Competition builds: new software has opened up the editing process to anyone with a lap-top, which threatens to undermine the profession itself

Post, Dec, 2004 by Matthew Armstrong

With all the major changes affecting the editing market, it still seems to abide by the law of science: for every positive action, there is an equal negative reaction. Digital tools have opened up a world of possibilities to editors, and so clients now expect more from them. There is more content being produced today than every before, yet this means the budgets for each individual project is down considerably. The digital tools have made the mechanics of editing relatively simple, allowing editors to concentrate on almost entirely on the art itself. This has opened the doors for new editors like never before. But regardless of the climatic shifts in the editing weather, the market depends mostly on one thing: the economy, stupid.

RAMY KATRIB

Founder

Digital Film Tree

West Hollywood, CA

(www.digitalfilmtree.com)

STRENGTHS: "The best word to describe the editing market is chaos. There are a lot of young people coming into the market. Now that you can cut a feature on your computer, a lot of people are, and as a result, a lot of people in the business right now never went through a formal 'Film Fundamentals 101' experience. Some people say it's a strength, others would say it's not. Some people relish these new options but when you have to engage the process with so many new users it's never black and white. Some people flourish with having a lot of options, others don't. We still have a hard time explaining to clients what we're capable of doing on the desktop."

WEAKNESSES: "The cliche thing that's being talked about now, which is true to some extent, is the multi-tasking editor. You bring on an editor and he's expected to do the editing, the After Effects work and even the color correction. That is a dynamic that is growing because producers generally have less money so they want these super savvy creative guys to work on the project. But in our experience, more often than not, the companies that try that get punished because the skill sets to do color correction are so distinct and respectable. An experienced colorist know so many things that someone who is multi-tasking could never even approach. As a result, if you do try to get a creative person that can do a lot of things, you're likely to have some drop off in the quality of the production. So producers have a threshold for that. If it's passable then they'll run with it. So the quality of the programming is not getting better it's getting worse. With DV coming out and desktop tools, I think there's more bad content coming out now than at any time. The craft of storytelling doesn't change with technology."

OPPORTUNITIES: "We can provide post services using a new model. Traditionally, you go to a post house and there's a department where you do your online, another department where they do their color correction, another department for titling, and another for graphics. At Digital Film Tree, once a project is on the server we can attack it like a bunch of hyenas and do everything at the same time. Some clients have a hard time adjusting to new workflows."

THREATS: I am amazed by how many extremely talented people are looking for work. Some are so talented and their experience is substantial and varied. I'm taken back by that because I'd think if I had a resume like that I'd be in hot demand. I'm not sure what's going on but there's all these senior editors in their 40s and 50s looking for work. I don't know if there's a stigma out there but it seems older editors aren't working. Younger editors are a lot savvier with the new technology but they don't have the knowledge of their craft. It seems the fundamentals of filmmaking are not as important as they used to be. It's hard to understand this dynamic."

OUTLOOK FOR 2005: "The boutiques that are smaller and leaner and don't have the same overhead but are doing broadcast work--I see that trend continuing. Computers are getting faster and people are building a tolerance for desktop work. The boutiques that can engage the desktop tools and make it work are going to be successful. The bigger post houses will be affected, to some extent, by these smaller boutiques popping up. The rate of SD online has dropped significantly over the past few years. That same dynamic will happen with other services."

STEVE MCCOY

President

Filmcore

San Francisco & Santa Monica, CA

(www.filmcore.com)

STRENGTHS: "A strong economy lends towards more advertising and commercial broadcast advertising. In terms of more work, the economy is going to have a lot to do with that."

WEAKNESSES: "There are such a huge number of outlets for broadcast advertising. What that does is: spots can become oversaturated very quickly, which potentially means that you need more spots so they don't get worn out. But, if they make more, it brings down the cost of the spots and the quality. The amount paid for a spot runs the risk of being eroded. The really high-end work will continue to become less dominant because the budgets just aren't there that will allow the production values necessary. There will still be high-caliber work but the weakness is the continued saturation of the market and the fact that a lot of advertising will not rise to the high level of creativity that most people would like to see."