Send your editor five things before the first call: the raw footage with its specs, two or three reference cuts, the exact platform and aspect ratio, a real deadline, and one sentence on who the video is for and what it should do.
There was a client in a coastal town that isn't on any map who sent me forty gigs of footage and one word: "punchy." We lost three days to email before a single cut. Get those five things into one message and the call becomes a working session instead of an interview. Below is what each piece looks like and why it saves you money.
What should you send a video editor before the first call?
Send the footage, the references, the platform specs, the deadline, and the audience. That is the whole list. Everything else is detail that hangs off those five.
The reason a first call goes sideways is almost never talent. It is missing context. An editor who has your footage open, two reference videos playing, and a delivery target can quote you accurately and start same-week. An editor working from "make it punchy and modern" has to run a discovery process on your dime, and every gap becomes another email thread. A tight brief regularly cuts a week off the front of a project.
The most expensive footage I ever received was technically perfect and completely uncontextualized. No references, no platform, no deadline. I built a beautiful cut for the wrong platform because nobody told me it was going on a phone, vertical, with the sound off.
What footage specs does an editor actually need?
An editor needs to know the resolution, frame rate, codec, and roughly how much footage there is before quoting. Those four numbers change the edit time, the storage plan, and whether you need proxy files.
Here is what to include and why it matters:
- Resolution. 1080p, 4K, or a mix. 4K gives room to reframe and punch in, and it also quadruples the storage and the render time.
- Frame rate. 24, 25, 30, or 60. Mixed frame rates in one timeline cause stutter if they are handled carelessly. If you shot slow motion at 120, say so. See the basics of frame rate if the numbers are new to you.
- Codec and camera. "Shot on an iPhone 15" or "Sony FX3 in S-Log3" tells an editor whether they are grading flat log footage or ready-to-cut clips. Log footage needs color work built into the quote.
- Total volume. "About 90 minutes across 40 clips" versus "12 hours from a three-camera event" are different jobs. Volume drives the timeline, not just the price.
- Audio. Separate audio files, lav mics, or camera audio only. Bad audio is the single most common thing clients forget to mention, and it is the hardest to fix late.
You do not need to be technical about this. Right-click a file, open Get Info or Properties, and paste what you see. That thirty-second step prevents the most common back-and-forth email.
Why do reference cuts matter more than adjectives?
References matter more because "modern" means fifteen different things and a link means exactly one. When you send two or three videos and say what you like about each, you replace a paragraph of guesswork with a target an editor can actually hit.
Adjectives like clean, punchy, cinematic, and high-energy feel specific to the person typing them. They are not. Send links instead, and annotate them:
- "I like the pacing in the first 20 seconds of this one."
- "The text animation style here, but slower."
- "This is the energy I want, but our footage is calmer, so somewhere between this and our raw clips."
Two or three references is the right number. One gives an editor no range to triangulate. Ten contradict each other and the editor ends up guessing which ones you meant. If you can point at timestamps, even better. Thirty seconds of "this exact moment" is worth more than a page of description. This is most of what a good design brief is built to capture, and it is the part clients skip most often.
What platform and aspect ratio details prevent rework?
Tell your editor the platform and the aspect ratio up front, because a cut built for one does not drop cleanly into another. A 16:9 YouTube edit reframed to 9:16 vertical after the fact means re-tracking every graphic and re-centering every shot. That is rework you pay for twice.
Different destinations have different rules. Here is a rough reference for the common ones:
| Platform | Aspect ratio | Typical length | Sound-on assumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube (main) | 16:9 | 3 to 12 min | Sound on |
| YouTube Shorts | 9:16 | Up to 3 min | Sound on |
| Instagram Reels / TikTok | 9:16 | 15 to 90 sec | Often sound off, captions expected |
| Instagram feed | 4:5 or 1:1 | Up to 60 sec | Sound off default |
| 16:9 or 1:1 | 30 to 90 sec | Sound off default | |
| Website hero | 16:9, often muted loop | 10 to 30 sec | No sound |
If a video is going to more than one place, say that at the start. Editing a master and then exporting sized variants is a planned task. Retrofitting a finished 16:9 cut into vertical is a rebuild. For technical delivery it also helps to match the destination's encoding, and YouTube publishes its recommended upload settings if you want to hand your editor exact export targets (see Which Video Format and Spec You Actually Need Per Platform).
Assume sound-off for anything social. Roughly 85% of Facebook video is watched without sound, and vertical feeds behave the same way. If the video needs to work muted, captions and on-screen text stop being decoration and become the whole message. Your editor should know that on day one.
How firm does the deadline need to be?
Give a real date and say what it is tied to. "End of the month" and "our product launches on the 14th, this has to be live by the 12th" produce completely different schedules, and the second one is the one an editor can plan around.
A vague deadline gets vaguely prioritized. A concrete one with a reason behind it lets an editor sequence your project against their other work and tell you honestly whether it fits. Include:
- The hard date and what it is attached to (a launch, an event, an ad flight).
- How many rounds of revisions you expect. Two is standard for most short-form work.
- Whether there is an internal approver who needs to sign off, and how fast they usually respond.
That last point is the quiet deadline killer. A three-day edit can sit for a week waiting on one stakeholder. If your CEO reviews everything and travels a lot, your editor needs to know that before quoting a turnaround.
Who is the video for, and what should it do?
One sentence on the audience and the goal changes almost every editing decision. "This is a top-of-funnel ad for people who have never heard of us" and "this is a demo for warm leads who already booked a call" get cut differently at every step, from the hook to the pacing to the call to action.
An editor is making hundreds of small choices about what to keep, what to cut, and how long to hold a shot. Every one of those improves when they know who is watching and what you want that person to do next. Tell them the goal in plain terms: get signups, explain a feature, build brand awareness, close a sale. Then they can cut toward it instead of guessing.
What goes in the checklist before you hit send?
Copy this into the email and you have covered everything an editor needs to quote and start:
- Footage: resolution, frame rate, camera or codec, total volume, audio setup
- Two or three reference videos with a note on what you like about each
- Platform and aspect ratio, plus every place the video will be posted
- Sound on or off, captions needed or not
- Hard deadline and what it is tied to
- Number of revision rounds and who approves
- One sentence: who is this for and what should it do
Send that before the call and the first conversation is about creative direction, not logistics. That is where you actually want an editor's attention.
FAQ
How much footage should I send before the first call?
Send a representative sample or a file list with specs, not the full forty gigs. An editor needs to see the quality, resolution, and audio, plus know the total volume to quote. A shared drive folder with a few clips and a one-line inventory is enough for a first call. Send the full set once you have agreed to work together.
What is a reference cut?
A reference cut is an existing video you point to as an example of the style, pacing, or tone you want. It replaces vague adjectives with a concrete target. Send two or three links and note what you like about each one, ideally with timestamps.
Do I need to know my footage specs if I am not technical?
No. Right-click any video file and open Get Info on a Mac or Properties on Windows, then paste what it shows. Resolution and frame rate are usually right there. Your editor can work out the rest from a sample clip, so a rough note beats sending nothing.
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