Livestreaming from Avid Media Composer with editor Jack Brown

Jack Brown is a UK based video editor who has been fascinated with the art of storytelling for as long as he can remember. Originally hailing from Scotland, Brown has channeled his early interests into a burgeoning cutting room career – having filled the roles of Data Wrangler, Assistant Editor, and VFX Editor on projects like Sam Rami’s Ash and the Evil Dead and Guns Akimbo starring Daniel Radcliffe. More recently Brown has transitioned to lead editor cutting the thriller feature film, Northspur and the family comedy TV series, Olga da Polga.

“While I have been working in post and editorial for all of my adult life, I have been fascinated with the art of storytelling for as long as I can remember. I absolutely love working with a director to sculpt how a film is told on screen.”

Sharing with the Avid Community

Passionate about researching developing his own efficient technical workflows, Brown also hosts The Avid Assistant, a YouTube channel focused on teaching and sharing knowledge that might not be covered in film school. The channel has become a great resource for all levels of editors and assistants working on Media Composer.

“I was chatting with a colleague and we realized that most of what we knew, we learned on the job! As much as I loved film school, it's not where I learned the vast majority of my skills. The channel's goal is to be a trusted resource where we can share practical knowledge that we've accumulated from our years in the industry. We want to help our fellow assistants in editorial!”

Finding the Best Remote Workflow

As a workflow specialist Brown is often asked to recommend technical solutions based on each new project’s requirements. More often than not these days, his clients are looking for reliable collaboration solutions so they can work more efficiently from remote locations.

“Working in real-time is a real priority. In fact, it's an essential part of the creative process. I love discussing ideas and trying out new cuts to see what works with immediate results rather than having to wait through multiple reviews for feedback.”

Brown has used review and approval workflows but says this is never ideal. “We can use tools like Frame.io — for example I can export and upload, then get notes, work on them, then resubmit for approval — but we miss out on conversations with the director and the opportunity to bounce ideas off one another.” Brown continues “I love discussing ideas and trying out new cuts to see what works with immediate results rather than having to wait on multiple reviews for feedback.”

After researching many types of services, Brown landed on Louper as his preferred platform for streaming due to its ease of use and reliability. “I've used Louper with multiple clients so far and they've all loved it. Previously we had used WhatsApp for the conference call and Zoom for the screen share. This typically causes all kinds of feedback and latency issues. It’s just clunky.”

“It took me less than 10 minutes to get Louper set up and working and have since found it an invaluable tool for doing remote edits. Louper is simply the best platform I've come across for doing a live edit remotely. It's also spectacular for VFX reviews given that one can annotate on a paused frame. It just works!”

Brown was so impressed with Louper, that he created two unsponsored videos for his YouTube channel. The first video focuses on how to set-up and stream using Media Composer’s built-in NDI tools, while the second is a more general look at remote editorial workflows.

To learn more about Jack Brown, visit jack-edit.com or subscribe to The Avid Assistant on YouTube.