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

I went through the most common questions that I get from people who are looking to hire a video editor and tried to provide some straightforward advice.

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

Professional video editing takes 15-20 hours for a typical 5-minute family video. This includes footage organization, reviewing, correcting, audio cleanup, color correction, editing, and story assembly. Then there's time for draft reviews and revision rounds.

If we go through stages chronologically, we finish faster. But when clients jump back to earlier stages repeatedly, timelines stretch. I once did 25 versions of a 10-second intro after spending a month prepping the project.

Corporate projects take 12-40 hours due to multiple decision-makers. Documentaries require 100-1,000 hours depending on scope.

I charge hourly with an upfront estimate. Organized footage and clear vision keep costs predictable. One in a thousand families creates legacy videos—like the family who took an epic trip to India to spread ashes in the Ganges, or another who took 12 people to Bora Bora for a milestone birthday.

Professional video editing requires significant skill, equipment, and time. A typical family project is two weeks of full-time work.

Ready to discuss your project? Let's jump on a Zoom call and talk it through.