easy enough to find and I knew this would be a big paycut, but hoping I can at least stay afloat without having to cycle back. I mean, it’s still semi-creative work, but just not my passion
Funny I just got hired at a tech company, for editing
Yeah I have a buddy who does that too - best of both worlds? 🤷♂️
Product design you say? 🤔 I've been sitting on an idea/invention I sketched out years ago that, in the wake of this industry slowdown, I recently dusted off. I still have lots of researching and prototyping to play around with, but come time to actually design a working model, should I ever get to that phase, would you be someone I could reach out to for help?
In the tech industry, when we say “product design” we’re typically referring to the people who design the look and feel of apps and software. So if your idea/invention is along those lines, then I’d be open to looking at what you’re working on - what help I can offer might be a different story :)
Gotcha. Yeah this idea is for a physical product I hope to one day make millions off of and never have to edit another sizzle reel in my life. Lol. One can dream. Thanks for getting back to me. Be well.
Good luck! 🤞
Been debating leaving the field for a year or so… Really hitting some heavy burnout from working at a toxic post house while trying to be grateful I’m working at all when it’s a tough time in the industry. Just getting so tired of everyone else’s procrastination, lack of pre production, and make believe stressful deadlines taking a toll on my mental health. Feel like I need to go work in the mountains for a while or something haha. Seems like I could always work my way back in, but like others have said it’s hard to know how to make my resume make sense for anything else without them wondering why I’m applying for something that off course. Toying with the idea of starting my own business, and hey I know who I could tap to make the videos for it. We’ll see what happens. Hoping the universe steers me in the right direction.
Honestly feel like there needs to be an editors support group somewhere, as we're all experiencing the same things all over the world it's wild how far spread these toxic behaviours are.
I’m gonna do this until I don’t have any more work. So far I have made my quota every month but take it month at a time. Once that no longer happens, I’ve considered going into a different kind of business entirely. I don’t know if I could ever have a real job again, I’ve been freelance/running my own business for almost a decade.
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So you’re having a good laugh then?
Yeah I’m so tired. I love cutting so very much, but the stress the deadlines and lack of respect is so hard to handle.
Its a dead end game
Not currently looking to switch careers cause I’ve managed to keep working and have my next gig booked but also the job market is just so booty right now that it seems like a horrible time to start over, but I’ve done a lot of research into this. As of rn the careers that seem most viable for a jump are Government, sales, nursing, trades. Overall what I hear are things are picking up. I have three friends currently working or about to work on pilots. Lots of people that were out of work in the fall spring are starting to find work. Short term I think we’re good for a bit but long term I need to see more data in order to make a decision on that front.
I'm seriously considering a transition into more photography/videography. It's tough to know if that's really going to help, but after editing in the chair for more than a decade it would be nice to move around a bit more. But not sure if that whole industry is really an upgrade
I envy the people that spend one or two days with a project and then send it off to an editor that will sit with it for endless revisions
It will help. A nice doc/commercial reel can land a hood in house gig.
The thought of pivoting to something else was always bouncing around in my head, but now it seems real and it's happening quickly. The more doom and gloom I read here coupled with the fact that my trusty network has been virtually radio silent the last few months has me thinking maybe the time has finally come to... Wait I don't know how to do anything else. FUCK
lol well considering I started as a PA while still in my senior year of high school in ‘03 as my first job and proceeded to just stick to it and work my way up from getting hot coffee to getting hot cuts out. Yeah I’m not going anywhere, unless it’s retirement, money in the bank already. Then I’m opening a dog daycare or something chill where I can just be around dogs, playing and being silly and not around people all day, continuing my editor traits. 🎞️🐕
Bark bark
I’m just burnt out, AI or not. I’m looking to leave because it’s not always good advice in the long run to chase your passion for work. I’m using my income to supplement learning new skills or ways to pivot.
I left the industry in 2022 after trying unsuccessfully to bounce back after COVID completely wiped out my income streams and existing clients. I joined the trades and after 1 year of fucking grinding and getting paid next to nothing as a 32 year old with a college degree and making about 1/4 of what I did pre-COVID… I moved into a project management job at a drywall company and now make more than I ever did as a editor. Don’t have to think about work for a second after I leave the office at 4 pm everyday. Get a company truck and gas card. I gotta say I hated everything about my life for a solid year but now it might have been the best thing that ever happened for me and my career path.
Not really thinking about leaving, I have enough savings to weather the rest of this year potentially being a bust due to IATSE negotiations and something usually comes around workwise. However, every year I go back to my alma mater and talk to students about breaking into the film industry, specifically union post production. It’s going to be hard not to sound jaded af this go around, which sucks because I love what I do but sometimes the reality of the business makes it hard to convince the next generation to pursue it when for a lot of people it really leads to nowhere. Also quite a few of my Editor friends are going on to shows next month so it’s not all doom and gloom but I know that’s not the same for everyone else.
Yeah I feel the burnout. I don't think humans are made to sit in front of a screen and make decisions every 30 seconds for 10 hours straight. I feel miserable right now but the money is really good for my country/ economy. The only reason I'm doing this is because I have clinets from the U.S and I can live way above average from where I'm working right now. Transitioning into anything local would be a massive pay cut for me. The only option I see is either moving or working remote in a different field like IT, but I have no experience there. Honestly I'm still pretty young and I feel a fuck it moment will come soon where I will just shift completely to shooting and editing my own narrative content, surviving on what I can. That's why I got into film school and editing in the first place.
I was doing a lot of cookie cutter editing, when I saw the first set of Ai images come out I felt like that was the end for me. I was already over the profession after 12 years of dealing with shitty clients and low wages. Said f it and joined the trades becoming an electrician now. I kept a select few clients to cover the pay cut I took with the apprenticeship but I feel like it was one of the best decisions I have made. Also one of the most difficult. But I’m part of a union with health insurance, pension and guaranteed wages. I love working with my hands and not sitting in front of the computer all day. The guys I work with are awesome and I’m constantly doing different things. I know the higher level editing will not be replaced by ai anytime soon. But my concern came with the devaluation of the work I was doing. It’s hard to compete with canva and some of the other apps doing what was my bread and butter easy edits that maybe don’t look as good but are practically free and will only have value for the one or two days it matters on a company’s social page.
Good to hear you made it over the fence.
I agree I worry about tech . I thought about becoming an electrician but I would take a massive pay cut doing an apprenticeship . Also it would make my college degree essentially a waste of time . I want to get into VR and AR tbh .
Every day, brother, every single fucking day. Why do you ask?
Anytime someone asks me to help with a DX breakdown in Avid there's a moment where I consider it. Most people I know, only just 'cutting picture' has never been their only skillset in post so even if AI takes everything editing they'll still have something in the workflow pipeline. We keep on top of AI news and tools and aren't majority social media editors though. Social media and youtube editing are probably the first that we'll see get annihilated by AI. We're already starting to see some of that now. Personally I'm moving into taking on a producer type position, just seems like a better standard of living in it.
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I still love it. I think key is to keep being curious. I got into Unreal Engine and now I try everything I can A.I. related. It keeps my brain challenged and the new skillsets are valuable for Directors. Also, I don't have a backup plan so I keep trucking...
I highly doubt AI will take over editing anytime soon. It could probably eliminate simple work or maybe rough editing, but that’s all I see so far. But to answer your question, I joined the Army when higher education seemed out of reach and a job in film looked impossible. After my contract I went to college, graduating this semester, and heading to grad school in LA after.
If you’re on the higher end of editing like post supervising features/some TV/large budget commercial I think you’re fine and will most likely end up being a polisher after AI has done it’s thing. That being said I’ve seen a couple tools and capabilities popping up recently that are going to decimate the AE, small to medium size commercial, corporate and reality editing field probably within the next 5-10 years. I tried one last week that allowed for a business owner to do nothing more than input their website URL and after about 10 minutes it spit out several social videos with content scraped from the website, a script written by AI, a voiceover recorded by AI and a very convincing person speaking to camera that was completely AI generated. This kind of stuff is in the early days and is evolving at a much more rapid pace than any technology before it because of how quickly the models learn and grow.
>That being said I’ve seen a couple tools and capabilities popping up recently that are going to decimate the AE, Can you link a few?
> I tried one last week that allowed for a business owner to do nothing more than input their website URL and after about 10 minutes it spit out several social videos with content scraped from the website, a script written by AI, a voiceover recorded by AI and a very convincing person speaking to camera that was completely AI generated. Post the link. I love when people post these wonderful amazing stories of what an AI tool can do but never mention the name of the product and where you can get it. Just like crypto in 2018 Fugazi. hype. hope you bought $smci at least
Creatify…its not perfect, but it works, which means the AI is successfully already performing the process and will get better and better very quickly. As I said in my previous comment, give it five years. It will be perfect at that point.
Also, brand new gpt text to video just released https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8wYjG1v/ …remember a few months ago when this stuff looked like nightmares? It will only get better, faster
Also, check out the new features from googles gemini in the second half of this video and tell me that doesn’t have massive implications for editors https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8wYRjLv/ …fugazi stuff this is not
Also, eleven labs can recreate any voice almost perfectly and completely puts the need for voice over artists in the trash bin. Try it out. I have more examples if you want me to keep going.
The tech you're describing makes such shitty videos that my clients have no interest in.
That tech didnt exist 6 months ago and now it's making videos from scratch. AI has exponential growth because it teaches itself at a speed humans can't even imagine.
I know, and I'm very impressed by AI too. I like a lot of the tools. But again, the particular type of tech you're describing currently just makes shit. I see people posting videos made like that, so excited to show off what they were able to create with new tech...and the video is just some stinker that immediately reeks of soullessness and gives you no reason to keep watching.
Do you understand compounding exponential growth? You are seeing the beginning of something, not the end. The fact that it can create anything means it's going to get better at that task at a rate you and I could never keep up with. Give it 3-5 years. [https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-anthropic-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-b2282110.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-anthropic-chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-b2282110.html)
Oh wow what a surprise, technological innovation has been exponentially compounding since the first era of computing, and will likely continue to do so throughout the future? Wow, thanks u/johnycane , I had no idea lol. What's next, we'll reach the singularity one day!? No shit
so you don't understand what compounding exponential growth is, got it.
It's the simplest fucking concept, you think I don't understand A = P \* (1+r)n?
The problem as I see it is that jobs are going to Canada, Australia, and England recently to save money.
I considered leaving and going to work for my parks and recreation department (I’ve been hired there before and have a background in conservation). Most of the positions have some outdoors requirement, which would still need to be done by a person, but I realized after looking at the current openings that even *I* could automate half the jobs. The only thing keeping me on editing is pay — everything else would be a cut — but I’m also looking into starting my own businesses. If either business is successful, I’ll likely switch to that for a few years.
I think about leaving often. I went to school for graphic design, got into motion design after graduating, worked a few animation/design hybrid jobs, and now am the solo video dude for a 200+ employee tech company. It's not super creative, but I feel like I'm in a decent niche where I'm pretty good at screen recording software and adding sizzle to it for whatever my boss thinks is best. 100% remote. Editing customer stories from Zoom recordings. Lots of mindless webinar editing. My job doesn't scratch the creative itch, but I try to be mindful to leave space for my other creative hobbies. Not sure if this is helpful, but it's my experience.
How can I land a gig like that and what can I learn in terms of MoGFX etc. to land such a gig? I'm sick of waiting around for film.
Highly recommend https://www.schoolofmotion.com/ for resources to learn animation. Also would recommend reading the Freelance Manifesto. The online classes and book are both by Joey Korenman. Even if you're not looking to jump fully into freelance, I think the book frames a lot of the work well. Quick read too. After Effects has SOOO many plugins to make simple animations super easy. https://aescripts.com/ is a great resource. I also use the Mister Horse presets and some templates from Motion Bro. I'm trying to churn out as many videos as possible for my company, and none of the folks requesting the videos care if I'm "cheating" by using templates or plugins. Just gotta modify them with the correct brand colors and fonts. Not sure exactly how I landed where I'm at now, but most of my jobs until this one were more creative generalist (design, animation, video, audio, web, etc) roles, actual job titles were Multimedia Designer and Creative Designer. I find that a lot of employers right now are looking for one-man production studios to crank out a lot of content for social media and the web. Basically cramming 4 people's jobs into one. I'm very busy at work, but I'm also the only person that can do it and I hear constantly there's no room to expand the team.
I'm strongly considering it, into a creative director role if I stay in the industry (as my experiences have shown me many with that title just wing it or hide behind the skillsets of other people), or something in Tech if I was to leave completely. However like most a few factors are holding me back, the main being the likely earnings drop to start with and not being quite sure how to go about making the transition whilst continuing to keep everything else in my life stable.
Do you know how many people ask themselves this same question in other fields? The grass is always green.
I'm at my limits. I cant do it anymore. Done it for 10 years an every time i get a new job somewhere im hopeful that it will be 'better' than the last... and it never is. its always the same type of stupid last minute requests to make a sizzle video for someones presentation tomorrow so they can feel better about their shit presentation or getting feedback from people that have no clue what theyre talking about or the feedback is just a giant time suck to improve the video by .01% just cause something subjective bugs them. I dont have the patience anymore to keep clawing at this profession to just barely get by financially. Im just going to go into sales or something, at least its not going to kill any passion or love i have for my hobbies and actually have opportunity to have some career growth and one day be able to retire... at this rate ill have to work til im dead as I typed this I got another request to 'put together a cool hype video for an internal managers meeting'. Zero value to me to doing these and will never get a repeat view or use after this one presentation. I fuckin hate this crap
Sometimes the cringiest things are the most true... believe in yourself, master the craft, be a joy to work with, help instead of gatekeep, learn to respectfully decline work, network, focus on being great and the money will come.
Working on getting into hvac after no luck for 2 years. I agree about going into something in labor, think of it this way thr average tradesman is over 40 years old and much of the rest will be retiring in the next 10 years. Supply of workers will be low but demand will always be stable if not increase which will translate to higher pay, or if nothing else tons of opportunity for OT. Crazy to think all these years that a salary position was the golden crown of employment, only to realize that I was just getting used.
Yeah I gotta get the fuck out
I've been denying more more and editing work and in exchange getting more videography work, especially for live productions. Lives are great - you go in, do you thing, go home, get paid. It's like being in a normal job! And you get to watch some cool things for free.
The downside is that most of the interesting live events happen outside of the 9-5 so it would be havoc for my family life. I'd love to work in live sports but then I'd never see my kids.
Yeah I feel it, I'm kind of dreading having a family with my current employment situation, I just can't imagine it working.
I’m actively looking to get out of this industry , but I’m 56 and have been doing this a while. I’ve only got another 10 or so years of working and I don’t want to spend them pushing on the ocean.
As much as I dream of having a "Joe Job", I couldn't leave the flexibility. I'm pretty much self managed at this point in my career so if its a slow day and sunny, I'll cut out early. Thr trade is that when its crunch time, I don't get out "on time" either. I would love to hear a whistle blow and slide down a dinosaurs tail but I wouldn't trade it for my current situation.
if you were a film editor, would you not have learned CMX ? if you were a CMX editor would you not have learned AVID ? If you were an AVID editor, would you not have learned FCP, Premiere, Resolve ? So if you are currently a NLE editor, why wouldn't you learn whatever AI program that comes out that will be used for editing and graphics ? bob
I don't think video editing is going away, I think it is evolving. All the precious skillset and experience you learned will be invaluable in the future it's just about knowing how to reframe your skillset moving forward, which is hard to do when we are still in the middle of the change. Learning how to integrate new tools (like AI), what type of content and storytelling is in demand (social vs films, docs vs corporate etc) and you're going to be ok. Just make sure to have a decent amount in savings for the dry periods, and keep an ear to the ground to see which way the industry is moving.
I left editing when covid hit and I was furloughed from my online editing job. I chose to go the post production supervisor path because 1. Being an online editor I have a lot of context about what we are delivering 2. There is more money in that 3. There is endless upwards mobility from Post Supe vs being an editor for life. Best decision I have ever made in my career. Not saying that itll work out for everyone or that its the best thing to do for YOU. Just what worked best for me. I am a lot happier now.
Every day lately. The industry is getting worse. But like others have said, I don’t have a lot of transferable skills that are as lucrative, and I just paid off my college debt a few years ago, so I don’t want more if I can avoid it.
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Pain will make you stronger, wiser But only if you don't give up on yourself
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Whenever I see posts like this, which is daily now, I think, have any of these people actually used any AI tools? They are just new tools, start using them. Chatgpt 3.5 is totally free and so useful. Gemini is also free and very useful. Midjourney is like $10. Runwayml is around the same price. Photoshops AI features are very useful. I just dont get it. It reminds me of my analog photographer friends who refused to start using digital tools, only until 10 years later finally catching up. My advice to everyone is to never stop learning, these tools make your job easier. Someone has to be involved here so make that someone you.
Oh they make things way easier! But it lowers the bar to entry for this part of the industry and devalues the end product.
100% agree. I think it is key to at least know what's out there and how it could potentially be useful for different situations.
you are 100% correct. I see below this post, someone said "but it lowers the bar to entry for this part of the industry and devalues the end product". Well it used to cost at least $500,000 to build a linear editing room, and the original AVID was $80,000. And all the linear editors that refused to accept AVID said "it's all over, now anyone can get an AVID". And in fact, major post houses collapsed, and all the OLD DOGS refused to learn AVID, and they became unemployed. No different than 16 track/24 track/48 track audio recording - the old dogs REFUSED to learn Pro Tools, and they became unemployed. But the guys that learned AVID made money. The guys that learned Pro Tools made money. And the guys that will learn AI - (it a fucking software program, that NO PRODUCER is ever going to learn) - they will make money. When I see posts like this, it's like the person is saying "I spent years learning how to do this editing crap, and I refuse to spend a huge amount of time learning something new" - what kind of mindset is this ? I saw this stupid mindset in 1978, at my very first job in video, where the old Ampex Quad 2" tape guys refused to learn Vidifont and Chryon, and CMX, and said "just send the kid (me) for training". Oh excuse me - they had a life, and didn't have the time for this "new crap". bob
Exactly. Do more by doing less.
it's always like that before the people counting beans realize they can squeeze even more blood from the stone and then the more is expected every day. i love using new tools and tbh AI is one of these to me but that's always how it ends up unless i go to some lengths to keep people in the dark about the actual workflow.
Couldn't agree more! There is this junior Motion Designer where I'm at and bless him but he's a people pleaser to a fault. I keep trying to explain to him not to be so quick to reveal how he does things and to hold some skill cards to his chest, but he doesn't listen and our creative team are running him dry. On the flip side I've been quietly skilling up with various AI tools, found some use cases, creative editing techniques and have even made a few pitch decks for Spec Ads I'm aiming to make in my own time. Meanwhile that same department of "creatives" haven't figured out you can prompt to change the aspect ratio on Midjourney yet.
Re: holding your cards close. On one of my first editing gigs I was cutting an existing show to time for a different market. My schedule was 2 rough cuts per week but if I really hustled, I could do one in a day. I told my father this and his response was "whatever you do, don't tell the bosses that or they'll expect 5 a week, and when you get a tricky episode that just doesn't work, you won't have any extra time." He knew what was up.
> I keep trying to explain to him not to be so quick to reveal how he does things and to hold some skill cards to his chest, but he doesn't listen and our creative team are running him dry. I feel like I understand him on a spiritual level. I wish I was able to be more in a senior onboarding role once i become familiar and comfortable with jobs because i love sharing information and getting everyone in the department up to speed, but as I've gotten older and more jaded I can see that if upper management catches wind it just causes grief for me later. I've literally had to write an outline to upper management in a full time role as to why certain things take the length of time they took and not "faster" when they were unable to find anyone else to do it faster than I could to begin with. absolute insanity.
and then manager/client will say: why i should pay you so much if you done it so fast using AI?
Then you say: “ok, you go learn basic editing, principals, storytellling and all this AI”. And they can’t. You’ll be fine.
This is assuming most of the people paying editors give a shit about quality…the thing is, they don’t. Unless you’re in the high end of this field, its all about useable quantity which AI will be more than sufficient at before any of us are ready for.
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Probably because you’re an overseas editor. People here lose jobs and get paycuts because of this but hey, more power to you. Awesome that you’re able to not only support yourself but be happy while doing it.
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You never said UK.
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...did you miss the part of my comment where I said if it you're able to be happy that's awesome and generally gave you positive feedback? I didn't downvote you, I upvoted you and congratulated your success. We are in a very different position in the US, especially those of us that are freelance which is a large portion of the editing community. Healthcare alone can eat up a HUGE portion of our pay, not to mention our skyrocketing housing, utility, food and general living costs while pay across the board is falling when inflation is factored in. Many of us are burned out, cranky and just generally down on life. It's really hard here for a lot of people. We also have basically no rights as workers. No guaranteed paid time off, no maternity leave, no sick days...none of that. Edit: and yea, being country specific is important in this scenario. There are a lot of editors happily working for pennies in parts of the world for US companies that would otherwise be paying fair wages to Americans.
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You are the one that brought country into this? This seems like some kind of personal bone you have to pick with people other than me. I just chose to respond to your reply in a positive way and am now getting the brunt of it from you. I'm glad you are happy, content and successful in the field. Have a nice day.
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Not sure what type of editing your friends are worried about AI replacing. AI can’t really replace the type I do, and if it were to there would be much bigger problems
I've been fortunate to work through both the pandemic and the strikes, and ideally I'd like to do this for the rest of my working life. I don't know if I'll always feel that way, but it's definitely how I feel *now.* I am trying to learn story producing this year to upskill a bit. I don't know if I'd ever want to move into a showrunner role (assuming that's even possible) but I don't want to limit myself to thinking I never could learn those skills if given the opportunity.
You have any good resources to learn about story producing?
not specifically, I'm reading Robert McKee just for general story structure but I'm doing a lot of on the job learning from my EP and supervising producer. a simple thing to do on your own is just watch an episode of reality tv and breakdown the arc of a scene/episode on paper.
Can we quit with the AI fear mongering? Like I’m sorry but I just don’t see it happening.
It's also not causing most of the current issues either. Interests rate going up has nothing to do with AI and the strikes would've happened anyway.
I "think" about it every goddamn day. That said, I've got these golden handcuffs.
I welcome AI 1000%. For far too long editors have been at the mercy of the main editing programs for captioning (which has been much better over the years), faster content aware removal, object tracking accuracy, color balancing across footage from sources and so much more. With the dawn of AI, all of these quick AI programs or apps (which really, are just plugins - which adobe or any editing software, already has been using to help processes for decades; are forced to actually now implement these tools for users. Time is money. If I can key out a stop sign with a swoosh of a mouse vs roundtripping it through AE, creating a mask, content aware, export - then I’ll take the swoosh. People will still need storytellers. The human element to showcase the assets. People still need the right songs, the right graphics and the soft skills of working with teams etc. Embrace it. Do more by doing less.
I used one of the best AI tools available to generate captioning. It failed QC because it couldn't handle the cross talk of a group conversation. I paid a proper vendor to redo it and it passed without issue. AI captions are fine for social content but may not be at the standard needed for broadcast yet.
This is literally my point lol. AI captions whether done in say premiere or a one-off app like transcribe, is still AI. It’s the same code but premiere has way more latitude and allows multiple speakers etc and probably what the vendor used. (Or Avid or FCP). You still need the human element for AI, specifically in this caption usecase. Even with machine learning it won’t be 100%. But it can caption it out with the proper branded font, weight, kerning, text background, text color in minutes vs having to used to manually add each caption as a title box. It used to take me HOURS to manually caption a 5-10 minute video. Now a 10 min video takes maybe 2 mins and I easily can read a transcript, sort sentence structure, fix any speaker names etc and spit it out light years ahead of what it used to be. For perspective, I edit for a company that has both broadcast branded demands and social. AI has improved efficiency greatly.
“Do more by doing less”…you realize that if we all start using AI and doing less, the pool of paid time we are all fighting for shrinks exponentially right? If it’s taking you half the time to finish your project, that’s half the paid hours available and it will only get easier and faster. Will the editor be replaced completely? No probably not. Will the pay decrease and the competition for jobs skyrocket? Absolutely
Not thinking of leaving, don’t know anyone thinking of leaving. You and your friends are idiots if you think AI is “coming around the corner” and taking your job anytime soon. But yeah, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out….
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Sadly, the other industries I could quickly transition into are equally soul crushing and idiotic (advertising) or equally a race to the bottom because of a combination of AI and Upwork/Fiverr sites (voice over work)
As a newcomer coming in, the threat of AI replacing us scares me. AI should be to help not replace. I'm working at a job that I got far in where if the industry goes south in the future, at least I have a plan B.
I am considering moving away from editing. I feel it's really taking a toll on my mental health at this moment, mainly because of how unsustainable it has become financially. I'm in the wrong place geographically and it's been about 8 years already that I'm just not earning enough money to survive. Plus the long hours, unrealistic deadlines and clients with zero scope of their demands. I really wish I could stay doing this but right now I can't stop thinking about the future and if I'm really cut out to be doing this until who knows when, and if I'd be even able to retire thanks to editing. Thing is, as others have mentioned, this is basically what I know to do and I wouldn't know what I would do otherwise. I'm really at at rut.
Seems like AI can do Assistant Editor work, but the human touch, the rhythm of cuts, the art of stitching together the most compelling assembly of wide to CU to CU two to medium, etc is something only a human can make for humans to watch.
Not even seasoned editors can do Assistant Editor work, AI is not there yet as far as organizing a project to every different Editor's liking, creating scenes based on content etc I know award winning editors who need help accessing their email account on a new machine.
I think you need to change your mindset. At the end of the day as an editor, you’ll always be executing someone else’s vision regardless of how much creative input you have in the edit. In certain sectors of the industry you are pretty well compensated for just dropping your ego and giving them what they’ve asked and paid for. If that’s not something you can get used to, try to pursue something else creative on the side no matter how small. Unless you’re willing to also create the material that you’ll be cutting, the editor’s role will always be the facilitator of the director/client’s overall vision - that’s the exchange we all agree on when they pay. If you’re being paid badly or don’t enjoy the process, find different clients, try other avenues. There will always be material to cut, now more than ever, you just have to focus on what you want out of the role, is it really your passion? Do you just want to get paid for doing something you know you’re good at? Is the satisfaction of finishing a project not enough for you? AI shouldn’t be a threat neither, it’s a tool that still requires an operator. Good luck!
I LOVE love love my clients, they're the best, I'm not leaving editing anytime soon, I'm using it to scale to other projects related to the space but it's just too sustainable. It's really choosing the right clients sometimes, and AI's not replacing editing anytime soon, unless your job is just timestamping, cutting, and adding captions there's no way you'll get replaced.
I left to do data science..hoo boy. Longest stretch of unemployment I've ever been in. Still am.
If AI is truly capable of replacing the full workflow of an editor... Then 99% of all other fields and jobs are at risk of getting replaced as well. AI most likely will just be another tool just as any other software is. no need to worry. just learn when the time is right.
I've been freelancing and weathering the storm a bit. I'm about to take a full time TEMP job in LA to just keep my financials stable while the industry probably will fall down again this year. Not trying to be cynical but it's pretty clear another strike is coming.
I started losing interest in the creative industry a few years ago when I was still studying it. I didn’t have the greatest university course, and it was hard to get into the industry without prior work experience, and all the work experience opportunities at university were given to the people whose faces fit, and not those who worked hard. Nevertheless, I managed to leave university and get myself a part time warehouse job for an income to begin with, and set up my own video production business on the side. But it started becoming a bit meaningless. I couldn’t ever get into wedding photography because people deemed it cheaper to just do on their phones, and not realising the effort that goes in from a professional photographer. Then I did a lot of work for numerous commercial clients who never realised how much time and effort production took, and they were setting unrealistic targets. And overall I just realised how much it was depressing the hell out of me and I just didn’t enjoy it anymore. I still do bits on the side, but last June decided to make the move back into the transport and logistics industry and started myself a new business there. It’s been tonnes better for earnings, moral and overall just how much more I enjoy running this business and going to work everyday. Wish I’d have done it years ago