Most studios hire their first freelance editor in a rush. A job lands, the in-house editor is booked, and someone asks around for a name. When that goes wrong, you find out on the first client round, with a misspelled lower third in the cut and a project file nobody else can open.
This guide is for studios putting freelancers on client work, where the cut reaches the client through you and you answer for every frame of it.
In short
- The best leads come from people who have seen an editor work against a deadline.
- Judge complete pieces in the formats you deliver, not only the reel.
- Run a paid test with the same footage and brief for every candidate, scored the way you decided before the first cut, notes round included.
- Before the first job, agree in writing on money, files, ownership, confidentiality and who talks to the client.
- Make the first job small and review it internally before anything reaches the client.
Where production companies find editors
The best leads come from people who have seen someone work against a deadline, like editors you’ve hired before, your shoot crews and the studios that pass on overflow work. “Who would you trust with a two-day turnaround on an interview piece?” gets better names than “know any good editors?”.
Job boards and editor communities widen the pool, but there you’re judging strangers on their reels alone. Film schools are a good source of assistant editors, and a junior who learns your workflow from day one has no habits to unlearn.
What to look for in a reel besides taste
A reel is someone’s best ninety seconds, cut to music they picked. It says a lot about taste and very little about the jobs you sell. Ask for two or three complete pieces in the formats you deliver most, and watch each one start to finish.
- Start with story. Every section should earn its place, and in an interview piece the editor should have found the answer that carries the video, which is rarely the first one the speaker gave.
- Then watch the pacing. Cuts should land on a beat or a breath, and no shot should stay up longer than it needs to. The last thirty seconds are where a tired edit goes slack.
- Listen on headphones. Dialogue should sit at the same level from shot to shot, with no clicks at the edits and music that drops under speech. A loud track hides a lot of weak sound work.
- Then read the screen. Names and titles should be spelled right, and lower thirds should sit inside the safe area long enough to read. A misspelled name in a reel almost always went out to a client like that.
Ask what the person did on each piece, too. “Edited” can mean cutting from raw footage or conforming someone else’s timeline, and you need to know which one you’re hiring for.
Run a paid test with the same footage
A reel shows the editor’s best day, and a test shows how they handle your material.
Offer a flat fee for a fixed scope and say so in the first message. Experienced editors are busy, and paying for the test tells them you take their time seriously.
If the footage or the brief changes between candidates, you end up comparing material instead of editors. A job you’ve already delivered works well, because you know what a good version looks like.
Use material the client has cleared for this, or shoot your own. Footage under NDA doesn’t go to a candidate.
Write the brief as you would for a paying job: length, audience, the one message the video has to land, music direction, the exact lower-third names, export settings and file name. Following the brief is part of the test.
Decide how you’ll score it before the first cut arrives. A 1 to 3 scale per row is enough:
| What you score | What a 3 looks like |
|---|---|
| Brief | Right length and message, specs and file name as asked |
| Story | Clear structure, strongest material where it counts |
| Pacing | No dead air, no shot held without a reason |
| Sound | Even dialogue, clean edits, music under speech |
| Text and names | Every name and title correct and readable |
| Notes round | v2 fixes every note and breaks nothing else |
| Communication | Questions asked early, delivered when promised |
Studios tend to skip the notes round, and it’s the part closest to the real job. Send every candidate the same short list of notes and see what comes back.
How to give feedback on the test
Put every note on the frame and keep must-fix notes apart from preferences. “The CFO’s title is wrong at 0:42” has to be fixed.
“I’d open on the wide shot” is taste, and labeling it that way shows you whether the editor can tell the two apart. The rest is in our guide to giving video feedback an editor can use.
Keep your scoring away from what the candidate sees. And tell the people you don’t hire why, in two or three lines. It takes five minutes, and someone who missed this time may be the right hire next year.
What to agree before the first job
Put the following in writing, even with an editor you’ve known for years, and have a lawyer check the contract, especially ownership and confidentiality, since the rules vary by country.
Start with money: per project, per day or per hour, and what each covers. If you pay per project, say how many rounds of changes are included and what an extra round costs, the same way you’d set it with the client.
Put turnaround on notes in numbers. “A round of up to ten notes comes back within one working day” is something both sides can check.
Then the files. List what comes back at the end of every job: the project file, the media it uses, graphics, fonts, licensed music and the exports.
Agree on the editing software and version, or the project won’t open on your machines. Write down who owns the project and the cut, and whether the editor may show the work in their reel, usually only after the client publishes and agrees.
Confidentiality needs an NDA when your clients require one. Either way, set two plain rules: no client footage on personal cloud accounts, and nothing posted before launch.
Last, decide who talks to the client. In most studios that’s you. The editor sends questions your way and doesn’t reply to the client directly, even when the client writes to them first. Say this on day one, because a friendly client will try.
Onboarding so the first job isn’t a mess
Before the first job, send one page with the folder structure, the file naming convention, where the brand kits and fonts live, your export presets and who to ask when something’s unclear. Give access to the folder for that job, not to the root of the server.
Make the first job small, and review it internally before anything reaches the client. Show the editor how a version goes to the client for review in your studio, so they know v1 comes to you first. After the first round, tell them what went well along with what didn’t.
How this works in RecReview
RecReview doesn’t handle contracts, NDAs or payments. For the test, put each candidate’s cut in its own task and comment on the frame, adding a drawing or marking a range of the timeline when a timecode isn’t enough.
Comments marked “team only” are visible to your workspace and nobody else, so the scoring can sit next to the cut.
Send the candidate the review link and they open it with a name and an email, with no account to create. They see your notes on the frames, and the team-only ones stay hidden.
Once you hire, invite the editor with the Freelancer role. Every plan has unlimited users, so there’s no per-seat cost.
By default the Freelancer role can’t approve a version internally, send it to the client or request changes, and owners and admins can change that grid in the team settings. Freelancers can’t delete tasks either.
Assign the task and they get a notification. If you pay by the hour, ask them to run the timer on the task, which shows the hours each person logged next to the deadlines.
When the work is over, archive the member. RecReview lists their open tasks, assigned comments and running timers so you can hand each one to someone else, and the work they did stays in the history. More on tasks and assignments on the project management page.
