Video Editor

Video Editors take the footage shot over the course of filming and cut it into the final story. Your work helps determine a film’s pace and how the story unfolds: You add emphasis on the most important parts of the story, and use techniques like montages and foreshadowing to steer the viewer’s perceptions of the events taking place.

New digital film editing techniques have all but replaced the old school method of actually cutting and pasting film negatives. Most video editing projects today use professional video software which allows you to change things around, undo mistakes, and organize different edited versions until you find the ones that you like best. You might also work with audio and visual effects that used to strictly be the responsibility of others.

This technology gives you more responsibility and greater artistic control. It also allows you to show your vision to the specialized Dialogue Editors and VFX Editors, who are often hired later, to perfect these aspects of the film.

Your work comes in three stages. For the first, you edit all the footage into a long piece, called the “Editor’s Cut.” Then the Film Director comes in and tells you what they like and don’t like, and from that feedback you work up what is called the “Director’s Cut”. Finally, you bring in the Film Producers and the collaborative vision of the film will become the “Final Cut”, the finished version of the film that will be released to audiences.

Sometimes referred to as “the invisible art,” viewers are less likely to notice your work as you perfect your craft. This is very similar to what a Film Editor does, except that as a Video Editor, you tend to work on smaller productions. If you are creative and detail oriented with a passion for filmmaking, an exciting career as a Video Editor may be just what you are looking for!