Many (most? all??) of us are burnt out but still have deadlines we have to hit. These videos aren’t going to edit themselves. Hush over there, AI people. Here is a strategy that I use when I need to get stuff done but haven’t the willpower to move my mouse. I call it the Tiny Reverse Pomodoro Technique.
Time Management
Some Brief Thoughts on Having a Clean Edit Bay
Being a video editor sucks every ounce of creativity from us. We must do everything we can to be as imaginative as possible at all times. Proper sleep, nutrition, and health are no-brainers when you’re trying to have your brain work at max capacity. But what about our environment? Having a clean edit bay is absolutely vital to being a creative video professional. Let’s discuss.
Best Productivity Tip for Video Editors
In this video and article I discuss my best productivity tip for video editors. It’s simple but can drastically change your work output with it’s implementation.
Most Deadlines for Video Editors Are Sh!t
The majority of deadlines are not real and most people misrepresent the true meaning of them. To video editors with deadlines: read this.
A deadline is the last possible moment a project can be completed. This instance in time can only be for a handful of reasons (at least in the world of video creation):
- The video is literally airing, being broadcasted, or being presented at an event
- There is a legal contractual obligation
- …
That’s it. Two reasons. It’s being shown at an event or over the airwaves. Or you would be breaking a legal document. Any other justification is BS.
Edit Bay Inertia
Remember learning about inertia in middle school science class? According to Newton’s laws of motion, an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a constant velocity, unless acted upon by a force. This is inertia — how much resistance it takes to change motion. And inertia plays a key role for us in the edit bay when it comes to productivity.
Most of us editors don’t feel the inertia we have because it hardly ever changes. We’re constantly in motion. Everyday we head into the office, fire up the Mac (or PC), grab a cup of coffee, and get to work editing. We’re in it day in and day out. Every time we sit down to edit we keep our motion going.
The Video Editor’s Digest | Edition #42
Hey there and welcome back to the Video Editor’s Digest! In this edition we cover creating GIFs in Premiere, how many producers should be on a project, YouTube Content ID policy changes & more.
How Video Editors Stay Productive
Let’s discuss how video editors can stay productive. For me, it’s Thursday at 6:24 PM.
There are four things I’ve blown off doing this afternoon/evening that were marked on my calendar. That’s a problem. A calendar should be a sacred thing. Something shouldn’t go on your calendar if it can move. Once you put it on your calendar you execute whatever it is no matter what.
It stems from me not doing my weekly review this past Sunday or the Sunday before then for that matter.
The first thing on my calendar for this afternoon was to do my weekly review, even though it’s not Sunday. I know that the weekly review is my way of getting organized mentally and digitally for the upcoming week. Without it…not much gets done. I’m lost. There are too many uncompleted tasks sitting in the tool I use to organize everything. My calendar is as strong as a wet paper towel.
Okay, so what’s a weekly review? Without going too far into the weeds, I roughly follow the “Getting Things Done” method of productivity/organization. And the tool I use to organize it all is called OmniFocus. I have both the desktop and mobile version because I’m a psycho.
Fighting Decision Fatigue as a Video Editor
This article discusses what decision fatigue is and how to fight it as a video editor.
Introducing the Problem of Decision Fatigue
Wayyy back when I wrote a post called something like, “Done is Better than Perfect”. The TL;DR of it was that most of the time getting a video project out the door and delivered is better than having a perfect video project. Getting your video over to your client, director, producer, or audience is more important than having the video be 100% flawless.
The perfect video project simply doesn’t exist (unless you count Interstellar which by all accounts is the greatest movie ever made 😉). There will always be adjustments you could make. There could always be shots that need more color correction. More audio that needs sweetening. Different pacing, shot selection, etc. The thing about videos is that we’re making a 1,000-piece puzzle with 10,000 pieces while not being able to see the box to see what we’re supposed to be creating.
The only thing you need to succeed in 2019
It’s early in 2019. The confetti is still falling. Most of us are back to the office. Ready or not it’s time to begin another year in our careers. Another year of our lives.
Looking back at 2018 maybe there was something you didn’t do. Something you didn’t learn. Or something you didn’t accomplish. A project, a habit, a new NLE to master, a documentary to edit. So we look to 2019 as our saving grace. We have a whole fresh calendar for us to get X done. And that fills us with a glimmer of hope. That we can make that change this year. Heck, we have 12 whole months.
As the confetti is swept up and the hangovers from NYE are cured, we head back to the edit bay or cubical or home office. We got this in 2019. Then…we check our email.
What are MXF Files?
This video explains what MXF Files are and how Avid Media Composer uses them. This lesson is taken out of the Media Management Fundamentals for Avid Media Composer course I am putting together. If you want to stay up-to-date on it’s progress sign up here. And if you ever have a question or just want … Read more