And that's one more reason why you should be charging double your usual fee for allowing the client to be present while posting!

If there's one thing I HATE, it's having the client watch.
That's why I always wonder about the sorry souls who want to get a job as an editor, that usually means having some 'creative' type leering over your shoulder barking orders at you.
Bob.

what is easy(er) for us comes very difficult for others! ie. my father. on the subject, my mother as well. they are very bright people, but when it comes to computers, and software.. thats a different story, thats where i come in!
( i have 6 other brothers and sisters... i get called daily... first its hi pj, how are you.. then, two minutes later.. its hey, i got this problem.... )
i find it very easy using vegas as well. i can usually do what i have in mind with very little trouble... i talk to people at school, and always praise vegas... i remember lots of my classmates saying it was too confusing for them.. (this are kids that are using AVID express pro)
i think vegas is very straight forward~
but that is relative... to some, learning and understanding vegas could take months... (again, my dad)

so keep that in mind

pj

Last evening I finally heard the words I was waiting for. I have hired a film editor (some major film & sound credentials) to come over and review my edits on a DV feature, last nite was his second visit. On each visit he commented about how after locking picture we'll try to get color correction done on an Avid or Final Cut. I proceeded to show him a few such features right from my timeline, not even knowing the Avid or FCP workflow and not knowing how fast I was doing it in his eyes.

Last p.m., he commented about how we also will need to get the locked picture over to someone with a Pro Tools setup. I showed him some of the features of this multitrack audio editor called Vegas.

Drum roll..."What was this system again?"

Music to my ears. Vegas made up the difference in lost time from my learning curve on this project.

Sure, Vegas does give us ways to do things that appear to be very easy to the eyes of an onlooker with no NLE experience. But your response should be that it's easy, in part, because you know how to do it. In other words, if somebody suggests to you that your job is "easy", sit him or her down at the computer and let them show YOU just how easy it is.

I hereby promise to not use the word "easy" for the rest of the day...

Amen, Brothers! (and, possibly sisters).. many excellent points here... yes, what's easy to us geeks, is not to the average Joe. Coming from years of Avid editing experience, and now using Vegas, I can honestly say "Avid, Smavid!" It's not that Avid is hard, it is not, but Vegas makes the same results sooooo much easier it's almost embarassing! I also was just thinking today I need to charge my clients MORE for being there... I, too, very much dislike the over the shoulder commentaries... some are worse than others. With some, it feels like a privacy invasion. A collegue I spoke to recently says he charges about $50/hr less if the client/producer is there... I think he's got it backwards!
Yes, friends, this is getting easy, but let's keep that a secret as much as possible! Speaking of that term, I think Vegas is the "best kept secert" in video editing!

peace

It's an old joke that refers to the sign hanging in the mechanic's garage...

Rates
$50 per hour
$75 if you watch
$100 if you help

If a client ever decided video editing was "easy" and was prepared to do it himself, I'd give him all the information he needed, wish him luck, then sit back and wait for him to call me back.

I think it's true in most fields that what appears easy to the outsider is usually just the opposite. It's usually a sign of a true professional, a person so knowledgeable and skilled that he or she appears to be making little effort to solve a problem or burnish a creative work.

how true slacy, how true....

i ran a very successful post house on that principle for over 15 years. when ever any client said, i never realised it was so simple, i would tell him of the available equipment on the market and recommend he saved money by doing it himself. for a while (advent of nle 8>10 years ago?) i even helped set up studio's, computers, etc., (for a fee of course), and even taught them how to use the equipment (for a fee of courses).

when i finally gave it up, four years ago, i still had the vast majority of my original clients, some of whom had actually bought serious avids, etc., and found the whole thing (maintainence, technical problems, and not to mention actually editing), much too 'complicated' to be cost effective.

i am now in happy retirement in the outback, and am still editing (on v5, dsr11, 170), for a number of clients who simply found my way of doing things both cost effective and stressfree.

leslie

living in the middleofnowhere, and throuighly enjoying it!

>I think it's true in most fields that what appears easy to the outsider is usually just the opposite.<

Absolutely true! The older I get, and the more things I try, the more I beileve this statement. Whether its Fred Astaire or video editing, we usually only see the result of untold hours perfecting their craft.

The novice can't produce this result, the journeyman might, but you see him sweat, and the master is so good he makes it look easy.

Greg

> The novice can't produce this result, the journeyman might, but you see him sweat, and the master is so good he makes it look easy.

Beautiful. I couldn't say it any better than that!

Leslie, your life sounds wonderful. A little low-impact editing out in the quiet countryside. The image speeds straight to my heart. Can I ask where you've settled at this point? Always on the lookout for great places to get away when I'm done scrambling and making money.

a little village called blandford (pop 63), in nsw, australia. we're about 300km from sydney, which is just the right distance to put all but my most faithful clients off!

i say that because once i'd moved (and panic'd about income, etc.,), i realised that a. i had virtually no outgoings, b. my equipment was more than adequate for what was needed (local tv ads, stringing for abc tv, cutting docos for the clients i wanted to work for, c. the end of stress!!!

i now also teach quite a bit, multimedia (oh, how i hate that term!), and between that and the producing / cutting a few programs, i have time to do what i really want - watch tv, watch the chooks, play with the dogs, and generally do what i want.

mind you, it took me 4 years before i could pickup a book in the middle of the afternoon and NOT feel guilty (another matter entirely if it was a manual, tech journal, or the like).

five years on and i have friends asking me 'but what do you do all day?" i tell them there's always something to do (we have 5acres - eonough to manage without stress as we're not farmers), and if i have a spare moment or two, i simply play with vegas (i'll never need the things i play with now, but oh to have had them 10 years ago!!!!), or write my ongoing seachange manual - zen and the art of the ride-on lawnmower.

had a look at your site slacy, (nicely done), and discovered you're in washington. can't advise where to look, but we've decided that going totally bush would have had us in a mess in no time - but village life, near a good highway and within a days drive from a major city is to all intents and purposes a practical solution.

i hope you realise your hearts desire asap.....

leslie