I have about 50 hours of footage that's already been shot, it's all organized (by scene, shot, etc) and I'm wondering how exactly do I got about finding a good editor that will have his own equipment? I would like for it to be edited on Final Cut and I would obviously like to see a couple of different cuts of it to see what works best. How are editors usually paid? I've seen $25 for an hour, $350 a day...but does anyone take a flat rate for the entire job? I would like for the editor to be young to understand the humor, and someone who's knowledgeable on editing subtlety in conversations which is what the movie mostly is. What would you guys suggest I go about finding someone like this?
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How much should an editing job cost?
- Thread starter omarzamora
- Start date
You want it good ? fast ? or cheap ? main thing I can offer is find someone who wants the work and is good. A good editor is far better deal for more money than a cheap one w/ so-so results. What is your final goal w/ all that footage ? 50 hours !! that is a LOT of footage, one could work a year on that.
I don't care how long it takes as long as it's good. I would really like them to have experience in editing long dialogue sequences. I just want an accessible, digestible 80 minute feature in the end. I've tried editing it myself but I'm so connected to it where I'm keeping in jokes that don't make sense to anyone else so the main thing is having someone that has a fresh view on the footage and would take advantage of the freedom to work with so many takes and possibilities.
I might suggest putting together a quick youtube vid a few mins of what you do like and show it to editors. You will find prices vary from $2500 and up. Might find lower, the most important thing is to find the right editor. timing is everything. With a lot of footage, there are millions of possibilities. Do you have an outline of what you want ? You would fare best if you have some ideas in hand when approaching someone. Have you thought of sound design ? that is equally important in getting a good finished project. Do you want the editor to do all the sound work ?
Man does this suck. I'm seeing this more and more
and more.
I would love to do something like this and I would do
if for a very low rate. But I am not young. Surprisingly
I can understand humor - I'm just not in the age range.
To answer your question:
Some editors work by the hour. In Los Angles $25 is low
but there are some who will work for that and even less
depending on the project and time frame. A day rate is
also standard; a "day" being 10 hours typically. You will
find editors who will do it for a flat rate. The less experienced
editors may lowball and end up working for $3/$5 per hour
- they don't have the experience to really know how long
it will take. The more experienced editors will usually quote
a higher price because they know from experience that
there will be issues that pop up. A flat rate for the entire
project is risky - but you will find editors willing to do it.
Good luck. Sorry I can't even submit a quote.
Real audio post work can take anywhere from two to ten hours per linear minute. For an 80 minute feature that's 160 hours - what I call a "fix'n'mix" (fix the really bad parts, add the really important sound FX and mix) - to 800 hours, or more if it's an action film. I spent about 700 hours on my last 110 minute feature project.
Your project will only look as good as it sounds.
"Sound is half of the experience."
I'm an editor for hire. I've handled many different production/post/Pre jobs but what I've done primarily for a living for the past 10 years is edit.
I quote jobs by the project all the time, but not without a lot of detailed information and knowing what the footage looks like and the audio sounds like. Good footage is way easier to edit than junk and needs a lot less work to make passable. Lots of aspects can tweak the final price. Also it depends on how many revisions and stuff you'll want.
If you can go through the footage cut out the junk and just give the best takes it will lower the price a lot.
Edit: whoops! Read 500 hours originally, not 50 haha. BIG difference
I quote jobs by the project all the time, but not without a lot of detailed information and knowing what the footage looks like and the audio sounds like. Good footage is way easier to edit than junk and needs a lot less work to make passable. Lots of aspects can tweak the final price. Also it depends on how many revisions and stuff you'll want.
If you can go through the footage cut out the junk and just give the best takes it will lower the price a lot.
Edit: whoops! Read 500 hours originally, not 50 haha. BIG difference
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I have a 8 minute short that I've spent 2 weeks editing... how long is the final project you're looking for? You may have several months of editing on this project between the mental footage ingest (I usually use my tape import time for this) and the actual edit depending on the amount of footage, the amount of usable footage and the length of the final product.
50 hours of footage @ my current day rate ($350) = $1750 just for me to watch the material, then ~2 days / minute of final project to make a decent edit with a script x # of separate edits you expect to see, all at $350/day... a typical project I've done when figured out this way is a 10 minute short with 4 hours of footage and a script and a single edit with revisions:
Ingest = footage amount x 3: 12 hours = 1.5 days
Edit = 14 days
Total for the ingest and edit @ $350 = 15.5 x $350
= $5425 for a 10 minute short
if we consider a feature a series of 10 minute shorts...
a 90 minute feature = $48,825 - 18 weeks ( 4.5 months)
a 110 minute feature = $59,675 - 22 weeks ( 5.5 months )
Never actually crunched the numbers makes me happy to see.
What are the details of your project? Genre, Distro plans, budget, perhaps some screen shots or clips so we can see the quality of the footage and see if someone here would be willing to do the job for less due to the relative value/ quality (reel fodder) of the project.
50 hours of footage @ my current day rate ($350) = $1750 just for me to watch the material, then ~2 days / minute of final project to make a decent edit with a script x # of separate edits you expect to see, all at $350/day... a typical project I've done when figured out this way is a 10 minute short with 4 hours of footage and a script and a single edit with revisions:
Ingest = footage amount x 3: 12 hours = 1.5 days
Edit = 14 days
Total for the ingest and edit @ $350 = 15.5 x $350
= $5425 for a 10 minute short
if we consider a feature a series of 10 minute shorts...
a 90 minute feature = $48,825 - 18 weeks ( 4.5 months)
a 110 minute feature = $59,675 - 22 weeks ( 5.5 months )
Never actually crunched the numbers
makes me happy to see.What are the details of your project? Genre, Distro plans, budget, perhaps some screen shots or clips so we can see the quality of the footage and see if someone here would be willing to do the job for less due to the relative value/ quality (reel fodder) of the project.
Two years editing a feature film here. Grading and color tweaks can take a long time, especially if you're trying to rid the footage of the video look. I'd have to ask $50K to spend the time I spent on my film to do someone else's.
It all depends:
Will they use your system or their own
What format is the video and will proxy clips be needed
how are the clips labeled/organized
IS there a list of what shots are good/bad
Has sound been sync'd or do you need that done also
will the editor be doing audio work
will the editor be doing foley
will they have to do adr
will the editor have to do grading
will there be vfx
is there an outline of how you want it edited
how much of a pain will you be to work with
how much render time will be required
will the editor be exporting final rendered files
those q's and more will have impact on price
Will they use your system or their own
What format is the video and will proxy clips be needed
how are the clips labeled/organized
IS there a list of what shots are good/bad
Has sound been sync'd or do you need that done also
will the editor be doing audio work
will the editor be doing foley
will they have to do adr
will the editor have to do grading
will there be vfx
is there an outline of how you want it edited
how much of a pain will you be to work with
how much render time will be required
will the editor be exporting final rendered files
those q's and more will have impact on price
Basic editing with Final Cut Pro is actually pretty easy to learn -- at least logging clips and editing. If you just learn to log clips and edit it yourself then you can save a LOT of money right there because those two processes are very time consuming.
The more time an editor spends with the footage, the better it can be.
How good do you want it to look? The more money you have, the better it can be. You may trying editing yourself too to get some hands on experience.
An Indie editor or a guy out of film school won't have the same expertise as a seasoned studio editor.
I've heard of Indie editors who charge as little as $200 a day. I learned editing from a seasoned editor who the studios paid $10,000 a day. He left the studios for a while to try his luck with his own post company for Indie filmmakers where he charged $600 a day. He cut deals to work for less for those with limited funds.
He went broke learning Indie filmmakers have next to no money and he had to fold his company and return to Europe to work for a TV network as an in house editor.
Indie filmmakers could learn so much from him. He knew so much. But, he got into a lot of debt with his loans to start his business when Indie filmmakers couldn't pay up.
It is best to try to learn to edit. It's not about the editing software or equipment as much as it is about the editor. The same can be said about a DP. The person behind the equipment should be your first concern before their software and equipment.
How good do you want it to look? The more money you have, the better it can be. You may trying editing yourself too to get some hands on experience.
An Indie editor or a guy out of film school won't have the same expertise as a seasoned studio editor.
I've heard of Indie editors who charge as little as $200 a day. I learned editing from a seasoned editor who the studios paid $10,000 a day. He left the studios for a while to try his luck with his own post company for Indie filmmakers where he charged $600 a day. He cut deals to work for less for those with limited funds.
He went broke learning Indie filmmakers have next to no money and he had to fold his company and return to Europe to work for a TV network as an in house editor.
Indie filmmakers could learn so much from him. He knew so much. But, he got into a lot of debt with his loans to start his business when Indie filmmakers couldn't pay up.
It is best to try to learn to edit. It's not about the editing software or equipment as much as it is about the editor. The same can be said about a DP. The person behind the equipment should be your first concern before their software and equipment.
This isn't true. That means he was making roughly $3m a year as an editor... Most producers don't do that in a year.
Top Hollywood Earners of 2009
Note that number 40 made $13.5 million... and that was Brad Pitt (off backend and what not mind you, but still).
Very, very few people make $10k a day, and nobody would quit a clock in 9-5ish job making $10k daily to try your luck on your own.
$200 is a very cheap indie editor rate, most people bill days at about a 10 hour day in the industry so he's only doing $20 an hour for his time and use of however many thousand dollars of equipment.
$350 is a little more reasonable, and I know guys doing really great work with top of the line gear charging $600-1000 a day. It's usually not on a 2 month project though, just a one or two day thing. When you're working on a project that you dig in for 8 weeks straight, the price comes down.
People often don't think about the gear the editor uses. It's important when paying for time and not by project. A guy may charge you $250 a day to edit slow computer and take 3 days to edit a project because it's loading, rendering, converting, etc and you're paying his time to sit in front of it while it does it. The same guy might charge $600 a day on some higher end gear and finish in a day the same project that took 3 on the old stuff. Maybe a little bit of an extreme example, but still. Worth considering. Especially comes into play with any effects work.
If you're paying by project and you don't care how long it takes him, then the cheap guy on the old gear may work out.
Again, rates aren't set only by gear, but by talent and experience too.
They don't work every day, Paul.
Some editors don't even edit a whole movie. They are part of a group.
His pay varied according to who and what he was editing.
He has the most impressive demo reel I've ever seen. As he told me, his reel gets him work. And, seeing reels from establised post houses, that is saying a lot.
I remember when a DP I was in the room with called out the editor for productions he worked on listed in his resume. I'm talking about Hollywood blockbusters. The editor simply aasked me to hand him Beta SP tapes off his shelf he played for us on his AVID. We saw the time coded versions of the movies. That sure as hell shut up the DP.
Some editors don't even edit a whole movie. They are part of a group.
His pay varied according to who and what he was editing.
He has the most impressive demo reel I've ever seen. As he told me, his reel gets him work. And, seeing reels from establised post houses, that is saying a lot.
I remember when a DP I was in the room with called out the editor for productions he worked on listed in his resume. I'm talking about Hollywood blockbusters. The editor simply aasked me to hand him Beta SP tapes off his shelf he played for us on his AVID. We saw the time coded versions of the movies. That sure as hell shut up the DP.
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