Hardware

Mmm, I can denifitely hear a chorus of editors lamenting the slow but inevitable decline of their profession; what was once so complex a manipulation of celluloid is now no more than trivial clicks-n'-drags on a computer screen. But it does go to show that the editor is probably best thought of in the same sense as the camera operator or the sound technician they are craftsmen, highly skilled at what they do but always in the service of the ultimate creative vision, be that the director, producer, whatever. In that sense, I believe the editor is probably just as necessary as ever, as there will always be people better at editing than others, even if the process is so much easier nowadays (and FCP X has replaced our complicated but powerful shears with plastic scissors).And on the subject of command+z I believe whole books could be written on the ridiculously sweeping change the possibility of undo-ing an action has made on the creative world at large. I dabble in music, filmmaking, writing and blogging, and I think I would have given up on all of them long ago were it not for the beautiful invention of undo'!