If it's on your resume, you better KNOW it.

As a professional, I find myself having to study and self-teach ALOT to keep ahead of the curve, and current. When I'm teaching, this is one of the core concepts that I try to instill in my students. I try to give them the knowledge to get started, and give them the tools to arm themselves. . . BUT there's definitely some people out there that can't really grasp that.

. . . and some folks are just lazy.


If you DON'T know how to do a job, and you're getting paid for it, spend some time LEARNING it. If it's on your resume, you better know it.

With AMAZINGLY RICH resources online like REDUSER, The Apple FCP Support Forum, and THIS SITE, there's NEVER any reason why you should have to send someone an email asking you to teach something from start to finish for free.


Here's a conversation I had via email with a VERY unprepared Editor, who thought he could BULLSHIT his way through RED post. Only the Names have been changed. :P
(Also, I've made NO changes to the spelling/grammar/punctuation.)

---

Email #1
FROM: _______@yahoo.com
TO: SCREWFILMS@GMAIL.COM


Hey Mike I'm ________'s editor and she told me I could email you about the red footage i'm editing for her.I'm having a little bit of an issue with it. When I place something into the time line the footage will play for about 5 seconds then it starts to lag out to a stop. I tried changing the easy setup settings to a high definition setting but that didn't help eaither. I think it might be due to the high quality of the clip in play back. I watched a friend edit his red footage a while back and I remeber his footage looking stripped down and pixlelated for play back and then he upresed after it was all finished. He told me that was so things wouldn't slow down during the editing process. Would you know the steps to get it to play back like that and maybe the easy setup settings i need to have fcp set up to? Thanks for your help!

---

Email #4
FROM: SCREWFILMS@GMAIL.COM
TO: _______@yahoo.com




Dear ________,

Which Mac?

Have you tried Transcoding to SD for an offline, then relinking to 2k full debayer transcodes for online?

-Mike

---

Email #5:
FROM: _______@yahoo.com
TO: SCREWFILMS@GMAIL.COM
it's a mac pro. See that's where it gets a little technical. I'm not so technically inclined when it comes to editing. I basically just know how to edit. and being that this is my first run with red footage I'm at a loss completely i'm really just familiar with HDV or SD footage. What do you mean by transcode, And ho would i go about doing that? Thanks for your help by the way. I know i'm asking a gazillion questions.

---

Email #6:
FROM: SCREWFILMS@GMAIL.COM
TO: _______@yahoo.com

________,

I'm very much of the opinion that if you don't know how to handle RED
footage, then you shouldn't have taken the RED job.

Editing is a technical field. If you want to be an editor, you better
start focusing on the technical.

-Mike

---

The thing that gets me is he KNEW that he had questions, but couldn't figure out how to search google.


I know I was being a little harsh. . . BUT it's guys like this that take jobs away from guys like me. . .


. . . which brings me to my final point. If you SAY you can do a job, then you better be able to do it. No IFs, ANDs, or BUTTS.
If you're really only familiar with SD or HDV Footage, then either JUST work with those formats, OR learn other formats from somewhere.

The Thing that gets me is if he typed ANYTHING that I sent him into google, he would have realized that I ANSWERED HIS QUESTION 100%. But he was lazy, and didn't want to take the time to look up things he didn't know.


I HONESTLY hope he lost the gig, and learned from his mistake. . . but I have a feeling he didn't. Don't take the easy way out. . . you'll learn more.