Re: The Art of Editing...

I need to chime in for the new breed. I know much of the comments were generalizations but you have to know there are a great many of us who are in this for the storytelling and not the plug-ins. I hate expressions, stabilization trackers, and denoise filters, its just more things that keep me from thinking about what impact that reaction shot is going to have on the interview. Yes many of us grew up with computers and geek out on glow dissolves, but don’t take away the idea that we can fret over 6 frames of trimming to get two pieces of audio to sound natural as one. But the fear of the next breed is always there, because they do things differently and come from a different culture. I am not much far removed from the little ones coming out of school now, but the stuff they can do in AE makes me sick to my stomach sometimes. I may never be able to do some of that high level motion graphics work, but I would rather have more confidence in the story and rhythm department. I would rather be trusted by my producers that I will have a project organized so well that even with the senior editor’s love of having 18 untitled sequences, even he can’t get lost. Even more so I want clients who have been in edit suites for years to trust my perspective on the project because I can clearly communicate what I envision for it and logically argue for the things that need to happen to make it a better piece. Avid is my scissor and tape of choice, but Ill lump myself in with the new FCP breed. Yes, sometimes we worry too much about what version of software is running and yes sometimes we want to film effect everything. But don’t say we don’t want to learn how to craft a program that makes you cry or shutter on the edge of your seat. I would rather be sitting behind you asking annoying questions about why you put that shot in front of that other shot or how you made the stammering CEO sound suave, but I have to go juggle 12 different codec issues and check on those damn untitled sequences again. And from some of the stories I have heard about the edit suites before the no smoking at work rules, the dope was still being smoked by the old breed.