Why Don't I Hire A Video Editor? (AGAIN)

I get asked this question a lot, why don't I hire a video editor?
Extracted from the live show.

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#ElectronicsCreators

[shazam]

As a youth, I did photography and 8mm films using FILM. Initially B&W, because color was so expensive. Even though 8mm films were limited to ~ 3.5 minutes (the amount of film that would fit a hand held camera) and shots of 30-45 seconds (the time my spring motor powered Bell & Howell camera ran before rewinding the spring), I would find 1/2 to 2/3 of a roll needed to be discarded, and sometimes to make sense, the sequence of shots edited. As much as color film cost, editing was another order of magnitude more expensive, both in money and time, which as a teenager, I could not afford. After editing the "movie" had to be duplicated onto a continuous roll of new film by a "lab", because sooner or later the taped together sections would break open, which could be a real catastrophe for both the film and projector (I know, because one of my "pocket money" jobs was fixing the High School's 16mm Kodak projector). So I learned to "camera edit" my films. This meant some thought and planning, as well as shooting in a good sequence and correct length of time per shot. It took some time, but I became pretty good at it, and it became pretty natural. It wasn't until Video recordings that editing became practical, and even then expensive in both equipment and time (10:1 was a great yardstick of editing time to finished video time, and was very hard to achieve consistently). Computers and flash memory greatly reduce the costs (almost free) but not the time.

I could tell from the beginning that you basically "camera edited" (i.e. live edited) your videos and focused on the content more than the "Look" and "Production Values". Good on ya!

Cheers from a 72 YO retired EE in Arizona!

[TheGFS]

Been watching since 2015 when I got interested in electronics, never had issues with how videos are edited, the actual quality of the video content more than makes up for "fancy" video editing which is more important with other types of content

[Thesignalpath]

This might be a somewhat controversial stance, but I find some of the highly polished 10-minute videos on YouTube to be mostly visual candy with diminished content value. But I also recognize if you want people to watch your videos, it is a better strategy. I just shoot in sequence, stitch everything together and render.

[eliotmansfield]

has to be said given you don’t watch the videos after editing - there rarely any errors.
You are right that techies don’t really care about wanky production stuff and just stick to the details.

[cycle_vlog]

I completely agree! I started a short channel and initially got some folks in India, pakistan, etc to do some editing. I spent so much time going back and forth that I eventually resolved that its better to just do it yourself! And for shorts, the content is a few seconds out of hours, so all the work is finding the short content, not the editing...

[TheCodr]

I agree Dave 100%! People have offered to edit for me in the past and I had exactly the same thought process. It would take someone with the same knowledge to know what to cut and keep. Plus as you say, we'd need to rewatch the video. When I'm editing I go mainly by the audio timeline rather than the video itself. Since I use a streamdeck I don't have sequences, so I can figure out what I need to cut, speed up etc based on the audio waveform

[jhbarringer]

I agree that the type of content you normally produce (and how you film it) wouldn’t benefit too much with the addition of an editor to the workflow, while a discovery style video where you have lots of footage to pare down and insert non-filmed graphics/animation (production process schematic, maps with fab plant location, route between multiple shoot locations, real-world videos of items in-use from various sources, etc.) would benefit from a professional editor. One exception to the no editor needed for your typical style of video would be if you had a script and were constantly flubbing your lines and needed to restart/repeat lines. While you do sometimes say the wrong part number, it is infrequent enough that you’re able to catch it during editing and insert clarifying on-screen text. Lastly, good on you to answer the question with both the reason you don’t use an editor at present and in what circumstances you would use an editor, since someone would probably have asked that as a follow-up, so you’re saving time by doing a little extra on the front-end.

[bjdchwr]

Tech video channel don't really need much of the polishing, period.

[vripscript]

The classic, want something done right, do it yourself

[DennisSookhoo]

I have been watching for years now, and your videos are perfect, no BS

Nice work

[organiccold]

I watch you since the beginning and you're spot on with your editing

[edgar]

Thanks Dave. We want to see you, life and in color, just the way you are. We don't need that wanky staff. Just continue to do what you do the way you do it and all is fine.

[JVHShack]

@EEVblog2 I really like your method of editing videos. Shoot clips in sequence, trim the ends of those clips, glue them together, boom! "Bob's your uncle!". That really follows the "Keep It Simple, Silly!" (KISS) rule. I hope you don't mind if I use that method with my videos.

[ecospider]

The technical corrections are in it self a good enough reason to do it yourself.

[joeyjustin]

YOUR RIGHT. AND HILARIOUS. RIGHT ON DAVE. JUST KEEP EM THE WAY THEY ARE. YOUR GOOD

[DirkFedermann]

I feel a lot of times the wankery added to videos is too much. So I enjoy watching "plain" videos.
And the kind of videos you do, would really suffer from the the zoomy bits or whatever they would add.

[mozismobile]

What Dave really needs is a professionjal makeup artist and a hairstylist.

[frankgrudge]

Ended quite abrupt Dave might wanna get someone to fix that.

[philscott]

Agree wanky effects suck. Just like pages of gifs and scrolling banners on websites.

[joshuamacdonald]

Do you have any videos on re using 3rd party LCD's? I pulled one out of a treadmill to see if I could use it for a project. Gonna make things take a while and any shortcuts could help