By Charlene Short
I think it’s safe to say the majority of assistants get in to Post Production to eventually edit. It’s true not all do, there are career assistants and it’s likely a very long, very rewarding career, if that’s what makes you happy. But for the rest of us, what do you do when you’re ready to cut? There’s no clear path, there’s no qualifying test, no bar to pass, no exam and no finite amount of time before you can progress. There are a few obvious factors that come in to play, you have to be able to use the equipment, be good, be ready and get lucky. So how do you get to that point? And if you do get to that point: what then? I spoke to Editors who have successfully made the leap from Assistant and no two paths are the same. Of the five I spoke to the combined assisting years were 31 with the average being 6 years however this can vary wildly. Ultimately it depends on the opportunities that arise and how you engage with those opportunities.
“I had begun to realise in the last few years of Assisting that you have to actually TELL people you want to edit. This may seem obvious but there can be a presumption that Assistants are happy being Assistants (many are and have a successful and rewarding career as one) but I wanted to edit” - Danielle Palmer
The Assistant role today can be disconnected from the creative process, separate room, DIT responsibilities, watching the progress bar instead of watching playouts in real time, several Editors instead of one on one, all this combined makes understanding the creative decisions and the road to those decisions that much more difficult to learn. So it’s important to keep proactive even more now than ever before.
“The breaks come when you’re working on a show and the people you work with trust you enough to assemble, its all very well cutting a scene but if no one sees it or knows you did it, it won’t get you a break. It’s all about relationships and you need to be proactive in creating and developing those relationships.” - Simon Brasse
Its also important to practice wherever possible, not only to have a body of work behind you should an opportunity arise but also to build your confidence.
"There was always someone calling to say they wanted something cut and they had no budget so it was very easy to build up a portfolio. In the end that stuff never really got me the job but it prepped me, I knew how I liked to edit at that point so it gave me confidence." - Katie Weiland
“During my time as an Assistant I had cut a micro-budget feature and a number of short films. I generally cut those shorts unpaid and outside of my day job as an Assistant. It's something that I would recommend to any aspiring Editor as it allows you to build up a reel, it gives you the experience of working with Directors and, crucially, it allows you the experience of making mistakes, both creatively and politically. I'm a much better Editor now because of the effort expended during those years.” Stephen Haren