Are you a video editor thinking about a career change? What about becoming a project manager? You don’t need a PMP to be a good one. A video editor can become the perfect project manager. Here’s why…
Recapping Why Video Editors Can Become Great Project Managers
A Video Editor’s Greatest Project Management Trait
Video editors do this one particular thing time after time, all day long as they work that most other people don’t do in their professions. This one thing is the main reason why a video editor can become a great project manager.
Us editors are constantly zooming in and zooming out of a project.
Huh?
When we’re editing we are hyper-focused on 1) the singular frame/clip we are working on and 2) how that frame/clip effects the rest of the sequence. Our minds are zoomed into the frame/clip and zoomed out thinking about the entire video.
Project managers, at least in my 1.5ish years of experience being one, have to do the same thing. We have to be zoomed in at the task at hand and how it relates to the project as a whole.
Is there something else someone can be working on to make another part of the project go smoother? Do we need to adjust our resources to work on another project that’s “more important”? Is it more important to finish this small project or take a chunk out of this large project? All these decisions have to be made and there’s no one more equipped to make decisions than video editors.
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The Similarities Between Being a Video Editor and a Project Manager
When you are a project manager you have to look at all the tasks that it’s going to take to finish the project. Who is going to do them? When? Is anything going to get in the way of completing these?
When you are editing a video you have to do something similar. You figure out all the tasks that it will take to finish the video. Then figure out things like, do I need any graphics from the client? Is there enough time to get the cut made? What’s going to prevent me from completing this video?
Video editors and project managers do so many similar things. Instead of fighting NLEs and the digital demons as an editor, as a project manager you fight a lot of the human factors that are involved in a project.
For introverts this is difficult. But it’s not impossible. I’m living proof. And I hope that I can provide a little inspiration for other video editors looking to pivot their career direction.
Are you a video editor that wants to become a project manager? Have any questions about becoming a project manager? Let me know in the comments!
Helpful Links
- Why You Should Become a Video Editor
- How to Make Your Own Luck in the Post Production Industry
- The Six Skills Every Video Editor Needs to Have
– Josh