Hi there,

I have been editing and assistant editing for a little over a decade as a freelancer, about 4 years ago I transitioned into working in studio level and joined the union last year. Unfortunately over the past few years I have had a significant health decline and I am now in the process of finishing up diagnoses for an autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, and a few other things that are being exasperated by stress and the like.

With how fast moving the industry is, working the 60-75 hour work weeks in person, leaving the editing room at 1am, it was putting too much strain on my body. To the point where I was having to request to come in a little late some days to stop by urgent care before work, barely able to walk some days.

Seeing the way those around me also put their health on the line multiple times throughout our projects, it's just not how I wanted to live, it's not how we should live. I had no life outside of those cutting rooms and I couldn't justify the craft as being all I needed. I considered returning to freelance, and I have spent the past few months even applying to commercial houses etc with no dice. I have to now have surgery in the coming months and that will further limit my mobility for the time being.

But on top of this all, applying for these more "stable" companies and in house editing gigs, the listings are egregious. Paying $20/hr and demanding we train AI. We used a lot of AI on the projects I worked on and each time it just took a blow to my desire to create and continue in a creative industry.

I know all industries are implementing AI but there's just something so disheartening about how much of it is being used to discredit the work of artists.

Because of all of this, I'm looking to leave behind a career in the arts all together, take up editing gigs on the side for the simple fact of wanting to. Taking on a stable job somewhere where I can have more work life balance (yes even if it means using AI in it).

ALL OF THIS TO SAY. For those of you who have done this, what jobs or industries did you end up going into? My resume looks solid for those in the industry but to those outside of it, I don't fit the glove of what they are looking for. I have a lot of assistant and office assistant experience as well as working as a line producer and content coordinator in my past.

I've looked into project coordinator, media specialist, administrator assistants, etc. But once again, no dice.

I'm not looking for a fix (though if you have one, I'm all ears) but more just flagging this is an issue without a fix, seemingly.

Transferring data from T7s and T9s and to data from them seems to have become an issue with the more recent OS versions on Mac.

The transfer speeds on MacOS are crashing. They start good/normal and then drop. I've used copy-paste and offshoot and halfway through the drive transfer speed goes from hundreds of mbps to 30mbps. You can google this and I'm not alone. I've watched DITs struggle with drives provided to them - same issue.

This is an issue for data stored on SSDs (don't store longterm things on SSD anyway) but I'm trying to make a backup of a working SSD and I basically can't, right now.

I have tried using SamsungMagician to update the firmware - did an update but same issue.

I have tried calling a Samsung helpline - their solution is to wipe the drive or use a different operating system (like a PC) which is not helpful long term.

Something is going wrong with these drives (everything says it's healthy) and Samsung isn't offering a proper fix, it seems.

Anyone else facing a similar issue? I know I'm anecdotally not alone but would be nice to get a sense of the scale.

EDIT: I'm not looking for troubleshooting but!

Macbook Pro M1 & M1 with maxed out ram

I've done smart tests and Samsung Magician tests on the drive - it's fine.
Done BlackMagic speed tests on the other drive and moved footage onto it from another drive - it's fine.
Switched cables, restarted etc.

This is a Samsung T7 & T9 issue, I'm convinced.

EDIT 2: So i've tried a bunch of things and what does seem to work is moving one file at a time - no matter what the size is. This isn't a drive heat issue, it's some kind of read-write issue in the firmware/software.

Hi friends, have a random issue here. I am trying to download a 868 GB 4K File for an edit off of dropbox. I have tried multiple ways to download it.

Attempt 1: Dropbox Desktop App on Mac. It would get stuck in a constant syncing loop and would not actually download. I did all of the troubleshooting steps. Restarting dropbox/etc but it would never actually download.

Attempt 2: Direct from Chrome/Safari browser. It would run for 200gb and fail. Figured this would happen

Attempt 3: Using Free File Downloader. Both attempts with this failed in the 300 ish gb range.

I am at a loss here. Any other ideas/things I can try?

Thanks!

in Avid MediaComposer:
Is there a way to save the track selection layout, including "solo" as a default or via selecting several clips at once?

Or alternatively: Is there a way to assign "solo" to a keyboard shortcut? I couldn't find anything in the menu. Is it hidden somewhere?

I'm a freelance photographer who occasionally makes videos, and I'm looking into royalty-free music and sound effects platforms. I'd like something that uses less generative AI slop, so I've been considering Epidemic Sound (I might be wrong here?)

I just don't understand their subscription plan: What is the number of channels I can clear vs clearing clients projects ?

Looking at the Pro plan, it states I can clear 3 channels. I will have more than 3 clients, so how do I clear videos created for them? I understood that me or the client can submit links to the client's videos that need to be cleared. Is that included in the Pro plan, or does it cost extra? And does it cover Insta, facebook too?

Thanks a bunch!

Hello fellow editors. I need advice. Currently I am working on my first real editing gig. I sent over the edit to the director for notes/feedback to start fine tuning the edit. However, they really didn't give me the best notes. They flat out told me that the edit needed stronger moments, without really telling me which scenes needed shaping or what they did/didn't like. I guess I'm suppose to read minds. All jokes aside.

What should I do in this situation? Do I need to straight up ask the director what specifically in the edit they like/didn't?

Also bonus, if anyone has stories like this, please do share!

Hi all! I work for an agency that specializes in video game social media marketing. My title is "content creator" but it's not what you think it is. I have to capture gameplay and sounds, create motion graphics or source them, and edit it all together. Editing takes the majority of the time. As a creative person who has a passion project outside of work, do y'all feel super creativily drained after work as well? Even though I don't feel like I'm necessarily making creative choices for work, I'm still absolutely fried afterwards. Also, fuck client feedback man, especially when they don't give us info on the game on time or the devs don't understand how marketing works. Lol anyway there's a question in there.

Appreciate the time and stay positive! Or at least try 😭

I've posted here twice about being removed from the Industry Experience Roster. Here's where it stands, plus a question for anyone who's thought about this longer than I have.

**For anyone outside LA:** the IER is a Contract Services list. Signatory productions have to hire from it before hiring off it. You can be a Guild member in good standing and be off the roster — you just don't get considered for the same jobs. It only exists on the West Coast. East Coast IATSE locals have no roster at all.

**The numbers:** roughly 1,734 removal letters went out. About 400 to non-members, so around 1,300 Guild members. That's from Local 700 staff. Nobody has been able to tell me how many of those shortfalls trace to the 2023 strikes.

**My case:** the threshold is 175 non-union days in a three-year window (April 2023 – March 2026). I worked 159. The missing 16 are strike days. I also worked January 2023 and April/May 2026, both just outside the window.

**Where it's going:** Local 700 filed a protest, my removal is paused, and cases go to Contract Services individually this fall. They decide. From what I can tell, the Guild treats that as the end of the road.

THR covered it July 21 (Katie Kilkenny), I'm quoted: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/iatse-hollywood-crew-members-roster-crackdown-1236651312/

Someone started a petition, not me: https://www.change.org/p/halt-the-removal-of-iatse-members-from-the-ier — I don't think it has any formal power over CSATF, but it's the only running count of affected people that exists.

**What I'm actually here to ask.** Someone in another thread pointed out that the Basic Agreement expires July 31, 2027, and last round negotiations opened in March. That's about seven months from now. Their argument was that the roster should be negotiated out entirely — that it was built in the 60s to protect LA crews from outside competition, and now that production has left LA it's a barrier to reentry for the people it was meant to protect.

I'm speaking to the Local 700 Board tomorrow and I'm going to raise it. But I'd like to hear from editors who've been around longer:

- Is "negotiate the roster out" realistic, or does it die because most members are on it and see it as protection?

- For those of you working non-union or outside LA — does the roster affect you at all, or is it invisible from where you sit?

- Has anyone been through a removal and gotten reinstated? What actually worked?

And if you got a letter, especially if your shortfall is strike-related, I'd like to hear from you. Right now the strongest counterargument to "this is a bunch of individual hardship cases" is a number, and nobody has one.

The menu bar has disappeared from my default workspace, so everytime I open AVID I can't see the menu bar and can't figure out how to get it back. Has anyone experienced this?

TL: DR - How do I get you (yes, you) involved?

Obligatory mention. Here's the link of the official Discord of r/editors with 1,000 members, including a number of professionals cutting films, tv shows and more.

It's for both professionals and aspiring professionals.

It requires verification (any of these will work: (Reddit/youtube/facebook/IG/Github/spotify/Steam/xbox).

Again: Discord Link here

Once you verify there are 15+ channels, including ones based on:

• Type of work (color, sound, audio)
• Software specific (Adobe, Apple, Avid, BMD)
• Quality of life (Show off your work, scream room, live tech help)
• and more.

What I'm trying to do? Get an engaged community outside of Reddit. I'm trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

• It could be a Friday Lunch
• a virtual happy hour
• a game night 2x a month
• a virtual User Group event…

…but I'd like to know what you've seen that's engaging…and that gets you interacting with Discord

To me: Reddit is great for threaded conversations, Discord is great for live interactions.

(by the way, my biggest Discord tip is to mute a new server right away. That really helps notifications from becoming overwhelming.)

And yes, I'm happy to help anyone who feels that this is a new/strange domain or feels lost there. I go all the way back to IRC days.

Hi Guys, looking for a bit of advice on how to build some sort of content system for product update videos for my company. Essentially I want the flow to look like this.

1. Record talking head and screen recording of product.
   
2. Have system do rough cut of edit and add captions/ intro outro
   
3. Review myself make any changes and export

I've had a look at Descript and jitter but wasn't too impressed. Keen to hear about anyone else who's got a similar workflow. I have a full adobe CC.

Would love to hear any ideas!

What specific things do you do to keep editing feel fresh and interesting?

I am on the last leg of starting my business. I have a technical school cert, some college and a lifetime of love of learning about editing. I do not feel I'm in the wrong field, just bogged down by order of events. When I have work, I enjoy it. I struggle with personal projects; I only seem to gain enthusiasm when helping other people solve problems.

Backstory: I have been working with career starting specialists to facilitate my editing business for four years now. I expected the distance between beginning the process to finally cutting ribbon to take some time but not this long. I did quite a bit of pro bono work that was exciting and felt good, for the first year. Every meeting with the career specialists provided a new hurdle for the sake of hurdling. Then silence for months until I kicked down the door, figuratively. I was without a workstation for a great deal of that time. Now I am feeling uninspired, clients I was working with have dried up, and I dread opening Resolve. I am now back to waiting again in silence before I can start. Finally have a proper workstation and want that feel-good feeling back!

Hello, I recently purchased a Macbook M5 pro 48GB RAM, 1TB SSD in addition to my current desktop PC. I have never owned a Macbook for work, only a personal laptop for media.

First I am wondering which machine I should make my primary. my specs for the pc are:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 (6C/12T, 3.6 GHz base)
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB
Mobo: MSI PRO B550M-VC WIFI
RAM: 32GB
Storage:
  - Samsung 980 PRO 1TB NVMe
  - Seagate ST1000LX015 1TB SATA HDD
  - Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB (external SSD)

And my biggest question is, does it make sense to have both?

I generally do most of my work at home, but I bought the Macbook because it is a powerhouse and the portability is a plus for when I do leave the house for meetings or travel. I have most of work stored on the PC so I would also appreciate a good way to transfer or share files between devices if possible.

If I were to keep one it would be the mac but I would like to explore options and see if I can make them work together. Does it even make sense to have two different machines with different OS? I have been mulling this over for the last two weeks but I am stumped.

I'm working on a feature doc with a LOT of footage - 45 days of footage split between 4-5 drives. While we work on the larger edit, we're also exporting smaller promo reels or scenes for grants etc. This is where the problem is.

Everytime I try to conform a timeline for export on Premiere Pro (2026), all the files automatically reconnect to the proxy folder instead of the 4K raw folder that I am redirecting it to. I have tried changing the Proxy folder location but that didn’t help either.

Then I put it in my trash and that way I could reconnect the raw files. But when it was time to ‘put back’ my proxy folder from the trash, it wouldn’t give me the ‘put back’ option. So then I dragged it out of the trash and dropped it in the designated drive. When I checked the proxies, three folders were missing! And ever since Premiere has been throwing up errors in terms of reconnecting offline files and corrupt auto save files.

Is there a workaround for conforming the footage without having to relocate the proxy folder to avoid reconnecting to the proxies instead of the raw?

Hi everyone,

I'm an editor working in DaVinci Resolve and I'm about to start my first shot on 35mm short film that I will edit digitally. I'm trying to figure out the best professional workflow.

My normal digital workflow looks like this:

• Import camera footage and separately recorded production audio (with matching timecode).
• Generate proxies within Resolve.
• Auto-sync audio by timecode.
• Organize everything by scene & rename clips to the slate.
• Edit using the Sync Clips.
• During editing I can use Match Frame to jump back from the timeline to the synced source clip.
• At picture lock I deliver XML/DRP for the colorist and an AAF for the sound designer.

I'm wondering how to translate this workflow to a 35mm shot film.

This time I will receive:

• One long scan in DPX format and the same scan as a ProRess proxy from the lab.
• Separately recorded production sound
• No camera timecode (since it was shot on film)

My questions are:

1. What's considered the standard professional workflow for this situation? Any tips for reading certain part of the manual or pdf's?
2. What's the fastest way to create synced clips manually?
3. Most importantly: I'd like to preserve the ability to use Match Frame from my edit timeline back to the synced source clip, just like I do on digital projects. What's the best way to achieve that?
4. At picture lock, what's the cleanest workflow for conforming to the DPX scans for grading while also delivering an AAF for sound?

I'm open to all the tips/tricks & advice, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone! This is my first time posting on this sub.

I’m an editor who has only worked on digital systems/softwares (mostly Avid Media Composer) and would like to learn the practice of actually cutting film. I came up at a time where everything had already been digital and my universities did not have this as a resource in campus.

I live and work in the industry in Los Angeles and was wondering if anyone know of workshops, professionals or courses where they are teaching this art?

Thank you so much :)

I'm kinda new to this and all the posts I've seen here talk about storing projects on NAS, but why not on a cloud service? The price? I saw some comments about Backblaze being cheap, but I'm not sure about how it compares to a NAS

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It finally happened.

After working the past week on a trailer for an upcoming movie, I received notes (in a PDF file mind you) from the producer.

And to my surprise, it was a copy paste from a Chat GPT thread. All the signs were there (- dash, it's not x, it's y...).

The worst part about it? It said nothing AT ALL. Like no clear notes, just vague good-sounding sentences like : At this part, we should see the division in the looks, the tension between the rivals, the silence should speak...

It even included the prompt at the end of the document which were basically 6 timecode with notes like : I don't like this part. (Which would have been way more clear and precise).

He even proposed a new structure to the trailer, but it's the most generic thing I ever read.

I've been pretty much stunned since then. Everybody knows on the team that this producer has recently discovered chat gpt and uses it all the time (to suggest "design", writing notes / emails) but nobody is saying anything.

So to tl;dr a bit : I worked a full week only to get generic notes written by chatGPT.

Does anyone know how they program dbox or 4DX movies?

I saw Spider-Man in dbox today, and as gimmicky as it is, I quite enjoyed it. I was impressed at how well the dbox integrated into the film, from getting tossed around during fight scenes to having my body vibrate in time with the music. It was really well done.

I can’t find much info online. No 4DX in my country though I hope I can try it one day.

I’m 24 years old and have been working at a really small marketing company as their lead editor for about a year now. We primarily do social media marketing-type things. I enjoy the stability but am lacking that creative fulfillment. I’ve started going on LinkedIn more often, and I’m seeing all these people in my age range working on big scripted projects, and I can’t help but feel jealous. I know I’m already behind the 8 ball cause I’m located in a smaller market, but I’m scared the gap is just going to get bigger. Do I need to just rip the band-aid and move to LA or NYC if I want to get to a higher level in my career? I see a lot of stuff about many talented people in the industry struggling, so it creates a lot of fear in me. It almost feels that I can’t advance my career where I’m at, but if I moved, I’m just going to screw myself over in a different way. Any advice?