A few tips for working with an editor, whether you're working with them for the first time, or even if you've built up a long-standing relationship.

This is going to be a bit of a controversial opinion, as so many people absolutely hate it. If you're used to the freedom of scattering things around all over your timeline like you can in Premiere, then this is a bit of an adjustment, however it is honestly one of my favourite things and can save a huge amount of time. Everything is kept really neat, which makes my brain happy if I'm needing to be a bit speedy on an edit.

This month I thought I would write about some of my absolute favourite features of Adobe Premiere Pro.

Several months ago, a videographer friend of mine was struggling with his films. They were exporting out at huge file sizes- one film came out at a whopping 17gb and unsurprisingly his client was struggling to play it at their end. After a bit of discussion of bitrates and settings, he was able to re-export the film at a much more manageable 6gb, same excellent quality, with only a few clicks.

The music I'm playing when I’m going through footage has a subconscious influence on the feel of the shots I’ll ultimately select. This means it's incredibly important for me to listen to tracks that reflect the style of the project I’m working with.

I’ve been asked on numerous occasions how I turn things around so efficiently. Truthfully most of it is practice, and long work days! However some things prove useful time and again when it comes to streamlining the process, leaving more time to build an engaging story and a well crafted edit.

You may have seen in other blog posts that I occasionally use the term ‘ghost editing’ or refer to myself as a ‘ghost editor’. But what does it mean?

if I got anything valuable at all out of this year, it is a toolkit of techniques to boost my visibility in front of the correct people. I feel more in control than I did at the start of the year, knowing that I can drag myself, kicking and screaming, to a point where I can be one of those Fearless Marketing People whenever I need to be. This is largely to do with the support and guidance from everyone I have mentioned, and the fantastic resources I was able to make use of. My 2020 breakdown took the form of a website overhaul, updated branding, starting this blog, learning about visibility, SEO, how to rank well on Google, and how to use Facebook and Instagram Ads.

Generally I switch between FCPX and Premiere a few times a week. On mentioning this to a fellow filmmaker, it became apparent to me that few people do this, and many would find it challenging.

A lot of people don’t realise how outsourcing their editing can help them actually increase profits as well as productivity. To discuss this, I’ve invited Micaela of Micaela Karina Photography to talk about her experiences with outsourcing.

When Jay wrote the script for their second short film “The Hacker”, all they had was a location and a budget. It was enough to inspire them to share about the project on Facebook, where freelance video editor Rachel spotted it.

I’d like to start off by saying that I truly believe a good editor is not bound by software. It’s just a tool, the same as a camera or a microphone. It doesn’t really matter what brand you use. Regardless of how you do it, if you can put together a compelling story, you’re good at what you do.