Film crew hire/Editor
Hire a video editor, anywhere in the UK. The rushes in, the film you meant to make out.
Freelance editors for brand films, documentaries, corporate films and social cutdowns, wherever in the UK you shot them. Book one to cut with your team, in your office or remotely, or hand the whole edit to our own post-production team, who cut, grade and mix in-house. From £350 a day, paid to the editor in full.
- 54 five-star Google reviews
- 2 hrs for our team to read your brief, in working hours
- £10m employers’ liability on every crew member we book
- 2,800+ freelance crew on our books, across the UK
Photos: Mark Cruz, Here Now Films, Ryan Snaadt and Nejc Soklič
The role
What an editor does on your film
An editor turns the rushes into the film. They watch everything, log it, find the story, build the cut and take it through rounds of notes to picture lock. Then the online, the grade, the mix and the deliverables finish it: the same editor on a small job, specialists on a bigger one.
Our own post-production team cuts, grades and mixes our films in DaVinci Resolve, mostly remotely. So the edit isn’t tied to where you shot: the rushes come off a shoot in Manchester or Cornwall, the editor cuts wherever the connection is fast, and the notes come in from New York.
What changes across the UK is where the film is going. A TV ad goes through Clearcast’s clearance before it can air in the UK, with the legal supers checked; a social cutdown goes out the same day. Tell us where yours is going, and we match the editor to it.
- The story found. Hours of interviews and B-roll watched, logged and built into a structure.
- Notes handled. Each round of amends turned round fast, with the notes on the timecode.
- Ready for every screen. Masters, cutdowns, subtitles and the right ratio for every platform.
- Your software, or ours. Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Avid or Final Cut, in your office or remote.
What’s included
What the day rate covers
In the day rate
- A full edit day, in your office or remotely
- Syncing and logging the rushes
- Building the cut to your brief and notes
- Review exports whenever you need them
- The project and media handed over at the end
- Premiere Pro, Resolve, Avid or Final Cut
On top, each on its own line
- Our 10% booking fee and 2% insurance, on the whole quote
- An edit suite or kit, if you need one, at a day rate
- Grade, sound mix, music and stock, each quoted separately
- Drives couriered from the shoot, at cost
- Travel, mileage and hotels when the shoot is away from the crew member’s home city, at cost
Rather we ran the edit? Our post-production team cuts from £550 a day, with the suite and two rounds of amends, and grades from £600 a day. How our crew rates work: film crew rates in the UK.
Two ways to book
Crew hire or full production: who’s the producer of record?
One question sets the price: who’s the producer of record? Book an editor to cut for your own team, or have us make the whole film, from the shoot to the masters.
Crew hire
You run the shoot.
10% + 2% booking fee and insurance, on everything we book for you: crew, kit and travel.
We do
- Find, book and brief the crew, and pay them
- Book kit, travel and hotels too, if you want them
- Send the full price before anything is booked
- One person to call all day
- Employers’ liability for the crew we book, and insurance on kit we hire in
You do
- Run the shoot, or your producer does
- The plan, the schedule and the call sheet
- The location, its permission and its public liability
- Responsibility for the production: you’re the producer of record
What the 2% insures: employers’ liability for every crew member we book, and the kit we hire in for you. Nothing else on the shoot. A large kit rental may need extra insurance, as its own line on the quote.
Full production
We’re the producer of record.
15% + 5% production fee, plus insurance and contingency, on the whole production budget. Quoted as a production.
We do
- Our producer plans it with you and runs the day
- Locations, permits, kit, studio, travel and hotels, booked and paid in our name
- Insurance for the whole shoot, public liability included, plus the risk assessment and the call sheet
- One contract and one invoice, so overseas teams need no UK company
You do
- The creative calls
- Signing off the plan and the budget
What the 5% pays for: our production insurance across the whole shoot, £10m public liability included, and the contingency.
Not sure which you need? If your own producer or director will run the day, it’s crew hire. If you want us to take the production on, it’s a full production quote.
On the day
A day in the edit, rushes to first cut
Day one on a two-minute customer story from a day’s shoot with two interviews in Edinburgh, cut remotely for a client in New York. Times are an example.
- 09:00 Rushes in Proxies uploaded from the location last night, the drive following by courier. Copied, checked against the card count, and backed up.
- 10:00 Watch it all Synced to the sound, organised by interview and scene, every answer watched, and the best lines marked in a selects sequence.
- 12:30 Lunch An hour away from the screen.
- 13:30 The radio edit The interviews cut for story first, as if for radio: a beginning, a middle and an end, in the contributors’ own words.
- 15:30 Pictures B-roll laid over the interviews, and the pace set with music.
- 17:00 First cut Exported with burnt-in timecode and sent on a review link. The UK is usually five hours ahead of New York, so it lands at lunchtime there and the notes are in by our morning.
- 17:30 Wrap Project saved and backed up. Tomorrow: the notes.
Which kind
Which editor do you need?
The edit has several stages, and on bigger films a specialist for each.
Offline editor The creative cut From £350 a day
Builds the story and the cut, and takes it through notes to picture lock.
Best for brand films, documentaries and customer stories.
Online editor Finishing and deliverables Quoted on the brief
Conforms the locked cut at full quality, adds titles and makes the deliverables.
Best for broadcast and anything with strict delivery specs, such as a UK TV ad going through Clearcast.
Colourist The grade From £600 a day
Grades the film so every shot matches and the look is right. Our post team grades in-house.
Best for anything shot on a cinema camera.
Assistant editor Ingest, sync and logging Quoted on the brief
Organises the rushes, syncs the sound, logs and transcribes, so the editor can start cutting.
Best on long-form and multi-camera projects, and on a conference with several rooms filming at once.
What it’s for
What people book an editor for across the UK
Agency overflow
An extra editor in your office in London, Manchester or Bristol, or remote, for a busy fortnight.
Overseas productions
A US or European team shoots in the UK and wants a first cut before the flight home, or cuts to notes from another time zone.
Conference and event highlights
An editor in a side room cutting from the cards as they come off the cameras, so highlights go out that evening.
TV ads
A cut taken through Clearcast and delivered to the broadcaster’s spec.
Social cutdowns
Vertical, square and subtitled versions of a master, going out this week.
Recent work
Editors on our jobs
Crew, kit and edit · Team USA House, Paris · July to September 2024
An editor on site through two Games
For Omnicom’s GMR Marketing, we ran the crew and kit for Xfinity’s athlete studio inside Team USA House: an athlete sits down, plays a 60-second game of questions, and goes. Our editor cut on site every day of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, with footage to GMR through LucidLink and Frame.io for review, and the unit turned out ten more films than the original scope, plus TikTok cut-downs and a wrap-up film. The crew were UK-based throughout, and travelled with the kit by van through the tunnel.
Our own production · Twycross Zoo, Leicestershire · Easter 2025
A national TV ad, cut, graded and mixed
Twycross Zoo’s 30-second Easter TV ad, its first in years, from a two-day shoot and a child’s voiceover. Our own post-production team cut it around the voiceover, graded and mixed it, set the legal supers to Clearcast’s standards, and delivered the masters in Sky AdSmart’s format, licensed for 2.8 million impressions, with social cutdowns alongside.
Before you book
Things to know
The day
- 11 hours, including an hour for lunch: ten working hours.
- Overtime by the hour at the APA card’s rate for the role, agreed with you before it happens.
- At least 11 hours between wrap and the next day’s call.
- In a suite, in your office or remote, as you prefer.
From the shoot to the edit
- Cards copied and checked on set by a DIT or camera assistant, with a second copy before any card is wiped.
- Proxies uploaded from the location when the edit has to start the same day.
- Drives couriered from anywhere in the UK, or handed over at wrap, at cost.
UK broadcast
- A UK TV ad goes through Clearcast’s three-stage clearance before it can air.
- Clearcast’s own tools check an ad’s flashing images and on-screen text before it goes in (checked October 2026).
Paying and changes
- Nothing to pay until you confirm the editor.
- 50% by card when you book, 50% on receipt of the final rushes.
- Every line on the quote: day rate, booking fee, kit, travel.
- Moving the date? Tell us as soon as you know.
- Cancellation terms are on every quote.
What our insurance covers
- Employers’ liability for the editor we book: £10m.
- Kit we hire in for you is insured. A large kit rental may need extra insurance, as its own line on the quote.
- Nothing else on a crew hire. Public liability, the location and your own kit stay with you, and your venue will want your certificate. When we’re the producer of record, our policy covers the shoot.
From £350 a day
There’s no APA/Bectu card rate for editors: post-production isn’t on the APA crew card.
| Editor, a day | £350 |
| Booking fee, 10% | £35 |
| Insurance, 2% | £7 |
| One edit day, before kit | £392 + VAT |
The 2% is employers’ liability for the editor we book, and cover on kit we hire in. Insurance for a UK shoot
You won’t pay anything until you confirm the editor.
- 50% by card at booking, 50% on the final rushes
- Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours
- Every line on the quote before anything is booked
Or call us on 07412 543822.
Reviews
What clients say about our crews
Straight from our Google Business Profile.
Book a video editor, anywhere in the UK.
Tell us how much footage, how many films, the software, and whether the editor works with you or remotely. Our team reads every brief within 2 working hours. Or call us on 07412 543822.
Check availability
The whole crew
Every role across the UK, booked the same way
One brief, one quote, every role on its own line. Our UK day rates, paid to the crew member in full:
Production 06
- Director From £500
- Producer From £450
- Production manager £504–627
- 2nd AD £355–448
- Production assistant £400
- Runner £245
Camera 09
- DOP From £850
- Camera operator £529–656
- Lighting camera operator £529–656
- Videographer £529–656
- Focus puller (1st AC) £461–575
- Clapper loader (2nd AC) £355–448
- Steadicam operator From £950
- Gimbal operator £529–656
- Drone operator From £750
Data and playback 02
- DIT £527
- Video playback £334–518
Sound 01
- Sound recordist £550
Hair, make-up and costume 02
- Hair and make-up £398
- Costume £519–694
Art department 02
- Art director £675–878
- Set builders £341–512
Post-production 01
- Editor This page From £350
How our rates work: crew rates across the UK. In one city? London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cornwall have their own role pages.
Production support
Everything around the crew
An edit starts with the rushes, so here’s how the shoot side works across the UK, from kit and permits to getting the drives home.
01
Crew rates in the UK
Day rates for every role, the APA/Bectu card, overtime and what a day covers.
02
Kit and equipment hire
Rental houses across the UK, wet hire and dry hire, and the crew’s own kit.
03
Insurance for a UK shoot
Employers’ liability, public liability, kit cover, and what can leave you uninsured.
Questions
Hiring a video editor in the UK: questions
How much does a video editor cost in the UK?
Our freelance editors start at £350 a day, paid to the editor in full, plus our 10% booking fee and 2% insurance: £392 + VAT. The rate is the same wherever you are in the UK. If you’d rather we ran the edit, our post-production team cuts from £550 a day, with the suite and two rounds of amends included, and grades from £600 a day.
What does the insurance on a crew booking cover?
Two things. Employers’ liability for every crew member we book, up to £10m, and insurance on the kit we hire in for you. That’s what the 2% pays for. A large kit rental may need extra insurance, as its own line on the quote. The 2% doesn’t insure the rest of the shoot: public liability, the location, your own kit and anything you book yourself stay with you, because you’re the producer of record. If you’d rather we were, it’s quoted as a full production, and our insurance covers the whole shoot, public liability included.
How long is the day, and what about overtime?
A day is 11 hours, ten of them working and one for lunch. After that, overtime is paid by the hour at the APA card’s rate for the role: 1.5×, 1.25× or single time on an hourly rate of a tenth of the day rate, graded by day rate, and we agree it with you before it happens. Between wrap and the next call there are at least 11 hours. Film crew rates in the UK
Does the editor need to be near the shoot?
Rarely. Most of our edits run remotely: rushes by drive or secure transfer, proxies for speed, and cuts on a review link with the notes on the timecode. If you want the editor in the room, we book one near your office, or send one, with the travel on the quote. On a live event they can cut on site, as our editor did every day of both Games for GMR Marketing in Paris. In one of our crew cities? Editors in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cornwall.
Can you cut a TV ad for UK broadcast?
Yes. A UK TV ad goes through Clearcast’s three-stage clearance before it can air (checked October 2026). Our post team took Twycross Zoo’s Easter ad through it, with the legal supers set to Clearcast’s standards, and delivered the masters in Sky AdSmart’s format.
Is a freelance editor self-employed?
Usually. HMRC’s employment status manual lists editors, offline and online, among the behind-camera roles normally treated as self-employed, where the editor controls how the work is done and brings rare skill and judgement, or is booked for a specific production for a finite period (ESM4120, checked October 2026). When you book through us, we contract and pay the editor, and you pay one invoice.
What software do your editors use?
Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Avid Media Composer and Final Cut Pro. Tell us what your project is in, and we’ll match the editor.
How long does it take to edit a two-minute film?
For a customer story from a day’s shoot, usually three to five edit days, two rounds of amends included. A documentary or a series takes weeks.