Film and Video Editors

AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
56%
risk level
POLLING
43%
Based on 796 votes
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
13.8%
by year 2031
WAGES
$63,520
or $30.54 per hour
Volume
32,080
as of 2022
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
5.2/10

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Automation risk

56% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

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

43% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted they are unsure if this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 56% 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(s) are 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

Very fast growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Film and Video Editors' job openings is expected to rise 13.8% by 2031

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031
Updated projections are due 09-2023.

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2022, the median annual wage for 'Film and Video Editors' was $63,520, or $30 per hour

'Film and Video Editors' were paid 37.2% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $46,310

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2022 there were 32,080 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 4 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

Gabe (No chance) says
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
Nov 15, 2022 at 05:21 PM
Preston (Highly likely) says
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.
Sep 26, 2022 at 07:16 PM
Hritik Sethi (No chance) says
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...
Sep 11, 2022 at 07:12 AM
Omar Guitouni (No chance) says
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.
Apr 23, 2022 at 01:20 AM
Dusty (No chance) says
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
Apr 14, 2021 at 07:17 PM
An Amateur Artist (No chance) says
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.
Mar 03, 2021 at 02:13 PM
Scottie Yang says
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.
Sep 09, 2020 at 07:22 PM
neutralca (Moderate) says
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...
Aug 27, 2020 at 01:36 AM
Philip Lepherd (Low) says
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.
Jul 04, 2020 at 09:25 AM
MultimediaCreative says
There will be significant automation of processes in the next 5 years, seeing what platforms like Tiktok are doing with background replacement & auto- masking its a bit terrifying actually. I think what will become available to everyday people outside of the industry in terms of software will limit willingness to spend on services from industry professionals, making it increasingly difficult to justify rates
May 31, 2020 at 06:40 PM
Jacen (Highly likely) says
Editing is super easy. Computers have the ability to learn
Mar 09, 2020 at 08:10 PM
Josseph Cetraro (Low) says
Unless they develop a program that can do automatically an inspirational and artistic film with the sources we give it, I don't think it's possible.
Oct 30, 2019 at 06:13 AM
Mix-Movie.com says
Can artificial intelligence ever fully replace a human video editor? Jim Tierney, President of Digital Anarchy thinks it's usage may be more assistive than as an outright replacement.
Oct 21, 2019 at 06:05 PM
AI Killed My Grandma says
I back this statement... it's like the AI program in the movie The Final Cut with Robin Williams. It sorts the footage of a humans entire life seen through their own eyes in an insanely cohesive way, but he still has to make the creative decisions.
Jul 29, 2020 at 09:23 PM
Leighton (No chance) says
It won’t be because it needs to be driven, it's a creative thing
Aug 30, 2019 at 11:01 AM
Josseph Cetraro says
I agree but, do you know about thispersondoesnotexist.com? If an AI can do that, it seems easier it to create paintings and stuff, which are strongly related to art. That's a way to begin it sure will take time though. Anyway I think the same as you, too.
Oct 30, 2019 at 06:17 AM
sparksight says
thanks for the advice
Aug 06, 2019 at 03:15 PM
Scott Dingwell says
There is an element of creativity. Other technical aspects could easily be automated.
Apr 01, 2019 at 11:21 PM

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