What's the difference between a film editor and video editor?

Question

I was searching on the internet and saw that film editors have higher salaries than video editors. What's the difference? They both sound similar.

Answer 1

Nina,

I am a video editor who started off as a film editor many years ago.  The difference is mainly in the technology.  When you edit film, you are actually cutting, then taping scenes together, then watching what you did by rolling the film through some sort of light box- it can be hand operated, or a machine like a Moviola or a Steenbeck.  Since the film actually gets cut up, you have to be very careful to preserve all the pieces in case you want to make a change or add something back.

Video editing is entirely electronic.  It's called "non-destructive" because your footage exists in a computer and is never physically affected by anything you do to it.  Think of it as word processing for pictures.

Today most editing is done on video because it's so much easier.  Film editors need to be highly skilled in a number of pretty obscure technologies in order to be successful, which partly accounts for the difference in pay... it's easy to be a video editor if you can use a computer.   Most feature films are still cut with film techniques, although that is quickly changing.  Most commercials, music videos, corporate videos, TV shows, documentaries today are edited on video.

Hope this helps.  I'll be happy to answer any other questions you might have.

Ira