Editors: Don’t worry about the technique of editing getting ‘too easy’

The reason why some editors don’t like Final Cut Pro X is because other film makers such as directors can pick it up so quickly. Here is a (Google-translated) quote from an article on finalcutpro.es about the editing of award-winning Spanish feature film ‘Handia’:

I think there is a fear on the part of some editors to be dispossessed of their tool. A Moviola, an Avid or even Premiere requires prior knowledge. With FCPX, everything is facilitated, I would say, simplified and the editor can think “If the director can do what I do, what do I do?”. To this I usually reply that our value as assemblers is not in the machine. It is true that we assume the proper development of the entire process between filming and post-production, but we are also the first spectators of the film, we are not contaminated by scriptwriting, filming, we can contribute a lot. The tool is not so important.

They think they are the people who know how to make the NLE put the film together. If collaborators can get results as quickly, what do editors bring to the project? They need to remember that editors are better at putting the film together – even if others can use the NLE as quickly.

Post tool users used to have ‘moats’ to protect themselves against too much competition: hardware cost, software cost and software difficulty. As long as these three things remained high, a less-talented editor had less to fear from competition. Now that these moats are going away, it financial background will be less of a differentiator – personal skills will make the difference.

Read about how two editors collaborated with two directors over at finalcutpro.es – in Spanish and Google-translated English.