How much does a professional editor cost to hire? What is your experience in this area?
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Price of hiring an editor
- Thread starter gorillaonabike
- Start date
Oh the irony! Pushing your buttons by calling you a button pusher.
That is kinda funny, actually, haha.
That being said, I really don't like the fact that so much of this conversation has focused on me. Look, the people who know me as an editor know what I'm all about, and I think my work speaks for itself. Can we stop discussing me?
Back to the original question, my advice stands. Anyone can edit. It's an art, no doubt. Like any art, it takes practice. The practice required isn't just to figure out the mechanics of the software but perhaps more importantly to figure out how you want to express yourself artistically, and how you can use your craft to surprise the editor while also serving their needs. That takes time. But anyone can do it.
I obviously misunderstood the situation. Who's currently editing? Where are you in the editing process? Do you have an assembly or the rough cut yet? Are you close to picture lock? No editing yet?
If you feel your producer is going to micromanage your editor, you might be better off saving a bunch of cash and find a cheap button pusher.
Nice discussion folks. I've recently rediscovered my love for editing, because the stuff I've edited has been just enough poorly written, that it has been a huge challenge to save. Love that. Then you feel needed as an editor.
About hiring someone or not. I'd have to say that it all depends on the potential to make money with the film. Is everything technically good enough for the market and maybe most of all, can the flaws in the script be saved?
If it can't become something that holds the standards, expected by the audience, better edit yourself as practice.
About hiring someone or not. I'd have to say that it all depends on the potential to make money with the film. Is everything technically good enough for the market and maybe most of all, can the flaws in the script be saved?
If it can't become something that holds the standards, expected by the audience, better edit yourself as practice.
I think H44's generous offer got lost in the mix a bit here. I'm sure he could do a decent job in a relatively quick time frame. Is 7 years an acceptable time scale for a rough edit???
1. I agree with the "how long is a piece of string" comment. As a general rule you get what you pay for, you pay peanuts and you get monkeys. Of course there are exceptions, you can pay a decent amount and still get a monkey or very rarely you can pay very little and get someone very good. IME, the latter is far rarer than the vast majority of no/nano budget filmmakers are able/willing to believe.
2. I would say quite significant. I've worked with well over 100 editors, the vast majority professional, maybe 10 or so amateurs and a few close to world class.
I'm not sure I would entirely agree, as strange as that may sound coming from me! Certainly audio post is generally under appreciated from both the story telling perspective and from a misjudgement of what constitutes basic competency and therefore it's extremely commonly under resourced at the micro-budget and lower levels. For this reason I frequently make the point that upping the audio post budget/resources generally represents particularly good value for money, as bringing the quality of audio into balance with the rest of the film, rather than it being the neglected step-child, is a more effective/efficient way of upping the overall quality of a film than most of the other areas filmmakers tend to target.
However, what I'm really advocating is just an appropriate balance!! In other words, while your statement is very possibly/probably true, it is not necessarily true. Certainly almost anyone can learn to picture edit but poor or mediocre editing is ultimately, to a general audience, as much a kiss of death to a film as poor or mediocre audio post. Once up to basic levels of competency and hopefully beyond, decent/good pic editing and audio post are inseparably interdependent. The quality of the sound design and some other aspects of audio post are largely defined by the opportunities presented/created by the pic editor. The really good pic editors understand this, either consciously or intuitively. The not so good pic editors only concern themselves with the picture/images they editing!
G
Oh wait wait, as someone who just made it through this entire thread I must respectively disagree. Thoroughly entertained.
hahaha, Guanto smells the spaghetti already 
@Madhatter: that was just my thought, but I was not able to reply.
@Gorilla: you're in a tough spot.
You need an editor who not a puppet, but who's also not stubborn. And you want him to be on location, so you can communicate fast.
In your situation (untill you found an editor) you can only suggest alternatives to try whether it works or not. And then hope the director sees when it is indeed better.
When is your deadline?
@Madhatter: that was just my thought, but I was not able to reply.
@Gorilla: you're in a tough spot.
You need an editor who not a puppet, but who's also not stubborn. And you want him to be on location, so you can communicate fast.
In your situation (untill you found an editor) you can only suggest alternatives to try whether it works or not. And then hope the director sees when it is indeed better.
When is your deadline?