The Zack Arnold Podcast Leveraging Your Skills to Get Hired (When You Don’t Have the Experience) | with Steve Lang, ACE
If there's one story regular listeners of this show have heard a lot, it's the story of how I got my first television editing the #1 show on cable at the time - Burn Notice (having ZERO television experience at the green age of twenty-nine). I tell this story often because it's a great example of how experience doesn't have to be king when it comes to getting jobs. Many of the students in my coaching & mentorship program come to me hoping to make a transition in their career where they have the skills already but they don't have the specific experience. I was in that very same position when I landed my dream job editing Burn Notice.
Here to lend a unique perspective to my “Burn Notice story” is ACE Editor Steve Lang, the catalyst for getting that job. Steve has cut over 120 hours of television in the past 24 years and worked on such shows as The Practice, The Gifted, Preacher, Rectify, and Manifest, to name just a select few. He took an unusual path to becoming an editor having held every role in the post-production department at one point or another. This experience gives him a well-rounded point of view of hiring editors and assistants and best practices for advancing your career...without getting pigeonholed.
This interview has been a long time coming, as I've been trying to get Steve on the show for years!!! Our conversation ended up going so deep that we made it a two-part interview. In this first part, you'll hear how I got the job on Burn Notice from Steve's perspective while also hearing the skills vs experience argument from someone on the hiring side. You'll learn how Steve has managed to jump genres and show formats throughout his career, and why he's always trying to help advance other editors and assistants that prove their worth. And make sure you come back next week for round 2 when we take a deep dive into his philosophy on editor's cuts and the playbook he gives to all his assistants to ensure they get a seat in the editor's chair.
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Here's What You'll Learn:
- Why using the “sniper method” vs. “the shotgun method” helped me get the job on Burn Notice.
- Steve's unusual path to becoming an editor (that included working EVERY role in television post-production).
- How he realized editing was a better fit for him rather than writing, which was his original goal.
- How his path crossed with Russell Crowe and what he learned from him.
- His experience working on The Practice and the opportunities that brought to his career through editing and producing.
- What editors don't understand about the job of being a producer in a post-production department.
- Steve explains his vast and varied resume of seemingly unrelated shows and genres that keep him from getting pigeonholed.
- What he has learned when hiring editors as supervising editor and how he gets people to listen to him.
- The difference between skills and experience and how it's not always the experience that gets you hired.
- How he helped James Wilcox get the job on Genius when he wasn't available for it.
- Why he always wants to share jobs and give recommendations when he's not available for work.
Useful Resources Mentioned:
Continue to Listen & Learn
Ep127: Chasing After the Next Gig vs. Building Your Career | with Kabir Ahktar, ACE
Ep115: How to Be So Thorough You Can’t Be Denied | with James Wilcox, ACE
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Guest Bio:
Steven Lang was born and raised in Stony Brook, New York on Long Island. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1992, but his real education began the six years he spent working at a video store from the age of sixteen to twenty-one. It was there where his love of movies began and planted the seed that the entertainment business was where his passion lies. He moved out to California two weeks after graduating college without a single contact or connection to pursue his dream and never looked back. One of his first industry job was at a TV movie production company that owned their own Avid editing systems and gave him the opportunity to learn his craft. Self-taught, he literately opened up the Avid manual and started from page one. He spent many late nights and weekends learning the system and editing anything he could get his hands on. Eventually, he was given the opportunity to assist on a TV movie, and his editing career was born. Twenty-four years later, Steven has edited over 120 hours of television while working with many of the top Writers/Producers/Directors/Creators in the industry including David E. Kelley, Billy Crystal, David Milch, Steven Bochco, Ridley & Tony Scott, Jerry Bruckheimer, Ray McKinnon, Larry Charles, Ben Watkins, and Matt Nix. He most recently edited the pilot and season 1 for the "Turner & Hooch" reboot for Disney+ directed by McG.
Show Credits:
This episode was edited by Curtis Fritsch, and the show notes were prepared by Debby Germino and published by Glen McNiel.
The original music in the opening and closing of the show is courtesy of Joe Trapanese (who is quite possibly one of the most talented composers on the face of the planet).
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