Today I’m going to show you how I got a job right out of High School at the age of 18 as a video editor with only self taught knowledge from online tutorials.
Like many of you I had an interest in editing, but never had a hands on resource to learn, so I watched a lot of YouTube tutorials to figure it out.
I’ll walk you through the events that led to me getting my first job as an editor and hopefully help you on your journey.
How I learned to edit
If you are interested in this field of work chances are you are a creative person and most likely find yourself interested in a lot of different things.
This is me, I feel like I find something new to dive into and learn about every weekend.
This means I end up with a bunch of different hobbies and sometimes they overlap and something amazing happens.
when I started to learn how to edit, I was attracted to After effects, seeing people make cool explosions and light sabers was so fascinating to me.
well if you google “After effects Tutorial” the first thing you are going to get is Videocopilot.net
Hands down best place to learn any VFX, beginner or advanced.
I started out learning “step by step” I told myself if I Make every click they make I can follow any tutorial and that’s what I did until I memorized it without needing the tutorial video up.
If you are starting out, you can do this too and the tutorial doesn’t even need to be in your native language. You can follow every click and get an end result.
This way will NOT help you with comprehension or core concepts of the program, but it will give you an accelerated learning path of the Software UI and make you feel comfortable in it.
Once you get to this stage this is where you know how to import footage or masking things out without watching a tutorial to see where tools are at, you can start to play around and make your own things.
Finding passion projects that align with your interests
Its not always easy finding stuff to make so I encourage finding projects you can work on that align with other things you are interested in.
If you like to cook, try making a cooking video like Tasty.
If you like to skateboard, make your own skate films with your friends like Braille Skateboarding
When I first started to learn to edit I was about 14 years old.
At that age playing video games was a high priority that took up a lot of my time.
Around this time I started uploading videos to YouTube, little short films and VFX tests I learned from tutorials.
When I found groups of players online playing Xbox I would offer to make them a gaming intro for their channels in return they would subscribe to my channel.
This was great for learning new things to try and to start gaining a following.
Combining these gaming intros with my VFX tests I was able to put together a reel of original work and not a click for click copy of a tutorial.
Little did I know this would help me get my first job as an editor a couple years later.
How I got my first job
I got an interview at a local non profit that was looking for a 3d animator, not an editor originally.
Getting the interview was pure luck, knowing someone, who knew someone kind of thing.
This was the first legit interview I have ever had in this career field and wasn’t really trained on how to handle it.
So I went in knowing that I would answer their questions with complete honesty and just tell them what I know.
Here are some examples of how the interaction went.
Interviewers: “how were your grades in school?”
Me: “High Cs, Low Bs”
Interviewers: “have you worked anywhere before?”
Me: “nope, I’ve applied to some places, but no I’ve never had a job”
I didn’t try to convince them I got straight As and didn’t lie about work experience I didn’t have.
And it was a good thing I didn’t, every one there had been a teacher for 20+ years and would have seen right through that.
In my interview, they asked me specifically about a shot in my reel that had them interested because they wanted to do similar work.
Here is what they were interested in.
This was a gaming intro I made for a group of friends who played Call of Duty together online and posted videos on YouTube.
What made them interested in this?
Was it how the name showed up? Was it the colors? The camera movement?
Nope they liked the cubes.. Specifically all the Geometry in the shot.
Along with this gaming intro this was also in my reel that grabbed their attention.
Just goofing around making a real life Tetris scene.
They were an educational institute that focused on Math and Science.
They provided teachers with teaching plans and material for students and used a lot of visuals to do that.
So here I was getting my first job from an interest in one of the shots in my reel that I made from playing video games..
The funny thing was, I had done all of my work in Adobe After Effects and 3DS MAX and had only a little experience in Adobe Premiere from the school computers.
After getting the job it was basically trial by fire and I picked up premiere pretty quickly.
After working there for a while, I asked them,
Me: “So why did you choose me?”
Them: “we liked what we saw in your reel and you were brutally honest.”
Conclusion
That’s really all there was to it, using your interest as a jumping off point when learning something new to increase the learning curve from beginner to intermediate pretty rapidly.
If you ever think you are wasting your time, remember you are NOT.
You are gaining new knowledge and experience that may come in handy in your future.
Also if you haven’t made a reel yet, do that now.. You must have a reel if you want to show what you are capable of.
Do you have any experiences like this? Have you gotten your first job as an editor or in video production?
If you can relate or learned something new, I’d really appreciate if you would share your story or thoughts and leave a comment below!
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