Am I an under paid editor?

alright so basically i have been working at small production company for the last 4 years. I got the job during my junior year of college and have always been strictly editing, no "getting coffee" type tasks, and I have always been paid for it. I was told that for the first two weeks I was at 12.50 an hour as a test run to see if they wanted me too stick around. after about 4 weeks they said I could continue and they raised my hourly to 15.00. Keep in mind that they don't take taxes out, no benefits, etc. Since getting that raise to $15 i have received only one raise in the last 4 years which brings me to $20 an hour, working 8 hours a day for five days a week (nothing extra for over-time or weekends). The company doesn't bring in that much money, or so they say but im not sure if i believe...oh and we are mostly in the action sports market producing a couple dvds, tv shows, and corporate videos for many large companies in the industry
We are starting to grow, as we are now producing our second show for FuelTV and on the verge of producing a show for MTV in the winter. I have always had full creative control over everything I have edited, which includes a full length documentary, dvds, tv specials and tv series. I am basically the one that all my bosses go to when they need something put together. They usually never direct, they just give me the idea and say do what you want and after a rough we'll go from there.
So for editing, producing, dvd authoring, storyboarding, and scripting for 4 years (including a stint where I had to sleep in the office for 4 months to work on 2 dvds when I had been living out of state) I am paid $20 an hour...is that bad?...I feel like I have more creative freedom at my job than most other do which i enjoy, but does that require more money? or at least to be on salary and have benefits and all that? I want to get on salary or at least get an hourly raise but im not sure what to go in asking for...anyone have any suggestions?

Hi, i would really like to be a film editor and i would really love to talk to you.
I want to do exactly what you do after college.
Can i have your e-mail?
Thanks

Gee your life sucks, just kidding, but yea esp. if you are getting MTV stuff. I'm in a similar boat only worse, $500 a week to do a 1/2 hour show every 2-3 weeks-- over 7 years. I also produce/edit with only some guidelines from the exec. producer. I select content from the raw footage, create the stories, select the b-roll, decide which, where and how music gets used. AND now we have a music composer so I'm also Music Supervisor. They say they have no money which I believe but it sucks anyhow. I stay with it cuz I have almost unlimited freedom and am hoping for one day getting major sponsorship for the show. I see it more as a business investment with the hope, but no guarantee of future compensation. Still can't help feeling used tho. I would guess you are feeling the same. A news editor, just the basics working from a script on a local tv station getting 60k a year, taxes taken out, heath care, union membership while I'm getting 24k a year :( and no benefits.

Nala7 in Los Angeles, California said: Gee your life sucks, just kidding, but yea esp. if you are getting MTV stuff. I'm in a similar boat only worse, $500 a week to do a 1/2 hour show every 2-3 weeks-- over 7 years. I also produce/edit with only some guidelines from the exec. producer. I select content from the raw footage, create the stories, select the b-roll, decide which, where and how music gets used. AND now we have a music composer so I'm also Music Supervisor. They say they have no money which I believe but it sucks anyhow. I stay with it cuz I have almost unlimited freedom and am hoping for one day getting major sponsorship for the show. I see it more as a business investment with the hope, but no guarantee of future compensation. Still can't help feeling used tho. I would guess you are feeling the same. A news editor, just the basics working from a script on a local tv station getting 60k a year, taxes taken out, heath care, union membership while I'm getting 24k a year :( and no benefits.

Honestly, I think your not doing too bad. I work at a tv station as an editor for a weekly program, have been there 3 years and only make $17.30 an hour. The station is also in a top 10 market, so, yes, I feel the pay could be better.

I worked as a video editor straight out of college in Los Angeles. I made $800 per month.

I guess I didn't say but I'm long out of college and 52 years old-- no retirement fund.

I think you're doing quite well. I've been a video editor doing commercial, corporate, and documentary production for 4 years and my pay has fluctuated up and down at different jobs, but has not yet hit $20 p/hr. Plus, it sounds like you have a level of creative freedom that I can only achieve in my dreams. I'm constantly tied down by Account Executives, Seniors, and Clients that my end products almost always look unrecognizable to my storyboards and initial edit. But I accredit that to the terrible market I work in.

Ya, great response! I am pretty happy with the degree of creative control AND i'm really happy to be working with a music composer-- that's like something only feature film editor's get to do. It's always been a pipe dream to work with a composer and now it's really happening! Luckily for me the composer has a degree in composition and I have some background in classical to modern music from classes I took in college, so I can say something like, "take these folk tunes we gave you and do an orchestral tone-poem version using the folk melodies" and he knows exactly what I mean. So I'm having a lot of fun. It's still frustrating tho, sometimes i get overdrawn just by paying my puny bills, cell phone, car insurance. If I ever had a medical emergency, I'd be screwed in a big way. I'm behind on IRS and they've put a lien on me-- not that I have anything they'd want, but i can't get a credit card or a loan not even rent a car. At 52 tears old, it's kinda sucky. Still you're absolutely right, I have it pretty good, all things considered. Thanks!

Sounds to me like you folks have to make the same choice I did. Do you like the job enough to deal with the low pay. I was in charge of all the major production in a small facility. We did mostly training and safety video work for industry. Very low budget and very easy. Little creative work although I was able to do what I wanted as far as graphics were concerned. I was paid a small amount for hourly work and a percent of the project price. so my time was my own, if I wanted to spend it on fancy stuff I could or I could blast it out fast. Did a lot of other side work to tho. The owners let me use the studio in off times for my own work as long as I slid some duplication work their way or in some cases a client turned up for the TV show we produced. All in all, its a career of creativity, not cash. You want cash, you are going to have to own the place, or work freelance at more than one job. It's why I left the industry. I didn't want to work the hours needed to find customers and then squeeze in the time to actually do the work. I think it is easier now to find extra work, Craigslist is a great place to locate freelance work and other sites offer national work that you do at your location. But low pay seems to be the norm.

Just wanted to get some info b/c it seems many of you do what i want to do. I was attending Ct school of broadcasting, and incase you guys didnt hear the schools all went bankrupt and closed. I however still have my dream of working as an editor. I have many focused all my work on learing Avid in and out. I think i have a good feel for it, however i know nothing with Final cut pro. Do you guys think i need to learn FCP aswell or will i be ok with just AVID. Also any advice you guys could give me would be great.
THanks
Keith Massimino

Ya, lately FCP is getting more popular, don't ask me why-- you lose renders all the time and can't even view different video tracks without losing all the renders. And you can't do a lot of the day-to-day repetitive stuff that editors have to do with any sort of speed. I used it for 3 years professionally and hated it-- so clunky to use, when you got a deadline you just have to get used to spending more time to finish something. It now has a pretty cool package of ancillary programs, and HD cameras like Red are putting most of their support stuff up for FCP.

But to tell you the truth, learning programs is kinda secondary, I think anyhow. All the NLE's are basically the same. You can pretty much learn FCP or Avid by having someone show you basic stuff and then reading the manuals and trying stuff out yourself. What's more important is learning stuff like what works and what doesn't in editing material together-- to create stuff that people might enjoy watching. You can learn that stuff not only from film classes, but lit, comp. lit, music, and the other liberal arts. Learning about storytelling is most important and not just in the usual sense but also the storytelling you can get in music, art etc. But maybe that's just me. There are all kinds of editing jobs, those that they require only that you push the right buttons to create someone else's vision, to those where they want you to come up with the message and vision, and everything in between. Just depends on where you wanna end up. Still even if you are expected to be a button pusher, I would think you could be better off learning something about storytelling.

I need to agree with Nala7 that the most important thing to learn is the theory behind editing and the techniques an editor uses to make the viewer see what they are suppose to see. The software skill set is still very useful and most every employer will want to know that you know your way around their particular package at least a bit when you start with them, but if you know one package you can pick them all up in a few months working with them.

As far as FCP goes, I need to disagree with Nala7 I work in both FCP and Avid on a daily basis, but I much prefer Final Cut. I feel that I can operate much more intuitively and quickly in Final Cut than compared to Avid. I also enjoy the back end management of FCP compared to Avid. I find Avid clunky, terrible with high quality graphics, and awful with it's renders. I do like it for it's text tool and some of it's fading options however.

In the field I think it pays to know both applications. Avid was what everybody cut on for many years, so many shops still have it, and have projects that were built in it. But Final Cut Pro is the up and coming package and almost every shop I know is making the switch. The FCP suite is extremely powerful and it handles various media formats very nicely together, but the main reason I find business are switching is the cost. Final Cut gives you way more bang for your buck.

So in conclusion, learn your aesthetics, techniques, and theories first, then get very comfortable in at least one software package, then explore others knowing that they are based on the same or similar concepts and you should be in good shape for a hire.

To answer the original question, I think it depends largely on what size market you're in. If you're in a small market then your company probably isn't pulling in as many contracts, but maybe there's not much talent to compete with either. If you leave, can you be easily replaced?

I worked in a smaller market for a while, for a relatively small company (8 - 10 employees at all times) but we were good at what we did and billed for over 1 million per year. But I wasn't making a ton of money (I was fresh out of school at the time as well).

When I moved to a larger market I made more money, but the job market for editors/motion graphics artists is diluted in bigger cities. Generally you'll be paid more because it's more expensive in the city, but there's a lot more people in the industry, all competing and driving each other's price down as well.

From small market to large market I went from $17/hour to $25/hour.

Oh, and re: the Avid vs. FCP thing, I don't think it matters much but the more tools you know the better. People are posting for freelance gigs for both systems nowadays. As an editor it's also important that you know some key applications in the Adobe Suite (Photoshop, After Effects etc.) It'll add a lot to your value for prospective clients. DVD authoring is a good asset, and some basic training in 3D apps helps too. Look into Lynda.com or Totaltraining.com if you're looking for some basic training.

Hope that helps. In my opinion, though, if you're the only person producing content at your workplace (especially in a small market) I think you have some leverage to ask for at least a couple extra bucks an hour. But be realistic about the expectations if you're in a small market with limited clients.

Cheers.

just a few comments...
from what i've seen on these posts, I consider myself to be very lucky or very good ( or maybe a little of both). While I have been at this for a while now (17 years), I've always been able to find work that pays well and gives me a great deal of freedom in my editing. Unfortunately, editors as a group suffer from low self esteem ( I think that comes from being bullied by producers) - you never see editors after cutting together a great sequence pump their fists in the air and demand accolades from their clients. If its good, we know its good - but we keep it to ourselves (we're cool like that). That side rant being said, let me say this...DON'T SETTLE. If you are good, if you have the reel to show it, if you're a multiple threat ( cutting, mographics, 3-d, authoring - which is the norm these days) even in a saturated market like L. A., the cream will rise. Yes freelance is more work, but you can snag the "Big Fish" that way and charging on a per project basis is much more lucrative if you're efficient. It's the producers that drive down the market - don't let them. Charge what you're worth - it's us that make them look good. ROCK ON!!!

Wow, I've never heard of so many 'professional' editors making such little money! Years ago I and a few of my friends were considering going into editing as a career. After some experience I decided it was to boring for me to edit projects I really didn't care about. My friends only cared about the money. Long story short, going from knowing nothing about computers they got jobs at editing houses in LA as tape and inventory loggers and doing 'QC'. They wanted to do editing so they took an editing course that was recommended to them by their company. After passing that editing course their company let them shadow other editors then let them edit. Their starting pay was about $19-$20 / hour. After a couple years of editing their pay is now consistently (their regular rate) $60.00 / hour. And get this, they complain about how little money they make! That was a few years ago and I lost touch with them so they probably get paid even more now. The point is, editing houses make millions of dollars and if they're only paying you $20/hour you're getting ripped off. Broke independent film makers will pay you $20.00 / hour to edit their crappy no budget films so why do you think multimillion dollar companies like MTV and TV production shows that have huge budgets would only pay an editor $20.00/hour. To give you an idea of what firms charge to edit:
At this company where the editors were being paid $60.00/hour they're billing rates were about $250-$350/hour depending on the job.

Every market is different but if you want to know how much your company is billing your clients (and how much you're being underpaid) call your company and pretend to be a client who needs editing for a tv show, pilot, or whatever types of jobs your company handles. You will find out they are obviously billing a lot more than you are being paid for and they aren't doing any of the work!

I guess market, experience and a bit of luck all work. Top staff editors in large markets working on the network level should expect to see anywhere between $100K to $200K per year working about 45 hours per week before benefits depending on the size of the company and the cost of living in their area.

Top freelance editors in those same markets should see marginally more than that once adjusted for self-paid taxes, FICA and insurance, etc. But they can only do that by working long and odd hours.

Ugotit22 in Cheshire, Connecticut said: Just wanted to get some info b/c it seems many of you do what i want to do. I was attending Ct school of broadcasting, and incase you guys didnt hear the schools all went bankrupt and closed. I however still have my dream of working as an editor. I have many focused all my work on learing Avid in and out. I think i have a good feel for it, however i know nothing with Final cut pro. Do you guys think i need to learn FCP aswell or will i be ok with just AVID. Also any advice you guys could give me would be great.
THanks
Keith Massimino

Almost every job I look at for editing seems to want Final Cut Pro. I learned Premier Pro first and found it is nearly identical to FCP. Even the UIs are pretty analagous. It looks like if you want more control over your income in the field you gotta start your own business and hire other people to work for you.

Wow, I'm depressed now. I'm an editor (AVID,oFCP,Protools)and I get $1200/day for my work. I'd be looking for a new gig if I was making $12/hr.

$1200/day!!! -- now who's depressed? Well I am looking-- no luck so far, I've gotten some responses from my cover letter, like "fantastic, brilliant, will check out your reel." Then after seeing my reel... nothing. What's wrong with my reel? Is it lame? Be honest.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsd7vFFsAz0

No it's not lame at all. I liked it. Keep plugging dude!

cheers
geo

Georgia in New York, New York said: No it's not lame at all. I liked it. Keep plugging dude!

cheers
geo

Wow, thanks-- I was beginning to doubt my editorial choices in it. I wanted to do something a little differently by creating the sense of a story without there actually being one (unless it is the story of someone's edit reel). So by framing stuff within the countdown, it's got like some formal elements of a story but no plot and only sketchy content, ha!

My Opinion is if you are an editor that your just started, willing to learn, ambitious, just out of school, have the credentials to prove it, AVID Certified, but really no experience no Production Company is willing to give you a chance to prove yourself useful, and get your foot in the door. If they would, the pay would be at internship level to none. It's already been almost 6 months of graduation and no official job. I was in gonna get hired for a local TV Station in Spanish and they never called me back to give me a start date and it has been over a month now. I am getting ready to throw in the towel and quit this career, I love it but it's just not for me. I am heading back in Insurance where I started.

Aww, I'm sorry yer giving up, but of course I can't tell anyone what they should do... but if it's something you love you prolly will be good at it. Is there some way to do both for awhile-- insurance and keep looking? The economy is crappy right now, so there are a lot of out of work editors. Also internship is a way to get in, even though you may have done that already in school. Just remember when you work for free to treat it just like a paid job, show up on time, even a few mins early, do what they want you to do, do it efficiently etc. coz that's really what will turn an internship into paid work. It's a small community and people talk-- if they say stuff like-- "she/he's awesome" which means as an intern, that you do all the dupes or xeroxes or any other dumb thing they want you to do without complaining etc. Also spend any free time you have hanging out with an editor if they will let you sit in and glean some tips. If you are fun and friendly and not too annoying and let them do their work, they will prolly be happy to show you some tricks, and maybe even let you do some stuff you wouldn't ordinarily do as an intern.
Internships are great ways to network if you can trick yourself into ignoring the fact that you aren't getting paid and just work as if you were getting paid.
Of course you need some savings in the bank to do that, or have a paid part time job on the side.
I didn't have to intern as an editor, but when I worked as a motion pic camera assistant, I trained under another assistant for over a year before she let me take a paid job. So it could take awhile to transition.

Interesting stuff. Here is 2 more cents to add to the pot. I'm an editor with 10 years of experience in the LA market. I think Anonymous in Lake Forrest gave the best advise to newbies out of college which is to get in at a BIG post place where you can work your way up. Just make sure that the editors that are working there are editing what you're interested in. It might take you 5 or more years to become an editor, but I think financially it would be worth it. And you can work on side projects at home to build up your reel and show to your bosses to impress them how dedicated you are to the craft.

I became an editor sort of by accident when I was learning Avid at my first job in LA at a DVD studio. The editor moved over to authoring and I was offered the editor position to replace him because of my obvious interest. My background was music and audio. After being there for 3 years I think I was making about $22 an hour (around 2001). I got another job at another DVD studio starting at $25 and worked up to $35 an hour at the end of 5 years. Both jobs had benefits and vacation, but the work was probably 25% creative and 75% technical and/or super simple edit in your sleep work.

Here comes the fun part. Two years ago I decided to go freelance because I wanted more creative work. Do the math... about 3 or 4 months after going freelance... the market tanked and I was trying to find work in the worst possible economy of my life. At the end of this year, I will have made probably about $30,000 with the freelance work. How much of this freelance work was fun, creatively challenging can't wait to put it on my reel kind of work... very little. Unfortunately, I'm not very "connected" in the industry due to my many years in the DVD world. And we all know the "who you know" bit. So now I'm in a situation where I will HAVE to take the first full time offer that comes along, even if its the same old not so creative technical editing I used to do.

OK, I'm double posting, sorry, I have a lot of venting to do. Ted in Salt Lake, I'd say you are doing alright (especially with the extreme amount of creative freedom you have). I would just keep track of all of the things you do throughout the year to make the company better and more profitable. That's what I did and I would bring that up at the annual review. Nala7 I liked your reel, especially the countdown you incorporated. Nia, unfortunately you are competing with A TON of out of work editors. Georgia in NY, consider yourself lucky, I hope you earned your way to the top of the heap and truly appreciate what you have. FCP or Avid, definitely beneficial to know both. I guarantee if someone is looking for an Avid editor, they aren't going to hire an FCP editor and let them take time to learn the software. Why would they when there are tons of Avid editors looking for work? And its retarded to argue which is better.

I would NEVER recommend someone to go to school for anything that is a "fun job" if you are concerned about making money. My definition of fun jobs: video editor, audio engineer, graphic designer, model, actor, musician, photographer, etc... Yes, you might become one of the small percent to make it to the top of the market, but its just not as safe as something in medicine, science, engineering, etc... But you have to follow your heart.

Another thing you have to keep in mind for many of the fun jobs is the amount of abuse you will most likely endure. Many producers out there know that editors are a dime a dozen and they will treat you like a disposable slave. That being said, I enjoyed my full time jobs, was treated and paid decent and the only reason I left my last one was to find more creative work.

Well yes I am doing well, thank you. But i'm homeless since June and haven't been paid in that time either. Yet I'm still editing for them while looking for paid work. I do have Avid and FCP background, so that's covered. Still I'm feeling encouraged and hopeful-- Happy Thanksgiving!

squatch99 in Long Beach, California said: just a few comments...
from what i've seen on these posts, I consider myself to be very lucky or very good ( or maybe a little of both). While I have been at this for a while now (17 years), I've always been able to find work that pays well and gives me a great deal of freedom in my editing. Unfortunately, editors as a group suffer from low self esteem ( I think that comes from being bullied by producers) - you never see editors after cutting together a great sequence pump their fists in the air and demand accolades from their clients. If its good, we know its good - but we keep it to ourselves (we're cool like that). That side rant being said, let me say this...DON'T SETTLE. If you are good, if you have the reel to show it, if you're a multiple threat ( cutting, mographics, 3-d, authoring - which is the norm these days) even in a saturated market like L. A., the cream will rise. Yes freelance is more work, but you can snag the "Big Fish" that way and charging on a per project basis is much more lucrative if you're efficient. It's the producers that drive down the market - don't let them. Charge what you're worth - it's us that make them look good. ROCK ON!!!

HERE HERE! In some aspects of this conversation, do any of you have a producer that NEVER can say "thats good, lets go with it?" Or they say,"Well, we just want something that makes sense from beginning to end." Of course you do, it makes sense, you just want EVERYTHING in it and its a 3 minutes segment. I'm sorry, I need some way to vent my frustrations at a producer that doesn't do her job. EVER.

wow i am so surprised!!

I am really interested in this field and is kind of worried if i won't make it in the markets!!

one thing to remember... Stay fluid. Learn the new toys. Make sure you can do more than one trick. While editing, I'm always asked to do green screen, compositing, work up graphics, do some motion graphics, record VO, clean up dialogue, manage some motion capture materials, dela with animation, work sound, manage the project, mix the trailer, color correct, match footage from different soources, chace down stock footage, layback and deliver DVD's, etc.... You have to do a LOT more than just "edit" to be an editor in today's market place. Hell, I won to HD camrera packages and sometimes I have to grab a camera and run out and shoot some B roll to "fix" things. You just never know.
On an average edit gig I use:
1. AVID, or FCP ( ocassionally both )
2. OMF tools
3. Protools
4. Sound Miner
5. System 6000's with backdrop, Wave denoise, Ceder systems
6. Color correction tools ( with AVID and FCP ) sometimes other systems
7. Euphonix consoles, ICONS, SSLs
8. all sorts of plugins
9. photoshop
10.Motion
11.Illistrator
12. and other tool as well.

You need to be good, accurate, fast, and reasonably priced to survive.

sotty, I was typing fast.. I OWN not I won... LOL ( I wish! )

Sorry... not sotty... Man I hate keyboards sometimes.

Hello everyone!!

I was wondering when you first started editing were u all comfortable with knowing how to export,converting,compression and video formats? Do most co-workers u work with willing to give u a hand like exporting with compressions and making different formats?

Beth in Boston, Massachusetts said: Almost every job I look at for editing seems to want Final Cut Pro. I learned Premier Pro first and found it is nearly identical to FCP. Even the UIs are pretty analagous. It looks like if you want more control over your income in the field you gotta start your own business and hire other people to work for you.

If you were to try and get a job working construction and only knew how to use a hammer do you think you would get hired? Look at Avid, FCP, Premier Pro and any other editing or finishing program as a tool, a tool that you need to learn. Now some tool are more important then others and some may never be used but you still need to know how to use them.

Hi nala7, I looked at your reel on YouTube, and I can see why you don't get a lot of good response from it.
Please keep in mind that I don't doubt your talent, I just don't think it shows in the first 30 seconds of your reel.

I've been cutting other people's reels (directors, dp's, costume designers, actors) since 2003 and I know the importance of getting and holding the viewer's attention.

30 seconds is all I watched, and there were 3 cuts.
The two shots I saw were both extremely dark and obviously low-budget video.
You have to grab people's attention faster than that.
All the disclaimers and titles just bore people and waste their time.

I am not trying to make you feel bad, I'm encouraging you to work on your reel!
Show your best work FIRST - right away, so no one misses it.

Also - the superimposed titles (names of projects etc) and logos are NOT necessary.
You have the projects listed on your resume, so there's no need to obscure 1/3 of the screen with them on your editing reel.
Titles like these are only useful if the project is a high-profile project. Like Avatar.
A low-budget video in Spanish probably doesn't need to be referred to by name, since the name doesn't carry any prestige.

I wish you all the best, and I'd love to see a link to an updated reel.
Nathan

In New York, most editing ASSISTANTS won't work for less than $250 a day.
Unless they have no idea what they're doing.

Anon- I am planning to move to NYC in about a year (originally from there, so I wont get lost in the sea).
I was wondering if you could recommend a source I could go to, to find assistant editing jobs in NY..such as a website or publication.
At that time I will have my BA in film/Vid and also an AA in VP. I am proficient in FCP and Avid, Photoshop,After Effects etc.
I would like to work for a big corp. such as MTV etc..is this attainable or is it just who you know?
I would even intern for a huge corp like that just for teh experience.
Any advise on how to tap into the NYC market???

Must be nice. I can only find freelance stuff and currently work at a hotel just to pay the damn rent at $10 an hour. I wouldn't complain man.

anon in Ridgewood, New York said: In New York, most editing ASSISTANTS won't work for less than $250 a day.
Unless they have no idea what they're doing.

Where? I live in NY and only get $14 as an editor. I help with the scripts, shoot and edit product videos. Where can I go for a better pay? Please help.

anon in Ridgewood, New York said: In New York, most editing ASSISTANTS won't work for less than $250 a day.
Unless they have no idea what they're doing.

THAT'S RIGHT!
We shouldn't under value ourselves and services! Editors, please demand respect for your work! If you're working on independent projects or freelance, I think people assume we just press buttons and the work is done now with all the new technology. Your time and engery and equipment if you have your own software and computer is worth A LOT!

I don't even touch tapes/digital footage for less than $1000 unless I'm doing a favor for a friend. The smallest fee I ever recieved as an editor is $11 an hour at a top 20 news broadcast market. No way I will ever do that again, I won't work on projects for less than $40 and that's the rate I give close friends. I think if you have quality software and a solid background $50 - $80 minimum! We'll make ourselves extinct if we don't show talent and have respect for what we do.

They may think they're doing you a favor by having "creative control". Honestly, your pay is low. I would start getting a great reel together and start fishing around. Then ask nicely to meet with your boss and make it known you are irreplaceable and why. Then ask for a rise to at least $30/hour and use that extra money to compensate for taxes and "benefits".

Worth a try you don't have to quit just make it known it'll cost them more time and effort to replace you than pay $800 more a month. My assistant editor did that to me and believe me, loyalty and an easy going relationship with a good editor is worth the extra money on my end.

Hope that helps.

You should be paid on talents(how good you are), and experience. If you have a good eye and solid reel don't sell your self short.

www.youtube.com/user/DigiPicsProductions?blend=4&ob=5

Dont feel bad im in the same boat, But i do freelance on side that balance my income.

I've never studied Film or video or editing anything like that. I'm not financially able to hit school....anyhow, a few years ago, I really fell in love with videography! I ended up buying a HDR FX1 and a JVC HD100 and began doing weddings and stuff...After a while i got tired of just handing over the tapes and decided to try my hand at editing. I bought a Pirated copy of FCP2..and with it, came a tutorial: Well, I spent lots of nights and days working with it...Now, I believe I'm good with fcp 6, Motion 3, Sound Track Pro, and all the other goodies that came with it. I then bougt a copy of Photoshop CS4..and did the same with it.

Now, I'm good with both, but I really love FCP..so I use that more than the other. I now do my own shooting, sometimes I'll take my Girlfriend with me as an extra eye for my equip...

but You guys are definitely being underpaid! Your bosses are making a lot of money for TV shows...Imagine, Charlie Sheen Makes Millions for one episode for his sitcom...his editors make $30 Grand Per episode....so I say $12:50 and hours is highway robbery....You bosses are crying just to fool you guys..if money was that bad, they would not be in business! Take it from me, you're worth at least $100hr.

Hi there, You know its funny because i started the same way i bought my own JVC HD 100 and pirate FCP2 and many softwares including Cinema 4D and still do lots of tutorials to get better every day. I even do better than my co-workers that have spend BIG $$$$ to learn have of the things i already knows and create. But because we dong carry a Pieace of Paper that we graduate from "X College" we are consider Under Dogs in the market. I might not know the right terms of what ever but i can deliver a great video. in my case i beleive thats why im not getting what i suppost to get $$$. Also here in Florida there is another situation that many company doesnt pay much due that there is many student killing the market producing very low cost video for 50,100 even for free just to get there names out there. That its killing me plus many companies just want things done fast so they can get there spot on TV before the competition. Fast delivery poor quality. Anyway i still try concentrate in Quality work. Now i just bought a Canon 7D to start producing better video with less equipment to carry.

Dwayne Alers

Wow. The range of pay is pretty extreme. I'm in Vegas, and I've been working for my station for almost 20 years, yet I'm not quite at $25 per hour at the standard 40 hour work week (like that ever happens). I started out editing linear on a 3/4 inch setup with extremely crappy DVEs and titlers, moved to a BetaSP setup that was slightly better, and finally to an NLE setup. My first NLE experience was with Media 100, which I loved and miss. I know use FCP 7, with the whole suite, but I've also used Avid systems, Edius, and Premier. However, I never stopped at just editing, as I'm very capable with music composition and audio production using Pro Tools, Soundtrack, and even Garage Band for some goofy things. I'm also extremely proficient in Photoshop and After Effects, but I never really got the hang of Illustrator. I also know Color, Motion, Livetype (soon to be giving up entirely in favor of Motion), the Boris products, DVD Studio Pro, and all the many native editing, capturing, and finishing codecs. I shoot, too, and I'm quite good at it, if I do say so myself. I also write scripts, but they often take back seat to the clients' ideas since they're the ones supposedly paying for the project. Many of my start-to-finish projects have won awards. On top of all that, I'm the IT Administrator for my station, and to make matters worse, I'm the only IT guy AND the only Production guy. Personally, I feel I'm being underpaid, especially when I've discovered that my station had the potential to make nearly $55,000 over the past two months on my services alone, and it's made me think hard about going into business for myself. I feel I'm very good at what I do, but I'm easily pushed around, especially in this supposedly tough economy. I love my job, but I feel I'm worth more than this.

I'm going to stick a sample of my work in here just for fun. You guys can tell me what you think:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSVTiFEuAmI

Nala7 in Los Angeles, California said: I guess I didn't say but I'm long out of college and 52 years old-- no retirement fund.

Nala,
Sounds like your issues may require a financial planner. suggest you get to know you personal insurance rep for financial and risk revie and also check out financial services...AARP and many community service centers offer ferr (initial) reviews to assist with goal setting and reasonable budgets. Am also a. If Suzy Ormandy fan, you can find her books at many libraries. Also, IRS can be quite reasonable to work with if xyou initiate the communications.
If you enjoy what you do that is beyond most people's daily experience. Figure out how to make it work for you.

U are underpaid c'uz u allow them to underpay you. All these companies who work for Television, Movies and Rality TV sign real handsome contracts, but it's their job to "Cry" broke and not enough money just to underpay you!

You idea of Going Solo should be the way to go. It may be slow in the beginning, but once your work gets out there and you please one client the money will start to come and that's when your current employer will see your true value; that's when they will want to offer you "profit sharing and raises etc." But the ball is in your court..

As for me, I hate going to be knowing that I'm being robbed daily, I jsut can't do it! I expect to get exactly what i'm worth!

I can't believe anyone would work as an editor for that pay. Christ mcdonalds has no stress and pays almost the same. There are levels for pay and experience, jr, mid, senior, lead. A good flame, Lustre online editor, finisher makes a range of 150k -300k per year. Offline creative editors for commercials make 100k-500k per year. Your Joe average 3d maya guy makes 75k-160k. Top end colorists make 100-200k. Anyone working on very low end slow gear( premier, after effects, mac color etc) will get paid little because that's the average budget / job this gear supports. If you are making 20 bucks an hour editing it's because you accept it. Or rather some other fool accepts it so now you have to. In truth, if you are making 20 bucks doing it your actually part of the problem by accepting that insult and it will eventually lower everyone's pay.

Nala7 in Los Angeles, California said: Ya, lately FCP is getting more popular, don't ask me why-- you lose renders all the time and can't even view different video tracks without losing all the renders. And you can't do a lot of the day-to-day repetitive stuff that editors have to do with any sort of speed. I used it for 3 years professionally and hated it-- so clunky to use, when you got a deadline you just have to get used to spending more time to finish something. It now has a pretty cool package of ancillary programs, and HD cameras like Red are putting most of their support stuff up for FCP.

But to tell you the truth, learning programs is kinda secondary, I think anyhow. All the NLE's are basically the same. You can pretty much learn FCP or Avid by having someone show you basic stuff and then reading the manuals and trying stuff out yourself. What's more important is learning stuff like what works and what doesn't in editing material together-- to create stuff that people might enjoy watching. You can learn that stuff not only from film classes, but lit, comp. lit, music, and the other liberal arts. Learning about storytelling is most important and not just in the usual sense but also the storytelling you can get in music, art etc. But maybe that's just me. There are all kinds of editing jobs, those that they require only that you push the right buttons to create someone else's vision, to those where they want you to come up with the message and vision, and everything in between. Just depends on where you wanna end up. Still even if you are expected to be a button pusher, I would think you could be better off learning something about storytelling.

YOu're losing renders cuz you're not updating your FCP- they have fixes for those problems all the time. I'm a strict FCP 2 user and i've learnt that keeping my updates in good order will bring me the least amount of prob.