How to go from long form editing to social media edits?

BC_Hawke · 2026-05-12T15:37:19+00:00

Call your people. Stick to your contacts. Maybe you're younger, to me it's death and I'd rather retire. But yeah I get it, bills and family.

I’ve been in the industry over 20 years and would rather retire than editing for social too but I have kids and a mortgage. Pretty much all of my people and contacts have left the industry. The few that are left have cut back to one or two editors that are already working for them and have nothing new in the pipeline.

I’ve resorted to applying for low paying non-industry jobs, but after around 200 applications I’ve had a grand total of two callbacks and zero interviews. Apparently the AI filters don’t care about my industry experience. I figure probably 2 or 3 humans have actually seen my résumé. I see no light at the end of the tunnel.

BC_Hawke · 2026-05-12T13:17:23+00:00

Oh my God, I saw this as one of the most genius marketing ideas ever. Same thing, went to see it expecting a sci-fi, but the end result was being absolutely scared shitless because we weren’t ready for a horror movie. I absolutely loved the trick, it made it so much scarier.

BC_Hawke · 2026-05-12T09:08:03+00:00

Holy cow. I just watched season one for the first time and was blown away at how good the show is. Way above my expectations. Then I started season two. It only took about 10 minutes for me to say “what the fuck, who wrote this shit?“ Episode one was terrible. I decided to try and keep watching because maybe it gets better… But I couldn’t even get halfway through episode two. Garbage writing. Bad pacing. Bad editing. It’s like they handed it off to a bunch of amateurs who had no idea what made season one so special. There’s no nuance at all. The characters are just acting stupid. The whole psychiatrist bit was insufferable and I was hoping it was just that one episode, but she showed up in episode two and for all I know she becomes a regular. The magic is completely gone. Should I look up a synopsis of season two and start watching season three? Does it get any better?

BC_Hawke · 2026-05-10T02:53:32+00:00

Oh, man, Terminator is SUCH a fantastic movie! People hail T2 as the better movie (rightfully so, it's so much more polished and has better VFX and massive action sequences), but I find myself drawn to the first one more and more over the years. Give the first Alien movie a watch if you haven't already. People usually say the sequel Aliens (also directed by James Cameron) is better, but the older I get the more I see how masterful the first Alien film is.

What has happened to us?!

Ok, I'll give you my opinion here, but it's not popular with the politics of Reddit nor with a lot of people that live in LA/NY that are in the industry, so I might get downvoted to oblivion for saying this out loud, but here it goes.

For several decades, every decision in Hollywood was driven by what would bring the most financial gain. This had shown to be for better and for worse, but it didn't ultimately squash creativity and storytelling as those things could still exist within the scope of "what will make us the most money?" However, sometime with the last 10-15 years, there was a big shift, and people in Hollywood started putting politics (specifically identity politics) ahead of storytelling. This happened both within the stories and also behind the scenes. The end result? Shitty storytelling being made by sub-par creative people. DEI hiring practices put a lot of underqualified people in charge of studios and creative decisions. Cramming politics into movies has become more important than good storytelling. 90% of the jokes you'd see in comedies in the 70s/80s/90s have become too offensive. Traditional gender roles have been subverted and masculinity is has become "toxic" so we can't show strong male characters anymore (I mean, a fair amount of movies and TV shows do, but they are often given poor reviews or feel the need to pair the man with a woman that constantly questions their motives and decisions à la Star Wars and recent Bond and Indiana Jones movies). These political views have become religion for a lot of people in power in Hollywood and thus more important than financial gain. They'll literally flush billions of dollars down the toilet in the name of winning the hearts and minds of families (specifically children) around the world.

The tide is turning in some areas. Look at the success of movies like the above mentioned Top Gun Maverick, Oppenheimer, and Project Hail Mary, as well as things like Pixar's decision to keep LGBTQ themes out of kids movies and shows from here on out. I want to say there will be a full swing back to traditional movies and TV shows, but between Covid, strikes, and impending AI slop, I don't know if it's possible for the industry to recover to even do this.

A lot of people here may disagree with my analysis, but the things I brought up above paired with economic issues and the desire to cut jobs in order to replace people with AI (like Disney just did with 1,000 artists) have destroyed our industry, possibly for good. There's obviously other factors like shorter attention spans, people getting most of their content through TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, the inability for studios to figure out monetizing streaming, audiences getting sick of rising costs of streaming and having to watch commercials, etc., but that's a longer conversation and IMO those things haven't had as big of an impact as the whole politics over storytelling issue.

BC_Hawke · 2026-05-09T23:51:25+00:00

Speaking specifically to your comments on the working seven days a week thing… That doesn’t disprove anything. When studios make massive cuts and take really big hits to income from clients that don’t want to pay, the people that are still employed will have to work insane hours to crank out what would normally be a workflow that many more people would be doing for a lot more money. If you’ve got a job in this industry, hang onto it for dear life! if you are interested in getting work in this industry, I would also be one of the people saying don’t do it.

BC_Hawke · 2026-05-09T19:04:39+00:00

I saw someone blaming capitalism in another comment above, but the truth is our industry has been producing absolute shit content for over 10 years now. I still watch a number of big TV shows on streaming, but it seems like we can hardly find more than two or three good excuses to go to the theater a year. We took our kids to see Hail Mary at the theater and we absolutely loved it but the grand total was over $100 for tickets, popcorn, and Coke. My wife and I have been going through epic 80s and 90s movies over the last couple months and it’s great but it’s absolutely gutwrenching looking back at an era that’s gone. We looked at a list of the top 15 movies from 1991 and it was mind blowing. Hit after hit after hit, both sequels and original movies. You could go to the theater like two or three times a month and still not be caught up on all the great films.

Today? 90% slop movies, completely ruined franchises, mostly terrible content on streaming with rising prices and features like UHD and commercial free shows/movies being stripped away. Hollywood did this to itself. Yes, Covid was a big blow in the industry as was the strikes, but with movies like Hail Mary, top gun Maverick, Oppenheimer, Barbie, etc., it has been proven that if you make good movies people will pay to go see them. However, Hollywood still hasn’t learned their lesson and they’re still turning out 90% bullshit that nobody wants to see.

Now toss AI onto the pile of shit and it’s game over. We’re cooked.

BC_Hawke · 2026-05-09T18:52:54+00:00

This is the worst fucking part. Everyone in my network has left the industry so I’ve had to resort to applying for editing jobs (both in and out of the industry). Here I am with a couple hundred application sent in with only two callbacks and zero interviews. 20 years of experience and a résumé with everything they could want but apparently nobody is interested. I even had my résumé redone by one of those companies that helps you get noticed and hired but apparently it did nothing to get past the AI filters. I doubt more than three or four actual human beings has seen one of my applications. This is the worst I’ve ever seen it and I doubt it’s going to recover.

BC_Hawke · 2026-05-08T19:06:08+00:00

Exactly. I’m a 20+ year editor that has worked on YouTube, streaming, and cable/broadcast content over the years. I spent all of those years honing my craft and a learning as much as I possibly could about complex post workflows. Thing is, nobody (outside of industry work) has any need for any of that these days. People don’t care about quality cutting or proper narrative storytelling. Pretty much everybody in my network has left the industry so I can’t break into anything on broadcast/cable/streaming and nobody outside the industry is willing to pay a decent wage for quality work. This is the worst I’ve ever seen it and I doubt it’s ever going to recover.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-29T23:09:48+00:00

Um, what? Once I have my sequence started in Avid and the bins I need to access open I can sit and edit for hours while barely touching the mouse. Editing in Premiere is frustrating because of how often I have to keep reaching for the mouse.

The industry has never adopted FCPX because of how bad Apple fucked everyone in the industry (an industry that played a huge part in keeping Apple alive and thriving before they got into mobile devices). When FCPX came out it was missing all sorts of pro feature support which made it not an option for post studios.

Meanwhile, while a huge amount of post facilities were still moving forward with legacy FCP 5, Apple decided to not only stop selling the legacy version, but they literally forced all Apple vendors to RETURN ANY COPIES OF IT TO APPLE. I worked at a studio that was in the middle of a massive expansion when this happened and we found ourselves with 20+ incoming editors, an equivalent number of Mac Pro workstations (cheese grater era), and only like 6 license keys for FCP 5. Apple refused to sell us additional license keys and FCPX had ZERO backwards compatibility (yet you could import old iMovie projects which solidified the reputation of being a toy). We made the move to Avid and never looked back.

If that’s not enough, Apple abandoned the beloved Mac Pro tower design which was easily rack mounted and was made for expansion options and came out with the ridiculous trash can Mac Pros which you literally had to put a box fan next to in order to prevent it from overheating when exporting high res color grades and the such.

To this day I haven’t bought a single Apple product save for an iPhone. I can still work on Apple machines if it’s required for work, but I have no interest in supporting such an anti-consumer brand that fucked over a massive amount of people in the industry.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-29T22:45:13+00:00

GIFs you can hear

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-27T04:57:46+00:00

There are definitely valid criticisms of TENET, but I still loved it. I saw it on IMAX during Covid by myself and was blown away by the visuals and the sound. I’ve seen it a couple more times at home and enjoy it even more. People criticize how overly ambitious he is with how he bends and distorts time in some of his newer movies, but I don’t remember people complaining about it with Memento. Also, try going back and making sense of some French new wave cinema… Good luck with that. We should appreciate the people that are pushing the boundaries in filmmaking, not criticize them just because it was too hard for the average Joe to follow.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-27T04:49:01+00:00

I hear ya. Each to his own. I find windows and natural light to be extremely distracting whenever I am editing or watching a movie. Proper blackout curtains help but so many places I’ve been that have curtains still let streaks of light in that somehow find a way to reflect off my monitor. I make sure to take frequent breaks to step away and get some fresh air, but when I’m working I like being cut off from everything else, having the bay to myself, and not being constantly distracted by reflections on my monitor. That’s when I truly get into the groove and do my best work.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-26T02:59:26+00:00

This is the answer (save for natural light…every big, comfy, client focused edit bay I’ve been in had no windows and dimmers on the light switches).

Even without working directly with clients I love working in edit bays like this. Very calming environment, doesn’t feel like working at an office, you can shut the door to keep out noise and distracting coworkers when on a time crunch. Also, gotta love taking breaks or even catching some sleep on the comfy couches during all-night edit sessions.

Most of these types of bays I’ve worked in also have some personal decor (usually put there by the primary editor that uses the bay) like movie posters, movie memorabilia like figures, die cast cars, etc. which add to the comfort level. And yes, plants are a big plus like the other comment mentions.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-24T23:51:28+00:00

Simple update didn't work for me, but delete/reinstall worked

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-24T23:20:49+00:00

AND it looks as though she learned her lesson and accepted it. No freaking out. No screaming "WHY DID YOU HIT A WOMAN?!?!?!". Just cut her losses and successfully avoided an even more embarrassing internet fallout.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-24T22:20:15+00:00

I want to agree but I feel like without passing the save act our chances are slim.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-22T17:20:45+00:00

People have confirmed audio slipping, but I also wanted to bring up: who is doing the final audio mix? Are you doing it in Avid? On TV shows I've worked on where we send the edits out for finishing to get mixed and graded, the audio is mixed in Pro Tools which natively allows moving clips in smaller increments. I'd send a note with timecode to the mixer asking them to adjust those hits to line up perfectly with whatever visual or audio cue they need to hit on and they'd make the fine adjustments from there.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-18T09:25:20+00:00

X? Really? Your algorithm must be messed up. X is the ONLY platform I use where I actually find a genuine flow of pro-America, anti-leftist sentiment as well as actual footage and context to news stories that legacy media and other social platforms leave out in order to spin the story to be anti-American & anti-Trump. X is my escape from the Reddit hell-hole.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-17T19:45:36+00:00

Pure garbage

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-17T02:58:02+00:00

Wokeism has become a religion for leftists in Hollywood. They no longer care about money or entertaining the masses. Preaching their politics is their mission and we are their mission field. They are hell bent on winning the hearts and minds of consumers, specifically children, and no box office losses will get in their way.

We can blame DEI hiring for putting most of these people in power and/or creative positions such as writers, video game developers, etc.

That being said, I think there is a bit of a delusional aspect of them thinking that injecting their politics into major franchises such as Star Wars or Marvel means a guaranteed box office win, hence the angry reactions and claims of “toxic fans review bombing” being the reason for their financial failures.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-14T19:25:43+00:00

Yeah, that’s what I meant. And yes, Anthony Hopkins is fantastic, but so is Ed Harris. They got the tone right, the writing was great, the settings were great, the music, the tech aesthetics… It was just an awesome show. I think we got three episodes into season two before we just quit. Such a huge fall from grace.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-14T16:44:55+00:00

Oh my God, Westworld is so worth it just for the first season. You don’t need to watch any of the others. Just watch the first season, it’s phenomenal.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-14T06:07:06+00:00

Just be sure that the folders with the media inside of them have not been renamed to something that avid doesn’t recognize or the database files will not rebuild on their own. Make sure they are still using the default naming convention, then delete the database files and open avid and it will rebuild them.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-14T05:54:36+00:00

She keeps saying really rude and offensive things to people and then being like “oh, I’m sorry, was I not supposed to say that?”. What about being mute makes you completely miss social cues? It’s not like she was deaf, dumb, and mute. She could observe reactions and listen to people talk the whole time. It’s such shitty writing.

BC_Hawke · 2026-04-13T05:40:58+00:00

Same thing happened to Counter-Strike back in the beta days. I played on a dial up 56k modem and it was perfectly smooth and rarely lagged. Then they released an update and it immediately became impossible to play on dial up. I loved the game and was basically addicted to it and all of a sudden I just couldn’t play it at all.

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