The Avid Assistant

Our second confirmed winner of our "Every Frame Counts" giveaway is Peter Bjerggaard from Denmark!

Congrats Peter! Both winners have now been contacted by Jared directly and your books are on their way to you!

7 months ago | [YT] | 5

The Avid Assistant

First winner of our "Every Frame Counts" giveaway is Stéphane Clonrozier based in Paris, France!!

Congratulations Stéphane! Your signed copy of the book will be on it's way to you shortly!

7 months ago | [YT] | 7

The Avid Assistant

Hey Everyone!


Apologies for the delay in announcing our winners to the Every Frame Counts competition. Neither of the two initially drawn winners responded when contacted via the supplied email addresses! I've send one more message out to them today from a different email and if I don't hear back from them shortly then new winners will be chosen!

Check your spam folders people!

7 months ago | [YT] | 3

The Avid Assistant

As a member of the British Film Editors guild here in the UK, I've felt incredibly privileged the last few days.

With both our sensational awards evening on Thursday at the BFI in London (winners listed at link below!) as well as our fantastic Editors panel (hosted by the amazing Eddie Hamilton!) I have had the honour of meeting and sharing wonderful conversations with peers and heroes! Many people I very much look up to and aspire to.

It's thanks to the community at the BFE lead by its astounding team of governors, especially our fearless leader Renée Edwards, that I've been able to do this. Ever since I moved back to the UK and joined the BFE this has been the most creative, supportive and talented community of editorial heroes. From the regular Tuesday lunchtime zoom calls that help keep my sanity when work is dry, to the incredible mentoring scheme, the live events and screeners giving us all access to phenomenal work and especially the community of members who will leap to your aid whenever you any any level of question almost immediately through our WhatsApp groups, the BFE has been one of my best professional choices since coming back home and I feel to privileged and happy to have become a full member last year.

Thanks again to everyone responsible for the last few days and to everyone I had the pleasure of meeting. I hope to meet a few more of you before I leave London on Wednesday!

#bfe #britishfilmeditors #BFECutAboveAwards #filmeditors #postproduction

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3

10 months ago | [YT] | 23

The Avid Assistant

Hey Guys!

So a few days ago I filmed a HIWDI video for members here but given how sleep deprived I've been I ended up going on and on and now I'm trying to cut down a 2hr recording to something reasonable within the small window of time I have for these things...

The video itself is a summary of the advice that I often give when people reach out to me directly which is something I've done a bunch of times since starting the Avid Assistant channel. I always suggest a video call to answer any questions they may have and I found myself often giving out the same advice over and over and so I wanted to break this down into a HIWDI video for you guys, but since the edit will take me a bit more time and I know you are overdue for something, here's a summary of the advice for the channel broken down by where you may be in your career:




-Keep in touch with all Alumni from Film School if you went to one, it's the most useful aspect of going to Film School!

-If you did go to a Film Course remember what you learned but don't make the mistake of thinking you know a lot. This is the point in your career where you know the least you ever will and always be open to receiving instruction / advice from those in the industry.

-Get good at cold emails! Seriously I can attribute most of the leaps in my career to this! Reach out to industry pros you want to work with directly. At this stage that is production companies and post facilities.

-Don't turn your nose up at roles as a runner or in house general assistant. It's the best way to meet people and be around post. Plus most Editors have a much higher respect for Assistant Editors that started in MCR machine rooms of post facilities. There are professional post facilities in most major cities, you don't have to be somewhere like LA or London. I'm based new Glasgow, Scotland where I know of at least 7 of them and around the same in Auckland, New Zealand.

-Go to as many networking events as you can! This is when they are most useful. Ironically the longer you are in the industry the less useful these can be as they are full of new grads or starts but this is definitely the time to do it!

-Make stuff! Anything, just practice fooling around with material in Avid and it will teach you things just through doing it. Check out Editstock.com for excellent footage to play with as well as adding our discount code for 20% off! editstock.com/theavidassistant





-Introduce yourself to as many Editors as you can. These are the ones who will bring on AEs, particularly in Film. In TV it could be other AEs or producers so get to know both as much as you can.

-Learn the essential skills for AE work. That is what I made the AE100 series for! (Though I have big plans to revamp that this year with a lot more detail - stay tuned for more!). Ingest, sync, prep, turnovers. If you can do those well then 1st AEs and Editors will happily bring you on. No one cares about Avid Certification or film degrees. Knowing how to do that stuff or having been through a post facility staff room is all the qualification you need!

-Join industry groups like guilds, unions or clubs where you can socialise with peers and grow your network. Especially edit focussed ones like Editing guilds like the BFE (UK), DEGANZ (NZ), ACE (USA), CCE (Canada), ASE (Australia) are fantastic communities of like minded people passionate about Editorial. Networking with these guys is a lot easier than a room full of people you don't know since you have common ground and if you make friends there they can bring you onto jobs!

-Also attending industry focussed events like high end film festivals or union socials are fantastic.

-Research trainee schemes! Screenskills in the UK do a trainee finder scheme where if you get on their list they can actually pay productions to take you on as an Edit trainee. It's a win / win scenario as you get invaluable experience and on the ladder to AE work and the production gets more hands in Editorial.

-Cast a wide net. Be prepared to do work beyond your nearest city, whether remote or in person. Even just one gig away from home can give you a fantastic credit to come back with and pitch for local work.





-First thing to remember is you won't be cutting anything big straight out of film school or even for the first few years. I'm not saying you have to be an AE first (Many very successful Editors like Eddie Hamilton were never Assistants) but it certainly helps and can stop a very long grind or depending on luck.

-Get really good and efficient at your Assisting work. That way if frees you up to help edit or Assemble. The most common way I see AEs move up is on TV shows and they move from AE one season to Editor the next. Or even in the same season. You just have to show you can do it and Editors will push you up the ladder and go to bat for you. Happens all the time!

-Research the craft! It can be difficult to know the craft well without knowing where it came from. Remember that cutting is NOT a technical role but a creative one and the principles have not really changed in decades. It's about telling a story and that's what you need to lean into to get good at it. Books like "Cut to the Chase" by Bobbie O'Steen or "When the Shooting Stops" are really fantastic for this. (I'll copy a full suggested reading list to the comments below for those interested!). Plus Youtube channels like Cinemastix and Every Frame a Painting are fantastic resources!

-Cut wherever you can. Whether that's short films (Preferably paid ones at this point in your career, don't undersell yourself) or helping assemble, take every opportunity you can to sitting in the cutting chair!

-Watch movies!!! A great way to learn is through osmosis of just watching lots of stuff. Doesn't even have to be all high end stuff (though don't just watch crap). Plus it really helps for speaking to directors (who we want to endear ourselves to to get cutting work) if you've seen the films they like or use as style references and they can talk to you about it. I once got a cutting job just because I love the film ET. My very first cutting credit actually on a nationally funded web series called "AFK" in 2018.

-If you have been an AE for a number of years and you have a number of "Additional Editor" credits and some tangible cutting experience to show, it may be time to look into Agency representation. Now this isn't a thing everywhere. For example Agency representation just doesn't exist in NZ beyond actors. but it IS a thing in places like the UK and USA. So depending on where you are it's worth looking into. I signed on with an agency based in London at the end of last year and it's been a very positive experience so far!



Anyway that's all from me for now. I hope this is useful to some of you! Given the nature of the current state of the industry and how much of a battle the last year or two have been my next HIWDI video will be a year in review of 2024 and the extra ways I made cash to get through times when they were tight. Coming to you exclusive viewings soon!!!

All the best

J

10 months ago | [YT] | 7

The Avid Assistant

Hey Everyone!

Just back from a wee jaunt to London. I regularly make trips down from Scotland since it's the hub of all scripted Film/TV production in the UK. I had two and a half days down there and managed to:

-Continue working full time on my feature films
-Pick up my access key to the BAFTA building (Really nice in there!)
-Attended a screen skills dinner for new talent and networking
-Met with an agent and signed up to their Agency for representation as an Editor
-Met an Assistant Editor friend who's really at the top of the game in features and one of the best in the business (also knows AMAZING food places)
-Took the sleeper train to return home so that I didn't have to take any time off work (Got home 30mins before starting this morning)


All in all, a fairly productive trip!!

Skip the Carousel

1 2 3 4 5

1 year ago | [YT] | 27

The Avid Assistant

HIWDI Ep 18 - Scene Cards COMING SOON!!

Just finished all the recordings for the next how I would do it going through in detail how I make Scene cards for long form projects!

Will begin editing tonight and release it to 1st Assist / Editor members over the next few days :)

1 year ago | [YT] | 13