By Zack Arnold

Congratulations! You’ve been killing yourself to land your next gig — the endless networking, the cold calls, the résumés and all those interviews have finally paid off. A director or producer has decided that you are the best fit to edit their next project. So you’re done, right? Wrong.

Once you have landed your next gig, your job has only just begun — this is where the hard work really begins. When I land a job, my focus is on building a long-standing relationship with my director and producers so they hire me back time and time again. The larger the pool of people that want to work with you, the less you have to look for work in the future. Landing my job editing the TV series Empire didn’t even require an interview; the gig was handed to me by the showrunner, Ilene Chaiken, based on our previous working relationship.

Here are five things I do after landing a job to ensure I knock it out of the park:

1. Method Editing

Method Editing is a phrase I coined that means immersing yourself in the genre of whatever project you are working on and allowing the tone and rhythm to become second nature… before day one of dailies. The first thing I do is try to get into the brain of the director and understand his (or her) intentions by asking what five to 10 films or TV shows inspired their approach to the material.

Keep in mind, this isn’t just about editing, it’s about the approach to cinematography, performances, music choices, preferred type of score and, most importantly, tone and pacing.

When I land a job on an existing TV show, I devour every previous episode. For example, I watched three straight seasons of Burn Notice — twice — before I even had my interview. Needless to say I landed the job and ended up editing the final four seasons.

This process may take you some time, but the quality of your first cut will be leaps and bounds above other editors your director has worked with in the past, and this will instantly move you to the top of their list.

2. Analyze And Break Down The Script

If the job I’m working on is a narrative project, the next step is breaking down the script. I learned much of my process from Walter Murch, and have since updated the workflow with modern technology. What I used to do is have my assistant print out large index cards of every scene (color coded by story arc) with key scene descriptions and the characters involved. Then I would build a giant wall of those cards so I could visualize the structure of the entire film (and often destroy it by the end of the editor’s cut). Now I use a tool called Trello and build a digital structure map that essentially serves the same purpose.

When you start to hit a point of fatigue and you are cross-eyed trying to figure out where your story is and isn’t working, having this tool is invaluable. If you really want to impress your director or producer, share your digital structure map with them and watch their eyes bulge in amazement.

3. Prepare Your Media and Project Workflows

Once I understand the creative approach to the material and have broken down the script, I will work with my assistant to build our media and project workflows. In Episode 54 of the Fitness In Post podcast, my assistant and I go into every nitty-gritty detail about our workflow at Empire, but the basic gist is that you need a clear organizational system for your media partitions — how you organize raw media and how you organize bins and media files within your project. You also need to come up with a project management system to make sure all tasks and stages of the process can be tracked down to every minute detail. Again, we do all of this in Trello.

The key to getting repeat jobs in this business is being fast, and the easiest way to become a faster editor is to become an organized editor.

4. Establish Clear Communication Guidelines

While I’ll admit this step isn’t as sexy as coming up with cool ways to organize your media or building your digital structure map, I’ll argue that communication guidelines are equally important. You need to establish how (and when) you are going to communicate with your team, because when the bullets start flying, poor communication can lead to errors, missed deadlines and mistakes that cost real money.

I avoid email like the plague, so I clarify with my assistant that any task-related communication will be done via our project management system in Trello. Any simple requests or chit chat can happen via Gchat. I also establish guidelines about when it’s okay (or not okay) to knock on the door. I use the Pomodoro Technique to manage my time, meaning I edit in focused blocks of 50 minutes at once. So I’ve made it known that if my door is closed, unless there is a pressing matter, I would like to receive any correspondence via chat or Trello.

Clear communication guidelines allow you to meet your deadlines quicker with no mistakes along the way, and there’s nothing directors and producers love more than reliability.

5. Prepare Your Mind And Body

This is by far the most important step. Even if you know your director inside and out, you’ve broken down the script to a “t,” your workflow is bulletproof and your communication is flawless, none of that matters if you have no energy and are burned out. I treat any new gig like an athletic event.

Every successful athlete on the planet trains for hours, weeks or months before a game or event, and editing is no different. You may spend weeks or months working long, arduous days in a dark room, but if you want to focus on demand and have the energy to sit with a director or producer for 10 to 14 hours per day, you better have built the routines in advance to take care of yourself.

Here are some routines and habits to develop to ensure you have the stamina to survive:

• Park as far away from the entrance as possible. Take the stairs and not the elevator. You’re not going move a ton during the day, so get activity in while you can. If you struggle to stay active and you’re tired of sitting all day, here are 10 ways you can stay active all day at work without needing to find additional time to exercise.

• Establish morning and evening routines to ensure you get proper sleep every night.

• Create personal guidelines for how you are going to manage your diet. If your office provides lunch and/or dinner, I suggest planning your own meals most of the time so you’re not stuck eating Chinese take-out four nights a week. Nothing will derail your focus and creativity more than crappy food.

Editing is a marathon, not a sprint. You are the most valuable tool in your arsenal, and you need to begin treating yourself as such. There is nothing that will make directors and producers want to hire you again more than always showing up with plenty of energy and having the ability to focus on demand.

If you institute these five steps before starting your next gig, I guarantee you’ll be more prepared than 99 percent of the editors you are competing with for the next job. And if your director and producer love working with you and want to hire you again, you’ll no longer have to compete.

Zack Arnold is a veteran editor currently cutting Fox’s Empire. He also runs the Website Fitness in Post.