What do you think?
Rate this book
Every Frame Counts: An Assistant Editor’s Reference Book
This book, written by an industry expert, covers the duties of an assistant editor over the course of an entire feature film.
Throughout the book, the author provides key insights and advice from years of experience which will help assistant editors hit the ground running, keep up the pace, and continue thinking critically and creatively. The easy-to-navigate structure loosely follows that of the typical job and outlines four Dailies, Director’s Cut, Screenings, and Finishing. Discussed therein are also passages which outline Pre-Production, the first day on the job, preparing for additional photography as well as wrap and archive.
Special features include screenshots, a detailed breakdown of the dailies process as viewed by an assistant editor, a differentiation between the first and second assistant editors and their responsibilities, and a forward-looking technological section opining on emerging technologies. Also included are advanced tips for interacting with Avid Media Composer (the industry standard for non-linear digital editing), editorial-specific use cases for automation using FileMaker Pro, and best practices regarding every aspect of the job
This book is an intermediate resource intended for prospective and current assistant editors entering the modern film and television editorial department.
Throughout the book, the author provides key insights and advice from years of experience which will help assistant editors hit the ground running, keep up the pace, and continue thinking critically and creatively. The easy-to-navigate structure loosely follows that of the typical job and outlines four Dailies, Director’s Cut, Screenings, and Finishing. Discussed therein are also passages which outline Pre-Production, the first day on the job, preparing for additional photography as well as wrap and archive.
Special features include screenshots, a detailed breakdown of the dailies process as viewed by an assistant editor, a differentiation between the first and second assistant editors and their responsibilities, and a forward-looking technological section opining on emerging technologies. Also included are advanced tips for interacting with Avid Media Composer (the industry standard for non-linear digital editing), editorial-specific use cases for automation using FileMaker Pro, and best practices regarding every aspect of the job
This book is an intermediate resource intended for prospective and current assistant editors entering the modern film and television editorial department.
274 pages, Hardcover
Published April 1, 2025
3 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 2, 2025
“If we’re going to be doing the same things repeatedly, we should make sure that we’re doing them in the most streamlined ways possible.” (Jared Simon, P. 213)
Not just a mantra for success in this position of work, but also for life.
Every Frame Counts is an interesting piece of work. A field guide for a peg that fits a very specific shaped hole. But also a peg in part of an intriguing machine that can offer something interesting and useful to most any passerby.
If you’ve ever found yourself interested in movie making, or what it takes to make a Hollywood level film, this is a glimpse into the day to day of the room where it happens. It breaks down the amount of effort and work it takes to create something from nothing. It touches on some of the most important parts of the process, as well as the soft skills that are often overlooked, but remembered forever: attitude, reading the room, relationships, and the reminder that this profession, this life, is exciting and unique.
You can skip over the specific tool guides and codec specs and still gain a meaningful insight into something fascinating.
And if you find yourself specifically in the role of a First Assistant Editor on a live action film, this book serves as a cheat sheet to success, often times giving you step by step instructions as to how best to accomplish certain tasks. I say “best” knowing full well there are a multitude of methods to get to any end result, but it’s completely evident that Jared has put so much thought and expertise behind every step that often times it is in fact the most efficient and elegant solution. This results in me, the reader with over a decade of experience as an Assistant Editor, saying “ooh la la, don’t mind if I do” as I furiously take notes to replace my current workflow with his.
The ‘special sauce’ in most of Jared’s methods is “The Database”, his personally crafted and entirely custom automation metropolis made in FileMaker Pro, which serves as his second brain, his secret weapon, and what separates him from the rest.
But at its heart, it comes back to the quote I referenced at the top of this review. Creating automations or taking the time to learn the shortcuts is key to being a great AE, and this book will serve as enough motivation to create your own and nudge yourself towards greatness.
Either that or reach out and see if Jared is available to work with you on your next project. Both work.
Not just a mantra for success in this position of work, but also for life.
Every Frame Counts is an interesting piece of work. A field guide for a peg that fits a very specific shaped hole. But also a peg in part of an intriguing machine that can offer something interesting and useful to most any passerby.
If you’ve ever found yourself interested in movie making, or what it takes to make a Hollywood level film, this is a glimpse into the day to day of the room where it happens. It breaks down the amount of effort and work it takes to create something from nothing. It touches on some of the most important parts of the process, as well as the soft skills that are often overlooked, but remembered forever: attitude, reading the room, relationships, and the reminder that this profession, this life, is exciting and unique.
You can skip over the specific tool guides and codec specs and still gain a meaningful insight into something fascinating.
And if you find yourself specifically in the role of a First Assistant Editor on a live action film, this book serves as a cheat sheet to success, often times giving you step by step instructions as to how best to accomplish certain tasks. I say “best” knowing full well there are a multitude of methods to get to any end result, but it’s completely evident that Jared has put so much thought and expertise behind every step that often times it is in fact the most efficient and elegant solution. This results in me, the reader with over a decade of experience as an Assistant Editor, saying “ooh la la, don’t mind if I do” as I furiously take notes to replace my current workflow with his.
The ‘special sauce’ in most of Jared’s methods is “The Database”, his personally crafted and entirely custom automation metropolis made in FileMaker Pro, which serves as his second brain, his secret weapon, and what separates him from the rest.
But at its heart, it comes back to the quote I referenced at the top of this review. Creating automations or taking the time to learn the shortcuts is key to being a great AE, and this book will serve as enough motivation to create your own and nudge yourself towards greatness.
Either that or reach out and see if Jared is available to work with you on your next project. Both work.
Displaying 1 of 1 review