This is a video essay about guns in movies I cut for the fairly new website Capital about politics, media and culture in New York.

The high quality Vimeo version is above. You can also watch this at Capital here.

Hope you find it a blast!

I am a freelance Avid/Final Cut Pro editor who is based in New York City. I blog about films at The Fine Cut, while my work can be found on this site, as well as my editing website: www.stevenedits.com.

 

 

Here is the final part of a six-part video essay series I was involved with for the Museum of the Moving Image. I edited and co-wrote this chapter and let's just say it will hopefully stir a great deal of discussion. I am also very proud of it and how it allowed me to bring out my skills as an editor that I do not often use. This is a cross-post with my film blog, where you can read more about the editing here.

You can also view this piece directly at the Museum of the Moving Image website here.

Hope you enjoy it!

I am a freelance Avid/Final Cut Pro editor who is based in New York City. I blog about films at The Fine Cut, while my work can be found on this site, as well as my editing website: www.stevenedits.com.

This space is a shared space separated by a set of sliding glass doors that close out sound. The office is furnished with a desk and a shared closet. The price covers the Rent & Elec. Easy going, great Flatiron District location with a Park Avenue South business address. Building is a walk up with no doorman/lobby. Great situation for a freelancer editor, graphic designer, jewelry maker. Shared bathroom and kitchen. 

2 months security. 

http://bit.ly/cW2Z0K

 

Here is the fifth part of a six-part video essay series I was involved with (and was credited as a producer) for the Museum of the Moving Image. I actually cut chapter 6, which I will write a more detailed post here when it goes live on the Moving Image site soon. You can also view this part here.

Hope you enjoy it!

I am a freelance Avid/Final Cut Pro editor who is based in New York City. I blog about films at The Fine Cut, while my work can be found on this site, as well as my editing website: www.stevenedits.com.

I created a website 3 months ago for the purpose of bringing together the non-fiction TV editors community of NYC.  If you're an editor working in NY and you do non-fiction, you want to be on this site.  It's not as nice as this site, reelpost, but what it does have is that it's more intimate; penetrates the insular world in which I work.  Most of my jobs are never listed on Mandy, etc.  Everything is word of mouth and based on your reputation.  This site, Editor311, doesn't change that but rather facilitates the people within that world to communicate with each other and have a single repository for our most up to date info.  

-Bria

"been doing this for 15 years and have developed hundreds of sites. But "now" is much different than the days when a Website was the be-all-end-all. Now, a site is much more about communicating than about posting an online company brochure. The site is just a hub to which all sorts of social media spokes connect. An effective Web presence also includes your LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr accounts to name a few. Advertising has shifted from outbound tell-and-sell to an inbound campaign built around intelligent dialogue and participation in a social sense."  

(separate post)

"I had a website for a while, it did exactly nothing for me," is a sad but true confession. It makes me smile a bit because nowadays the investment is all about pouring in sweat equity, rather than money for the ultimate killer-design. You need to check your Twitter account, responding to comments on Facebook, post new fresh videos on YouTube, maybe start a live broadcast channel on BlogTalkRadio or UStream. Big corporations are now hiring social media staffers to just listen for negative comments about their brand or questions and concerns,,, then respond in a timely manner." 

(separate post)

Writing a very well-crafted paragraph that has lots of those search terms related to your content, plus adding some site-mapping at the bottom of that same page, with very small text links to each internal page of the site including the blog will rapidly inmprove your SEO (search engine optinization). The search bots want to travel throughout your site to index each page......adding that blog is exactly what I recommend to get people started in working through a hybrid. Here's an advanced example that also has facebook fan page widgets:http://doorcountylodging.com/ lotsa search words and those links are at the bottom."

- Stephen Kastner

Stephen Kastner
DesignWise.net
920.256.9449

Become a fan on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/DesignWise

 Follow me on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/by_designwise

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"I am also a branding/creative/interactive pro with over 7 years of experience and a cinematographer recently. I agree with Stephen. It is all about communication and participation nowadays. I can really tell you that it is much more important nowadays to have good content and wide presence in social media than having a really extracool site with all bells and whistles. You need to stand out from the crowd, but IMHO you should achieve it with what you have to say instead of just looking pretty. I mean you still need a pro website, that needs to be well done, but not necessarily overcreative. Beautiful full-blown flash sites are not of use in this particular business anymore (however they still are a good tool in certain situations). 

I have to say that even despite I have our own CMS system crafted in Misme New Media, I decided to run 2 of my sites - lookycreative.com and kizny.com basing on Wordpress. It pays off. The new site for my agency will also have a Wordpress blog integrated seamlessly. 

One more thing worth to notice is that when it comes to stand-alone Wordpress installation you'll need to integrate a lot of plugins and tools to make everything flow. There are many possibilities of integrating multiple social sites and services using API. For instance the content I post on one of my blogs in certain category is automatically being imported to facebook profiles and pages. I also use a lot of auxiliary services like twitpic, flickr and other to integrate Twitter with blog-based site and facebook. Also the tools like 'facebook like button' integrated with your site helps driving traffic to your site. 

Automation helps you to save time, but you really need to think it all out in details not to get into loops and to avoid spamming your accounts. You also need to balance between automatically posted content and hand-written. It is essential that the content be at least in 50-75% hand-crafted and only in about 25% imported from other sites. So personally I have some content imported on my facebook pages, but I post much more content manually. And it is not the same content in each channel - I craft different content for blog, facebook and twitter. 

One more thing to realize is that when starting to use all the social tools you really need a strategy, so spend some time planning your goals and taking into account how much time you can afford to invest. Then follow the strategy and watch the results. It takes time. 

You need to understand also that people use Facebook mainly to fulfill their social needs. So your posting strategy needs to remain relevant and respond to these."

-Patryk Kizny www.misme.pl

Patryk Kizny 
Creative director & founder 
Misme New Media 
www.misme.pl 

(I recommend checking this one out. Also Patryk offered to help anyone if they have questions or need advice etc.please do so if you need it, he's not just being nice, although he is)

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"My site was built all in Flash. It looks great – at least I think so. The only problem is that search engines like Google (I’m told) don’t find Flash sites as well as HTML. That means it’s harder for me to move up in the search engine rankings. What that mean to me (and you) is that you want to be as close to the top when someone searches for “Video Editor”. If Google can’t find your site, neither will anyone else. And that means no business. 

One thing I did to counter this is add a blog. I used to have a blog on a blogspot…and that was nice, but it wasn’t helping drive any traffic to my site. So I paid my web designer to build a blog using Wordpress that matches the branding of my site and is integrated into my site. It uses a blind URL (I think that’s what they called it) to hide the real address – to the world it looks as if you’re at www.100acrefilms.com/blog. Adding that blog as increased traffic to my site, and has provided a more interactive way to communicate with clients…and now it’s all on my site. You want as much traffic as you can get coming to your site – you want it optimized so that you come up as close to the top when people search for your services. I also now have a Twitter account, and use that to drive people to my blog and site – same with LinkedIn. 

I could go on, but it’s late and I’ve got a full day of editing tomorrow. I think the bottom line is you want a site that showcases your work – I believe in providing a short demo reel and then a having full samples so clients can get a better feel for your work. Also, make sure you work with a web designer who can listen to what you want, what you need, and can help you build a site that will be found when people search for your services. One thing pointed out to me by someone was this – people are hiring you to create memorable and creative images…you don’t want a website (their first impression of you) to make you look boring."

-Eric Addison http://www.100acrefilms.com 

 

 

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"I will say, learning from my own mistakes, make sure your web domain is easily memorable. If you have to spell it for people, or give them a card to remember, not a good domain name. Also, link your email addy to the domain, even if you check it through gmail or what have, lowell@brillante.whatever is alot more professional than lowell@yahoo."

-Paul Levin

 

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"We've just had a new website built together with a Wordpress blog. As has been mentioned, using Social Media can be a great help with your website. Our Web Guys encouraged us to create and update Facebook and Twitter Profiles and a Blog.Google loves relevant new content and providing regualar updates can really help on the SEO stakes. 

However the real clincher is that regular blogging/tweeting/facebooking etc has helped to cement our authority status to customers. i.e we know what we're talking about. It also shows customers that we are active and doing things that they can look at, follow and assess. 

In terms of time invested I couldn't comment on the ROI of maintaining these applications but it does help to generate an audience and a basis of trust with those that follow you. As world of mouth is the best form of marketing, keeping people engaged helps spread the word"

-John Starkie

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"If you are using flash on your site, there is another downside - iPad will not display it. If your entire site is in flash, people will see absolutely nothing. Our site, www.HandBookLive.com has a flash player, which shows up as a giant hole in the middle of the page when browsing the site on the iPad. Luckily our programmer has already finished an html5 version of the player and will activate it in a few days. So for desktops we will still be using our regular custom flash player, but if the code detects an iPad/iPhone then it will switch over to the new html5 player."

http://www.HandBookLive.com

-Laura Beken

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"The website is designed to 'convert' rather than to 'tout'. People hear my name, want to see what sort of work I do, so they watch a few videos and decide whether to hire me or not. In my niche, people don't Google 'video editor' and see what happens, they ask around their colleagues. 

So what I needed was a way of getting my showreel in a potential client's face as quickly as possible, and also say "hey, look, loads more stuff here - I'm pretty flexible, but I do have a 'look' that people like"............

As for SEO, managed to get a good result for Google, but now have to look at Bing. Not too worried, though - as stated, my website is to convert enquiries into sales, not cold-call. 

All my main videos are currently 480x270 Flash 8 for compatibility. My next revision will bump videos up to 640x360 H.264. 

iPad compatibility is an interesting point. It is my 'Client' area where iPads are becoming popular - or at least lustworthy. So I will have to do an iPad friendly site. But if I ditch Flash and go to HTML5, I will lose my wider compatibility and ostracise my Local Govt Blue Chip corporate clients and customers. 

So I'll have to create and manage a separate iPad microsite, and do a browser check on the main site to redirect iPad and iPhone browsers to the microsite. Probably throw something together in Rapid Weaver. 

Let me draw the distinction between Clients (people who hire me) and Customers (people who watch my videos). My website needs to sell to my Clients - usually agencies, but also Small/Medium Business and to a certain extent, larger corporates (who don't go through agencies). Very few customers are interested in my site. I'm too small for the big entities and too expensive for the small entities. 

So my thinking is that I can afford to go UP the quality stakes (H.264), sacrificing the wider compatibility of Flash 8 - good for Enterprise level but not 'exciting'. But by doing so, it will risk looking foolish if a potential client, sitting behind a locked up PC on a slow network, can't watch anything. 

And no, can't use YouTube or Vimeo on the main site as some of my clients have firewalls that ban such traffic. All has to be home-grown. Sigh.

(Later post, in response to another)

Search engines trawl through the HTML, so therefore if you do your SEO there, the embedding of a video (FLV, H.264) does not impact that. 

Also, H.264 is usually embedded within a SWF playback engine. Using HTML5 sounds good, but it's not rendered by older browsers - which means most of the corporate market.

Finally, if one uses non-Flash methods to display video in order to gain SEO whilst sacrificing widespread ability to view that video, surely that sort of defeats the object? 

I'd repeat that my website is a conversion tool, and that through discussions with my clients and prospects, they would not use google to find an editor, though they would want to visit the sites of recommended editors to view examples; they would probably google the name of editors recommended to them, so I have worked on optimising the search for "Matt Davis video" on the Google UK site."

 -Matt Davis             http://www.mdma.tv 

 

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"Much like Lowell, my website for my freelance production business has not been a priority for me. The first year I was freelancing, I went all out with a website that I threw everything in I could think... 

Last year, I went with a basic one page electronic brochure...that as far as I could measure, accomplished nothing. 

Beginning this year, I have built a little more robust website, slowly incorporating social media tools. 

This issue with social media, that I have found, is you have to be consistent, relevant, and engaged. I admit I have not really jumped into the fray in any meaningful way. 

My website is found at www.iconoclastcreative.com. "

-David Woodard

 

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".........keeping the site current is challenging. The latest was to increase the width to more current standards – admittedly a hack job until there is time to do a more comprehensive job. The contact rate is erratic and there are some unwanted ‘offers’. I concede that the site is not a model example, but business is improved because of the site. 

Our small business is primarily suited for regional activity. The key words are aligned to the region and to what differentiates us from others. Shared ‘free’ videos with links on other sites are aggressively used to keep a high regional search ranking. 

I don’t provide a phone number on the site. The contact page requires text entry. But the site has produced contacts (and business) from coast to coast for people looking for services in our area. A few years ago, a local group sought LA sources for their HD project and someone in LA referred them to IMAGG, Inc (thanks!). 

-Russ W  http://www.imagginc.com

 

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 "... MobileMe is so user friendly that it was really fun to create my site myself. I'm an editor as well. It's actually called Iweb. Iweb is part of the MobileMe package. I don't know if you have to be on a Mac to use it. My site is brialough.com and you can find other examples of editors' websites by going to editor311.com. there's lots of personal websites (of editors) on there."

-Bria Lough

 

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".........I wanted to be certain that you caught the mentions of Flash being invisible to search engines. I recognize that you feel you've a specific use for your site, but perhaps that use would change if you followed the recommendations of those contributing from their experience above. You might convert more of those "customers" to "clients". Your switch to H.264 will accomplish this for you, I believe. I just want to be certain that you hadn't missed the SEO no-no rule of posting flash video on your site. I know it's a lovely compression codec and widespread, but if the search engines won't recognize it, it really isn't doing you much good as far as growing your visibility. The discussion after all is titled "Gigs through Google", eh?"

(Later Post, in response to another)

I am surprised to hear that H.264 needs an SWF playback engine embedded Matt. To me, that makes it sound like Flash, but again, I am not a web coder, I'm a video producer and editor. I suppose that if you generate your H.264 file as a quicktime, that quicktime players should play it, while if you generate it through a Windows media encoder, like Main Concept or the like, that WMP should play it. Again, though Matt, perhaps one of the more knowledgeable contributors to this thread could help clarify this question as well.

I can well understand and appreciate your focus on your site as a "conversion tool" and thus appreciate your distinction made between clients and customers. As far as your google ranking, the parameters for a search that include your name are always going to bring up your site first, eh? I would prefer to have my site perform more of both. It's mandatory to have your reel up for clients but also nice if it can bring you clients. I think we've a lot to learn from these experienced web coders who've so kindly contributed to the thread and will hopefully continue to generously do so. 

-Steven Emrick

 

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A lot of information to take in, but oh so important, compiled from people with years of experience, I for one would rather listen to someone tell me from their experience instead of having to go through it myself. It lets us progress as a species because each person doesn't have to discover physics for themselves. You know all this I'm just trying to emphasize the relevance.

If anyone was misquoted let me know I'll fix it immediately 

Here's the link to the thread, don't know if you can see it without a linkedin 

Linkedin Thread

Also the group is "Video Editors" on linkedin, and not to drive content away from here but it's really good. Reelpost kicks major ass too and Rob is my hero.

-Lowell

Here is the fourth part of a six-part video essay series I was involved with (and was credited as a producer) for the Museum of the Moving Image. I actually cut chapter 6, which I will write a more detailed post here when it goes live on the Moving Image site in about a week or so. You can also view this part here.

Hope you enjoy it!

I am a freelance Avid/Final Cut Pro editor who is based in New York City. I blog about films at The Fine Cut, while my work can be found on this site, as well as my editing website: www.stevenedits.com.

Here is the third part of a six-part video essay series I was involved with (and was credited as a producer) for the Museum of the Moving Image. I actually cut chapter 6, which I will write a more detailed post here when it goes live on the Moving Image site in about a week or so. You can also view this two part here.

Hope you enjoy it!

I am a freelance Avid/Final Cut Pro editor who is based in New York City. I blog about films at The Fine Cut, while my work can be found on this site, as well as my editing website: www.stevenedits.com.

What if you managed to pull all the best moments in the day of a life of your typical YouTube user? Then took the skilled hands of an A-list producer and director to mash them all together and create a feature length documentary...

Life In A Day, to be produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Oscar Award winner, Kevin MacDonald that will do just that. It's goal is to be a time capsule to show future generations what is was like to live on the day of July 24th, 2010.

Whether you like it or not, YouTube continues to change the way video content is created and viewed. This joint collaboration is an experiment to see if the average two minute attention span of a YouTube user can be breached. 

[video: 25x25]

This is an interesting concept to see if one can make chicken salad out of chicken sh*t. No need to inform you that most user generated content is crap (this applies to so-called professionals as well). But if you are feeling creative on July 24th and feel like being a part of history, you may want to charge the batteries and put that Canon 7D that you just bought to some good use. 

The best part is that 20 of the top contributors will be given co-director credit and flown to the Sundance Film Festival this January for the film's premiere. Dare to dream!

 

I've got a friend who's in need of relocating his boutique post shop. He's looking for a space (or shared space) for 2 Avid systems. Drop me a message if you're interested.  Thanks!