Today I went to the BVE show at the ExCeL center in East London, a three day trade show for film and television people with a very heavy emphasis on tech and software. Avid asked me to present on their stand, which was quite an honour. And with the help of ace editor Eddie Hamilton, I put together a ‘career plan for editors’ seminar (based loosely on my career plan for filmmakers).

Creating a clear roadmap and knowing exactly where you are headed is a large part of success, as well as an understanding of what to do at each step of your career. This presentation tackled this roadmap, detailing what to do, when and how. Avid filmed the session so at some point I will be able to share it with you.

Of all the points, the one most amplified by Eddie was the formal training you receive as a runner, assistant, intern or trainee. There is only so much you can gain from research or by editing friends films. You need to get you hands dirty in a professional facility and work directly with experts at the top of their game. It’s easy to write off this stage as a kind of exploitation, but when you gain these positions (runner, assistant, intern or trainee), you are being given access to people and technology way beyond you current experience level. In doing so, if you apply yourself, you can learn good working practices, play with tech you would never get access to, get used to the politics and of course make lots of new friends who can help you in your future career (as well as you helping them too). It’s an essential step for any editor to undertake if they have their sights set high.

So a great day – and big thanks to Avid for letting me do a presentation about editing and filmmaking that is relevant to emerging talent, and not just asking me to do an Avid software demo – almost every other booth seemed to me to be doing software demos so again, big props to Avid.

Onwards and upwards!

Chris Jones
My movies www.LivingSpiritGroup.com
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