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How to send footage an editor can use
Maya Reyes5 min read
Five habits that save a day on every edit: file names, a brief in four lines, room tone and two more.
An editor's first hour on any project is spent finding things. Good footage hand-off gives that hour back, and it costs you about five minutes.
Name the files
Date, shoot, camera, take. Nothing else. A folder of files called final, final two and new final costs more time than any other single habit.
Write four lines
- Who the video is for
- The one thing it should say
- Where it will be posted and at what length
- Anything that must not be cut
Four lines are enough. A page-long brief is read once; four lines are read at every decision.
Record room tone
Ten seconds of the empty room before you start talking. It lets the editor remove a cough or tighten a pause without the sound dropping out underneath.
Leave the mistakes in
Do not stop the camera when you stumble. Pause, breathe, say the line again. A clean pause is easy to cut; a file that ends mid-sentence is not.
The take you were going to delete is often the one with the best line in it.
Send everything, mark the best
Upload the whole shoot, then tell us the time of the two or three moments you liked. We will watch the rest, but we will start there.
How to send footage an editor can use
Maya Reyes5 min read
Five habits that save a day on every edit: file names, a brief in four lines, room tone and two more.
An editor's first hour on any project is spent finding things. Good footage hand-off gives that hour back, and it costs you about five minutes.
Name the files
Date, shoot, camera, take. Nothing else. A folder of files called final, final two and new final costs more time than any other single habit.
Write four lines
- Who the video is for
- The one thing it should say
- Where it will be posted and at what length
- Anything that must not be cut
Four lines are enough. A page-long brief is read once; four lines are read at every decision.
Record room tone
Ten seconds of the empty room before you start talking. It lets the editor remove a cough or tighten a pause without the sound dropping out underneath.
Leave the mistakes in
Do not stop the camera when you stumble. Pause, breathe, say the line again. A clean pause is easy to cut; a file that ends mid-sentence is not.
The take you were going to delete is often the one with the best line in it.
Send everything, mark the best
Upload the whole shoot, then tell us the time of the two or three moments you liked. We will watch the rest, but we will start there.
How to send footage an editor can use
Maya Reyes5 min read
Five habits that save a day on every edit: file names, a brief in four lines, room tone and two more.
An editor's first hour on any project is spent finding things. Good footage hand-off gives that hour back, and it costs you about five minutes.
Name the files
Date, shoot, camera, take. Nothing else. A folder of files called final, final two and new final costs more time than any other single habit.
Write four lines
- Who the video is for
- The one thing it should say
- Where it will be posted and at what length
- Anything that must not be cut
Four lines are enough. A page-long brief is read once; four lines are read at every decision.
Record room tone
Ten seconds of the empty room before you start talking. It lets the editor remove a cough or tighten a pause without the sound dropping out underneath.
Leave the mistakes in
Do not stop the camera when you stumble. Pause, breathe, say the line again. A clean pause is easy to cut; a file that ends mid-sentence is not.
The take you were going to delete is often the one with the best line in it.
Send everything, mark the best
Upload the whole shoot, then tell us the time of the two or three moments you liked. We will watch the rest, but we will start there.
More notes
Notes from the timeline.
What we learn cutting a few hundred videos a month, written down so your next upload holds longer.
All notes- Short form00:06:00
6 min readThe first three seconds, frame by frame
What happens in the opening of a short video that holds 80% of its viewers, and what happens in one that loses half.
Ria Sen - Process00:05:00
5 min readHow to send footage an editor can use
Five habits that save a day on every edit: file names, a brief in four lines, room tone and two more.
Maya Reyes - YouTube00:08:00
8 min readReading a retention graph without fooling yourself
Dips, bumps and the flat line everyone wants: what each shape in the graph is telling you about the edit.
Maya Reyes
More notes
Notes from the timeline.
What we learn cutting a few hundred videos a month, written down so your next upload holds longer.
All notes- Short form00:06:006 min read
The first three seconds, frame by frame
What happens in the opening of a short video that holds 80% of its viewers, and what happens in one that loses half.
Ria Sen - Process00:05:005 min read
How to send footage an editor can use
Five habits that save a day on every edit: file names, a brief in four lines, room tone and two more.
Maya Reyes - YouTube00:08:008 min read
Reading a retention graph without fooling yourself
Dips, bumps and the flat line everyone wants: what each shape in the graph is telling you about the edit.
Maya Reyes
More notes
Notes from the timeline.
What we learn cutting a few hundred videos a month, written down so your next upload holds longer.
All notes- Short form00:06:006 min read
The first three seconds, frame by frame
What happens in the opening of a short video that holds 80% of its viewers, and what happens in one that loses half.
Ria Sen - Process00:05:005 min read
How to send footage an editor can use
Five habits that save a day on every edit: file names, a brief in four lines, room tone and two more.
Maya Reyes - YouTube00:08:008 min read
Reading a retention graph without fooling yourself
Dips, bumps and the flat line everyone wants: what each shape in the graph is telling you about the edit.
Maya Reyes
Your turn
Send the footage.
Upload the raw files today. The first cut is back before the week is out, with the hook rebuilt and the captions in.
- 1,900+videos cut
- 72 hto the first cut
- 4.9 / 5client rating
Sample projects
Your turn
Send the footage.
Upload the raw files today. The first cut is back before the week is out, with the hook rebuilt and the captions in.
- 1,900+videos cut
- 72 hto the first cut
- 4.9 / 5client rating
Sample projects
Your turn
Send the footage.
Upload the raw files today. The first cut is back before the week is out, with the hook rebuilt and the captions in.
- 1,900+videos cut
- 72 hto the first cut
- 4.9 / 5client rating
Sample projects