Most skilled editors working in Reality, Ads and Features make good money. However most people dont start making $700+/day.
I started making $160/day and after a decade now charge $800/day + kit fee.
Studios have definitely reigned things in, in terms of the kit fee (since they provide most of your equipment) but they also usually want their Avid air-gapped from the internet. But they also want to be in contact with you, so they'll usually pay you $25-$50/wk for your personal laptop.
Music editors get away with more.
That said, you bill however you want to bill (in freelance) if you don't think you can command $3000/wk for your work, charge $2700/wk and then $300/wk for your equipment (you better have good equipment).
My next show will be remote but they'll be providing equipment.
However, I'm more concerned with getting a location/office fee. Since both my wife and I are working at home I'm considering renting an office space nearby - this show is pretty demanding so I want to minimize distraction.
Is it conceivable to simply hand off the office rent to production?
I’m not sure what scale of a project you’re starting on but in my opinion, that’s something that should be covered by production. Unless this was a project that wasn’t going to be green-lit without remote work, they planned on spending the money people in a post facility.
It’s definitely a conversation worth having - but it may prompt the question “well if you’re just gonna work in an office, why don’t you just come into the studio/office?”
In lieu of bringing up an office rental, it might be worth talking compensation for electricity (if you’ve got a full Avid rig - 2 monitors, output box and calibrated monitor, speakers , Mac Pro or big PC, that can easily draw 1 kw of power - that adds up) or for your internet, or even compensation for disrupting your home life.
You should charge for your machine / apps / electricity. That's besides your rate as a skilled editor. If you charge 30/h and use your own equipment and own space and utilities, you're really making like 15/h (just a guess) just off your skills, while your employer/client saves on computers, office space, apps and licensing, IT department etc.
Online work is very different from offline creative. Hell... most people can offline on a macbook with a decent pair of speakers. Once you get into all the hardware needed for a proper online (scopes, calibrated monitors, frame rate converters etc) then it deserves a fair rate
I bet covid will have some effect on that. On my last tv show I used my own system and got 300/ week. Our next season is starting soon, working from home and we are getting 600.
YES.
An editor isn’t an IT person. If you use your own gear that comes with another job. Plus your gear’s life is finite. You will need to replace it or upgrade it to keep up with the industry. Whereas if you were not using it for editing, it’d probably last much longer and be much cheaper.
Charge for that stuff.
I was trained to believe this was normal too. It isnt. I wouldnt be surprised if that same studio actually did charge for equipment, then turn around and repeat the same old line: "it'd be great if you could bring your own computer...".
It's not normal. Im not even saying charge for it as a line item, but consider it in your fee. Otherwise you're just lying to yourself. You'll have to pay for your next hardware purchase with actual money.
Sports gigs probably have shit schedule, no? Most games end late in the evening and are often on the weekend. To get that fast turnaround time you’re working as soon as the game ends.
Eh not really, I work as a sports editor. Other than doing events like the Super Bowl or World Cup, my hours tend to be 9-5. We're cutting features, promos, music videos, teasers during the day. Just have to be insanely quick and versatile.
Dang - I could actually do this to a good standard with another two/three years of experience.
I've actually jumped into a Producer role because... good pay.
The hardest part is usually getting in and then fitting in. Most people are technically capable. I've seen very few editors that weren't able to handle it technically. I've seen many more lose their freelance contracts because they don't fit in, have a temperament issues, or able to take control of their edit bay.
It depends on the network you’re working with, resources, and budgets for the various leagues they own the rights to.
For instance, our NFL broadcast has every thing sent to color and mix. You’re expected to be able to do your own graphics, but usually with big budget events you have your graphics team. So you’re mostly expected to be a standard editor while being your own assistant. Multi-cam, sound synch, brolls, and create a polished edit of about 1-3 minutes in usually one 8 hour shift.
Most events don’t have this. So you need to do a basic mix, sometimes in 5.1, clean up audio and noise is important as well as knowing when/how to incorporate SFX. Cut down your own music. You’re expected to come in every day and be creative. Create your own graphics, CC, create a style. 99% of the time I’m given 1 day to create all of this. Whether it’s the opening tease for World Cup or an interview for PBC.
But the most important skill, isn’t technical. There are so many technically skilled people, but editing is as much personable as it technical. You have to know how to produce your edit bay. Take control of the room. All while still being an enjoyable person to be around. I usually find edit bays to be more like therapy rooms. Similar to make up artists on set.
I'm full-time with a baseball team. During the season, schedule is absolutely shit. 10-5 + games/other events, salary, no OT. I'm on the lower end of the totem pole in an incredibly small department but pay isn't great regardless. That being said, I enjoy the job so much that it's worth it for the time being.
Winning or being nominated for a prime award definitely boosts your pay significantly. If you've been nominated for anything of value, talk that up no matter what.
Girlfriend cuts social content for a corporation and clears 130k/yr. it’s pretty mind numbing stuff and not at all what we went to film school for but it’s good money.
Yep, it all depends on the overall budget (and for a big corp, their budget is huge). I knew a cutter who worked inhouse for Dupont and never got to make sexy adds for TV but got paid very well for really high end corporate communications.
A) be in a big market with corporations big enough to pay these salaries to editors (major cities, specifically NY & LA, but any major metro has these corporate offices; I’ve also heard Vancouver is a good city to be in post). Working from home has expanded your options a bit too.
B) start off with a humble title of AE/assistant/junior editor.
C) commit to it for many years.
D) double your chances of getting lucky by knowing after effects and resolve.
She did all of these things except option D.
Feels like video editing is one of the biggest growing job markets thanks to social media. The problem is most people don’t want to work on the work she does. It’s not sexy. It’s not really “fun.” And it doesn’t fit in anywhere in a demo reel.
It’s like the office jobs of the editing world. Most people want to work on sexy branded spots or music videos at agencies or cool companies, but the truth is those jobs are hard to find, extremely nepotistic, and in my experience the pay can suck.
I might be an odd person out, but I'd be very content doing what your girlfriend does for that kind of pay. The 'fun' stuff can quickly become not fun when the hours are long, turnarounds tight, expectations are high, and pay sucks,
Currently charging $75/hr for pre and post production of corporate training videos and commercials, but that’s ‘full stack’ aka I do sound, color, basic mograph, etc. (I own/operate a small production company)
Same here, exactly.
It's taken time to have qualified conversations at that rate but I continually teach myself new things and feel that motion graphics + conceriege service makes the rate a value.
I feel you man. But it’s the name of the game these days, you gotta be a phenom at every aspect of post or “have a guy” that can pick up where you can’t put it down. Basic mograph skills are important to have, but networking with folks that can fill the gaps you can’t on a clients project is critical.
Absolutely man! I use a lot of my free time to kick back, relax, roll a j, and watch a few hundred more hours of YouTube tutorials. That combined with unbeatable turnaround times have kept clients coming back often.
True enough. Highest my rate got to before taking a salaried gig was $60/hr, which was just fine by me. Just noticing that as I look around at jobs, there’s a whole lot more underpaid ones these days. Like, grossly. I think there’s always been a problem of creative industries like ours being devalued by corporate clients, but some of the numbers I see blow my mind. I know, the next line is “well then they’re a shitty client you don’t want to work for”, but I mean it more as a general temperature check across this section of production. Also, this last year has pretty much negated any of my previous standards for employment.
You’re not wrong at all. It’s common that creative jobs are massively undervalued because “we should feel lucky” to do this kind of work. I spent a decade as both a corporate band and touring band musician and those experiences prepared me to be the hard-ass I need to be sometimes when dealing with clients. Sometimes we gotta work the jobs we gotta work and that’s ok. We gotta eat! But I find that having a well navigated discussion with the client that leaves them with the feeling “shit, I gotta hire this guy or else I’m gonna be disappointed in anyone else I hire.” is the single most valuable skill to have. Regardless if that sentiment is true or not. Is it manipulative? Yes, but so is my and everyone else’s marketing. 😂
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An editor who comes on to a feature film as a fixer - to re-cut a film that is already well into it's calendar for cutting, but the producers/director/studio hate it and are desperate to try something new - can make north of $20,000/week.
Your only task is to cut the picture. You are not being paid for technical know-how, no-one expects any motion graphics, you just re-cut the film . You're paid for the art of film editing.
You get this job by having a relationship with a studio, the producers, or the director, and usually have an Oscar or two.
Most of the people who do this live in either LA or to a lesser extent NYC.
That's the dream. It works in Trailers and the Advertising world too. But instead of coming in to fix something, they mismanage their time and ask you to put together a trailer/ad campaign in 3-5 days for $15K.
Lol. This isn’t really a job you can work towards with intention though. There aren’t really editors that are purely “fixers”...Editors at that level sign on to edit the entire film from the beginning typically.
Not with that attitude!
You’re correct that there aren’t many editors who exclusively work as ‘fixers’, though there are a few. Generally, an editor who gets this kind of pay as a fixer commands a pretty high rate on films they work on from the start, but they get a premium when they come in to “fix” another project. We all know how annoying/challenging it is to start in the middle of someone else’s work, so that does and should cost more.
My point was that that work is somewhat situational....a lot moreso than it is a feasible career on its own.
Seemed like OP was looking for some actionable career advice so they can get move over to a corner of editing with more $$$
Just trying to differentiate the kind of work you can “fall into” vs work hard towards (for OP) is all!
Trailer editor in LA - $500-$700/day depending on the client. I feel like I’m on the low end, but can be hard figuring out what other freelancers are actually making versus what they say their rate is.
Yeah even on this sub and actually likely in this thread there are people saying numbers that they *have* made at one point or another but make less money than that more often that not.
Saying you're a £1500 a day editor doesnt make any sense if you're paid half that for 90% of the jobs you take on.
That's definitely on the base side for trailer editors. I'd be looking to up your base now to $700-900. My absolute base rate is $750/day for 8/hour with OT 1.5x for the 8-10th hour and 2x for anything past 10hr work days.
Sure, they take a percentage of my creative fee. But you have operational fees even as a freelance. This way, those fees are just consolidated under one roof.
Same here. And yes, it's been a grind.
One of the bigger pieces of advice I give starting editors (or stalled editors) is to remember that you're a vendor, not a creator. Put as much time into building relationships with directors/creatives/producers/show runners/production companies as you do into developing your craft.
There are no editors making well into six figures (and beyond) annually that don't actively cultivate relationships. That's the first question any post house is going to ask... "who do you cut for?"
I was cutting ads freelance for 6 years before i got picked up by a post house, that's when my rates got crazy. As a freelance editor my average day rate was anywhere from $700 to $1300.
Both, but i prefer Premiere. With Premiere i feel the program disappears and i can just flow. I'm not as comfortable with Avid so i'm pretty clunky on it.
I work in reality TV in LA. I am what would be considered an "A-list" editor. I would also be considered by most to be a "preditor" as lame as the name is. Basically, my skillset is a strong mix of technical knowledge, storytelling expertise, musical expertise, sound design expertise, experience in many genres, workflow expertise, graphics ability, producing/writing ability.
My standard rate is $4500/wk for five 10 hour days (roughly $90/hour). There are editors who make more than I do but many of them kind of have to be willing to hold out and refuse work based on rate which I am less inclined to do.
I built my reputation through many years of successful working relationships where I sacrificed much of my life, honed my craft, and proved my abilities and creativity under difficult or seemingly impossible constraints.
On this note there are increasingly studios working entirely remote. People remote into cloud-workstations which are locally attached to a high-speed RAID in a server rack.
My experience cutting remote has been a bit difficult with lag, even if the ping is \~15ms. Audio has weird delays and slips out of sync....
But I think the tech is there, with dedicated internet lanes to the cloud racks... there could be huge savings getting editors working from home.
That said, television is so fast and tight, no one has time for uploads and it's just generally very collaborative in the moment. I see those staying at post houses.
No idea. I very much wish I knew so that I could plan for the future. Nothing would make me happier than leaving LA for more quality of life for the dollar. But I could see things going straight back into the office in 2022. Then I might find more and more difficulty getting hired for supervising gigs or finishing gigs if I'm strictly remote which would drive my rate down.
THere's a lot more remote work but for high end stuff the brass is going to want to be in the room with you. Which is good for you as well, face time with people directly is massive in networking.
Commercials. Especially broadcast. They will demand long hours, taking a lot of finesse, but little creativity, and bludgeon your soul with viscous loop of trivial client notes and feedback but goddamn do they pay. The most i have made is 3k per day on commercial but it definitely goes higher.
The rate depends on the $ your clients bring in. My last normal staff gig working for others I wAs the only flame guy in a commercial post house with 11 avids, a big cg department, audio and animation. Oh and two flames in two cities 1500 miles apart (got a lot of flights in).
The flames were literally 80% plus of the company’s turnover. Biggest ads were over 1 million bucks gross and 75% margin and I did all the government election ads at 2.5k a day for 5 months.
My salary was 150k basic plus I got 15% of room net. Got a bit done over on the profit share but I was clearing 300k after tax on an average 90 ish hours a week of 16 hr days with a crash day or early finish on a couple. Most weeks there was one overnighter, and one election I slept at work for a month on call:)
The job after that I worked for free but got 1/3 of room gross. That was much more profitable but again depended 100% on my client list. After that I just bought all my own stuff (again) and make less but don’t work 100 hour weeks too often - though finished at 3 am last night and am started again this morning at 7:30.
I work for a studio...what their day rate is for me vs what I take home are two very different numbers. but I value the stability, benefits...perks of working in a collaborative, fun and supportive environment...most of all I have a support staff of producers doing all the grown-up work of sales, scheduling, billing. Could I make x2+ more freelancing? Maybe...but I’m good :)
Heck yeah, full time salaried employee here, in government. I don’t have to schedule, I don’t have to bill anyone, taxes are almost done for me, I get matching contributions to retirement, I get paid the same every two week no matter how much actual edit work I do or don’t do. There’s an office I can go to (covid makes this weird but whatever). I don’t pay for software. And I’ll say I’m getting 6 figures in salary... All in all it’s pretty sweet. Freelancing and having to be a damn businessman and hiring tax experts and an accountant to make sure I’m on the up and up with the IRS and however I can set aside retirement...that seems like a hassle and a half. Nuts to that.
Am I working on anything nearly as sexy as a super bowl commercial or a hit nexflix movie that 11 million people will watch and talk about? No. But I’m ain’t mad at my life right now.
Thanks for this. Went to bed feeling depressed as hell from reading the rates people are getting but then remembered that there's tons of perks with having a long term contract that allows me breaks in between projects. In the same boat as you - salaried, benefits and not having to worry about a lot of things come tax time. Like you said, not as sexy but I'm comfortable.
Learn graphics, do corporate. I live in Not LA/NY/CHI and do $70 an hour, $700 days. More important beyond "do corporate" is "do a good job". That sounds reductive, but if you're good at your job and you save people's asses all the time, you can say just about any number and they'll pay it if you're worth it. It's all word of mouth and what we do is unique enough that people that can't do it think it's magic.
I don't mean you need to be an animator on top of editing but if you can be a post machine/have genuine competency across post production then you can pull those rates easy. I know several people who STINK at post that charge $70+ and they get hired. I mean folks I wouldn't hire unless I was in a pinch, they charge similarly to me at $70.
If you wanna make movies and TV - god knows, I definitely don't. But I will admit I'm shocked at all of these LA-based comments saying no one makes $700 a day. I make that, and not one client has even winced at it. If they really need help, they'll pay whatever you ask. You wouldn't believe how low maintenance my workflow can be living in TN making $700 a day on corporate clients. If you can put your head down and get work done, you'll make money.
I am an editor and has spent the last 2 years busting my ass learning animation. Do u sell ur self as an editor w animation skills or vice versa?? Also whats a good starting rate for someone who does both 600 a day?
I refer to myself as an “editor/motion designer” and sometimes use the term animator instead of motion designer because corporate clients seem to only know that term.
As far as what I sell myself as, I really just show for “guy who does videos who does a good job” and most of my corporate clients only really think like that. Hell, most of the time a corporate client asks for an animation, they point at an interactive webpage. Clients just don’t know what words mean haha.
When it comes to presenting myself to other video people, I usually just say I know premiere and after effects and say that I “do post” and ask them what they need.
I will say that if you’ve busted your ass to add AE to your repertoire, you should make it super clear to people that you know AE. Since the pandemic, requests for animations have gone WAY up, and most edits right now are garbage zoom edits that anyone could do and it’ll look the same. If you can get yourself to a point where you think you could design, storyboard, and animate a :30-2min explainer all on your own in a reasonable turn around time, then tell people you’re an animator
For rate, it’s kind of impossible to say without seeing your work. I think if you’re solid but green, 40-50 an hour is solid. But if your work really stinks and your hours are way high and you ask for 50 an hour, that’s a bad look. If this is your primary source of income, I encourage you to look at your finances and figure out what hourly rate would help YOU get through your life the way you want to. If you realize you need 70 an hour to do what you want to do, then that’s your goal and you can evaluate your own skills to be like “am I worth 70 right now? Could I ask for that with a straight face? If not, how can I get there?”
Good luck man! You’ll be fine.
Yeah animation can be a broad spectrum, just be mindful both in the jobs you're applying for -- be sure of what their asking and be aware of how you're advertising yourself.
I see it like this, if you advertise yourself as an Editor/Motion Designer, you're proficient with After Effects and *maybe* some light Cinema 4D skills (although you may get away with VideoCopilot's awesome Element 3D plugin in After Effects).
If you're using 3D programs like Cinema 4D/Blender on the regular, you're more of a 3D Modeler/Animator.
Where’d you learn to get good at motion graphics? That’s just next foray, as right now I’m using basic mogrts lol. Any tips or tricks u can lend?
https://youtu.be/llGUGFTNlJg
Btw this is my work, at least most recent. I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out how to translate it into real money, so anything u can offer on that front too would be incredible.
I really, truly think the School of Motion classes are excellent. They are a shit load of work and to complete just one was more work and required more effort than every single post class I took in college by a lot. If you take 2-3 of their courses, you will be capable of making solid corporate animations and motion graphics. They are expensive though, $1k per class for most, so it’s not a cheap option. But if you score one $3k project, it’ll pay for itself.
If budgets an issue then go on YouTube and watch every single video copilot video and learn as much as possible from Andrew Kramer. Then I encourage you to dream stuff up that you think would be fun to make, and then figure out how to make that thing by searching different tuts on YouTube until it’s looking good.
Beyond anything else, the best way to get better is to just practice. So take on as much work as you can with graphics needs that you feel comfortable with and then just keeping grinding. Lower third>lower third>outro isn’t sexy but it is one foot in front of the other. Just being in after effects every day and doing *something* is great practice and will get you further along. And take the occasional risk - take on a project that needs character rigging, even if you don’t know how to character rig. Just make sure the schedule of the project gives you time to teach it to yourself and get the animation to a professional looking level, and then don’t charge the client for the 40 hours you spent teaching yourself character rigging. Bill them 8 hours or whatever it would have taken you to do had you already known the skill.
Hey I just saw the link you posted. Looks good! I think the edit is fine and an 8+ minute video is nothing to sneeze at - that's a lot of time to maintain a story. A lot of editing is just keeping your head on straight with so many variables and so much footage. I always find it hard to describe how, like for your example, this video may BE 8 minutes long but I have a full hour of footage/context/soundbites locked into my brain. That way when a client hits back and asks for something specific like, "does anyone mention X?" you know that you've got that and you know where it is. This can be achieved by just paying attention, but if you really want to organize you can use label colors and markers and stuff like that to help organize your timelines so that when you go to update the story you can really quickly plop in new soundbites.
As far as graphics tips go, lets look at that video for some great opportunities to learn and add a little jus to the video. For example, that logo graphic at :52. That is a great opportunity to add some animation to that logo design so that instead of just fading in, it does any number of things to animate on. I am betting that, because of how life works, you didn't get the .ai file for that logo and it's just a PNG or something, so you don't have layers. ALWAYS ask your client for the actual design file for the logo (it exists! someone had to design the damn thing! it's probably in someone's downloads folder or something stupid, but that's their problem. clients have to do work too sometimes and it's totally cool to request the actual design file). Clients love to send low res versions of their shit and then disappear - don't let them do this! But if you DID have the design file for that carbon neutral graphic, you could bring on the circles/outlines with a wipe, add a little movement to the waves and the leaves and the clouds in the crest, and summon the text in a cool way. It'd only end up being 3-5 seconds of animation, but it'd look 100x sharper than just fading it on. And you could use it again at the end when the logo appears again for the outro bumper! Two birds with one stone.
Keep it up though man! Keep working. If you want to get better at graphics, just look at every graphic in every video you make and say "can I make this cooler?" and if the answer is yes, don't be lazy. Just because the client is satisfied with a fade doesn't mean that you are.
Dude you went above and beyond! Actually the best thank you so so much. This is awesome, and thanks so much for watching the video.
All amazing points, I didn’t even consider the animation within the animations for the cniv logo ha. ive really been thinking quite linearly as in even learning to animate text in, so that’s give me a great look into what leveling up my animation skills would really look like and the sort of creativity you could implement to separate yourself from the crowd and show value.
Gonna do school of motion like you recommended, hopefully most of the AE courses. I actually shot that CNIV video as well with my drone and Panasonic as videography is my actual passion so learning this animation will really be a difference maker if I can do both super effectively. I’m mostly looking for ways to incorporate animations within the videos themselves.
I’m graduating in about 5 weeks so hopefully by fall I can be at that level to get hired somewhere or make it in freelancing.
This is a crazy industry, i only go into it a year and a half ago and it feels like I’m cramming it all in trying to get something before I graduate. Full stack is something else for real!
Also I’d love to see some of your work! Thanks again, this is crazy helpful
Haha no problem, happy to offer my opinion. It sounds like you're gonna be in good shape as you keep working and getting more experience. You seem like a sharp person; I'm sure you'll do fine.
And that is great to hear you shot that video! If you can really be a one man band and do the entire process yourself, that's really great. Even if you end up only pursuing videography or post later on, it's crucial to know a bit about each process.
Based on what you're saying, I think you'd be really well served to start practicing making drone-shot real estate videos with tracked graphics. The simple reason is that there's a lot of these things going around, so lots of opportunity to actually get hired, and they are easy to make if you've got the chops that I understand you to have. A lot of videos I've made in the past are really easy, but solid paying, edits of drone shots of commercial real estate with graphics tracked into the scene that say stuff like "10,000 SQUARE FEET". [Here's an example showing what I mean.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdYaWwSWPTM) This video is not winning any awards but it looks fine and it got their client what they needed at their price point, I'd imagine (I did not make that video, it's just the first thing that comes up on youtube). Regarding the actual workflow, it's actually really easy to track graphics like that and it doesn't take much to get them looking really sharp. Just spend some time on youtube watching tracking tuts and fucking around with the tracker in AE and you'll get it there.
That type of video is also really easy to practice on. You can take any footage you've shot yourself, or you could pick any shot of anything you want and add graphics just for practice. No one's paying for it, so you may as well use footage that's great. So go on youtube and find some pretty shots of the Alps or New York or something, figure out what you'd like to highlight about it, and make a nice little video. And if you're really vibing it, check out [Google Earth Studio](https://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=https://earth.google.com/studio/&ust=1612972152841197&usg=AFQjCNFUZPVwu9KBKUjAfLD9y2AA2i0sWw) which is really, really cool. I don't think you can use it commercially but again, if you want to learn how to track stuff into scenes, the workflow between GES and AE is neat to learn and has a lot of similar lessons to regular tracking. Don't get too carried away in GES though even though it is super rad, but know that it exists and see what you can learn from it.
Keep up the great work!
Reality TV for sure, especially a union gig on a major network. Not only is the pay great, but the union handles your health benefits and you are paying into a pension for retirement. You also get overtime and Golden time with the union, so that’s nice on those super late nights. If you are good, and depending on how much you work in a year, you could be anywhere from 125,000 - 225000. Maybe even more for the real hot shots. If you really play your cards right, you set up a C Corp and get paid as a loan-out and can really maximize your tax deductions.
Agree on all points except C corp. Make an S corp instead (essentially a C corp with S designation) and still get paid as a loan out. Your situation may vary so check with an accountant but the majority of incorporated editors in Los Angeles are S corps.
Here's a quick rundown of taxation differences:
C Corporations get taxed twice: the company pays corporate income tax and shareholders pay federal income taxes through dividends. S Corporations have pass-through taxation. This is when shareholders report business income and losses on a personal tax return. So the only taxes they face are the ones on their personal tax return. There’s no corporate tax.
Seconded, this is the recommendation my accountant told me too. Although still waiting until I make enough to justify transitioning my LLC to an S-corp
Corporate video, but working especially with a Fortune 100 sports footwear/apparel company.. day rate $650-$800/8 hrs with 1.5x hourly between 8-12 hrs and 2x hourly after 12. Helps when they have incentive to keep the days shorter. Plus $150 for station fee if I'm working from my studio. Some clients I charge more but that's the most common.
Also working with a global footwear/apparel company with similar rates. I moonlight from my day job so the hours are billed straight at $100/hr, not doing any days or overtime. It's all motion design though, not editing for them.
Only prem. I do all stages apart from finishing. (With animation as a big part too in AE/C4D). Used to run a much bigger creative & post studio but scaled it down to just my own setup just before covid hit.
Glad to hear about it. I don't do C4D myself but do some fairly good AE titles (I'm just a bit slow). Finding it hard to get over 50 an hour myself - how did you step it up?
It took 15 years and a whole lot of grafting for virtually no fee to make enough of a reputation, like everyone i guess! Started in post houses, then got a princes trust loan to become freelance operating out of back bedroom, first job paid for the next bit of kit and so on. then 2 employees and a shitty office, then 5, then at biggest we had 15 full time staff in a leased office with £1m turnover. Now back to a home office with freelancers and its the best fun yet.
Hahaha. Well.. since lockdown and having a small child I feel you. I think I aged 5 years in 1 year. Still working though and managing somehow. It's not easy! Since all this has happened I've tended to just work less and try not to overdo it (my wife also working full time), and I guess that's why my rate hasn't gone up much in the last couple years too. It's a huge sacrifice
Oh 100% you are not wrong. We’ll get through this, just wait it out and hopefully the lockdown will weed out the cowboys. I have a 4 and 6 year old, the eye bags are visible on google earth now.
Reality editor (non-union) here: 4250k a week minimum. I usually shoot for 4500. It's about time to up the rates. We've been stuck at 4k for 10 years or more. People need to quit taking anything less than 4250. You people out there taking less...you now who you are. STOP IT!
That doesn't get you very far in LA. Besides who wants to work all year? These shows run your hard. If you work all year, every year, you'll burn out before your 40.
Reality non-union here as well. Was in LA for 8 years and now NY. It’s always been a negotiating battle just to hit $4000. And that’s with me speaking with the other editors and knowing they’re getting even less.
It's a wake up call. I'm not - and no editor I know is - earning these kinds of sums. I've been in steady ~~employment~~ work as an editor for 20 years and my rate has gone up about 15% in ten years. I've grown my client base, had two different agents, live in a major city. I think these kinds of sums involve getting a break into a higher tier or with a major client. To many editors, the breaks just don't fall their way.
Primarily TV. I used to do more commercials and for those I did get maybe another 15% on top, but the trade-off is an ad is a booking for one week compared to months on a broadcast show.
Yeah it’s a hustle as a freelance editor. I’ve make 30K in 2 weeks and I’ve gone 2months with no job. If you have the clients it worth it though. I wound up taking a staff job for the comfortability so I understand where your coming from. Going to go back freelance eventually though.
This is what I am mostly getting from this thread - unless you're on a big network/cable show, then you aren't getting these rates reserved for corporate/advertising/reality shows. I guess it depends on what you want - a steady gig or only working a few months a year.
I’ll rep the animation people here! The field is all over the place, but I am usually able to charge $60 - $90 an hour. It’s not as much as the high end of some of these specialties, but where we get ahead is projects last a long time. A movie will often take 3 years and you will have work every day during that time. Since the gigs run for so long too, they don’t burn you out as much as others will. You get into some grinds, but 40 hours weeks are more common than in other types of editing.
I’ve worked for a lot of the larger TV studios in LA and some independent features. Working on what will be a very large CG animated kids show now. I’ve also worked for small places like Titmouse and been paid $30 per hour earlier in my career.
The thing with charging those rates is you need to have a producer or director pulling for you. Every negotiation is terrible. Recruiter or Line Producer says no one is paid that rate and I have to threaten to walk. Then they ask my contact how much they really want me on board and we find a middle ground. It is not like working on a reality show where they budget some on the insane rates you are seeing on this thread. The negotiations are always really stressful. It is also made worse by the fact that the union has all these carve outs to pay animation editors less for some reason.
And I will add too that animation does not attract the most assertive people. I’ve worked with plenty of career animation editors who have never broke $45 per hour because they just say yes to the first number thrown out and stay at bad jobs forever out of some misplaced loyalty. Do not be one of those people. Always push for more. They may not have budgeted for the rate, but they can move line items around to cover the cost.
Oh no! Surferwannabe, you erased your comment, but I still want to respond to it. We have been at this about the same amount of time. There is nothing that is due to you. The rates you mentioned are fairly standard in budgets, but as I said, I have been able to get above it by have producers and directors pull for me. Instead of accusing your director of being racist, when most likely you have just been trained by the cult of woke nonsense to look fo racism in places it never existed, you need to work on currying favor with him or her. I don't personally like everyone I work with, but there is a game to be played and that is how you will get your rate up.
I am a freelancer in the US with 7ish years of pro editing experience. My base rate is $100/hr, $700/day, though I have different rates for some long-term clients that I’ve grandfathered in and like. I offer editing and basic mograph work (more than just text and L3s, but nothing 3D). I’ve cut political ads and show promos, but most of my work lately has been in virtual conferences. It’s decently lucrative if you are fast and confident.
I live in a relatively small market, but I’ve built a network from past work on the East Coast and long-term friendships and that’s helped me get lots of remote work. I take a hit now and again because of poor planning on my part for project pricing, but otherwise, I’m pretty happy with where I’m at. If your work is high quality and people like working with you, there’s no harm in raising your rates a little at a time. If your client can’t afford it and you don’t want to lose them, you can always try to meet them in the middle.
Most people know this, so I'm just stating it for the OPs sake...
Look at the budget. Bigger budget means bigger bucks, and in advertising or high end corporate, the budget can mean the annual spend as opposed to a "per project" number.
Want to get paid more? Hone the skills to work on bigger budget projects.
My experience over the last \~12 years freelance, in Boston:
Commercials and (big) corporate stuff pays quite well but can be a real grind if you ALSO are the only interface with the end client (i.e. there's no agency or account manager that has your back). It can still be a grind even if you DO have someone as a buffer, but I always adjust my rates a bit based on whether or not that buffer is in place and I know the account manager is running major interference for me. I don't mind interacting directly with the client at all, but like any client relationship, it's on me to make sure there are good (contractual) boundaries in place.
I've also noticed among my freelance colleagues, rates depend *a lot* on location. What I can charge in Boston on the top end is often quite a bit less than what my colleagues (with the same experience level), can charge in NYC for apples/apples kind of work. It also costs them more to exist there, so there's that to consider.
And then I've got friends in Phoenix, Vegas, Portland, and SLC who would be VERY pleased to pull in half of what would be the lower end of my commercial day rate (1000-1300).
In my experience, most of the time (if you're freelance) it depends a lot on the project and often it's case by case if you're working with someone who brings you regular work, i.e. your buddy at the agency in NYC says "I can get your full day rate on this one, plus a kit fee, plus a prep day on either end to start and wrap the project, and we've budgeted for you to work for a week with an AE of your choosing there in Boston, and we have a music producer that will be pulling tracks for you..." (ha!) which might be followed a few weeks later, from that same buddy in NYC, with "Hey, we've got this great non-profit we're doing some pro bono for, if you're interested, I can get you $1k all in, we think it might take you 3 days, but it'll have a lot of eyeballs and the agency co-founders are friends" or whatever. Both of those are potentially very valuable in their own way.
That said, I typically try and answer YES to two of the following three P questions:
Is it **Portfolio** worthy?
Is it **Prestigious**?
Is it **Profitable**?
While not 100% possible, I do try my best to make sure any project I take on can satisfy any two of those three. I said yes to everything for the first few years, but lacked focus and a niche (your voice/style/genre whatever), and that led to burnout and hating the work.
I range from £20-40 an hour on game trailers and music videos doing editing, animation and mograph. Def feels on the lower side but idk how to charge my clients more when it already feels right. I like the clients as well.
In the UK 20 is low (too low, that's an AE rate) and 40 (i.e. 400 pday) is reasonable (2k a week).
I don't know many editors earning 500 a day in offline because the TV budgets are shit and editors are very poorly represented (not really any unions etc ). I'm sure in film it's possible.
The shit part is here in UK living costs are very high
If you can do online /commercial /graphics then you can make maybe 70-100 ph but you need the connections
Appreciate the thoughts. I guess my goal is to focus on the clients that I can grow more with. I’m always improving my skill set but rarely asking more from the same long term clients.
I think it's more important to know how many days per year people are working if you're interested in rates.
I've had long term jobs that are $750 / 8 (broadcast, talk, regular work for years), short term gigs at $1200 / 10 (branded, fortune 500, projects < 3 weeks), and have friends who have charged up to $2500 per day as "emergency fixers," but they often work 5-10 days per month, if that, at those rates.
I've been offered $400-500 / day a lot recently and (mostly) turn it down... but it seems like a growing trend, due to the increasing blend of staff from the all-digital world, and the renewed optimism in hiring remote editors from outside typical geography.
Digital producers are used to saving money on edit talent, but increasingly find themselves delivering for streaming and broadcast. I have gotten a few calls from "crossover" producers because their editors couldn't deliver files with proper audio and color leveling.
It's hard to say if digital rates will grow now that OTT services are biting on their libraries, or if traditional rates will fall. TBH, I think it's going to be the latter.
Or you can make $30/hr but have a staff job with benefits and 5 weeks vacation (European country) and lots of downtime when pipeline is low. I’ll take that Sunday over freelance insanity.
Yikes. I pray not too many of you are subjected to scrolling the abysmal numbers on Indeed every morning. This industry and skill set has been under valued by the corporate world (that I live in, unfortunately) for a while now, but man it seems to have gotten even more ridiculous this last year or so.
$80/hr for PR/Corporate, but 90%+ of the videos I'm cutting at that rate involve a lot of After Effects.
None of it is glamorous. Usually generic corporate stuff, mostly internal or for niche audiences. Sometimes the content can get technical (science/defence/health industry), so I suppose that's part of it too.
That's all my rate for my side work as a freelancer. My day job is an editor job, fixed salary/benefits for the government. Also not glamorous.
But my bills get paid, I can take vacations, and I save money!
I made $3,000 a couple weeks ago for an overnight fixer job for a National commercial. Currently on a 10 day job for some short form social content for a major streaming service that’s $10K. It all depends. But making relationships with the directors and producers who can bring you the higher paying jobs is everything. Content is big right now. Not as creatively fulfilling as a film - but it’s paying if you find the right people
Commercial editing can be 2-3k / day for the senior editors.
Look at the boutique commercial edit shops - Whitehouse, Final Cut, Exile, Cabin, Cut & Run, Rock Paper Scissors, etc.
I bill $100/hr to edit. I’m located in the Northeast US. I’m self employed and a one man band with a studio to film in. I’m not sure where you live but it’s really just about attracting clients who value what you bring to the table.
Commercial work, mostly social media advertising or corporate promos/internal videos. I do a lot of After Effects work as well as editing, rate is $1000/day or $100/hr
Most I've been getting is £40 an hour with recruiters taking 15% off of the top. Am happy with that amount as the UK underpays its Post-Production employees.
They don't call us the Mexicans of Europe for no reason, in Hollywood...
It is possible, but what I've learned is that you need to climb in client's quality... For example any of the clients and agencies that pays me cheap will never pay me more, so I use my best jobs to sell myself to better ones.
Commercial editing and finishing, feature film marketing-trailers, and episodic TV finishing all pay $100 - $150 per hour. Feature film editors that work with high end directors can make $300+ per hour (however you have to deal with people like Michael Mann or Brett Ratner). Even the high end corporate-industrial can pay over $100 per hour. It really all depends on your market, your skills, and your ability to hustle yourself.
Most skilled editors working in Reality, Ads and Features make good money. However most people dont start making $700+/day. I started making $160/day and after a decade now charge $800/day + kit fee.
You can charge a kit fee as an editor?
Studios have definitely reigned things in, in terms of the kit fee (since they provide most of your equipment) but they also usually want their Avid air-gapped from the internet. But they also want to be in contact with you, so they'll usually pay you $25-$50/wk for your personal laptop. Music editors get away with more. That said, you bill however you want to bill (in freelance) if you don't think you can command $3000/wk for your work, charge $2700/wk and then $300/wk for your equipment (you better have good equipment).
Air-gapped from the Internet?
For security and privacy they want their media on a computer that's not connected to the internet.
Ah ok thank you
Not connected to the internet or networked to any computer connected to the internet.
My next show will be remote but they'll be providing equipment. However, I'm more concerned with getting a location/office fee. Since both my wife and I are working at home I'm considering renting an office space nearby - this show is pretty demanding so I want to minimize distraction. Is it conceivable to simply hand off the office rent to production?
I’m not sure what scale of a project you’re starting on but in my opinion, that’s something that should be covered by production. Unless this was a project that wasn’t going to be green-lit without remote work, they planned on spending the money people in a post facility. It’s definitely a conversation worth having - but it may prompt the question “well if you’re just gonna work in an office, why don’t you just come into the studio/office?” In lieu of bringing up an office rental, it might be worth talking compensation for electricity (if you’ve got a full Avid rig - 2 monitors, output box and calibrated monitor, speakers , Mac Pro or big PC, that can easily draw 1 kw of power - that adds up) or for your internet, or even compensation for disrupting your home life.
You should charge for your machine / apps / electricity. That's besides your rate as a skilled editor. If you charge 30/h and use your own equipment and own space and utilities, you're really making like 15/h (just a guess) just off your skills, while your employer/client saves on computers, office space, apps and licensing, IT department etc.
I'm a Finisher Editor, so I charge $50/day for system and storage. It's not much, but my clients havent complained.
Online work is very different from offline creative. Hell... most people can offline on a macbook with a decent pair of speakers. Once you get into all the hardware needed for a proper online (scopes, calibrated monitors, frame rate converters etc) then it deserves a fair rate
Oh for sure. But you can usually get away with a small rental fee. Wear and tear on your macbook pro is worth $50/week or so.
Bro I am a editor with years of experience if you are interested hit me up ill. Send youmy portfolio
Yes, but it’s usually like $25-$50 per week.
I bet covid will have some effect on that. On my last tv show I used my own system and got 300/ week. Our next season is starting soon, working from home and we are getting 600.
Curious about this as well.
I'm getting a kit fee now that we're remote. Am also in the range as the person you're replying to, took a while to get here though.
YES. An editor isn’t an IT person. If you use your own gear that comes with another job. Plus your gear’s life is finite. You will need to replace it or upgrade it to keep up with the industry. Whereas if you were not using it for editing, it’d probably last much longer and be much cheaper. Charge for that stuff.
A lot of studios in post will use the editor's personal equipment now to do the editing.
I was trained to believe this was normal too. It isnt. I wouldnt be surprised if that same studio actually did charge for equipment, then turn around and repeat the same old line: "it'd be great if you could bring your own computer...". It's not normal. Im not even saying charge for it as a line item, but consider it in your fee. Otherwise you're just lying to yourself. You'll have to pay for your next hardware purchase with actual money.
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Sports gigs probably have shit schedule, no? Most games end late in the evening and are often on the weekend. To get that fast turnaround time you’re working as soon as the game ends.
Eh not really, I work as a sports editor. Other than doing events like the Super Bowl or World Cup, my hours tend to be 9-5. We're cutting features, promos, music videos, teasers during the day. Just have to be insanely quick and versatile.
What are the skills that amount to being considered versatile? In sports, but also in general
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Dang - I could actually do this to a good standard with another two/three years of experience. I've actually jumped into a Producer role because... good pay.
The hardest part is usually getting in and then fitting in. Most people are technically capable. I've seen very few editors that weren't able to handle it technically. I've seen many more lose their freelance contracts because they don't fit in, have a temperament issues, or able to take control of their edit bay.
It depends on the network you’re working with, resources, and budgets for the various leagues they own the rights to. For instance, our NFL broadcast has every thing sent to color and mix. You’re expected to be able to do your own graphics, but usually with big budget events you have your graphics team. So you’re mostly expected to be a standard editor while being your own assistant. Multi-cam, sound synch, brolls, and create a polished edit of about 1-3 minutes in usually one 8 hour shift. Most events don’t have this. So you need to do a basic mix, sometimes in 5.1, clean up audio and noise is important as well as knowing when/how to incorporate SFX. Cut down your own music. You’re expected to come in every day and be creative. Create your own graphics, CC, create a style. 99% of the time I’m given 1 day to create all of this. Whether it’s the opening tease for World Cup or an interview for PBC. But the most important skill, isn’t technical. There are so many technically skilled people, but editing is as much personable as it technical. You have to know how to produce your edit bay. Take control of the room. All while still being an enjoyable person to be around. I usually find edit bays to be more like therapy rooms. Similar to make up artists on set.
I'm full-time with a baseball team. During the season, schedule is absolutely shit. 10-5 + games/other events, salary, no OT. I'm on the lower end of the totem pole in an incredibly small department but pay isn't great regardless. That being said, I enjoy the job so much that it's worth it for the time being.
Does this expand through the entire year? That's good in one go. But my concern is if it stretches across the year to maintain upkeep.
My buddy can make 10-20k in a week. Commercials. Not all the time. She also has an Oscar. Not sure if that counts
Haha totally counts. Good for her!
Winning or being nominated for a prime award definitely boosts your pay significantly. If you've been nominated for anything of value, talk that up no matter what.
Yes.
Oscars are actors awards. Do you mean an Emmy? $2000/day for commercial editing is rare but not unheard of. You won’t be working often at that rate.
lol what are you talking about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Film_Editing
Oh! Never heard of that one. Thanks!
Then there is much for you to learn little one.
Not really, I managed a 21 year editing career without knowing that so I think I’m good ;-)
LOL
Girlfriend cuts social content for a corporation and clears 130k/yr. it’s pretty mind numbing stuff and not at all what we went to film school for but it’s good money.
Yep, it all depends on the overall budget (and for a big corp, their budget is huge). I knew a cutter who worked inhouse for Dupont and never got to make sexy adds for TV but got paid very well for really high end corporate communications.
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A) be in a big market with corporations big enough to pay these salaries to editors (major cities, specifically NY & LA, but any major metro has these corporate offices; I’ve also heard Vancouver is a good city to be in post). Working from home has expanded your options a bit too. B) start off with a humble title of AE/assistant/junior editor. C) commit to it for many years. D) double your chances of getting lucky by knowing after effects and resolve. She did all of these things except option D. Feels like video editing is one of the biggest growing job markets thanks to social media. The problem is most people don’t want to work on the work she does. It’s not sexy. It’s not really “fun.” And it doesn’t fit in anywhere in a demo reel. It’s like the office jobs of the editing world. Most people want to work on sexy branded spots or music videos at agencies or cool companies, but the truth is those jobs are hard to find, extremely nepotistic, and in my experience the pay can suck.
I might be an odd person out, but I'd be very content doing what your girlfriend does for that kind of pay. The 'fun' stuff can quickly become not fun when the hours are long, turnarounds tight, expectations are high, and pay sucks,
Currently charging $75/hr for pre and post production of corporate training videos and commercials, but that’s ‘full stack’ aka I do sound, color, basic mograph, etc. (I own/operate a small production company)
Same here, exactly. It's taken time to have qualified conversations at that rate but I continually teach myself new things and feel that motion graphics + conceriege service makes the rate a value.
I would be happy to take a lesser rate if I never had to do motion graphics ever again. I hate that editing and mograph have overlapped so much.
I feel you man. But it’s the name of the game these days, you gotta be a phenom at every aspect of post or “have a guy” that can pick up where you can’t put it down. Basic mograph skills are important to have, but networking with folks that can fill the gaps you can’t on a clients project is critical.
Absolutely man! I use a lot of my free time to kick back, relax, roll a j, and watch a few hundred more hours of YouTube tutorials. That combined with unbeatable turnaround times have kept clients coming back often.
Are you me? Literally exactly the same.
Same same, but different, but STILL SAME! :D
Encouraging to know you can manage to charge that rate for Boeing corporate work that I’ll likely be doing soon also.
You can charge any rate you like as long as your client feels you are worth it!
True enough. Highest my rate got to before taking a salaried gig was $60/hr, which was just fine by me. Just noticing that as I look around at jobs, there’s a whole lot more underpaid ones these days. Like, grossly. I think there’s always been a problem of creative industries like ours being devalued by corporate clients, but some of the numbers I see blow my mind. I know, the next line is “well then they’re a shitty client you don’t want to work for”, but I mean it more as a general temperature check across this section of production. Also, this last year has pretty much negated any of my previous standards for employment.
You’re not wrong at all. It’s common that creative jobs are massively undervalued because “we should feel lucky” to do this kind of work. I spent a decade as both a corporate band and touring band musician and those experiences prepared me to be the hard-ass I need to be sometimes when dealing with clients. Sometimes we gotta work the jobs we gotta work and that’s ok. We gotta eat! But I find that having a well navigated discussion with the client that leaves them with the feeling “shit, I gotta hire this guy or else I’m gonna be disappointed in anyone else I hire.” is the single most valuable skill to have. Regardless if that sentiment is true or not. Is it manipulative? Yes, but so is my and everyone else’s marketing. 😂
As someone that has been editing videos for $50, I hope someday I can get to somewhere like this
Yes you can!! Everyone starts somewhere , get better , make better and better connections , have an exit strategy out of ridiculous rates
Even for $50, I’d love to get paid anything. How’d you start?
I made a post on r/forhire and someone contacted me
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An editor who comes on to a feature film as a fixer - to re-cut a film that is already well into it's calendar for cutting, but the producers/director/studio hate it and are desperate to try something new - can make north of $20,000/week. Your only task is to cut the picture. You are not being paid for technical know-how, no-one expects any motion graphics, you just re-cut the film . You're paid for the art of film editing. You get this job by having a relationship with a studio, the producers, or the director, and usually have an Oscar or two. Most of the people who do this live in either LA or to a lesser extent NYC.
That's the dream. It works in Trailers and the Advertising world too. But instead of coming in to fix something, they mismanage their time and ask you to put together a trailer/ad campaign in 3-5 days for $15K.
Lol. This isn’t really a job you can work towards with intention though. There aren’t really editors that are purely “fixers”...Editors at that level sign on to edit the entire film from the beginning typically.
Not with that attitude! You’re correct that there aren’t many editors who exclusively work as ‘fixers’, though there are a few. Generally, an editor who gets this kind of pay as a fixer commands a pretty high rate on films they work on from the start, but they get a premium when they come in to “fix” another project. We all know how annoying/challenging it is to start in the middle of someone else’s work, so that does and should cost more.
My point was that that work is somewhat situational....a lot moreso than it is a feasible career on its own. Seemed like OP was looking for some actionable career advice so they can get move over to a corner of editing with more $$$ Just trying to differentiate the kind of work you can “fall into” vs work hard towards (for OP) is all!
Yes, your’e very right - it’s not gonna be listed on LinkedIn anytime soon. But they did title the thread ‘Highest paying editing job?’ Ha.
LOL. Would be a great LinkedIn title though. “Repairman”.
> can make north of $20,000/week holy shit, lol. well what if they still hate it after you work on it???
Then you probably hire re-fixers for $40,000/week
damn, I'm gonna keep my eyes on Glassdoor for that one.
Jesus. I need to be a fixer!
The dream.
The pressure.
I’ve done this twice. Got AE credits and assistant wage both times. That said, im in a european market. But it boosted my career, so im happy
Trailer editor in LA - $500-$700/day depending on the client. I feel like I’m on the low end, but can be hard figuring out what other freelancers are actually making versus what they say their rate is.
Yeah even on this sub and actually likely in this thread there are people saying numbers that they *have* made at one point or another but make less money than that more often that not. Saying you're a £1500 a day editor doesnt make any sense if you're paid half that for 90% of the jobs you take on.
That's definitely on the base side for trailer editors. I'd be looking to up your base now to $700-900. My absolute base rate is $750/day for 8/hour with OT 1.5x for the 8-10th hour and 2x for anything past 10hr work days.
I got paid in exposure-bucks to edit my friend's D-list film... so much exposure!
Exposure drinks and food after?
I work in commercials. My day rate is anywhere from $2000 to $4500 depending on client. It's been a grind to get to this point tho.
Does that budget account into Company budget which is studio fee, post production producer fee, account fee, etc.
Sure, they take a percentage of my creative fee. But you have operational fees even as a freelance. This way, those fees are just consolidated under one roof.
Same here. And yes, it's been a grind. One of the bigger pieces of advice I give starting editors (or stalled editors) is to remember that you're a vendor, not a creator. Put as much time into building relationships with directors/creatives/producers/show runners/production companies as you do into developing your craft. There are no editors making well into six figures (and beyond) annually that don't actively cultivate relationships. That's the first question any post house is going to ask... "who do you cut for?"
That’s a great rate my dude. Mind me asking how many days a job will last?
Thanks yo. Depends on the project. The last commercial I worked on was 2 1/2 weeks no weekends.
How long have you been editing to get to that point?
I was cutting ads freelance for 6 years before i got picked up by a post house, that's when my rates got crazy. As a freelance editor my average day rate was anywhere from $700 to $1300.
Wow, congrats on getting picked up. I hope I have a similar trajectory here.
Best of luck. My main advice is the best jobs coming up are the ones with the shittiest rates. Follow your passion and the $$$ will follow.
Beautiful advice. Thank you.
I’m hoping to cut ads freelance, how do you recommend I find freelance ad work?
Do you use Avid or Premiere?
Both, but i prefer Premiere. With Premiere i feel the program disappears and i can just flow. I'm not as comfortable with Avid so i'm pretty clunky on it.
Who do you work for? Wow.
I work in reality TV in LA. I am what would be considered an "A-list" editor. I would also be considered by most to be a "preditor" as lame as the name is. Basically, my skillset is a strong mix of technical knowledge, storytelling expertise, musical expertise, sound design expertise, experience in many genres, workflow expertise, graphics ability, producing/writing ability. My standard rate is $4500/wk for five 10 hour days (roughly $90/hour). There are editors who make more than I do but many of them kind of have to be willing to hold out and refuse work based on rate which I am less inclined to do. I built my reputation through many years of successful working relationships where I sacrificed much of my life, honed my craft, and proved my abilities and creativity under difficult or seemingly impossible constraints.
Do you see the "have to be in LA to be a successful editor" thing changing? I'm seeing a lot more remote work nowadays
On this note there are increasingly studios working entirely remote. People remote into cloud-workstations which are locally attached to a high-speed RAID in a server rack. My experience cutting remote has been a bit difficult with lag, even if the ping is \~15ms. Audio has weird delays and slips out of sync.... But I think the tech is there, with dedicated internet lanes to the cloud racks... there could be huge savings getting editors working from home. That said, television is so fast and tight, no one has time for uploads and it's just generally very collaborative in the moment. I see those staying at post houses.
No idea. I very much wish I knew so that I could plan for the future. Nothing would make me happier than leaving LA for more quality of life for the dollar. But I could see things going straight back into the office in 2022. Then I might find more and more difficulty getting hired for supervising gigs or finishing gigs if I'm strictly remote which would drive my rate down.
You’ve never HAD to be in LA. There’s plenty of opportunities in nyc, Miami, Atlanta, Chicago
THere's a lot more remote work but for high end stuff the brass is going to want to be in the room with you. Which is good for you as well, face time with people directly is massive in networking.
Commercials. Especially broadcast. They will demand long hours, taking a lot of finesse, but little creativity, and bludgeon your soul with viscous loop of trivial client notes and feedback but goddamn do they pay. The most i have made is 3k per day on commercial but it definitely goes higher.
The rate depends on the $ your clients bring in. My last normal staff gig working for others I wAs the only flame guy in a commercial post house with 11 avids, a big cg department, audio and animation. Oh and two flames in two cities 1500 miles apart (got a lot of flights in). The flames were literally 80% plus of the company’s turnover. Biggest ads were over 1 million bucks gross and 75% margin and I did all the government election ads at 2.5k a day for 5 months. My salary was 150k basic plus I got 15% of room net. Got a bit done over on the profit share but I was clearing 300k after tax on an average 90 ish hours a week of 16 hr days with a crash day or early finish on a couple. Most weeks there was one overnighter, and one election I slept at work for a month on call:) The job after that I worked for free but got 1/3 of room gross. That was much more profitable but again depended 100% on my client list. After that I just bought all my own stuff (again) and make less but don’t work 100 hour weeks too often - though finished at 3 am last night and am started again this morning at 7:30.
1500 miles is 2414.02 km
How do you get your foot in the door for these kinds of jobs?
I work for a studio...what their day rate is for me vs what I take home are two very different numbers. but I value the stability, benefits...perks of working in a collaborative, fun and supportive environment...most of all I have a support staff of producers doing all the grown-up work of sales, scheduling, billing. Could I make x2+ more freelancing? Maybe...but I’m good :)
Heck yeah, full time salaried employee here, in government. I don’t have to schedule, I don’t have to bill anyone, taxes are almost done for me, I get matching contributions to retirement, I get paid the same every two week no matter how much actual edit work I do or don’t do. There’s an office I can go to (covid makes this weird but whatever). I don’t pay for software. And I’ll say I’m getting 6 figures in salary... All in all it’s pretty sweet. Freelancing and having to be a damn businessman and hiring tax experts and an accountant to make sure I’m on the up and up with the IRS and however I can set aside retirement...that seems like a hassle and a half. Nuts to that. Am I working on anything nearly as sexy as a super bowl commercial or a hit nexflix movie that 11 million people will watch and talk about? No. But I’m ain’t mad at my life right now.
Thanks for this. Went to bed feeling depressed as hell from reading the rates people are getting but then remembered that there's tons of perks with having a long term contract that allows me breaks in between projects. In the same boat as you - salaried, benefits and not having to worry about a lot of things come tax time. Like you said, not as sexy but I'm comfortable.
how does your day rate vs what you take home differ? it’s not the same thing ?
Learn graphics, do corporate. I live in Not LA/NY/CHI and do $70 an hour, $700 days. More important beyond "do corporate" is "do a good job". That sounds reductive, but if you're good at your job and you save people's asses all the time, you can say just about any number and they'll pay it if you're worth it. It's all word of mouth and what we do is unique enough that people that can't do it think it's magic. I don't mean you need to be an animator on top of editing but if you can be a post machine/have genuine competency across post production then you can pull those rates easy. I know several people who STINK at post that charge $70+ and they get hired. I mean folks I wouldn't hire unless I was in a pinch, they charge similarly to me at $70. If you wanna make movies and TV - god knows, I definitely don't. But I will admit I'm shocked at all of these LA-based comments saying no one makes $700 a day. I make that, and not one client has even winced at it. If they really need help, they'll pay whatever you ask. You wouldn't believe how low maintenance my workflow can be living in TN making $700 a day on corporate clients. If you can put your head down and get work done, you'll make money.
I am an editor and has spent the last 2 years busting my ass learning animation. Do u sell ur self as an editor w animation skills or vice versa?? Also whats a good starting rate for someone who does both 600 a day?
I refer to myself as an “editor/motion designer” and sometimes use the term animator instead of motion designer because corporate clients seem to only know that term. As far as what I sell myself as, I really just show for “guy who does videos who does a good job” and most of my corporate clients only really think like that. Hell, most of the time a corporate client asks for an animation, they point at an interactive webpage. Clients just don’t know what words mean haha. When it comes to presenting myself to other video people, I usually just say I know premiere and after effects and say that I “do post” and ask them what they need. I will say that if you’ve busted your ass to add AE to your repertoire, you should make it super clear to people that you know AE. Since the pandemic, requests for animations have gone WAY up, and most edits right now are garbage zoom edits that anyone could do and it’ll look the same. If you can get yourself to a point where you think you could design, storyboard, and animate a :30-2min explainer all on your own in a reasonable turn around time, then tell people you’re an animator For rate, it’s kind of impossible to say without seeing your work. I think if you’re solid but green, 40-50 an hour is solid. But if your work really stinks and your hours are way high and you ask for 50 an hour, that’s a bad look. If this is your primary source of income, I encourage you to look at your finances and figure out what hourly rate would help YOU get through your life the way you want to. If you realize you need 70 an hour to do what you want to do, then that’s your goal and you can evaluate your own skills to be like “am I worth 70 right now? Could I ask for that with a straight face? If not, how can I get there?” Good luck man! You’ll be fine.
Yeah animation can be a broad spectrum, just be mindful both in the jobs you're applying for -- be sure of what their asking and be aware of how you're advertising yourself. I see it like this, if you advertise yourself as an Editor/Motion Designer, you're proficient with After Effects and *maybe* some light Cinema 4D skills (although you may get away with VideoCopilot's awesome Element 3D plugin in After Effects). If you're using 3D programs like Cinema 4D/Blender on the regular, you're more of a 3D Modeler/Animator.
Where’d you learn to get good at motion graphics? That’s just next foray, as right now I’m using basic mogrts lol. Any tips or tricks u can lend? https://youtu.be/llGUGFTNlJg Btw this is my work, at least most recent. I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out how to translate it into real money, so anything u can offer on that front too would be incredible.
I really, truly think the School of Motion classes are excellent. They are a shit load of work and to complete just one was more work and required more effort than every single post class I took in college by a lot. If you take 2-3 of their courses, you will be capable of making solid corporate animations and motion graphics. They are expensive though, $1k per class for most, so it’s not a cheap option. But if you score one $3k project, it’ll pay for itself. If budgets an issue then go on YouTube and watch every single video copilot video and learn as much as possible from Andrew Kramer. Then I encourage you to dream stuff up that you think would be fun to make, and then figure out how to make that thing by searching different tuts on YouTube until it’s looking good. Beyond anything else, the best way to get better is to just practice. So take on as much work as you can with graphics needs that you feel comfortable with and then just keeping grinding. Lower third>lower third>outro isn’t sexy but it is one foot in front of the other. Just being in after effects every day and doing *something* is great practice and will get you further along. And take the occasional risk - take on a project that needs character rigging, even if you don’t know how to character rig. Just make sure the schedule of the project gives you time to teach it to yourself and get the animation to a professional looking level, and then don’t charge the client for the 40 hours you spent teaching yourself character rigging. Bill them 8 hours or whatever it would have taken you to do had you already known the skill.
Hey I just saw the link you posted. Looks good! I think the edit is fine and an 8+ minute video is nothing to sneeze at - that's a lot of time to maintain a story. A lot of editing is just keeping your head on straight with so many variables and so much footage. I always find it hard to describe how, like for your example, this video may BE 8 minutes long but I have a full hour of footage/context/soundbites locked into my brain. That way when a client hits back and asks for something specific like, "does anyone mention X?" you know that you've got that and you know where it is. This can be achieved by just paying attention, but if you really want to organize you can use label colors and markers and stuff like that to help organize your timelines so that when you go to update the story you can really quickly plop in new soundbites. As far as graphics tips go, lets look at that video for some great opportunities to learn and add a little jus to the video. For example, that logo graphic at :52. That is a great opportunity to add some animation to that logo design so that instead of just fading in, it does any number of things to animate on. I am betting that, because of how life works, you didn't get the .ai file for that logo and it's just a PNG or something, so you don't have layers. ALWAYS ask your client for the actual design file for the logo (it exists! someone had to design the damn thing! it's probably in someone's downloads folder or something stupid, but that's their problem. clients have to do work too sometimes and it's totally cool to request the actual design file). Clients love to send low res versions of their shit and then disappear - don't let them do this! But if you DID have the design file for that carbon neutral graphic, you could bring on the circles/outlines with a wipe, add a little movement to the waves and the leaves and the clouds in the crest, and summon the text in a cool way. It'd only end up being 3-5 seconds of animation, but it'd look 100x sharper than just fading it on. And you could use it again at the end when the logo appears again for the outro bumper! Two birds with one stone. Keep it up though man! Keep working. If you want to get better at graphics, just look at every graphic in every video you make and say "can I make this cooler?" and if the answer is yes, don't be lazy. Just because the client is satisfied with a fade doesn't mean that you are.
Dude you went above and beyond! Actually the best thank you so so much. This is awesome, and thanks so much for watching the video. All amazing points, I didn’t even consider the animation within the animations for the cniv logo ha. ive really been thinking quite linearly as in even learning to animate text in, so that’s give me a great look into what leveling up my animation skills would really look like and the sort of creativity you could implement to separate yourself from the crowd and show value. Gonna do school of motion like you recommended, hopefully most of the AE courses. I actually shot that CNIV video as well with my drone and Panasonic as videography is my actual passion so learning this animation will really be a difference maker if I can do both super effectively. I’m mostly looking for ways to incorporate animations within the videos themselves. I’m graduating in about 5 weeks so hopefully by fall I can be at that level to get hired somewhere or make it in freelancing. This is a crazy industry, i only go into it a year and a half ago and it feels like I’m cramming it all in trying to get something before I graduate. Full stack is something else for real! Also I’d love to see some of your work! Thanks again, this is crazy helpful
Haha no problem, happy to offer my opinion. It sounds like you're gonna be in good shape as you keep working and getting more experience. You seem like a sharp person; I'm sure you'll do fine. And that is great to hear you shot that video! If you can really be a one man band and do the entire process yourself, that's really great. Even if you end up only pursuing videography or post later on, it's crucial to know a bit about each process. Based on what you're saying, I think you'd be really well served to start practicing making drone-shot real estate videos with tracked graphics. The simple reason is that there's a lot of these things going around, so lots of opportunity to actually get hired, and they are easy to make if you've got the chops that I understand you to have. A lot of videos I've made in the past are really easy, but solid paying, edits of drone shots of commercial real estate with graphics tracked into the scene that say stuff like "10,000 SQUARE FEET". [Here's an example showing what I mean.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdYaWwSWPTM) This video is not winning any awards but it looks fine and it got their client what they needed at their price point, I'd imagine (I did not make that video, it's just the first thing that comes up on youtube). Regarding the actual workflow, it's actually really easy to track graphics like that and it doesn't take much to get them looking really sharp. Just spend some time on youtube watching tracking tuts and fucking around with the tracker in AE and you'll get it there. That type of video is also really easy to practice on. You can take any footage you've shot yourself, or you could pick any shot of anything you want and add graphics just for practice. No one's paying for it, so you may as well use footage that's great. So go on youtube and find some pretty shots of the Alps or New York or something, figure out what you'd like to highlight about it, and make a nice little video. And if you're really vibing it, check out [Google Earth Studio](https://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=https://earth.google.com/studio/&ust=1612972152841197&usg=AFQjCNFUZPVwu9KBKUjAfLD9y2AA2i0sWw) which is really, really cool. I don't think you can use it commercially but again, if you want to learn how to track stuff into scenes, the workflow between GES and AE is neat to learn and has a lot of similar lessons to regular tracking. Don't get too carried away in GES though even though it is super rad, but know that it exists and see what you can learn from it. Keep up the great work!
Reality TV for sure, especially a union gig on a major network. Not only is the pay great, but the union handles your health benefits and you are paying into a pension for retirement. You also get overtime and Golden time with the union, so that’s nice on those super late nights. If you are good, and depending on how much you work in a year, you could be anywhere from 125,000 - 225000. Maybe even more for the real hot shots. If you really play your cards right, you set up a C Corp and get paid as a loan-out and can really maximize your tax deductions.
Agree on all points except C corp. Make an S corp instead (essentially a C corp with S designation) and still get paid as a loan out. Your situation may vary so check with an accountant but the majority of incorporated editors in Los Angeles are S corps. Here's a quick rundown of taxation differences: C Corporations get taxed twice: the company pays corporate income tax and shareholders pay federal income taxes through dividends. S Corporations have pass-through taxation. This is when shareholders report business income and losses on a personal tax return. So the only taxes they face are the ones on their personal tax return. There’s no corporate tax.
Seconded, this is the recommendation my accountant told me too. Although still waiting until I make enough to justify transitioning my LLC to an S-corp
Corporate video, but working especially with a Fortune 100 sports footwear/apparel company.. day rate $650-$800/8 hrs with 1.5x hourly between 8-12 hrs and 2x hourly after 12. Helps when they have incentive to keep the days shorter. Plus $150 for station fee if I'm working from my studio. Some clients I charge more but that's the most common.
Also working with a global footwear/apparel company with similar rates. I moonlight from my day job so the hours are billed straight at $100/hr, not doing any days or overtime. It's all motion design though, not editing for them.
£95 p/h in the UK here. Commercials/Branded content.
Avid or Premiere or both? Offline, or online and finishing?
Only prem. I do all stages apart from finishing. (With animation as a big part too in AE/C4D). Used to run a much bigger creative & post studio but scaled it down to just my own setup just before covid hit.
Glad to hear about it. I don't do C4D myself but do some fairly good AE titles (I'm just a bit slow). Finding it hard to get over 50 an hour myself - how did you step it up?
It took 15 years and a whole lot of grafting for virtually no fee to make enough of a reputation, like everyone i guess! Started in post houses, then got a princes trust loan to become freelance operating out of back bedroom, first job paid for the next bit of kit and so on. then 2 employees and a shitty office, then 5, then at biggest we had 15 full time staff in a leased office with £1m turnover. Now back to a home office with freelancers and its the best fun yet.
Wow that's amazing man. What a journey! Guess building a small business is a great move to step up. Cheers dude
Thanks man yeah It is!! But I look 20 years older than I am due to stress and sleepless nights, so, it balances out
Hahaha. Well.. since lockdown and having a small child I feel you. I think I aged 5 years in 1 year. Still working though and managing somehow. It's not easy! Since all this has happened I've tended to just work less and try not to overdo it (my wife also working full time), and I guess that's why my rate hasn't gone up much in the last couple years too. It's a huge sacrifice
Oh 100% you are not wrong. We’ll get through this, just wait it out and hopefully the lockdown will weed out the cowboys. I have a 4 and 6 year old, the eye bags are visible on google earth now.
Reality editor (non-union) here: 4250k a week minimum. I usually shoot for 4500. It's about time to up the rates. We've been stuck at 4k for 10 years or more. People need to quit taking anything less than 4250. You people out there taking less...you now who you are. STOP IT!
I seldom see rates that high in NY. Even Netflix is grumpy about paying over 3500. It’s an uphill battle to squeeze anything north of 4k.
4250k a week is good money. That’s over $200M a year
That doesn't get you very far in LA. Besides who wants to work all year? These shows run your hard. If you work all year, every year, you'll burn out before your 40.
Yeah but youll be a billionaire
Reality non-union here as well. Was in LA for 8 years and now NY. It’s always been a negotiating battle just to hit $4000. And that’s with me speaking with the other editors and knowing they’re getting even less.
how does one get to this position?
Especially with the cost of living in LA.
This thread is depressing...
Why
It's a wake up call. I'm not - and no editor I know is - earning these kinds of sums. I've been in steady ~~employment~~ work as an editor for 20 years and my rate has gone up about 15% in ten years. I've grown my client base, had two different agents, live in a major city. I think these kinds of sums involve getting a break into a higher tier or with a major client. To many editors, the breaks just don't fall their way.
Oh I see. Well what are you editing? In advertising these rates are common.
Primarily TV. I used to do more commercials and for those I did get maybe another 15% on top, but the trade-off is an ad is a booking for one week compared to months on a broadcast show.
Yeah it’s a hustle as a freelance editor. I’ve make 30K in 2 weeks and I’ve gone 2months with no job. If you have the clients it worth it though. I wound up taking a staff job for the comfortability so I understand where your coming from. Going to go back freelance eventually though.
This is what I am mostly getting from this thread - unless you're on a big network/cable show, then you aren't getting these rates reserved for corporate/advertising/reality shows. I guess it depends on what you want - a steady gig or only working a few months a year.
Where are you?
London
I’ll rep the animation people here! The field is all over the place, but I am usually able to charge $60 - $90 an hour. It’s not as much as the high end of some of these specialties, but where we get ahead is projects last a long time. A movie will often take 3 years and you will have work every day during that time. Since the gigs run for so long too, they don’t burn you out as much as others will. You get into some grinds, but 40 hours weeks are more common than in other types of editing.
What kind of animation do you do? Because I’m in animation (kid shows) and don’t make nearly anywhere close to that.
I’ve worked for a lot of the larger TV studios in LA and some independent features. Working on what will be a very large CG animated kids show now. I’ve also worked for small places like Titmouse and been paid $30 per hour earlier in my career. The thing with charging those rates is you need to have a producer or director pulling for you. Every negotiation is terrible. Recruiter or Line Producer says no one is paid that rate and I have to threaten to walk. Then they ask my contact how much they really want me on board and we find a middle ground. It is not like working on a reality show where they budget some on the insane rates you are seeing on this thread. The negotiations are always really stressful. It is also made worse by the fact that the union has all these carve outs to pay animation editors less for some reason. And I will add too that animation does not attract the most assertive people. I’ve worked with plenty of career animation editors who have never broke $45 per hour because they just say yes to the first number thrown out and stay at bad jobs forever out of some misplaced loyalty. Do not be one of those people. Always push for more. They may not have budgeted for the rate, but they can move line items around to cover the cost.
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PBS isn’t exactly high budget. Commercial or corporate clients will pay double what PBS are paying you
Oh no! Surferwannabe, you erased your comment, but I still want to respond to it. We have been at this about the same amount of time. There is nothing that is due to you. The rates you mentioned are fairly standard in budgets, but as I said, I have been able to get above it by have producers and directors pull for me. Instead of accusing your director of being racist, when most likely you have just been trained by the cult of woke nonsense to look fo racism in places it never existed, you need to work on currying favor with him or her. I don't personally like everyone I work with, but there is a game to be played and that is how you will get your rate up.
I just booked my first animated TV show as an editor so that's very good to hear!
I am a freelancer in the US with 7ish years of pro editing experience. My base rate is $100/hr, $700/day, though I have different rates for some long-term clients that I’ve grandfathered in and like. I offer editing and basic mograph work (more than just text and L3s, but nothing 3D). I’ve cut political ads and show promos, but most of my work lately has been in virtual conferences. It’s decently lucrative if you are fast and confident. I live in a relatively small market, but I’ve built a network from past work on the East Coast and long-term friendships and that’s helped me get lots of remote work. I take a hit now and again because of poor planning on my part for project pricing, but otherwise, I’m pretty happy with where I’m at. If your work is high quality and people like working with you, there’s no harm in raising your rates a little at a time. If your client can’t afford it and you don’t want to lose them, you can always try to meet them in the middle.
All my high end work that pays $$$ are ads. I'm a senior motion graphics/editor though, most of my high end work is because I can do both very well
Most people know this, so I'm just stating it for the OPs sake... Look at the budget. Bigger budget means bigger bucks, and in advertising or high end corporate, the budget can mean the annual spend as opposed to a "per project" number. Want to get paid more? Hone the skills to work on bigger budget projects.
My experience over the last \~12 years freelance, in Boston: Commercials and (big) corporate stuff pays quite well but can be a real grind if you ALSO are the only interface with the end client (i.e. there's no agency or account manager that has your back). It can still be a grind even if you DO have someone as a buffer, but I always adjust my rates a bit based on whether or not that buffer is in place and I know the account manager is running major interference for me. I don't mind interacting directly with the client at all, but like any client relationship, it's on me to make sure there are good (contractual) boundaries in place. I've also noticed among my freelance colleagues, rates depend *a lot* on location. What I can charge in Boston on the top end is often quite a bit less than what my colleagues (with the same experience level), can charge in NYC for apples/apples kind of work. It also costs them more to exist there, so there's that to consider. And then I've got friends in Phoenix, Vegas, Portland, and SLC who would be VERY pleased to pull in half of what would be the lower end of my commercial day rate (1000-1300). In my experience, most of the time (if you're freelance) it depends a lot on the project and often it's case by case if you're working with someone who brings you regular work, i.e. your buddy at the agency in NYC says "I can get your full day rate on this one, plus a kit fee, plus a prep day on either end to start and wrap the project, and we've budgeted for you to work for a week with an AE of your choosing there in Boston, and we have a music producer that will be pulling tracks for you..." (ha!) which might be followed a few weeks later, from that same buddy in NYC, with "Hey, we've got this great non-profit we're doing some pro bono for, if you're interested, I can get you $1k all in, we think it might take you 3 days, but it'll have a lot of eyeballs and the agency co-founders are friends" or whatever. Both of those are potentially very valuable in their own way. That said, I typically try and answer YES to two of the following three P questions: Is it **Portfolio** worthy? Is it **Prestigious**? Is it **Profitable**? While not 100% possible, I do try my best to make sure any project I take on can satisfy any two of those three. I said yes to everything for the first few years, but lacked focus and a niche (your voice/style/genre whatever), and that led to burnout and hating the work.
I range from £20-40 an hour on game trailers and music videos doing editing, animation and mograph. Def feels on the lower side but idk how to charge my clients more when it already feels right. I like the clients as well.
In the UK 20 is low (too low, that's an AE rate) and 40 (i.e. 400 pday) is reasonable (2k a week). I don't know many editors earning 500 a day in offline because the TV budgets are shit and editors are very poorly represented (not really any unions etc ). I'm sure in film it's possible. The shit part is here in UK living costs are very high If you can do online /commercial /graphics then you can make maybe 70-100 ph but you need the connections
Appreciate the thoughts. I guess my goal is to focus on the clients that I can grow more with. I’m always improving my skill set but rarely asking more from the same long term clients.
Advertising hands down. I good freelance editor will make anywhere from 750 to 4K a day.
I think it's more important to know how many days per year people are working if you're interested in rates. I've had long term jobs that are $750 / 8 (broadcast, talk, regular work for years), short term gigs at $1200 / 10 (branded, fortune 500, projects < 3 weeks), and have friends who have charged up to $2500 per day as "emergency fixers," but they often work 5-10 days per month, if that, at those rates. I've been offered $400-500 / day a lot recently and (mostly) turn it down... but it seems like a growing trend, due to the increasing blend of staff from the all-digital world, and the renewed optimism in hiring remote editors from outside typical geography. Digital producers are used to saving money on edit talent, but increasingly find themselves delivering for streaming and broadcast. I have gotten a few calls from "crossover" producers because their editors couldn't deliver files with proper audio and color leveling. It's hard to say if digital rates will grow now that OTT services are biting on their libraries, or if traditional rates will fall. TBH, I think it's going to be the latter.
Or you can make $30/hr but have a staff job with benefits and 5 weeks vacation (European country) and lots of downtime when pipeline is low. I’ll take that Sunday over freelance insanity.
Yikes. I pray not too many of you are subjected to scrolling the abysmal numbers on Indeed every morning. This industry and skill set has been under valued by the corporate world (that I live in, unfortunately) for a while now, but man it seems to have gotten even more ridiculous this last year or so.
$80/hr for PR/Corporate, but 90%+ of the videos I'm cutting at that rate involve a lot of After Effects. None of it is glamorous. Usually generic corporate stuff, mostly internal or for niche audiences. Sometimes the content can get technical (science/defence/health industry), so I suppose that's part of it too. That's all my rate for my side work as a freelancer. My day job is an editor job, fixed salary/benefits for the government. Also not glamorous. But my bills get paid, I can take vacations, and I save money!
I made $3,000 a couple weeks ago for an overnight fixer job for a National commercial. Currently on a 10 day job for some short form social content for a major streaming service that’s $10K. It all depends. But making relationships with the directors and producers who can bring you the higher paying jobs is everything. Content is big right now. Not as creatively fulfilling as a film - but it’s paying if you find the right people
I make $80/hour. Feature doc and doc series if you are established is pretty standard with my colleagues.
Commercial editing can be 2-3k / day for the senior editors. Look at the boutique commercial edit shops - Whitehouse, Final Cut, Exile, Cabin, Cut & Run, Rock Paper Scissors, etc.
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I bill $100/hr to edit. I’m located in the Northeast US. I’m self employed and a one man band with a studio to film in. I’m not sure where you live but it’s really just about attracting clients who value what you bring to the table.
Not all clients pay that but I have some that pay \~$150/h. They run a few social media pages.
Commercial work, mostly social media advertising or corporate promos/internal videos. I do a lot of After Effects work as well as editing, rate is $1000/day or $100/hr
I'm an AE in reality (Discovery) and editors I work with make $2-4k/week/50hours depending on skill and experience
Most I've been getting is £40 an hour with recruiters taking 15% off of the top. Am happy with that amount as the UK underpays its Post-Production employees. They don't call us the Mexicans of Europe for no reason, in Hollywood...
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It is possible, but what I've learned is that you need to climb in client's quality... For example any of the clients and agencies that pays me cheap will never pay me more, so I use my best jobs to sell myself to better ones.
I agree, this does seem possible.
Commercial editing and finishing, feature film marketing-trailers, and episodic TV finishing all pay $100 - $150 per hour. Feature film editors that work with high end directors can make $300+ per hour (however you have to deal with people like Michael Mann or Brett Ratner). Even the high end corporate-industrial can pay over $100 per hour. It really all depends on your market, your skills, and your ability to hustle yourself.
1k/day
Where do you guys find freelance gigs at?
Upwork mostly.
I need an editor for a video I'm working on. Need help quick and high quality. $$$
Looking for an editor for a video I'm working on. Quick and l high quality.$$$%