Editor Job Role

An editors professional development is depended on how much experience they have doing that line of work. They would have started at the bottom of the chain and worked there way up to where they want to be. The highest rank in editing would be executive editor. This could include college courses in media such as A-levels and BTECs, and then further on in to university to continue their media studies in their chosen area. By doing this they are broadening their horizons, and have lots of different opportunities they could go in to. It's up to the person themselves to go out and find the work experience they require, which will benefit them extremely well in the future. For example, a small production company are looking to make a short film and are requiring freelance editors to join the company for the duration of the production, to meet the director and producers needs with their editing skills. Because they are only a small company, they wont require a high-end editor as it would be way over their budget, and it is providing yet more experience for the person, so it benefits both sides. If you are applying for a editorial role, making sure you write down all your experience is vital as this is what they are going to be looking for, They want reliable, hard working individuals, who can work in a team or on their own. So they need to know as much about you on paper first, before they meet you properly.

The next thing they may ask for is to see a portfolio of your work, or a show reel. This will show the company your standards and level of the work you produce, and will therefore contribute to their decision whether they will hire you or not. In any job in the media industry, you may be asked to look at your previous work, not just in the editing area. Another very important factor about an editorial job role is references. If your doing some freelance work and are contacted by a production company acquiring your services, the portfolio will show you what you have done, but references are more direct in the way you can contact an employer first hand and hear from then how well you perform and undertake tasks.

Editors need to have a certain set of skills to fulfil their role and become successful at what they do. They need to have a good insight in to screenplay and the different areas such as, the genre and characters, plot, style and story structure. If there is no structure then the production wouldn't run smoothly, and mistakes would be made along the way. So the executive and assistant editors need to be aware of how the story goes, so when it comes to editing footage together, it's done in the right order and that the story and plot is understood. Depending on what genre of film is being produced, you should now how to use dramatic tools like suspense, tension and mystery to grab an audiences attention. This is because you need to know how these tools affect the audience itself. Overall the main aspect of a job like this is the physical editing of a production. It allows you to experiment yet keep to a brief and without this opportunity job role, there wouldn't be a final product at the end of it all.