Film and Video Editors

High Risk
62%
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Vote Comments (29)
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AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
72%
(High Risk)
POLLING
53%
(Moderate Risk)
Average: 62%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
4.7%
by year 2033
WAGES
$66,600
or $32.02 per hour
Volume
29,240
as of 2023
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
4.1/10

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Calculated automation risk

72% (High Risk)

High Risk (61-80%): Jobs in this category face a significant threat from automation, as many of their tasks can be easily automated using current or near-future technologies.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some very important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Fine Arts

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Originality

User poll

53% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. However, the automation risk level we have generated suggests a much higher chance of automation: 72% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Film and Video Editors will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?






Sentiment

The following graph is included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Film and Video Editors' job openings is expected to rise 4.7% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031
Updated projections are due 09-2024.

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Film and Video Editors' was $66,600, or $32 per hour

'Film and Video Editors' were paid 38.6% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 29,240 people employed as 'Film and Video Editors' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 5 thousand people are employed as 'Film and Video Editors'.

Job description

Edit moving images on film, video, or other media. May work with a producer or director to organize images for final production. May edit or synchronize soundtracks with images.

SOC Code: 27-4032.00

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Comments

Leave a comment

Kenyon Ladson Jr. (Moderate) 23 days ago
I think that robots will be built to have the knowledge and technical skills to be able to start being capable of editing anything with the most beautiful, highest quality you will ever see in a movie theater. It would be better than ever before. They may just get rid of humans all together.
0 0 Reply
nuts44 (Low) 6 months ago
I work for a film company that does local video editing for companies and movies all over the USA , unless AI software can adapt to network execs, producers and writers constantly changing their minds every other day, then I think the field is safe. I think at some point AI will be able to replace video editors once it gets more complex but I cannot see it happening for 20-30+ years at least.
0 0 Reply
Clee Torres (Moderate) 9 months ago
"good enough" video editing will be the death of video content on the internet, and of most video editing jobs. not all video editors work on netflix shows. high production tv is not in danger of automation
0 0 Reply
Sane-Human-In-Insane-World (Moderate) 1 year ago
Most people on this planet do not understand that 'Video Editing' is NOT just arranging clips on a timeline like in those typical talking heads YouTube videos but basically, it is storytelling in a creative manner.

Think of Film Editing or a Documentary. So many elements like different shots, camera angles, sfx, music, etc. need to be arranged creatively to tell a story in the best possible way. A lot of decision making is involved in every step.
This is purely art form and something which AI cannot replace...yet. Human brain is far more powerful for this type of task.

Repetitive tasks, yes...they can be automated with AI and it will help editors to reach their goal faster.
0 0 Reply
Craig C (Highly likely) 1 year ago
There are already examples of AI systems doing editing. see: Autopod.fm. it's only a matter of time until they are able to do more complex editing projects.
0 1 Reply
Antonio (Uncertain) 1 year ago
I work in post, and unless AI software can adapt to network execs, producers and writers constantly changing their minds on an edit ranging from entire scenes to the most minute of things like a graphic or music placement, then I think the field is safe
0 0 Reply
will previdi (Low) 1 year ago
Different people like different things. Although a lot of the field can be automated away today for short content like where people dont care too much like tiktoks, but as for narrative content, spatial reasoning is a requirement and the computer would have to derive spatial context from video clips.
0 0 Reply
Bob (Uncertain) 1 year ago
I work as a Video Editor, in some ways we already use AI to assist our work but for it to completely replace the role - it could go either way, in my opinion. If AI continues advancing at the speed it is now, with no restrictions from outside parties, AI could definitely replace video editing as well as many other creative positions. If AI is based off a deep learning model of video editing techniques and studying workflows, it is frighteningly possible.
0 0 Reply
Jay (Moderate) 1 year ago
AI will only get better and better.
0 0 Reply
Tyler Thompson (Low) 1 year ago
Yes, you can automate a computer to skim through video and make the correct cuts/put them in sequence, but I highly doubt it will go anywhere any time soon.

Watson made a Horror trailer a decade ago, and we haven't seen another AI cut trailer since then or seen any AI even attempt to make anything longer or more complex than a trailer.

Hey maybe by the time I retire we'll finally see a big, AAA studio AI edited movie, but that would be the entire marketing point and when the movie flops because it's just poorly put together (or hell just not a good movie) the suits will shift all the blame to AI technology, which they'll drop faster than 2D animation and relegate it to the 2060 equivalent of Direct to DvD movies.
0 0 Reply
Shivam Pandey (Low) 1 year ago
Because video editing is a job that involves feelings, we can sense the sound and the story being told.

We also know which clip fits better in a certain place, and which music and sound effect to use in the video.

AI has no emotions or feelings, so there's a very small chance, I think.
0 0 Reply
Gabe (No chance) 2 years ago
Robots aren’t sophisticated enough to put together entire movies, let alone 10 minute big budget films. We’re probably safe until.. let’s say February 2nd, 2222
0 0 Reply
Preston (Highly likely) 2 years ago
We now have somewhat capable AI tools that can generate unique images and seemingly infinite permutations based on spoken or text inputs. The permutations take little time for AI to do on a single-image basis, and eventually, they will be able to do this at one image per 1/24th of a second, or 24 frames per second.

This will be challenging for a while, but eventually, the machine learning will have enough data to be able to reliably do this quickly. It will not replace anyone in Hollywood, except perhaps for certain classes of visual effects artists. However, it will replace over half of the video marketing industry.

As Google releases business-class versions of its Google Assistant that can have a conversation with a small business owner, find out what they want, and generate images and video creative for that business owner to serve in purchased digital advertisements. This will be an included service in order to sell more advertising to people who would have never had the funds to both purchase advertising and hire expensive marketing teams to create digital ads and videos.

Furthermore, the AI will be better at placing these ad buys than any human ever could. Already, we are almost there. And thus, all but the most expensive brands, primarily national brands, will replace their social media person or their small marketing team or even their regional marketing agency with one savvy person whose job it is to talk to an AI and get it to create the ads with the creative assets.

We are five years away from AI being able to create images at 24 frames per second, another two years from those videos being usable, another two years for them to be reliable, and then another one to three years for Google to figure out how to seamlessly integrate these learned machines into their ad platform.

It's not a total, across-the-board AI replacement, but the market for user-generated video will shrink dramatically.
0 0 Reply
Hritik Sethi (No chance) 2 years ago
I don't think video editing is a skill that AI can ever master or even learn cause it requires creativity and anything that requires creativity can be best performed by humans at least for the upcoming 50 years or so...
0 0 Reply
Omar Guitouni (No chance) 2 years ago
I don't think it will be templates to do all the work. Because in the end, it's your vision. A robot can't do it by itself.
0 0 Reply
Dusty (No chance) 3 years ago
I don't think computer will be able to make magic in editing for a long time so for someone working CGI and big films are totally safe
0 0 Reply
An Amateur Artist (No chance) 3 years ago
Art can only be done through approximation and not accuracy. The human mind is the only fit for this job. Except of course rotoscope and other non-thinking jobs can be done by automation.
0 0 Reply
Scottie Yang 4 years ago
There will be a certain percentage that will be automated. Will AI take over the film editor, features, shorts etc, I don’t believe so.

However I do believe AI will take over editing jobs in the digital content space. There’s already services out there doing this. When you need short micro content pieces for social, this is where I see it taking over.
0 0 Reply
neutralca (Moderate) 4 years ago
Within complex implementation infrastructure in back end to illustrate simple interface it is likely to be taken in few years. The huge corporate brands already analyzing how people make videos in TIkTok, Instagram, Youtube and etc. Maybe in 3 or 6 years we will see there will be no necessary need for human effort or creativity to edit and monitor from premier pro or after effects... I am very pessimistic about this...
0 0 Reply
Philip Lepherd (Low) 4 years ago
Many large and small aesthetic choices are made by an editor. An editor can take a story in any direction they wish. AI would not have the emotional intelligence to determine which.
0 0 Reply

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