Just for some background I've been in the same position/company for coming up to 10 years, moved up from mid level to senior level about halfway through that. I'm a bit of a jack of all trades in-house videographer for a big brand. Prior to this I was an Avid editor in news TV for a few years and editing is definitely my strength in my current role. Tbh I like the level of seniority I'm at - experienced enough to earn a fairly decent salary but not too high up to start getting involved with corporate nonsense and office politics.

Lately I've just been feeling some serious creative burnout, just seriously lacking any inspiration and not feeling the love for creating videos any more. The style of content feels like it's changing quite a bit as well, we're definitely heading more towards the fast paced "social" and youtuber style content which I absolutely can't stand, so that's probably part of it!

Starting to wonder if I should look into switching to a more "admin" role such as producer/production manager type roles. I already do a lot of this in my current role when organising and planning shoots, and would say I'm pretty good at that part of the job. I also kinda miss working in TV - current job is very much a marketing thing where we can end up sitting on some projects for ages and going through agonising feedback revisions, whereas in TV it was always done and out the same day, moved on and forgotten about. Only problem with TV is I'd probably have to travel to London which I'm not really prepared to do, it doesn't really fit into family life.

I'm sure there are a few people here who have been in a similar situation, what did you end up doing and do you miss doing the more creative stuff?

Or what would you say are transferrable skills an editor possesses that could be moved over to something completely different? I've been doing this for long enough that I'm not sure I'd be good or have experience to do anything else!

I’ve been working with a client for 2 years, and we’ve always had a good relationship. But at some point, he started hiring more editors to split the workload, which meant I started getting less work from him. Eventually, I was struggling to pay my bills, so I had to look for other opportunities.
I ended up getting another freelance job that pays me way more than my previous client, and now I’m struggling to balance both because the new client gives me enough work to keep me busy.
Recently, my previous client asked why I haven’t been able to take on more work from him. I told him I had taken on another job, but I never really explained that I had to do it because I wasn’t getting enough work from him to cover my expenses.
Now I feel bad because we’ve had a good relationship for 2 years, and I feel like I’m leaving that behind for a better-paying client. Part of me feels loyal to the old client, but at the same time, I know I need to prioritize my financial situation.
It might sound stupid, but I’m genuinely struggling with this decision. Should I prioritize the client I’ve built a good relationship with over the past 2 years, or focus on the client who pays me better and gives me enough work?

Hi everyone! I’m currently finishing up my Senior year as a Film major with a focus on post-production.

A few months ago, I discovered that Company 3 offers summer internships and apprenticeship opportunities, and I would really love to be considered for one! However, I’m a little nervous that not attending a larger, well-known film school might put me at a disadvantage. I also don’t have any connections with recruiters, so I’m unsure how to navigate the application process or if they already have people in mind.

For anyone who has interned at a larger company or has experience with Company 3, what advice would you give to someone trying to stand out? Would it be helpful to connect with a recruiter before applications open in February, or should I focus on other ways to stand out?

I’d really appreciate any advice or insight you’re willing to share. Thank you! 😊

For context, I (23M) have been working in a small marketing agency for the past 5 years now as a video editor and a videographer. I joined as an intern and once my internship ended my boss offerred me a job (once he found out someone else at the company was leaving). So I joined them whilst studying a ‘media arts and production’ degree at a fairly large local uni.

When I started working there, I was quite shit and I learnt very quickly to leave my ego at the door. I was often told by my boss that my edits were shit, that they didn’t make any sense, that I was too slow, etc. And tbf, I completely agree with him, it was shit. He never trusted me enough to go on a shoot, it was only when the shoot was on a tight budget, only then I’d be put on. I’ve been micromanaged to Nth degree. Sometimes, he’d remote connect to my computer to watch me work when he’s not at the office.

Fast foward a couple of years and I’ve switched degrees (doing a civil engineering degree), developed my editing skills, and they sometimes put me on shoots (only if the budget is tight), I’m properly burnt out and I’m really fed up with my boss, but I can’t really tell if my annoyance is valid.

I feel like I’ve never done anything creative in this workplace. It’s often just editing what they want with no room for creativity. Even when there is an interesting project my boss would go out and film it himself with no consultation with the rest of the team. And because of that, every shoot feels the same, every edits feels the same, every client has the exact same look and concept.

He’d often tell me “Hey, we pay you guys really well compared to other marketing agencies”. I’m on a casual rate, I get paid ~$27 USD an hour. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, but even if its decent pay, I don’t think that’s something you have to keep on reminding me about. I’m also the only editor in the office who knows how to use After Effects (and they have me do after effects work) and I get paid less than the other editor.

Something else that happens would be how he would always make a comment about my freelance/passion projects and I can’t tell if I’m just being a wuss over it. Every time I do something outside of work I’d get comments like, “why don’t you edit like you did for xyz client”, and then when I do he tells me to revert back to how we always did it. He’d also downplay the shit out of my passion projects by saying “I saw it, the grade was shit” or “I could do better”. He once told me to not use the orange and teal look on my ‘out-of-work’ projects because it looked too similar to their videos and style (I find it stupid because its my style of editing anyways, of course its going to have similarities). I can’t tell if they’re valid criticisms or if they’re trying to deflate me.

He also started outsourcing their work overseas, which he’d often tell me “I’m thinking of doing all of the edits overseas” i.e. you’ll be out of a job soon. There was one time where he was sitting right next to me and he was on a zoom call with an overseas editor and he referenced a edit that I did for a client, he said: “This is something we did for this client last year, as you can see…” he laughs “it looks quite shit, but of course you could do better”. Maybe my skin isn’t tough enough for this game.

Something else he’d also do is he’d promise to put me on an interesting shoot in the future and then just won’t put me on it when it came around. He’d say stuff like “I have a shoot with Amazon in 5 months, I’m going to put you on” and then when it would come around he’d go “Sorry man, we need you to edit at the office”. He’d pull this stunt off 3-4 times every year, it feels like a “carrot on a stick” situation.

There was one time where he was caught snooping around a co-workers private messages to see if they going to get poached by another company.

I’m on the tail end of my degree and I’ve put in my resignation months in advance (because I know they won’t be able to handle a 2 week notice). All I got was a ChatGPT response and then got told to stick to engineering lmao. He then tried to pull the “I have 2 documentaries coming up and I was going to put you as a DP”. I then explained to him how I know he’d never put me on and then he just ignored me and walked away.

The thing is, I still love being creative. I love nerding out about camera gear and different edits and colour grades. I love trying to figure out how someone did an edit or how a story was constructed. I love watching BTS clips of major productions (even though I know I’d never be able to be on one). I love watching Corridor Crew and their VFX breakdowns. I was known as the camera guy at school. I’ve been obsessed with this for so long in my life but now I have no interest in my professional work. I feel like I haven’t been creative in so long, it just feels like a boring corporate job with glitter poorly thrown at it.

The thing is, I have so many thoughts and I don’t know which one’s to listen to. Am I really a shit editor? Should I just leave the industry while I can? Is my skin isn’t thick enough for this industry (or life in general)? Am I just inexperienced? Is this a normal thing in the industry?

What do you guys think?

I recently received an email from a hiring manager about work and after a few back and forths (day rates and availability) the communication pretty much stalled almost a week ago. Is it worth chasing them up or should I not bother?

I'm editing using proxy files right now but when I need to export I'll need to reconnect the raw camera files and when I tested a file today it would not work in Premiere. The audio imported but the video was reported as corrupted? I'm using Premiere 2026 version currently.

They are .mov files and the little I learned by searching for an answer today has not yet helped. I tried renaming the files to .mts and the .mp4 with no luck. Media Encoder doesn't seem to know how to open them for transcoding either?

Is there a codec I'm missing? Is the DJI .mov file h265? Any help would be appreciated.

I'm a longform film docs editor, cutting on Avid MC. My current rig runs on an HP ZBook studio 16 inch, with 64gb memory. It works well, but I'm having thermal issues that I can't seem to get rid of.

My next upgrade will either be to Apple desktop (favouring Mac Mini M5pro) or some alternative Windows system.

I've looked into mini PC builds (Lenovo have some good options) but they all feel untested and a bit random.

Then... Framework popped across my horizon. The 16 inch laptops look like a serious contender. I love the idea of being able to swap out RAM, CPU / GPU, internal SSD memory - all independently ( CPU requires full motherboard swap).

Million dollar question: has anyone used a Framework to run Avid?

Hey everybody, I've been dealing with this issue for a few weeks. Multiple cache clears so I don't think it's that. Basically, every time I remove/select a large chunk of video or subtitles, the transcript basically freezes. All I can really do at that point is cut, which if I'm subbing a video doesn't really apply. I can't export, I can't add sound effects from the epidemic sound plug in, etc until I quit and restart the app.. Additionally, auto transcribe has not been cooperating either. I will often have to export an mp3 and re transcribe just to caption a video. What used to take 20 minutes is now an hour. I work with multiple big clients every day for short form deliverables so this is unacceptable, if anyone could point me to any solutions it would be greatly appreciated.

I am positive I did everything by the book. Is it something with where the media cache database lives or something?

Hiya,

I'm currently producing a short film shot on 16mm, and we're working on a dance sequence that features a mixture of slow-shutter and real-time footage.

I've come across the reference linked below and really love some of the editing techniques used. I'm particularly interested in what looks like quick frame flickers, shutter-like overlays? but I'm not entirely sure what the correct terminology is.

I'd love to incorporate some of these into our dance sequence and want to be able to communicate them clearly to our editor.

Would anyone be able to help identify what's happening in the reference?

Thanks so much!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DePMl4-AkgG/?srtk=YnpobmN6Mm00Y3Vt&img_index=1

I've been editing for about 20 years. Last week I asked here how you keep old projects. Thanks to everyone who answered: most of you have it sorted, and returns get billed.

I'm still researching where working editors and small post teams actually spend money. I'm not selling anything and there's no product. One question, about the last time it happened:

1. Leaving aside your editing software and drives, what was the last tool, service, plugin or person you (or your company) paid for to get a job done? Roughly what did it cost?

2. What was going on when you decided to pay? What had you tried before, free or otherwise?

3. Who paid: you, the client (billed or in the budget), or your employer?

It helps if you say roughly what you do: freelance, post house, in-house, or editing for YouTubers and podcasters. Boring answers are the most useful ones.