The world’s first blogger started his journey only a couple of years after non-linear editing ignited the film editing industry. Avid 1, the first modern non-linear editor, brought an incredibly innovative improvement to film editing only a few years before the creation of the first blog in 1994.
With all of these new non-linear innovations, a story began to build, one that needed telling. We created a list of the top ten film editing blogs you should bookmark right now to keep up with this incredible story.
In 1994, something groundbreaking happened: what experts consider to be the first blog hit the web, Links.net, an HTML platform where curator Justin Hall used to share his thoughts and favorite links.
Only a few years before, in 1991, Avid 1, the first modern non-linear editor and part of Media Composer systems, brought an incredibly innovative improvement to film editing, including timeline editing and clip bins. And this was just the beginning.
To help video editors keep up with all the great stories and help them hone their skills, we created a list of the top ten film editing blogs you should bookmark right now:
1. Pro Video Coalition (PVC)
Pro Video Coalition is one of the best sources for news and content on everything video editing. The blog content comes from a wide-range of the best experts in post-production. Each expert maintains their own blog, enabling excellently published content throughout the site. You’ll find news on events, great webinars, tutorials, and even recommendations on gear. PVC is a go-to source for any novice looking to become a professional and for experts interested in keeping themselves relevant in an innovative industry.
Here are a few of NewBlue’s favorite blogs and bloggers on Pro Video Coalition:
The Post Corner | Kevin P McAuliffe
Kevin P McAuliffe, a three-time North American ProMac award-winning editor and a Media Composer editor for over 15 years, is a leading expert in the film editing community. He is the host of The Post Podcast and Senior Editor’s at Extreme Reach in Toronto, Canada. A few of his clients past and present include Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures, BMW and Walt Disney Pictures. In addition, he is a consistent contributor on Avid’s forums and blogs.
The Editblog | Scott Simmons
Scott Simmons became an assistant video editor shortly after graduating from Watkins Film School. In 1999, he started freelancing, and in 2005 he created The Editblog, a website focused on video editing and post-production content; the film editing blog is now a part of Pro Video Coalition.
Take a look at Scott’s recent blog post on the film, Focus, and how it used Final Cut Pro X to make this feature film come to life.
CUT.N.COLOR | Steve Hullfish
Steve Hullfish, an award-winning producer and editor since the mid-1980s, wrote four books and countless magazine articles and hosted an Avid training DVD. He lectured at NAB, DVExpo, and the Master Editor seminars, and he has worked for Universal Studios, NBC Television, PBS TV, Turner Networks, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and many more.
Check out this great piece by Steve on Gravity co-editor and Oscar Winner, Mark Sanger, explaining his craft and style.
2. CreativeCOW
CreativeCOW is one of the best overall resources for the video editing industry. This one-stop resource shop has an enormous amount of information including tutorials, engaging forums, and blog posts on every NLE to help beginners and professionals fine-tune their skills and network with others.
It wouldn’t be one of the best resources if it stopped there. CreativeCOW has one of the best video editing YouTube channels, which includes numerous tutorials on every major NLE.
Take a look at some of the blog pieces:
The blog post “Kirk Baxter, ACE, leads edit of “Gone Girl,” latest box office hit for David Fincher” talks about how two-time Academy Award winner, Kirk Baxter, used his editing prowess in Adobe Premiere to make his latest film, Gone Girl, gross over $350 million. Kirk Baxter has also teamed up with David Fincher on movies that include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and House of Cards. This article is definitely worth a read.
“Editing for Social Impact: How I Saved the San Gabriel Mountains” by Kylee Wall focuses on how an editing project she worked on held high consequences for the environment. The film revolves around the San Gabriel Mountains in southern California and how the area should be designated as a national monument to protect it from development.
3. PremiumBeat
PremiumBeat is a “curated royalty free music website that provides exclusive, high-quality tracks and sound effects for use in new and traditional media projects, including videos, films, apps, games, and television programming.” The site works with professional composers to ensure that their library maintains high-quality tracks and sound effects. The contributors at PremiumBeat work hard in ensuring their blog is up to date and providing quality content on a consistent basis.
Here are a couple of their recent blog pieces:
For a good laugh, take a look at this post, “10 Examples of Horrible Hollywood Special Effects.”
Here’s another intriguing post, “Create Realistic Muzzle Flashes in After Effects.” The tutorial provided includes a video covering the entire process (for the full article go here):
To keep up with all their content on video editing, follow them on Twitter: @premiumbeat.
4. postPerspective
Post-Production expert, Randi Altman, has a beautiful blog called postPerspective. She is the former Editor in Chief of Post Magazine, serving for 20 plus years. Compared to most video editing blogs, you will notice that postPerspective has a beautiful aesthetic appeal and an impressive amount of content for a personal blog. Some of the features that the blog includes are videos interviewing post-production experts, tips on using different NLEs, advice on designing your workstation, and reviews on GPU cards and other computer features.
Take a look at one of her recent blog pieces, where she discusses the role that sound played in making Wonder Woman such a success.
5. digitalfilms
Oliver Peters, the owner of Digital films, is a video editing and overall production expert. Oliver Peters has worked in radio, television, and the film industry since 1970. He has logged thousands of hours working on commercials, feature films, TV shows, corporate videos and high-definition projects. On his blog, you can find a significant amount of resources and knowledge on video editing, especially on Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro, and coloring.
Take a look at his article, “Adobe Anywhere and Divine Access,” that goes into detail on the collaborative workflow of Adobe Anywhere, which enables editors, producers and directors to access media and productions from multiple, remote locations.
6. Alex4D
Alex has over twenty years of experience in visual arts and became a freelance motion graphics designer in 2001, eventually transferring his skills to the video editing industry. Alex is incredibly invested in the well-being of Final Cut Pro and its user base. His interest in the software sparked when he found a fault in one of Final Cut Pro 6’s video effects that prevented international users from using scrolling text. He discovered a way to fix the issue and put the free add-on on his blog.
Now, Alex has over a hundred Final Cut Tutorials on YouTube for any FCP user interested in the possibility of honing their skills to perfection.
In addition, Alex made over 60 Alex4D Final Cut Pro X plugins available for free on his old blog.
To stay up to date with this Final Cut Pro expert, follow him on Twitter @alex4d.
7. Jonny Elwyn
Jonny Elwyn, a freelance editor and blogger working in the UK for the past twelve years, found his love for film at an early age. He has posted over 1500 blogposts, writing about everything video editing including every NLE, coloring, and tips to create a successful career as a video editor.
He has an interesting blog piece on an interview with Steve Audette ACE, discussing what it’s like to edit a documentary.
Here is a shortcut to some of his best posts on film editing.
To keep up with this blogger, find him on Twitter @jonnyelwyn.
8. Creative Impatience
Founder of Creative Impatience, Bartlomiej Walczak has over twelve years of post-production experience. He specializes in Premiere Pro, SpeedGrade, After Effects and coloring. In addition, he is an Adobe Certified Expert in Premiere Pro CC. Bartlomiej offers a list of free plugins and tutorials that can help jumpstart your editing in Premiere Pro. Furthermore, he writes about helpful editing tips and about the future of NLEs.
Take a look at one of his blog pieces, “Layer Stripper – It’s Not What You Think It Is,” where he releases a cool tool for After Effects: CI Layer Stripper. This script elegantly eliminates all unused layers from your project.
Twitter: @bart_hema.
9. Film Editing Pro
Film Editing Pro takes a unique approach to improving your editing skills, not through obscure theory or hand-holding tutorials, but through creative editing techniques taught by editors with decades of experience. Lead trainer Chris MacDonald started his career in entertainment fresh from college and held various jobs in the industry before working his way up to staff editor at Universal Studios. Each post in the blog is designed to teach you a specific skill, such as networking, sound bridging, and even more practical methods such as how to get your quarantine discount on Adobe Creative Cloud.
You can also check out their library of useful video tutorials on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/FilmEditingPro
Twitter: @FilmEditingPro
10. NewBlueFX
It wouldn’t be a great blog post if we didn’t include ours on the list. It is a pretty impressive blog- that is why you’re reading this article, right?
Here is one of our recent popular posts discussing the top 5 GoPro tips for content creators.
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