This music video has personal value as the first one I off-line edited professionally.

I also did the online and conform at National Video Industries (NVI), a sprawling post-production house that occupied several floors of a building in Chelsea, Manhattan. This is back in day of video tape – the machine room might be two floors below the edit room, so the editor was always on the phone in touch with the assistants and operators, to swap out tapes and switch patches, etc.

Back then, there were dozens of these types of post-production houses in Manhattan.  Freelance editors who could operate their high-end machines were elite, and in high demand.

Today, editors can get away with training up on a single, self-contained application, such as Premiere of Avid. Back then, each edit room had its own idiosyncratic mix of equipment from countless manufacturers – edit controllers, switchers, mixing boards, effects boxes, tape formats, etc. No uniformity anywhere; each room presented a unique challenge.

The measure of success at that time for a freelancer like myself was being able to learn new gear quickly and adapt immediately to each new room, while always projecting utter confidence to the client.

Very challenging, and very productive for my development as a young editor. I freelanced at post-production houses all over Manhattan.