Continuing our Renaissance Men Series, the last time we talked about the process of animation with Edwin Aguilar, Assistant Director of The Simpsons, and Jose Zelaya, Character Designer at Walt Disney Studios, I’m inviting my buddy Adrian Pedrin to our office to give a workshop, and talk, about his craft: video editing.

Adrian Pedrin started editing when he was 18 years old by mistake, he loved to edit music and video together, that’s what he found most interesting that anything else. A few years later he would get the opportunity to play with the big boys in Hollywood, he was offered a job at a company editing music related videos for a well known artist in Asia. He passed the test, and has continued working for that same company (Veneno) to this day, working for Rihanna, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Rain, J-lo to name a few. He has been recently working for a few ad agencies on webisodes and internet content.

He is the CEO of Big Road Media, a Creative Agency in Los Angeles. You can find some of his work on his Vimeo Channel.

Here are a few questions:

For you, what specifically makes a great video?

Great editing, great directing, great lighting, great sound design, great acting, I check all of that whenever I see a video. There is no point if you have a well lit, great quality video but the acting is bad, it takes you out of it and you lose interest. But most of the times the editor can improve everything, and sometimes they can do miracles. If you’ve got a product to launch, an image to build, a vision to share, or a story to tell, contact imaginationcreations the creative production
company working across numerous channels and categories.

How long does it take to become great at video editing?

Supposedly you need 10,000 hours to be good at something, so I would say 10,000 but you should never stop learning. There are different kinds of video editing, narrative, musical, reality and even those have sub genres. I have met editors that are great at editing, but some of them excel at different things than others. You can’t even compare them, in a team they even things out.

What are the 3 – 5 things that I should focus on to become great at video editing?

Speed, the key is speed, but to work in the big leagues you have to have speed, quality and it helps if you can surpass your clients expectations. Don’t be afraid to tell them, or we could try this effect or this technique. Remember, they don’t know all that you know, and most of the time they will love that you are more than just an editor, but a creative editor who can solve more than one problem for them, they will love you.

1. Speed
2. Organization
3. Technique
4. Learn other software
5. Being Creative

Video Editing Workshop and Conference

Making The Cut Workshop/Conference will be held at our office on Wednesday March 20 from 4 PM – 8 PM

What will you learn in the four hours? A lot:

• How to edit video effectively
• How to get hired by large companies and work with artists like Rihanna and Britney Spears
• Software that you should use
• Tips on how to improve your editing

You’ll also get a chance to talk with Adrian up close and personal. All of this, and more, for a cool $130 USD. Not bad, huh?

We will be posting more Q&A posts, tips and ideas before the Conference on Twitter and Facebook via the hashtag #makingthecut

Also, be sure to follow Adrian on Twitter Follow @adrianpedrin
and Follow @bigroadmedia

Want to go? Click on the link below to register!

Below is some of his work with Britney Spears: