gimme a gluepot.

The following sentences could quite possibly be one of the biggest things I’d wished I had known when I first started editing:

All editing systems are tools, nothing more. Tools in and of themselves are meaningless. Only when a person engages his or her mind in conjunction with the tools can anything meaningful take place.

A few years ago I went to lunch in Hollywood with my friend Sam (not his real name). Sam is about the same age as I, also grew up in the Midwest, and loves working on the Avid. We were talking about this at-the-time new program called Final Cut Pro, and he was vehement.

“It’s not the Avid. It can never be as good. There’s no way.”

By that time I had actually forced myself to start learning Final Cut, and like most people who use both Avid and Final Cut, I had things I liked and disliked about both. I tried to tell him that it doesn’t matter what system you use, it matters what you do with it. These days, most people hire editors for their editing skills, not their knowledge of a certain fancy editing rig… the knowledge of the editing rig is a given.

Sam was unconvinced. “The Avid is the only system for me,” he declared. I shrugged and changed the subject.

When I was in high school in rural Iowa, I first learned how to edit on a cuts-only, JVC edit system with 2 VHS decks built like battle tanks. Seriously, you could drive a truck over those things and they’d still keep spinning. Later on the editing suite upgraded the student bay to a much more advanced, über-swanky S-VHS system as shown on the left. Not quite as battle-worthy though… lots of plastic. Anyway.

The other bay in the editing suite was the mighty Video Toaster system controlled by a computer called the Amiga . (Never heard of the Amiga? Don’t worry, very few people have.) Even though I had no clue how to run the thing, I was convinced that my projects would automatically be better if I could use it. Luckily, the director of the suite helped me with a few funky transitions and – an incredible treat – slo-mo video clips! to drop into my master tapes. I at least got a small bite of the Toaster tastiness.

Of course, when I saw my first Avid Media Composer system in my senior year of high school, I knew that this was indeed the end-all be-all editing system. Man, if I could ever edit with an Avid, the same system used by all the big TV shows and movies, my projects would have to be top of the line professional.

Some years later, I had moved to Los Angeles, was indeed flying a high-end Avid Media Composer, and my “projects” were indeed professional. It had taken me a while to realize, though, that it wasn’t because of the Avid, although it does let you do some great things.

The fact is, any profession has at least two distinct levels to it. First, you have to know the tools of the trade. The carpenter needs to know how to use the hammer, the measuring tape, and that weird miter saw sitting in the corner. As soon as he knows what the tools are and how to use them, the next level is all about the zen of the craft – the knowledge of when and how to use the tools, and most importantly why. When do you use 3/8″ plywood instead of 1/2″? How can you be more accurate in your measurements? Why is this particular house design right or wrong for the situation?

Editing is the same. You learn the tools first – it was one thing for the editors using the old upright Moviolas to know which pedal to stomp on. Then for the higher levels – it was another thing entirely to keep all those rolls of film organized, and to know why to splice shot 23-D take 4 together with 23-J take 2 instead of 23-J take 1.

Same with linear video editing – you learn the tools first. Lots(!) of buttons and confusing technical boxes to learn. Then the higher levels – the producers and editors had to have the entire show planned out before they laid down a single edit to their master tape. Oh and by the way – the client loves everything about the show except that one section 4 minutes in – let’s just take it out. Which meant the editor had to completely re-assemble the entire show from that point on, edit by edit.

A mentor of mine once told me about some of the stranger editing systems he’d learned in his career, including the short-lived, B-movie-sci-fi-looking EditDroid. He came to this conclusion: “They’re all just tools. I don’t care what system or software you use – heck, give me some film, a gluepot, and a pair of scissors, and I’ll tell your story.”

So there it is. Learn the tools, whether it’s a flatbed film editor or iMovie. Learn them inside out so they become second nature to you. Then you can focus on the actual editing instead of just pushing buttons.

PS – I had lunch with Sam again not too long ago. He had just finished another successful round of editing for a big production company on Final Cut. He commented on how much better he liked Final Cut than Avid these days, how Avid sometimes seems almost clunky and old-school compared to Final Cut.

I grinned.

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