 Have you ever sat in your editing room spending days looking at the same LCD screen and thought, I could use a change in scenery? But how can you do that if your desktop setup can't grow legs to follow you around? Hey, it's Herman here with Artlist and I want to share some tips for editing away from home. These are lessons that I learned when I had the opportunity to travel but still had editing deadlines to meet. It's also been a great way to support my local coffee shops by continuing my edits there. Probably the best excuse to caffeinate, touch some grass, and fix my vitamin D deficiency. Looking at the same four walls just isn't for me sometimes, so if you've ever felt the same way, I hope these lessons I learned will ease your transition into becoming a digital nomad and just edit on the fly. Speaking of on the fly, I've got to head over to Sydney, Australia to work on this Netflix show, so let's continue our chat over there. I've gone through more laptops than romantic relationships in my life as a video editor and I've learned one thing, good laptops will always last longer. My laptop practically never left my side for this trip and I was at the mercy of this one machine when juggling four different editing projects. I learned to never compromise on a good machine after the time my laptop fried in the middle of a render and I had to get it repaired in a foreign country that I couldn't speak the language of. Top 10's of my traveling nightmares. But what makes a good laptop to use for video editing? Now I'm not the most tech-savvy person and I know how confusing it can be to decipher the cryptic language under the product spec page. However, the two things I've noticed that affect my workflow the most are CPU and RAM. So no matter what brand of laptop that you have your eye on, I recommend making sure that you have the best CPU that you can afford. Now I'm recording this video in 2022, so something equivalent to an Intel i7, Apple M1, or something better for smoother playback on your timeline. RAM helps with this as well and I'd say at least 16 GB will get the job done for most scenarios. Other things to consider are your GPU and your hard drive storage, but GPUs don't actually matter as much as you think for video editing. They help with video effects that you apply onto your clips and can help with playback if you use Nvidia cards, but they don't matter as much as your CPU. Storage has never quite mattered to me because external hard drives have become much, much cheaper over the years and it lets you continue your edit on your desktop when you're home. Everyone has different needs like how big the screen should be or if it can be used for workouts, but I think that CPU and RAM are what you should pay attention to the most for video editing. I love it when they have an espresso machine. The first laptop I used for video editing didn't even come close to the specs that I mentioned previously because your boy wasn't making enough to afford one yet. Even when I upgraded my laptop for traveling gigs, people on my flight would look over at me thinking that I was editing on a lawnmower when I was given really heavy footage. What do you do in these scenarios? The answer is to probably buy another laptop. Okay, that's not really possible unless you run a tech channel, so the other answer is to use proxies. Proxies are low quality video files you edit with that are easier on your machine. This is known as offline editing and it's been many editors go to solution when their setup doesn't look like they're plugging into the matrix. When your edit is done, you just swap your proxies for the original footage before you render your video out. This workflow is proven to reduce intense headaches with no scientific proof except for my personal comparison with Tylenol. I had to edit footage from a red cinema camera on this trip and even on a top of the line laptop, proxies prevented me from experiencing the trauma of my laptop frying again. This is my second day here in Sydney. I landed yesterday in the morning at like 6.30 a.m. so it was really early and so far I've been really enjoying it. In fact, there's a bit of like a culture shock that I'm trying to get over which is that everyone's driving on the left side as opposed to the right side. By yesterday I got to meet up with some friends that have been looking forward to meeting for a long time. It was a very satisfying moment. Something I did early on as an editor was use whatever I already owned to cut corners because, hey, my wallet is pretty malnourished after buying a laptop. But after years of just using a school bag or everyday bag for my film equipment and laptop, I realized how frustrating it was rummaging through my bag to find things. It has been my fastest way to grow white hair and finding things in a bag shouldn't feel like trying to find white hair in a snowstorm. Weird analogy. So I highly encourage you getting a backpack with a designated laptop pocket and, if possible, dividers for your other equipment. This trip was the first time I got to use my new backpack and it was really convenient opening it up during my airport security check where they will always ask you to take out your laptop. Thankfully, I wasn't asked to dissect my entire bag this time, which is a painful experience that used to happen a lot. That was my first time going through security without them opening up my bags. So that's nice. Digging through my bag just to explain my H4N audio recorder isn't an explosive trigger, isn't something you should go through. That's this guy here. They asked me in Mandarin what this was and I did not know how to say audio recorder. So I hope this tip is something that you won't neglect like I did because you deserve to keep your hair color the way you want it. 39 grams of sugar. My new best friend's gonna be diabetes. Oh, this is good. There's a little kangaroo on it so you can't hate it. Once upon a time, I woke up and I felt some pain in my back and my neck and I thought it's kind of weird. Hope it goes away. It never went away. Growing up, I had this habit of hunching over a lot and this was magnified when I would spend hours editing on a laptop in my hotel room. You know, it's recommended to have good posture when you're facing a computer for long periods of time and it's easy to adjust the height of a monitor but not so much when it's attached to your keyboard. That is when I discovered the wonders of having a laptop stand. These things help lift up your laptop so that you don't have to shrivel up like a shrimp while you're editing. During this trip, I would never use my laptop without a stand and I've only realized now that I didn't complain once about my back after editing for hours. I've only complained about my back after carrying my camera in really weird ways. There are a lot of options now that are incredibly thin and durable that can be packed right next to your laptop without taking up any extra space. Save yourself some money from seeing a chiropractor and grab one of these for your mobile workstation. All right, today we are trying the Tim Tam slam in which you take a Tim Tam, you bite off the corners of each corner and then you use the biscuit as a straw for your desired hot beverage in this case a nice americano. It sounds so silly but we're gonna try it. It works? Oh my gosh. When I first started editing away from home, one of the most frequent problems I had was not being able to access files that my client would need. Whether it was a photo, graphic, or sound effect, I just couldn't possibly keep everything with me. So I would have to ask my roommate to log on to my computer, send me the file so that I can send it to the clients. Oh so that's why I don't have a roommate anymore. But I learned the solution to this was simply to have some form of online storage. For me, Google Drive has had me on a leash for the longest time because I personally feel like it's the most intuitive to use. Now I've been getting away with just their free plan over the years but recently I decided to just buy more storage from them. This has been a lifesaver on my Australia trip because I've been working on this narrative piece that required me to upload raw footage for a VFX artist to work on. So I was able to just let it upload while I stepped out to discover the variety of birds I've never seen before. They call this one a bin chicken and that beak is longer than the time it took me to finally upgrade my online storage. Now just like the shirt that I'm wearing, there's no one size fits all. So I encourage you to shop around and compare plans for different cloud storage platforms. It might just feel like a luxury at first but if you're using it to make a living, I don't think having access to important files should be considered a luxury. Convenience is not a luxury when it comes to work. It's a tool to not have your roommate leave you. Please come back if you're watching this. I am so lonely. Speaking of convenience, the most convenient thing I have ever done is change the music after finishing an edit. Said no one ever. But the reality is your client might ask you to change the music no matter where you are in the world and it's usually the last thing I want to worry about. In fact, it happened during this trip and had to quickly find new music for a deadline that was the same day. To pour more salt on the wound, I used to buy single use music tracks. That means that if the music needed to be changed, I'd have to buy a new music track entirely again. That didn't just hurt my wallet, but also my confidence in having good taste in music. Thankfully, music subscription platforms like Artlist made it really convenient to always have high quality music to edit with. Instead of buying the license to a single music track, their subscription service lets me download unlimited songs from their platform. So if I need to find new music, there's no additional cost from my pocket. I've also learned that it's an amazing way to find music on the fly when you're away from your computer. You can actually browse their music library on your phone, listen to the songs, and then save your favorite tracks to download later. It's been such a great way to stay productive while I'm riding in Uber, sitting at an airport, or waiting for my McDonald's order. Yes, this is how they serve it at the airport in Sydney. Stock footage has also been a lifesaver for me when my clients would request a certain shot in the edit, but I don't have a camera on me or I don't have access to a studio. One of the edits I worked on during this trip needed this establishing shot of France, which I didn't have. Not only was I not in France, arranging a drone shot can be a little bit tricky. So I looked for something I could use on art grids, which has been amazing for letting me download anything I need no matter where I am in the world. Again, convenience is not a luxury when it comes to work. The last and most important lesson I learned while editing away from home was remembering to enjoy my time there. When I was overseas, I spent a lot of long nights editing in my hotel room trying to meet my deadlines. And although deadlines shouldn't be missed, you also don't want to miss the experiences you may never have again. I didn't used to like taking photos when I traveled, but it encouraged me to explore more and have irreplaceable memories to look back on. Coming from someone very introverted, even just asking your taxi driver how their day is going or going to a restaurant around where you're staying is a great chance to experience a different culture. Actually, talking to my Uber driver was how I learned about the local restaurants to try. Whether I'm in another country across the globe or just at a local coffee shop away from home, I'll make sure to at least try their staple foods and snacks. Hi, my name is Herman and I'm addicted to Tim Tams. There you go. A few lessons and tips I learned while editing away from home. As an editor, I've embraced my fate of probably spending more time staring at an LCD screen than doing anything else in my life. But getting to choose where I do it has been liberating. Video editing has come such a long way from giving us better machines, to getting new platforms for convenience. I hope watching this video reminds you that you don't have to feel physically trapped. For me, it's been nice having the option to look up once in a while and just remind myself that this is the world I'm editing stories for. Let us know which tip you're excited to try in the comments below and make sure to subscribe to the Artless Channel if you want to see more videos like this. Thank you all for watching and I'll see you all in the next one.