You probably don’t know this, but I really enjoy editing. I’ll never forget the experience of using Steenbeck flatbed editors while doing a summer program before my senior year of high school with the New York Film Academy on UCLA’s campus in 1999.
While cutting one’s own reel presents many challenges and frustrations, I got into the zone and created 4 new reels and updated 2 existing ones over the last few weeks.
Billing changes by Premium Beat partially motivated me to get them all done quickly. When I changed the song for my reel two years ago, they sold each song individually (I paid $49). When I recently revisited their site, I learned that they moved to a subscription model. To my delight, I discovered that I could download lots of songs and the licenses will remain intact after I cancel.
While I acknowledge this can’t be good for the artists on their site, it’s super helpful for filmmakers. Use my referral code “IETESISL” at checkout to get 25% off your first purchase. Having access to stems makes tweaking the track to your liking such a breeze. I can’t imagine doing it any other way.
I had an idea several months ago to make a documentary reel that starts with David Crosby talking about the formation of Crosby, Stills & Nash, and then dropping my favorite CSN song, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, for the montage. After testing it out, having a licensed song that I can safely post on Vimeo/socials without worrying about it getting flagged seemed preferable.
I’d love to hear your feedback on any and all of these.
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