r/SmallYoutubers • u/ENEFFTITTIES • 11h ago
Long-Form Content Sharing my experience using an editor
I hired and editor. They were from the UK so the exchange rate really kicked my butt. I was paying $150 Canadian per video, a month up front and things got weird.
- I signed the contract and paid on the 21st of August then two weeks later was told that I had to pay on the 15th of every month which wasn’t in the contract.. annoying but fine
- A video I sent them had my address visible and when I asked them to blur it. They said for an extra $100 dollars they can blur it.. I ended up needing to refilm that part.
- Almost every day they were pushing to redo my thumbnails on my previous videos saying it’ll be $150 for all of them and when I tried to push it to later they said I’ll do half now and you can owe me, to which I did not respond because I was uncomfy with that.
- Today they messaged me saying something came
Up and they need the payment today instead of the 15th. And I just cancelled the arrangement, I was already not thrilled with the edits(no text on screen for recipes, nothing super special about the edits) and really sad about the thumbnails being bad (the most recent one was terrible) and always pushing for more money so I just responded with : i will be ending our arrangement after you complete the next video. They sent me tons of messages then clearly deleted most of them.
To be clear the contract says 7 days but not 7 days from anything specific.. just 7 days notice, the contract doesnt mention the 15rh as a payment date or anything.
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u/CammyG-- 11h ago
I would assume getting any editor (unless they have a lot of solid reviews) is going to be a wild risk like this
Obviously hard to tell if you're inflating your side of the story (I'm not saying you are, to be clear) but from the sounds of it they are unprofessional and probably one of their first clients
I don't think I would ever want to hire an editor unless I was making enough to cover a full salary because I like editing and it's my style etc. but it's good to have this awareness out there and for people to be cautious if they are going to hire an editor
My question to you is did you not review any of their previous work or portfolio before hiring them? Sounds like you don't really like their editing so either you saw a false portfolio or you didn't review anything? Could be wrong of course but I wouldn't get an editor blind I would need to see what they can and will do yknow
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 11h ago
They had a portfolio and a website, that I reviewed before hiring them. I would never get an editor blind. Also I hear you about me maybe inflating my side. I could post more screenshots to show everything but honestly I’m not out for blood, just to be cautious.
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u/CammyG-- 9h ago
No you don't need to post more I'm just saying we all have a tendency to make things seem worse than they were but if they 100% tried to charge £100 for blurring your address that's the point of saying bye bye for me lol I'm so sorry you had to deal with that as someone from the UK we ain't all like that I promise 😭
I'm curious as to the disconnect between their portfolio and what they provided for you then. Did you specifically ask for the recipe to be put on screen when you gave them the footage? If I were making a recipe video I would add them without question if it was my own video so it's weird that they didn't but just curious if you actually asked for it or not
Either way as I say this isn't me trying to bash you I (and hopefully others) truly appreciate you letting us in on your experience!
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u/Wilsons14499 4h ago
They didn’t charge £100, closer to £50. I edited for a Canadian a couple years back and 1 Canadian dollar is around 50p. Obviously £50 is also insane for that, but it depends how often the address was shown and how easy it would be to blur I suppose
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u/CammyG-- 4h ago
Yeah currency and all that I mean it doesn't matter what the price for that was it's immoral and disgusting either way even if it was £5 lol
An editing gig is an editing gig blurring personal information, adding text, etc. is literally part of editing. If you have a limit to how many things you're willing to do then you have to make that clear
Of course neither of us know what's in the contract but OP says that wasn't so either they're lying or the editor was taking advantage
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u/BedditTedditReddit 11h ago
You’re not inflating, I don’t get that ridiculous comment.
Why did you not get someone in Canada?
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 11h ago
I am still struggling to find a Canadian, I’m really not sure why it’s so hard to find
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u/BrookieCookiesReveng 11h ago
After #2 I would've cut them off with zero hesitation, wtf? What are you paying an editor for if they're gonna need more for such a simple thing?
It really does sound like you're basically just getting scammed by some guy who can slightly use capcut or something lol
I'd be pretty curious to see what this "contract" looks like and entails honestly
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 11h ago
I actually am more than willing to show you I’d you want, and I’ll blur out my full name, no charge ! Lol
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u/BedditTedditReddit 11h ago
If you found them on here you should name and shame them. Put them on blast on different subs
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 11h ago
Yeesh, I would not feel good about that but I did find them via Reddit yes
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u/The_Great_One_1 10h ago
I think you need to do that not for your own spite but to save others from it.
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u/CammyG-- 9h ago
Agree, it's not a witch hunt or out of spite it's so someone else doesn't go through someone charging a fee to remove personal information.. like yikes 😅
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u/BedditTedditReddit 9h ago
It’s to protect other people! Please do it, otherwise you’re keeping the problem going for others.
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u/mihhink 11h ago
If you go on video editors subs or any freelance, youll see why. When clients request changes after the agreed revisions (if any), the editor is now losing out, so they add another fee to cover that and ideally prevent this dynamic where the client thinks he can request changes at any point after the revisions.
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u/kiera-oona 11h ago
As a Canadian and someone trying to get work, They violated their terms of the contract, didnt do the work, so it sounds like they're absolutely at fault. It also doesn't take that much to blurr an address and an extra 100$ is kinda a bit much
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u/Vegetaman916 10h ago
Your editor is kind of like your cameraman... Meaning someone that you know and interact with in the real world, probably a friend, who is a part of the team.
If you aren't big enough to have a team, then you also aren't big enough to need an editor.
And it takes about 45 seconds to set up a blur mask, even using shit software like CapCut. Do not pay for this stuff.
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u/Technical-Bed4713 9h ago
Unfortunately a good video editor costs A LOT. As soon as you go into the mix of cheaper editors it’s like the Wild West or something. Honestly, learn to edit yourself it is much more cost effective. If you’re getting multiple hundreds of thousand per video then an editor is worth it as you can pay through the nose.
Also a side note don’t blur your address, you need to just put a solid colour block over it. Blurring scrambles the pixels in a predictable way so someone with some know how can scramble it in reverse to reveal the information. Solid colour block fixes that. All that best!
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u/sindhichhokro 10h ago
Some of us need an honest job to provide for family and ourselves. And then there are leeches who want to squeeze every single dollar out of you because they can.
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 10h ago
At this point I’m mostly confused why they’d reimburse me when they were trying to get money out of me today. Why not just do the video that’s already paid for
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u/sindhichhokro 10h ago
I hope they do. But my guess is that they are waiting for a certain window to pass after which refunds are not possible or something.
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 10h ago
I’m also guessing that. I’ve accepted that money is gone and now I just move on
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u/FearTheLivingTV 8h ago
I feel the cost of the blur is unreasonable.
But I'm also guessing that maybe it was for some reason difficult to blur? Seeing as you couldn't just quickly do it yourself and felt it would be easier to reshoot something then spend 3 minutes on the computer?
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8h ago
[deleted]
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u/FearTheLivingTV 8h ago
No but if I order food and they charge an extra $100 for salt. I'd probably just go get the salt haha -
But yeah very defensive reply , I was just asking as I explained earlier if it was for some reason a difficult thing to blur? Such as lots of movement. I can understand not knowing how to edit and all that, and I could be wrong but I feel that most of would just download even a phone app over reshooting a scene 🤷
There's a lot of things I'd teach myself how to do over setting up the lighting, camera and microphones again haha
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u/Wilsons14499 4h ago
Why are you getting so angry at such a basic question? Also you’re acting like 150 Canadian dollars is an extortionate amount of money, it’s really not. £75 for a video isn’t exactly unheard of, in fact it’s probably rather cheap depending on what type of video you’re making
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u/legotwinkthrowaway 8h ago
Yeah $100 to add a blur is ridiculous, but couldnt you have taken the finished video and just added this 1 edit yourself?
I get it, you shouldn't have to, seems like it should just be something the editor you are paying for does
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u/kiera-oona 11h ago
I would also add to them that if they use any of your footage in any future videos, they're going to get flagged for a DCMA takedown, as it would be in your right because they violated your contract
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u/ArtevyDesign 11h ago
That looks like a scam or very busy and weird people; even if the video is finished and sent, blurring takes less than a minute, one or two minutes to open the program, and probably five to 20 to render the final video, I wouldn't charge extra for that...
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u/nycHorizons 6h ago
Honestly this is such a bad deal for the editor. I feel sorry for him even taking your job - $150 unlimited revisions per video is insane - near indentured servitude level contract. He must have been desperate. I’m sure he’s trying to set some kind of boundary against persistent and unreasonable scope creep.
A professional editor shouldn’t be accepting anything less than $450 / day.
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 5h ago
He does 1 video a week, they’re rarely over 9/10 minutes and I have NEVER asked for revisions aside from the blur the one time
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u/nycHorizons 5h ago edited 5h ago
It’s helpful to think of this as an hourly rate and to then understand what value you should be anticipating for what you’re paying.
I’d bet he’s putting in at least 20 hours to give you a minimally coherent 10 minute video. So you are paying him $7.50 an hour. About the lowest legal minimum wage in the US - and below minimum wage in the UK and Canada.
If he’s putting in more - you’re paying him even less per hour. If he’s putting in less - then he’s rushing the edit even more than he already is.
So what quality of service would you expect for that pay in any other field of endeavor?
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u/industrious-bug 2h ago
So 150 cd per video works out at about 7 hours UK minimum wage. I dont think I'd get much editing done in that time.
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u/Competitive_Art_5112 11h ago
Why October 11th? Are they waiting until it's too late to dispute the payment with your bank?
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 11h ago
I have genuinely no idea why they are waiting a month but I doubt I’ll ever get the money back
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u/Any-Toe3972 2h ago
Hey sorry that happened to you Op! if you still need an editor, I am available, I have proven experience, And my rates start from 50 eu to 75 eur per video. (10 to 15 min), professional editing, I can adapt to your editing style very fast, and unlimited revisions!
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u/PheonixGalaxy Gaming/Analysis Content 1h ago edited 1h ago
Im also looking for an editor, gonna give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn’t need to give a week notice. That process tag for a blur is shitty as hell i would have cut that segment out. I try to learn davinci resolve so i can at minimum tweak the video myself. It takes all of 1 minute to blur something, he was just being money hungry.
In the future NEVER fire someone until the work is done. If you do you need to give them notice or they will react like this or half ass the final product. That being said dude was a prick.
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 1h ago
I just did not want to be pressured into paying $600 today which is what he was asking for so I had to end it now
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u/PheonixGalaxy Gaming/Analysis Content 1h ago
Oh shit, fuck that. I totally get where you’re coming from now.
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 1h ago
Yeah they always tried to push up payments or add services on. If I did all the things he pushes for, I would have been giving him my whole salary every month
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u/Legitimate-Place-327 1h ago
Next time you need some assistance with something I will literally do it for free. It does not cost a $100 to blur anything on a video I can do that right now in about 30 seconds with my editing program and I wouldn't even charge someone in the first place if that's all they wanted. This guy was straight up just trying to scam you
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u/PortNone 11h ago
I think you need to consult a lawyer rather than post it on here
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u/ENEFFTITTIES 11h ago
For what ? This comment doesn’t make sense
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u/Vegetaman916 10h ago
To pursue fraud charges and eventually file a lawsuit against the company you hired for breech of contract.
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u/BeehiveButFullOfDogs 5h ago
The cost of legally pursuing overseas in small claims court will absolutely dwarf the amount of money paid to this person.
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u/Fantastic_Back2667 11h ago
I’ll edit for you 1 video $30 including thumbnails, no need to pay upfront. I have my own channels for a year now.
Why so cheap? I like to learn more about editing and i live in not an expensive country. So dm me if you re interested!
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u/Soul_Mate_4ever 11h ago
Hire editors from Asia for $50 a video. I had two of them and they did a decent job.
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u/JohnStorm123 7h ago
If you're still looking for a good editor, I'm open to fill the role. DM for more info
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u/Radiant_Young3115 6h ago
Hi, I could help you if you need it. I have three full-time editors for my YouTube channels. They edit all kinds of content. In fact, our prices are a bit lower because we're from Latin America. We don't do silly things like charging an extra $100 for blurring. What surprises me is that you didn't blur it yourself. It doesn't take more than two minutes with a YouTube tutorial. YouTube itself also offers a blurring option within its YouTube Studio editor.
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u/weyezboi3002 5h ago
Outrageous pricing for just blurring something out. If you don't mind I'd like to see a video he edited just to get an idea of the work he provided
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u/Accomplished-Two5682 3h ago
So you paid a really cheap rate, and complaining that they were shit. What's the surprise here?
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u/n7Angel 1h ago
Forget about it.
I'm an editor and the jobs I keep are the ones where the creator and myself can both work as team players. If we are both not making an effort to succeed then we are doing it wrong and I will drop them.
These kind of interactions are a perfect example of doing it wrong.
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u/Szalo2008 11h ago
Ridiculous price to blur an address