The craft log

What nobody tells editors and clippers.

Straight answers on clipping rates, editor contracts, campaign payouts and the scams that catch people early, written for the people doing the work.

Latest

Every guide

Pay

How much clippers make, and whether it replaces a salary

How much clippers make once you separate advertised rates from realised ones, why the screenshots come from the top few percent, and what pays a floor. · 7 min read
Finding work

Your first video editing client: the three channels that work

The three channels that produce a first video editing client, the four-line cold message that earns a reply, and what to change when nobody answers at all. · 8 min read
Getting paid

The video editing agreement you can paste into a DM

A plain text agreement editors can send in a chat, each line explained, with a revision definition, a deposit clause, and what to say when a client refuses. · 6 min read
Trust and safety

Under 18 and clipping: what the terms say

Clipping platforms require you to be 18 and can withhold amounts from minors. What under 18 and clipping means under Indian contract law, and what to build now. · 5 min read
Getting started

Should you pay for a clipping course or Discord

What a paid clipping tier can honestly sell, what it must never charge for, five questions to ask before paying, and what our own paid tier leaves out. · 6 min read
Getting started

The portfolio deadlock, and the honest way out of it

How to break the portfolio deadlock when nobody hires you without work to show: spec pieces from real footage, labelled as spec, and a 60 to 90 second reel. · 6 min read
Pay

How much to charge per reel when you are starting out

Why per reel beats per hour, the three things that move the price, how INR and USD clients differ, and a way to quote in one message without guessing. · 6 min read
Getting paid

Getting clipping money into an Indian bank account

The three rails clipping money travels on, what each one needs set up before a campaign pays, the fees that eat small payouts, and the records to keep for tax. · 6 min read
Trust and safety

Your clip was flagged for botted views and you did not bot

How campaign fraud scoring works, the honest habits that look like botting to a scorer, what happens to held money, and how to use the one appeal you get. · 6 min read
Getting paid

Six edits deep and still unpaid

What to do when a client has taken free work and stopped paying, how to get out of it, and the five words that prevent the next one. · 3 min read
Pay

Why your clip got 200,000 views and twelve dollars

The four things sitting between the CPM a campaign advertises and the money that reaches your balance, and how to read a brief before you cut. · 4 min read