How long does video editing take?
What does video editing cost?

Provides answers to questions about "hiring a video editor" and what to expect:

• How long does video editing actually take? (when you hire a professional editor to create your story?)

• What are the costs involved and how will I be charged?

• What are the areas of editing and what are the stages that we will go through?

• Client examples

• How you can help the process and help keep the cost down.

Video Transcript:

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All right, so here's a couple of

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frequently asked questions on timing for

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having a video editor create your video.

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These tend to be the

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questions I hear the most often.

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So one thing would be "how long

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does video editing really take?"

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And based on the last few years of

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projects, a five minute simple video

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typically requires 15

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to 20 hours of work.

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That would include footage organization,

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reviewing the footage,

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sometimes correcting some of the footage,

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audio cleanup, color correction,

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the actual editing and

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story and putting together.

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Then time back and forth

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where I'm saying "here's a draft,

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go take a look at this,

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give me feedback on it."

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I've got easy ways to do that where you

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can type comments right on certain

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points of the video.

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Then there's usually some rounds of

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revision stages that we will work through

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in a video to get to the end.

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So I'm gonna put up in if we quickly go

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through all the stages

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in chronological

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order, we get done sooner.

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If we start a stage,

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move to the next stage, and

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then go back to an earlier stage and then

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go back to an earlier stage,

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it stretches the timeline how long.

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A situation where we spent a month

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getting ready to start the project and

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then they had one more

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quick thing they wanted to do,

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which was a quick 10 second intro and we

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did 25 versions of that.

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So that can obviously slow things down.

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I never know what that's gonna look like.

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Corporate projects

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can take 12 to 40 hours,

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tends to be more decision

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makers, more layers of approval.

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Documentaries could require 100 to 1,000

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hours and that greatly depends.

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I worked with one doc director that was

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flying all over the country interviewing

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people for the film, 30,

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40 different interviews.

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Every time I talked to the director, they

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had interviewed another five or

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ten people.

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So it just kept the

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scope of it, kept expanding.

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I try to just do one at a time so that

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can be fully focused on your project

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while I'm working.

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"How do you charge?"

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Flat fee, hourly, something

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else, a hybrid?" I've tried.

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I typically charge hourly

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with an estimate up front.

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Sending all footage before

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the start of the project and

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having one clear constant

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direction and vision for

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the video can keep the

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timeline and cost more predictable.

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I would say one in a thousand families

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make time to do a legacy video and

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then that might be a

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once in a lifetime event.

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The matriarch of the family died.

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They took an epic trip to India to go put

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ashes in the Ganges and

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they visited a number

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of cities on their way.

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They took 12 friends and family members

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to Bora Bora when there was a milestone

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birthday happening.

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That kind of thing doesn't

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usually happen every year.

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Also with the professional video editing

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requires significant skill,

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equipment and time investment.

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A typical family project is

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two weeks of full time work.

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If you're looking for help with your

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video project for a

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personal family company or

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filmmaker project, I

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enjoy the conversation.

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Even if it's just to help you think

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through what to expect and

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what to prepare for as

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you're getting into your project.

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And my areas that I can help you with are

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in editing, working on the story,

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making sound, visual effects, delivery,

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finishing, all that kind of stuff.

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So let's jump on a Zoom

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call and talk it through.

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Take care.

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[MUSIC]