Avid vs FCP in editing

[JWRL]

This isn't intended as yet another futile argument about respective merits of edit systems. I found it on the Avid Xpress Pro user forum, and thought that the wide ranging discussion might be of interest to our members. What does everyone think?

http://www.avid.com/community/forums/Forum38/HTML/015203.html

What I found interesting was the different international work practices that it highlighted, and in particular the discussion on rates of pay and how they appear to have stagnated.

[Daz]

In London freelancers experienced a pay jump a few years ago, when European Union regulations specified that there must be a provision for holiday pay for self employed people. Independant production companies cleverly reduced the pay scales and then used the holiday allowance to bring them up to normal - but the BBC added the extra on top! So we loved the BBC - until after about 2 years they suddenly reclassified freelance editors as "Non-workers" and pulled the holiday allowance. Depending on your point of view, this felt like a pay cut.

Although overall rates for post production, particularly offline edit rooms, are being squeezed, my experience is that the rates for editors are at last beginning to rise again in London. Perhaps this is because the latest round of commissions from the BBC aren't quite so "reality TV" heavy. Maybe it's also that the current batch of Production Managers have realised that by paying a higher rate for a better editor they might in fact avoid a costly overrun in the edit.

[JWRL]

In the context of the original postings on the Avid forum it was felt that pay rates had stagnated because of the prevalence of low cost edit software. They might have a point, but I suspect that things aren't quite that simple.

For example I'm currently cutting two TVC's on an Avid Xpress Pro system and my billings for my skills are the same as they ever were, but the equipment costs are obviously way down. House paint is cheap, but you wouldn't employ a house painter to do a portrait!

I HAVE lost work due to a director or cameraman buying FCP and tackling the job themselves, but they rarely win awards with the result. And the clients ultimately seem to return anyway.