I've Got 99 Problems and Post-Audio Engineering Is One

I've been working long days the last two months. I'm currently working on a large video editing job for The Gospel Coalition out of Chicago. This is a great job, that requires long hours, and tedious and redundant actions.  I'm really good at this type of work.  It's challenging, but it's nothing that I cannot handle.

I view video editing like a crossword puzzle, or a chess match or a sudoku puzzle.  Video editing consists of math, and numbers, and prisons and war. A lot of war.  Everything is chaotic before and in the end, it should fit and flow nicely.  I like piecing together problems and watching them evolve into what they were made for.

It's also challenging. A video editor is very limited. Limited in the sense that, he has only so many options to work with versus a Director of Photography or a Film Director has.  They have creative control and are able to move around freely.  An editor is only able to make decisions within a contained environment.  A great (not good, but great) editor will take all of the decisions the "creatives" made, and through a process of elimination, will arrive with a final product that all those above him were shooting and dreaming for.

This is my job. This is my aim.

However, repairing audio is a different story. I don't feel like getting into it right now, but It sucks and I don't care for it.  Though, the only reason why I don't like repairing audio is that, I don't know how to "properly" repair audio.  It's like doing algebra.  If you know algebra, then it's easy and enjoyable.  But put a high-school dropout in-front of some basic algebra SAT questions and he'd rather be emptying out septic tanks at 8 dollars an hour 40 hours a week.

I'll just say this to those who are about to record audio. Always record your vocals/speaking head around -12 to -6dB. This will make whoever is cleaning up that audio several hours/days/weeks. Seriously.