How to find freelance clients as a video editor

Where the work is

Post-production houses book freelance editors per job and keep a list organised by what you cut best: commercials, long-form, social, documentary. Production companies bring their own editor to a project and book freelancers when the regulars are busy. Advertising agencies book directly for social and digital, often through an in-house studio. In-house teams at brands, media companies and software companies run a constant volume of product, social and internal video. Broadcasters and streamers book for promos and series.

Commercial editing pays by the day and rewards speed and taste; in-house work pays by the month and rewards reliability. Both are good; the emails are different.

Who makes the call

At a post house it is the head of production or a producer, with the executive producer approving. At production companies it is the producer or director on the job. At agencies it is the head of the in-house studio or an integrated producer. In-house it is a video lead or creative operations manager.

Producers book editors. Directors ask for editors. Being known to both, with a clear sense of what you cut best, is what gets you the first call rather than the third.

What to send

Not a showreel. One or two finished pieces that match their work, with a sentence on what the brief was and what you did. If you cut their kind of thing well, say so plainly: “I mostly cut 30s and 60s for retail and automotive.” Say your software and whether you grade or do sound. Say when you are free.

Producers want to know you will make the deadline and not need managing. A line about how you like to work, versions, turnaround, where you cut, answers the question they will not ask in the first email.

Keep it warm

A note when a piece you cut goes live, a hello when they release something you admired, a reminder of your availability before busy seasons. Keep it short and infrequent, and keep a record so you never send the same thing twice to the same producer.

Producers move between post houses and production companies constantly, and a producer who trusts you is worth more than any company on your list.

Where Soloish fits

Soloish does the research half of this. It reads your portfolio, works out what kind of editing you do, and finds the agencies and studios in the markets you choose that hire that kind of work, ranked by fit with the reason beside each one.

Connect the email you already use for work and it shows who you know at each company and who is due a hello. It only sees who you emailed and when, never what was said. When you don’t know anyone there, it finds a person with the right title in the right office and checks the address is real; if it finds no one, it costs nothing.

Every email is written for that one company and shows the piece of yours that fits them best. You edit it and send it from your own Gmail or Outlook, so nothing goes out that you didn’t read. Soloish watches the companies you follow for news worth writing about, notices replies, and brings a follow-up back on the day you choose.