The company Levitt works for, The Cimarron Group. is where he will eventually be working as a film trailer editor. For now he is starting in the Operations Department, where he picks up and delivers film footage to and from the studios. Plus, he does some freelance editing on the side.
Levitt realized his talent and passion for editing in high school. He started out wanting to direct films, and took a weeklong editing course at The New York Film Academy while in high school, where he edited the projects he directed. There he fell in love with editing and as he got better and more comfortable with it, he decided it was what he wanted to do for a living.
He continued to do a lot of editing in high school and college, mostly on his own projects, and spent his college summers doing a variety of internships. Most of them were editing-related. In fact, he gained a great idea of what is required and expected of professional film editors. He also learned that working at a film marketing company would be a perfect stepping-stone to what he ultimately hopes to do one day, which is to edit feature films.
What Levitt likes most about his job is the feeling of being very much on the inside of the film industry. He enjoys getting to see bits and pieces of big movies before they come out, and walking around the major studio backlots every day to pick up and deliver footage. Levitt expresses that he is not really sure if there's anything he does not like about his job, except for the fact that he would like to be editing feature films eventually.
Furthermore, he admits that all sorts of technologies are changing and all sorts of things about the industry are changing as well. Three-D is the biggest deal these days. The main impact is that audiences will be seeing a lot of Three-D movies coming up which makes a movie in a theater instead of on ones television or computer more of an exciting, special experience. The other major change, which greatly affects people who work in post-production, is the growing number of ways that people watch media. Instead of just seeing things on a movie screen and on television, people (Levitt included) now watch things on DVD, Blu-Ray, on their phones, on portable players, streaming over the Internet and dozens of other ways. Part of what this means is that the people producing movies and television shows have to figure out how to get the most out of every one of these devices, and how to get their media onto as many of them as possible.
In addition, Levitt states that it depends on what exactly one wants to do, but he thinks, “Two golden rules are a) Expose yourself to a lot of the media you hope to create. Aspiring filmmakers should watch tons of movies, aspiring TV types should watch hours of TV, etc. The more you familiarize yourself with the best of the art forms you hope to create, the better you'll be at making it yourself. And b) Get as much practice creating as you can while you're still a student, so you're a step ahead when you try to break in professionally.”
Most schools will present students with some opportunity to practice whatever it is they want to do professionally, and there are many media internships that can give students the connections and experience that will help them later on, states Levitt.
He stresses that experience is important! If one can't get experience creating the type of media they want to create, they should at least find a way to watch others create it and learn how others ARE creating it. He is not sure if there is a best place, but he would certainly recommend getting experience, if it's possible, in the place where one hopes to be working someday, whether it's a certain city or a certain company.
In addition, Levitt thinks modesty can be important. Everyone starts out as the lowest rung on the ladder, so it's important not to think too highly of ones self, regardless of how good one may think they are at what they do. At the same time, it's important to show how enthusiastic one is and how much one wants to do what it is that is expected of them in their profession. Companies do not want to think one wants to just skip straight to what they want to do without putting in the hard work first, but they also want to know how bad they want to be, for example, a writer, director, actor, etc.
Levitt reads Variety every day. He also reads a lot of editing blogs (twenty at his last count) since that is his area of interest. There are usually smaller magazines or at least blogs that cater to specific fields of media.
All in all, Levitt is a very happy hard working individual in Hollywood, California. Whenever I talk to him he is always in a good mood and ready to succeed as a film editor who is ready to put in the work and do what it takes. He made the move from Maryland to California and I believe he has a bright successful future ahead of him.
edited by...
http://www.cimarrongroup.com/
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