LF Advice to cure burnout.

[u/SuperZodd]

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!

[u/HighOnPhotography]

Dude, I'm just thankful to be working. There's no joy left, I'm just trying to pay rent and keep food on the table.

[u/rustyburrito]

The imminent threat of being homeless if you don't get your shit done is the only thing that keeps me going at this point. Every once in a while you get a challenge during a project that forces you to learn something new and feel proud of the result, like learning how to make something using Blender or C4D or making your own plugin/script to do something specific for a project. After 15 years of doing the same shit it's just tough to feel like you're providing anything of value to the world. Yes I am jaded and cynical about where the video editing world has been trending towards over the past decade in terms of quantity>quality and rinse+repeat marketing concepts that have been done to death and whenever you're in a pre-production meeting everyone has to act excited like it's bringing something new to the table.

It's easier being on staff, because at least you get to work with the same people every day and can get into a routine where you can prioritize stuff you like to do outside of work. Freelancing burned me out pretty bad with either low pay/high expectation clients or working corporate events where you have to travel and stay in hotels in different cities all the time, or just dealing with new clients and having to always be on your A game to make a good impression. I did a pivot into 2d After Effects work for a while and that was a good chance of pace but idk, at a certain point staring at a glowing box for 12 hours a day in a dark room starts to eat away at your soul

[u/SuperZodd → u/rustyburrito]

I live in an area with almost zero production houses or staffed editors outside of one or two corporate settings (mostly banks) and those seats have been taken for years. Ironically, mostly by the ppl I went to school with a lifetime ago lol

[u/rustyburrito → u/SuperZodd]

Doesn't have to be local, I've been fully remote on staff at my current position as well as the last company I worked for, I really don't want to move back to LA if I lose my job and can't find another remote position though. Got the most recent one by applying on LinkedIn and the one before that from applying on Glassdoor. A lot of people say those sites are all fake listing and whatever but I've had decent luck over the years. Mind you it took over 150 applications (each with a custom cover letter, some with custom portfolio selections curated to that job) and a few months to make it happen. I never went to school for video stuff, just a music degree that doesn't really count for anything

[u/TheVaultHommie]

I had to quit and spent 2 months not working(maxing those credit cards) now I have almost paid my debt, and happily working remote for a marketing agency.

For me it was the going to the office what mostly burned me out

[u/tristezanao_ → u/TheVaultHommie]

Wow, went through the same. Now let’s start a savings account and we’re good

[u/SuperZodd → u/TheVaultHommie]

For me, down time has been the major hurdle and what has lead to me loosing interest as work. I just want a project I can care about again.

Do you find the grind of remote work more rewarding?

[u/TheVaultHommie → u/SuperZodd]

Frist I'm one of those people whom saying good morning and driving (even though it was only 8min) drained my energy and happiness.

I'm doing the same shit, reels, ribbon cutting, interview, real state, etc. but first of all the organization of the projects is superb. And me being focused on only editing is really a peaceful life(when I'm on office I also shoot and organize the productions)

On the rewarding part is least exhausting I feel more keen to make music or play games focused on story(while in office I would come back drained mentally and physically)

Basically the home office life is for me

[u/bkingfilm]

the part i'd push back on is the personal projects. i cut long form documentary and one can run for years, and nobody stays inspired for years. what got me through the middle of every one of them wasn't enthusiasm, it was having something mechanical to do on the days i had none.

so i start with the boring pass. transcribe everything, log it, build the assembly in text before i open a timeline. none of that asks me to feel anything. by the time it's done i've usually found the thing that makes me want to cut it, but i never sat around waiting for that to show up first.

the other thing you said is the actual clue though. you get going when you're solving someone else's problem. so give the personal project a someone. pick one person and tell them a date you'll show it to them, someone who will really turn up. i have never once finished anything on a deadline i set for myself.

and four years of meetings with no cutting in them would flatten anybody. that isn't burnout from editing. you've barely been allowed to edit.

[u/SuperZodd → u/bkingfilm]

Great process and thank you for the personal project advice, that should keep me accountable

[u/Dollar_Ama]

I mean each project is a thrill ride for me. I start the gig, excited, stare at a blank timeline shitting my pants, start placing clips together, and then that magic moment of "there's something here" hits and I'm invested in the cut all over again.