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Editor · post only, no shooting
The clock starts when the footage lands, not when you email.
Which sounds pedantic until you have watched four hundred gigabytes crawl up a domestic connection for three days. Transfer is the slowest part of most edits and almost nobody plans for it, so start the upload the day you book rather than the day you're ready.
Turnaround
Standard
5 days · from the footage landing
- The normal queue
- Two rounds of changes
- No surcharge
- What most jobs book
Priority
3 days · +30%
- Jumps the queue
- Two rounds, compressed
- Confirmed before you pay anything
- Depends on what's already booked
Overnight
48 hours · +80%
- Everything else stops
- One round of changes
- Only if the footage is already here
- Ring rather than email for this one
Frames from recent cuts. Swap them for your own — an editor's grid works best as stills pulled from finished work rather than as thumbnails of the films themselves.
Getting the footage here
Start the upload the day you book — Not the day you're ready. This single line saves more deadlines than anything else on the page
How long it really takes — Four hundred gigabytes on a typical domestic upload is about three days. Check yours before promising anybody a date
The fastest option is a disk — Posted or dropped off. Over a terabyte it is genuinely quicker than the internet, and that always surprises people
Send proxies first — Low-resolution copies. Cutting can start from those while the originals are still uploading, which often buys back the whole transfer
Don't zip it — It saves almost nothing on video and adds hours at both ends. Send the folders exactly as they are
Tell me when it's finished — Uploads fail silently and half-finished folders look complete. One message at the end prevents a wasted day
How long it really takes — Four hundred gigabytes on a typical domestic upload is about three days. Check yours before promising anybody a date
The fastest option is a disk — Posted or dropped off. Over a terabyte it is genuinely quicker than the internet, and that always surprises people
Send proxies first — Low-resolution copies. Cutting can start from those while the originals are still uploading, which often buys back the whole transfer
Don't zip it — It saves almost nothing on video and adds hours at both ends. Send the folders exactly as they are
Tell me when it's finished — Uploads fail silently and half-finished folders look complete. One message at the end prevents a wasted day
What state to send it in
This is the part that changes the price, and the instinct most people have about it is exactly backwards.
Send the card structure intact — The camera's own folders, untouched. They carry information the files on their own don't
Don't rename anything — A helpfully renamed file is a file that no longer relinks. It is the commonest way a tidy hand-off costs a day instead of saving one
Separate audio stays separate — If sound was recorded on another device, send it as it is and say so. Don't try to sync it first
Include everything — The takes you hate too. Deciding what's usable is the job you're paying for, and the good bit is often in a take somebody wrote off
A note, not a spreadsheet — Two paragraphs on what it's for and what has to be in it. Timecoded notes are welcome and never required
What genuinely saves a day — All of it at once, in the original structure, with one message saying it's complete. That is the entire list
Don't rename anything — A helpfully renamed file is a file that no longer relinks. It is the commonest way a tidy hand-off costs a day instead of saving one
Separate audio stays separate — If sound was recorded on another device, send it as it is and say so. Don't try to sync it first
Include everything — The takes you hate too. Deciding what's usable is the job you're paying for, and the good bit is often in a take somebody wrote off
A note, not a spreadsheet — Two paragraphs on what it's for and what has to be in it. Timecoded notes are welcome and never required
What genuinely saves a day — All of it at once, in the original structure, with one message saying it's complete. That is the entire list
Can you fix it in post?
Sometimes. Here is the honest version, because "we'll fix it in post" is the most expensive sentence anybody says on a shoot day.
Genuinely fixable — Colour, exposure within a stop or two, mild shake, mains hum, a bad cut, a section that drags
Improvable, never fixed — Out of focus, blown highlights, wind noise, a boom in shot. Each of those gets better and none of them gets good
Not touchable at all — A shot nobody took. No edit invents coverage and no amount of budget changes that
Expensive but possible — Removing a logo, a person, or a reflection. Priced by the second, and worth asking about rather than assuming
Cheaper than you'd think — Fixing the sound. A great deal of footage that feels unusable turns out to be fine once the audio stops being awful
What to do instead — Ask before the shoot. Five minutes on a call is cheaper than anything on this list
Improvable, never fixed — Out of focus, blown highlights, wind noise, a boom in shot. Each of those gets better and none of them gets good
Not touchable at all — A shot nobody took. No edit invents coverage and no amount of budget changes that
Expensive but possible — Removing a logo, a person, or a reflection. Priced by the second, and worth asking about rather than assuming
Cheaper than you'd think — Fixing the sound. A great deal of footage that feels unusable turns out to be fine once the audio stops being awful
What to do instead — Ask before the shoot. Five minutes on a call is cheaper than anything on this list
I didn't shoot it, and that matters
I can only cut what exists — That isn't a complaint, it is arithmetic. An edit is limited by the coverage long before it is limited by anything else
A paper edit beforehand — A rough running order written before the shoot day tells whoever is shooting what has to exist. It takes about half an hour
Five minutes with the shooter — Free, and it prevents the commonest problem there is: nobody shot the thing the film needed to open on
If a shot is missing — You'll hear it in the first cut rather than discover it in round two. Sometimes a pickup on a phone genuinely solves it
If the footage can't carry it — You'll be told early and plainly. Cutting a film that cannot work wastes your money and my week equally
What I won't do — Pretend an edit can rescue a shoot that didn't happen. That conversation is uncomfortable once and expensive forever if it's dodged
A paper edit beforehand — A rough running order written before the shoot day tells whoever is shooting what has to exist. It takes about half an hour
Five minutes with the shooter — Free, and it prevents the commonest problem there is: nobody shot the thing the film needed to open on
If a shot is missing — You'll hear it in the first cut rather than discover it in round two. Sometimes a pickup on a phone genuinely solves it
If the footage can't carry it — You'll be told early and plainly. Cutting a film that cannot work wastes your money and my week equally
What I won't do — Pretend an edit can rescue a shoot that didn't happen. That conversation is uncomfortable once and expensive forever if it's dodged
Three ways to be charged, and which is cheaper for you
Hourly · $55 — Best for small jobs and anything genuinely open-ended. It is also the one to question if a job is well defined
Day rate · $380 — Best when a job needs a whole day of continuous attention. Cheaper than hourly past about seven hours
Per project — Quoted from your brief, and the right answer for most work — you know the number before it starts and I carry the risk of it running long
Which I'll suggest — Per project, nearly always, including when hourly would earn more. A surprise invoice costs a client permanently
Retainer · from $900 a month — For anybody publishing weekly. It buys priority in the queue rather than a discount, and priority is what regular publishers actually need
Never charged — Reading your brief, quoting it, or the call where we work out which of these three you want
Day rate · $380 — Best when a job needs a whole day of continuous attention. Cheaper than hourly past about seven hours
Per project — Quoted from your brief, and the right answer for most work — you know the number before it starts and I carry the risk of it running long
Which I'll suggest — Per project, nearly always, including when hourly would earn more. A surprise invoice costs a client permanently
Retainer · from $900 a month — For anybody publishing weekly. It buys priority in the queue rather than a discount, and priority is what regular publishers actually need
Never charged — Reading your brief, quoting it, or the call where we work out which of these three you want
Send a job
Tell me what it is and roughly how much footage there is. You'll get a price and a realistic date — and the date assumes the transfer hasn't started yet, because it usually hasn't.
Send a job
"Not yet" is the most-picked answer to the last question and it is the one that most changes the date. Starting the upload today is free, and it is usually worth more than paying for priority.
Live preview — every color, word and block is editable after you pick it.