r/editors

Hey yall!!

I would like some advice. I recently got offered a job to be an assistant editor (I want to work in post) for a 3 month contract with a possibility to be a full time. The producer told me it’s a big chance and most of the time people become full time. I currently live in Monterey and work at the aquarium as an associate producer. I recently got promoted and can work hybrid now. I would make around the same amount of money $1200 a week or 30/hr. I have 12k saved. My partner have been wanting to move to LA for a the past three years and now I have a chance to move and bet on myself.

The problem is one I’m scared of the contract and the job not being totally stable. I don’t like the idea of 3 months I can have no job. Two is waiting until September to move in with my partner and friend. I currently pay no rent and live with my parents an hour south of Monterey so I commute two hours to work. If I take the job then I would look for a room to lease until then.

Should I say fuck it and move to LA to see what happens or keep applying to jobs and see what I get later down the road.

I've been working in post as an AE/Editor mainly in non scripted tv/streaming for the past 20 years. As time has passed and access to editorial toolsets expaned with FCP, Premiere, and Resolve in professional environments beyond Avid, and in the prosumer and consumer markets with more software than any sane person should memorize, it's scary that the line between Assistant Editor and Editor has blurred or not been communicated as being distinct vital skillsets needed for any serious project. Obviousy someone can absolutely wear both hats and on smaller scale productions that can be fine. Though with the rise of "creators" and influncers seeking "editors" and massive shifts in what has been traditional post production as a result of development, preproduction, and production shifts, including preditors for news among many other changes, the previously well defined roles of editor or assistant editor have transformed into abominations of what they once were in many respects outside television, streaming, and film production.

I just started a project last night as an AE somewhere I've been before with some people I've been on projects with previously. One of the other two night assists is known to dislike labeling. They wanted to jump right into stacking and syncing. It's something the other night AE and I have known about for years with this person. It's also what got me to write this post. I'm happy doing any part of the process from ingest through final ouput.

Given all the shifts over time in the industry and the expansion of these skills into other industries, regardless of you being an editor, assistant editor, or something else, is there a particular aspect or set of skills/tasks under the editorial umbrella that you avoid?

Hi all. Lots of Tooaz threads in here but can’t find this specific topic.

I’m editing concert footage, and one of the critical angles is out of focus for one long clip of about 20 minutes. It’s not HORRIBLY out of focus but not usable. The focus is a few feet to the back of the guitarists and is focused on the drummer. The camera is locked on a tripod, and it’s a low-light setting. The musicians are not running around the stage, but there is constant motion. Filmed in 24 fps in 4k. I can deliver in 1080 but planned on a 4k delivery.

Does Topaz - or any other software - have the ability to use AI to try to restore the image? I could cut it to the shorter individual clips of 15-30 seconds to process but would prefer to have the full 20 minutes to choose from.

This seems like a process a little more advanced than simple upscaling.

Any wisdom or guidance you can share from your experience is much appreciated. I’m not afraid to buy a subscription or license and don’t need it to be free. If it is free, even better!

Again, it’s not horribly out of focus, but it is out of focus. I really want to preserve this angle at all costs.

tldr; AE trying to remaster iPhone VFR footage so that it matches the 24 fps MXF proxies that sync with external audio

Hello! Longtime lurker on this and various other subreddits.

System specs: Apple M4 Pro, 14-core (10 performance, 4 efficiency) GPU, 24 GB RAM // Sequoia 15.7.4 in DaVinci Resolve Studio 20.3.2 // Footage specs : Apple ProRes RAW in VFR (intended to be 24 fps), shot on iPhone 17 encoded with Blackmagic Cam 3.2.000045; MXF Proxies are OP-Atom DNxHD 36

The DIT made MXF proxies that I’m able to sync with external audio in the Resolve timeline. However, I have not been able to replicate this when I try to remaster the RAW footage from VFR to CFR.

I read on this thread that it's not possible to recreate because the original footage is VFR, but I wanted to ask if anyone could confirm this?

*Our current solution* is to remaster the files to ProRes 4444 and then create proxies from those. The issue with that is the video still needs to be rate-stretched to match the timing of the external audio (to ~92-93% usually). I saw other solutions suggesting to change the audio rather than video, but attempting that creates a noticeable change in audio quality (tinny-sounding) which is distracting. I also don't want to mess with the timing in multicam cases where one camera retained 24 fps.

Does anyone have (or know someone who's had) personal experience with this issue?

Thanks for reading!

I have a few recurring clients, and recently one asked about my availability; I'm on a 3 month contract June - August, etc, and I told them as such, because I know sometimes they want some all-day availability for notes, turnarounds, etc. It's the sort of thing that I can sometimes fudge and pretend I'm available and just squeeze in the extra hours, and sometimes feel I can't.

I could try to subcontract it to retain the client work, but it starts feeling a little awkward in terms of their expectations that I'm the one doing the high-touch work, not just overseeing, and to the subcontractor depending on the rate I negotiate with them.

Hi, I am a director and just finished shooting a sprawling TV documentary shoot of a delicate and complex subject. I have agreed with my editor to make a shape of the footage from a large linear timeline ( 4-5 hours or so) before she gets it and shapes it into a 50min cut.

I use FCP, she uses Premiere Pro. Is there any tips people have out there to migrate between the two and getting a workable timeline out that I can transfer over to Premiere?

Thanks!

I'm curious if anyone here has edited a trailer for a book author? How do the rates compare to those in the indie film world? And in your experience, were there any issues or considerations that are specific to this kind of trailer?

hello :)

as the title suggests, i'm in a massive creative block right now. tbh it's been nearly 7 years long. for context, i'm a video editor who's been in industry for 5 years and editing for fun for 10+ years. i'm based in the uk so forgive me if you aren't familiar with the uk education system, but i did media/editing from year 10 to year 13 and for a foundation uni degree, and during the foundation year i managed to get a job as an editor. that was 5 years ago and i have had a few different jobs both contract and freelance, and have really expanded my skills, but i don't feel creative at all.

covid happened when i was in sixth form, and on top of that i was already really struggling with my mental health, so my creativity and mental health dwindled away. i barely got through just the foundation year, but since getting the job as an editor i perked up a bit and had some trajectory for the near future.

it's been 5 years now and i am very grateful and proud of where i've gotten to, but i feel so absolutely useless and stuck. i recently started a new job and have just been feeling like i can't even edit. it isn't that the work is hard, but i have 0 motivation or ideas. i've been working in social/corporate these past 5 years and have learnt a lot, but looking back at it all now i realise i haven't explored any personal creative endeavours or indulged in my own work.

it makes me feel like an imposter, like i don't truly enjoy film and editing. my colleagues would have personal work, they'd do some shooting outside of work, edit their tik tok videos, or write scripts for films, whilst i'd just come home and recover. i know people aren't taught how to be creative, but i feel like everyone knows a trick i don't and i feel really stuck. i have a lot more free time now with my new job and want to dedicate it to learning new things and trying some personal projects, but i don't even know where to begin! not to make myself devoid of any blame, but i do think having the mixture of covid during my formative school years + chronic bad mental health + not going to uni and immediately going into corporate video editing (which again i wouldn't change, i am happy this happened i would've hated uni), has made me forget how to create authentically and in a low pressure environment.

i feel very rigid in my processes and unable to give room for error. i'm such a perfectionist i can't fathom trying something and it not being perfect. i want to get out of this mentality and i want to make things, but i can't help but feel like i am just not creative, like i don't want it enough or else i would've been making things all this time. it's super mega imposter syndrome i guess. also i see other great work online and i think 'wow that's so good, maybe i can make something similar', but i feel like anything i make will just be a recreation of something else. i know all art essentially is, but i don't feel like i have unlocked that part of my mind to just think alone without reference or inspiration. is that normal?

but yeah this is a long rant to hopefully open a discussion with other editors who have struggled with things like this and i'd love to hear how others induce creativity and allowed themselves to get back into making things. much love <3

Hey everyone does anyone use ShotPut Pro to backup footage I have a question so I want my premiere pro file to get copied to a certain folder and all my raw media copied to another folder how can I do is so I’m only doing 1 job instead of 2 doing 2 separate jobs like I’m doing right now.

I'm drafting a service agreement and want to know how long is too long or too short. Right now, I have about 5 pages just want to protect myself from falling into problems in the future.

Professional here, been editing for 15+ years, mostly agency, advertising and commercial post house spaces.

Curious everyone’s ratios lately with remote, in-person and hybrid edit sessions? How is that informing your future in post (like are people abandoning big office spaces in favor of wfh?) For the advertising folks (or anyone really)- is there still demand for the cushy in-person post-house experience (drinks, lunch, etc)? 

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about networking and online communities, especially related to video editing and creative work.

I speak Portuguese and can also understand English reasonably well, so I started joining both Brazilian and international communities to improve technically, learn more, and hopefully build connections in the field.

But this made me start wondering about something else:

Is it better to focus on a few genuinely good communities and participate more deeply in them…

or try to be present in as many communities as possible?

Because part of me feels like joining more servers/groups increases the chances of networking and opportunities.

But at the same time, I also feel like it can become overwhelming and superficial — where you’re technically everywhere, but not truly participating anywhere.

I’ve also noticed that networking feels increasingly important in creative fields, especially for people trying to leave traditional jobs and eventually work professionally with something like video editing.

So I feel divided between:

- quality,

- depth,

- consistent presence,

vs

- quantity,

- reach,

- more opportunities.

Another thing is that I’m not sure how much socializing should be “forced” purely for networking purposes.

Of course participating more, helping people, joining calls sometimes, and interacting seems important.

But at the same time, I also prefer more natural connections and communities that genuinely add value.

So I wanted to ask people who already work or grew in creative fields:

Do you think it’s better to focus on a few strong communities or participate in as many as possible?

Hey everyone, had a request today for a short film where the producer asked for separated audio stems exported directly from Avid, one per character group plus atmos, all without music. No AAF, just WAV exports.

A few questions:

1. How common is it to get this kind of request? I assumed they'd want an AAF so their sound editor could work properly, but they just wanted stems.

2. The editor didn't separate the dialogue by character on different tracks everything is mixed together on the same tracks. If that's the case, what's the best workflow to export stems by character? Solo each character's clips and export one at a time? Or is there a smarter way to handle this in Avid?

Thanks!

Don’t know how many people now daily using AI to generate shots. Before, when we shoot real, we still have a script supervisor, or at least the camera models all same, and every day we have shooting plan, so when organizing material and finding shots, it’s more or less easier.

Now using AI to do, a bit collapse. Different people use different AI tools, file names are all mess. And many scenes are generated parallel at the same time, no unified script supervisor or assistant director everyday follow to record.

So organizing material is very waste time. And after watching footage, when finding a shot, just cannot find, clearly in memory saw it before. Now some editing software, looks like content understanding not enough, search cannot find.

So come here to ask for help. Or if anyone has better method, can share. Before when shoot real, the most annoying thing was also organizing material and finding shots. Also cloud cannot do this, because files too big. There is a product called tapnow, has a "pull film" function (I think it means shot-logging), charges by 30s analysis, very expensive, and very slow.

Hope can find a magic tool here!

Thanks ~ guys

Hi friends,

For context: I'm a full-time freelance editor, producer and CD working mainly on commercials, ads and social/web content for companies. Most of what I know I learned on the job: I've never really gone looking for new tools, I just pick something up when a project demands it.

Because of that, I feel like I've been missing out, especially through 2025–2026 with AI moving so fast. Lately I've been vibe coding my own little apps, usually open-source wrappers for frame interpolation or video stabilization, and those things work great so far.

But I get the sense there's a lot more out there. Peers have mentioned tools that can organize footage, or generate a rough cut for certain types of videos, etc.

So my question: does anyone know a good resource, like a blog or a channel, or have personal recommendations for genuinely useful software from the last one to three years that could make editing and video work faster and more efficient?

Examples: Apps assisting with rough cuts, selects process, file organization, editor-client workflows, etc.

My future perspective: I had also been experimenting with things like Remotion, which, on the surface, is a framework that turns web based animations (CSS, Typescript, etc.) into video files. While I think this tech is not super ready yet, it could help with automating creating graphics in my opinion. Basically "vibe motion design".

Thanks a lot ! :)

I have been using WeTransfer for years and never had an issue with accessing the website or a file sent by link, but recently I've been getting loading issues, so much so that it can take up to an hour to simply load the page. It's the only website that seems to have this issue, everything else loads normally, I ran multiple internet speedtests and everything runs has it should. I tried clearing the cache, deactivating browser extensions, private navigation, chrome, edge, firefox, nothing changes.

Has anyone else had a similar issue and how did you fix it ?

busco este tipo de comunidades para buscar inspiración para aprender más sobre la edición de videos, y de los primeros comentarios que veo es gente quejándose porque la Ia les está robando sus trabajos .en verdad lo que daría por tener el mínimo de conocimiento que ustedes tienen y agarrar a la IA de la cola y hacerla mi perra , hay una cantidad de gente haciendo contenido para redes .editando videos para monetizar ,vendiendo cursos porque saben que están un paso adelante. vamos chicos a despabilar un poco

Hey peeps, I'm a starting out videographer and am looking to teach myself how to do proper transitions - there are tons of packages out there but as a photographer background (and my experience with presets or LUTS), I would rather know how and why something behaves the way it does and keep the packages for the future, rather than rely on presets 100% of the time.

With that said, I need you help with the lingo - I would super appreciate it if you could share with me your lists of types of transitions you use in your work religiously and how they are called so I can look them up online and learn how to build them myself.

I'm currently using the free version of Davinci. I plan on shooting all kinds of content - from weddings to corporate networking event to street hype and music/gym videos, so variety is well appreciated.

Frankly I have no clue how hard learning to make them is.

Cheers in advance to everyone chiming in - your help is tremendously appreciated.

Edit: I already understand cuts are more important than transitions. I still want to learn so please input with examples if you have any, thanks.

i know cloud backups are supposed to make things easier but after enough random failed uploads and corrupted transfers i still end up keeping local copies forever lol

especially with larger projects and archives