If you're looking for more formal type eduction outside of the typical college campus or community college scene, there are some special schools like:

http://www.davsys.com/training.htm

I suspose you could become an no pay or low pay intern. If you live in or near a bigger city or don't mind moving, local TV stations, small film studios, etc.. If you're thinking more along the lines of Hollywood. Lots of luck getting your foot in the door.

Sorry i should be more clear - I live in Australia, I am currently a Sys Admin and have a family and some mortgages. Moving, working in hollywood are not desires or possibilities. My intention is more to become a very competent video editor, maybe even good enough to edit other peoples home videos, home made weddings, small projects etc for money.

What i didnt want to do, is learn to use Vegas competently without some essential video post production knowledge as described above and start trying to edit other peoples videos and charging them money, which not only cheapens their end experience but has to detrimental to the vid editing community at large?

I was trying to get some advice to approach this as 'properly' as i can.

I took up filming on a cine camera in 1978 and then not long after that discovered editing, and on the same day found how limited & expensive it was and left it. Then I moved to video in 1983, at also footage that lasted more then 4 minutes on a roll.
This was failr static till the late 80's then the PAnasonic AVE5 changed things at last, and with Hi-Fi tarcks on the vcr at last I could add muisc witht he live sound. Then in the late 90's came the Casablanca and that really let the creativity go (still prefer good old cuts) and then last year VV and things have been made easier, and again more cretivity, what next?

>>>>>>>>>> figure i can learn almost every combination of tools, setting etc etc etc in vegas, but an editor this does not make me - i REALLY want to become one (even if only non/semi pro), but i dont believe that will be possible from just learning to use Vegas.



You hit the nail on the head,,,

You can spend so much time learning all the cool things a program can do all the tricks to neat effects,,,but you still have to have a feel,,an instinct to applying those effects.. Practice,practice practice. home video projects is a good start , taking the same footage and making several different videos from it,different feels---comedy,serious,reflective etc.. No substitue for experience,, that gains you confidence and then of course sitting with a producer for the first time and editing to their vision, now that can that be a humbling experience! No matter how many cool tricks you know, how well you know what Vegas or aftereffects, or boris can do, you still have to apply that knowledge in a meaningful manner.
Practice,Practice ,Practice

Something I did to learn more:

Go to the Chienworks site and the sundance site and see some of the really good work being done.

Go to the FXHome site and see some really crappy work.

Compare the two; read the commentary from others on each work; listen to what the people are saying about each work; if you listen and study, you can see what is "good" and what is "bad". This isn't very formal, but it helped me a LOT!

One simple trick I discovered is when you think something is OK put it aside for a few weeks and the take aound to a friends place, preferably a good friend!

Sit down with them and watch it again. The bad bits just leap out at you, when you were working on it you're too close to notice.

Another thing is the old KISS principle, does it add or detract from the story, come to think of it does it have a story at all. Maybe that's a bit outside the realm of editing really.

From the very little that I've learned good editing isn't really noticeable, apart from the obvious bad things that I do see a lot of, its a craft that doesn't get much credit simply because when its done right nobody normally notices it. Now that I'm sort of into it a bit more I do notice it more in movies but I'm never certain how much of that was the editors decision or the directors.

There are some basic rules that I'm sure you'll pick up from many places, pay careful attention to those. And keep in mind that as an editor there is only so much that you can do, good editing will make a good movie excellent, bad movies are well always just going to be bad.

Thanks - that trick about playing it at a mates - i learnt that on my second edit ever.

My wife had the story/concept, she shot it, she directed it (it was a being silly thing, for a competition) and i edited it, and made some animations in swish etc. I was looking at in the preview screen thinking yeah this looks ok, whack in on a CD and go to a mates and atch on thier TV and it was WOEFULL - i had learnt VERY quickly that having big fades / wipes / page turns etc between every single clip looks CRAP.

That makes sense - that good editing should go un noticed by viewers. I will keep that in mind from now on.

I have hardly turned Vegas on for a bit more than a week, and have spent LOADS of time reading tips, tricks, turorials and technique stuff, hoping to get my head around concepts, good practise etc - now i am doing all the tutorials i read, and at weekend i will start capturing and editing my own RAW wedding footage and trying to make something of it. (i have done my daughters birthday a few months ago which turned out ok) - so hopefully, having SOME idea on what i want to achieve, knowing how to perfom some of the taks to achieve, now i just have to actually do it - i dont normally take this approach with anything, but editing i REALLY want to learn to do well.

thanks for all the advice so far