The 40 Year Old Game Trailer Editor

I thought my 40th birthday was as good a time as any to take a look back at the shape of my career and share some what I've learned not about trailer editing, but a more holistic view of life, work, milestones, etc. You might've been waiting for some insight into game trailer editing this week, but maybe you'll still learn something, or find something relatable.

I think like most people, my school years weren't filled with many if any career aspirations, and frankly I think that's a good thing. I always find it somewhat bewildering when kids know precisely what they want to do as a career or if parents have an idea of what they want their kids to be when they grow up. The closest thing I had was wanting to be a stand up comedian like Dana Carvey whom I enjoyed for his impersonations on Saturday Night Live.

I did do some stand-up comedy via classes I took in NYC and open mics!

Throughout high school I was super into Photography, but didn't have any career aspirations around it. I later majored in Photography my freshman year of college before transferring to Film/TV production after seeing how much fun my friends were having in the program.

My school years and 20s were very much about following the fun and going where the wind blew. In myriad ways I was incredibly privileged to be in a position where I could do this. I had no student loan debts, a family who were supportive in many ways, and also savings; as long as I had a job I wasn't worried about making ends meet. 

My first job out of college was an editor at a fashion video company, but it was incredibly boring (just removing bad camera moves from cat walk fashion videos and then adding dissolves); I left when they stopped paying me on time. I was lucky to reconnect with Giaronomo Productions, the movie trailer house I interned at during college. That's where I learned A LOT over the course of three years, but got rather burned out and then worked a job as an editor at Media Blasters, the anime DVD production house.

I still had no career aspirations. I pretty much felt like I'd failed at the movie trailer industry and was on the "wrong" path, but the job was pretty fun so I didn't care. I later got laid off (and the job was getting steadily worse) and I had about a year of unemployment with some small assistant editor jobs then about half a year at Nintendo Week, a weekly news show that was... pretty bad. At that point I had no clue where I was headed, but later moved to San Diego with my girlfriend at the time because she had an amazing job opportunity and I wasn't tied to anything important.

At this point I was scrounging for work and still had little to no clue what my career was going to be and thought maybe I'd just get any job whatsoever because there were little to no interesting video editing jobs in San Diego. When my girlfriend and I broke up (we're still friends!) that was a big wakeup call which is when I moved to Los Angeles in my early 30s.

I'd say my 30s were all about picking a direction and then sticking with it. I moved to Los Angeles because I knew there were game trailer making agencies there and of course tons of movie trailer houses. I interviewed and applied to a bunch of places by pulling in Giaronomo connections, but I only got a tiny bit of work at one trailer house that was pretty inconsequential. Fortunately, I later got a bunch of freelance work at Hammer Creative where I built up a reel very quickly.

Cut to the end of my 30s and I've made over a hundred trailers for tons of games by developers I hugely love and admire and I'm fortunate enough to be able to be very picky about the projects that I work on. I've also written over 200 newsletter posts about making game trailers, done lots of talks at major industry events, I have a YouTube channel with tutorials, Twitch stream where I critique trailers, I've done consulting work, I have a podcast (I'm probably forgetting something), and I'm still pinching myself thinking of some of the projects I've worked on.

Again, LOTS of luck, privilege, and family financial and emotional support were in no small part responsible for getting me to where I am today and I'm eternally grateful for all of it, which is one reason I've been so eager to share my knowledge. 

Seriously though, where do you go from here!? (Other than Half-Life 3 🤪)

The time up through my 20s were about wandering aimlessly towards fun things and going where the wind blew, my 30s were about finding a direction and going all in on it, and now that I've entered my 40s I think it's time for me to start building something up and giving back even more. What shape that idea will take is still uncertain, but I know I want to create more concrete lessons to help people make game trailers, and I might even want to expand my business a little bit since I'm still a one-person shop who sometimes works with contractors.

There are people in the game trailer industry younger than me who already have companies with staff, but maybe it's my upbringing which makes me very resistant to change and spending money (unless I have a huge amount of savings first). Maybe this has held me back, but everyone has their own path which is right for them, and the last thing I think I should do is make big business decisions because others have done it before or that they're the "right" or "obvious" next step. 

Taking leaps is scary!

The stereotypical image in the United States of someone turning 40 is someone who's past their prime and/or "over the hill." Maybe it's because my career isn't based on physical prowess, but I don't feel like I'm on the decline in the slightest. I feel like a lot of my best work is still ahead of me, and if I can spread my knowledge and expertise even further, there's so much more I can achieve by helping other people. 

Making a trailer I'm really proud of is a great feeling because it's personally fulfilling, I love making developers feel pride in their own work, and to get potential players excited for what might be their new favorite game. But to this day, I often feel most accomplished when people tell me they made their own trailer or discovered a new career after learning tips from me. Going forward I'm definitely trying to help even more people make good trailers in any and every way I can, but I would also love to foster more diversity in the industry. 

I'm going into my 40s excited about what I can do next. I'm not exactly saving lives or changing the world, but I'm in my own little corner of the world trying to do what I do best to make far more change and help even more people!