Advancing with Avid

This spring, 16 students taking Advanced Video Editing are doing high-end editing on Avid Media Composer. Why does this matter?

“Avid is the industry leader for post-production platforms,” says Digital Media Instructor Mark Volkers, adding that approximately 85 percent of what we watch on TV and in theatres is cut on the Avid Media Composer platform. “For students to leave their undergraduate program already proficient in the industry standard puts them ahead of others in their search for jobs.”

And Dordt is the only university in the state of Iowa to have an Avid-certified lab and instructor.

“Dordt students receive rigorous training and become Avid certified, which looks good on their résumés,” says Volkers.

Emma Stoltzfus, who is double-majoring in journalism and digital media, is grateful for the chance to become an Avid-certified user at the end of the Advanced Video Editing course. She is currently preparing for certification and putting together a film reel, which will help as she starts applying for jobs after graduation in May.

“The ultimate goal for my career is to be a storyteller,” she says. “Having a solid understanding of editing will not only help me piece together videos and films but also help my writing and storytelling.”

Dordt digital media majors use both Avid and Adobe products throughout their program. The two platforms have somewhat different uses.
“You probably wouldn’t cut a promotional video for a small business on Avid Media Composer, and you wouldn’t want to cut a feature length film on Adobe Premiere Pro,” explains Gerrit VanDyk, a digital media major. “Each program has strengths and weaknesses for specific scenarios in the digital media field.”

Learning multiple editing platforms and being open to new ideas are important skills for digital media majors to learn while in college.
“As videographers and editors, we need to be willing to adapt, grow, and keep learning at the fast pace our industry is going. Learning Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro not only equips you to do just about any job in any media-related field but also makes you more marketable to potential employers. It puts you ahead of the competition in a highly competitive field,” says VanDyk.

VanDyk appreciates the many opportunities he’s had through Advanced Video Editing and Dordt’s digital media program in general.

“Dordt’s program does a good job of providing a foundation of knowledge from which to build a digital media career, but I think its true strength lies in the connections it helps you to create and the paths it opens up,” says VanDyk. “I don’t think I would have discovered my passion for videography if I didn’t start this degree. I’ve met so many amazing people and actually attracted a surprising amount of freelance work because of this degree.”

Sarah Moss ('10)