Video Editor Resume Example

A video editor turns raw footage into something that holds an audience: shaping structure and pace, cutting picture and sound together, then finishing with colour, graphics and a proper audio mix. The reel decides most hiring in this trade, so the resume exists to prove you can be relied on around it, on schedule, in the right software, at the required volume. The sample above cuts branded, documentary and social work.
Written by Thomas Ashworth
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Lucas Silva

Video Editor
[email protected] | 0013096857341

Summary

Video editor with eight years cutting branded, documentary and social content for a production company in Lisbon. Turns raw footage into a story that holds you — shaping pace and rhythm, finding the moments that matter, cutting picture and sound together, and finishing with colour, graphics and audio that lift the whole piece. Edited campaigns that went viral and a documentary that won a festival award. Edits across formats, shapes story and pace, colour-grades and mixes, builds motion graphics, and works closely with directors and clients. Creative, precise and story-driven. Looking for a video-editing role with a studio or brand that cares about storytelling and craft, not just churning out clips.

Work Experience

Video Editor
Lisbon Production Company, Lisbon, Portugal
Jan 2019 – Present
  • Turn raw footage into a story that holds you, finishing with the polish that lifts the whole piece.
  • Edited campaigns that went viral and a documentary that won a festival award over the years.
  • Shape pace and rhythm in the edit, finding the moments that matter and cutting away everything that does not.
  • Cut picture and sound together, building a flow where the visuals, music and dialogue work as one.
  • Colour-grade, mix audio and build motion graphics, finishing pieces to a high, professional standard.
  • Work closely with directors and clients, taking notes and shaping the cut until it lands the way it should.
Junior Editor / Assistant
Portugal Media Studio, Lisbon, Portugal
Mar 2017 – Dec 2018
  • Assisted editors and cut shorter content for a studio, learning professional video editing hands-on each day.
  • Edited social and corporate pieces and managed media, steadily building editing and finishing skills quickly.
  • Learned editing, colour and post-production workflows on the job across nearly two years.
  • Gained the certification and showreel that led into a full video-editor role of my own.

Education

BA in Film & Video Production, Film Production
Lisbon Film School
Sep 2012 – Jun 2016
  • Degree in film and video production covering editing, storytelling and post-production, with a showreel. The programme built the foundation video editing requires. It led directly into editing professional content.
Post-Production & Editing Certificate, Video Editing
Adobe / Avid
Aug 2016 – Feb 2017
  • Certification in editing, colour and post-production workflows to recognised standards. It sharpened the editing toolkit. It supported cutting picture and sound and finishing content to a professional broadcast standard.

Highlights

Edited viral campaigns
  • Edited campaign videos that went viral. A clip spreads when its pace, hook and storytelling land, much of which is decided in the edit, so videos that took off reflect editing that genuinely connected with audiences.
Award-winning documentary
  • Edited a documentary that won a festival award. In documentary, the edit shapes the whole story from hours of footage, so an award reflects editing that turned raw material into a compelling, recognised film.

Certifications

Post-Production & Editing Certificate
Adobe / Avid
Feb 2017 – Present
  • Holds certification in editing, colour and post-production workflows to recognised standards, which sharpened the editing toolkit and supports cutting picture and sound and finishing content to a professional broadcast standard.

Recognition

An editor with story sense
  • Relied on to turn footage into pieces that hold an audience, valued for campaigns that went viral and a documentary that won a festival award on the strength of the edit.

Languages

  • Portuguese — Native or Bilingual Proficiency
  • English (UK) — Full Professional Proficiency

Technical Skills

  • Video Editing
  • Storytelling & Pacing
  • Premiere Pro / Avid
  • Colour Grading
  • Audio Mixing
  • Motion Graphics
  • Documentary Editing
  • Social Content
  • Post-Production Workflow
  • Client Collaboration

Personal Skills

  • Story Sense
  • Precision
  • Creativity
  • Patience
  • Collaboration

Activities & Interests

  • Ghost Hunting
  • Gambling
  • Cinema
  • Play Violin
  • Games

Key Takeaways for a Video Editor Resume

Producers hire on the reel and then check the resume for risk. These are what they look for:
  • Put the reel link at the top, because nobody hires an editor without watching the work and everything else is secondary to it.
  • Name your NLE and version, since Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Final Cut and DaVinci Resolve are screened as hard requirements.
  • Say which formats you cut, as documentary, branded content, social and long-form scripted demand genuinely different instincts.
  • State how much finishing you do, because an editor who also grades, mixes and builds graphics is a materially cheaper hire.
  • Give turnaround and volume, since a producer needs to know whether you can deliver a campaign in a week or a film over months.
  • Show you take notes well, as the ability to absorb client and director revisions without friction is what gets editors rebooked.

Why This Video Editor Resume Works

This sample belongs to an eight-year editor at a production company cutting across three quite different formats, and it argues on craft rather than on software.
  • The opening describes the actual job, turning footage into a story that holds you, rather than listing the software the way most editing resumes open.
  • It names three distinct formats, branded, documentary and social, which tells a producer the range of instincts the candidate can bring to a project.
  • The two achievements are chosen from opposite ends of the craft, campaigns that went viral and a documentary that won a festival award.
  • Finishing skills are claimed explicitly across colour, audio mix and motion graphics, and an editor who can finish is significantly cheaper to hire.
  • Cutting picture and sound together is called out as one process, which is a genuinely editorial observation rather than a technical one.
  • Working closely with directors and clients is stated as part of the job, and handling notes well is what determines whether an editor gets booked again.

How to Write a Video Editor Resume

Your reel gets you considered. The resume decides whether a producer thinks you are safe to book.
Lead with the reel
A single link at the top of the page, current, and cut to the work you actually want more of. Producers watch before they read, and a reel that opens with your strongest thirty seconds does more for you than any bullet point further down the page.
Name the NLE and the version
Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve. Facilities are built around one system and switching costs real time, so this is frequently a hard filter. Say which you are fastest in rather than listing all four as though they were equivalent.
Declare your formats and their pace
Documentary, branded content, social, music video, corporate, scripted. These need different instincts, and a producer cutting a three-minute brand film is not looking for the same editor as one assembling a feature documentary from two hundred hours of rushes.
Say how far you can finish
Colour grading, audio mixing, motion graphics, subtitling, delivery specs. Editors who finish their own work remove whole line items from a budget, which is often the difference between being booked and being passed over on a smaller production.
Quantify volume and turnaround
Pieces delivered a month, campaign turnaround in days, a documentary cut from a stated volume of rushes. Producers are managing schedules above all else, so evidence that you deliver on time at a known rate directly reduces the risk of hiring you.
Show you handle notes and versions
Rounds of revision handled, review workflow used, cuts delivered to client feedback without the schedule slipping. Technical skill is common and temperament is not, and the editors who get rebooked are the ones who take notes without making it difficult. Post-production hiring moves fast around project starts, and producers want a reel link and a resume in the same message. You can build a clean creative resume free and keep it pointing at your current reel.

What to Include in a Video Editor Resume

Beyond the standard sections, a producer or post supervisor is checking these:
A reel link in the header, plus two or three named projects with the client, format and your specific role.
Your primary NLE with version, and any secondary systems you can work in competently if pushed.
Finishing capabilities listed separately, covering grading, audio, motion graphics and subtitling.
Delivery volume and typical turnaround, so a producer can judge whether you fit their schedule.
Camera formats and codecs you have handled, including any experience with proxies and large-format media.
Media management practice, covering ingest, backup and project organisation, which matters enormously on team projects.
Extra tips
A reel full of corporate work produces offers of corporate work, regardless of what the resume says you are after.
Lead with thirty seconds of the thing you want to be doing more of next year.

Video Editor Resume Summary Examples

Two summaries from either end of a post-production career, both leading with format and finishing capability:
Entry-level resume summary example
Junior video editor with eighteen months at a content studio cutting social and corporate pieces, working in Premiere Pro with Media Encoder and basic After Effects. Delivers around twelve short-form pieces a month to client brief, handling versioning across aspect ratios for different platforms and turning most jobs around within three working days of receiving rushes. Manages ingest, proxy generation and project organisation for the wider edit team, and has rebuilt the studio's folder structure and naming convention so that archived projects can actually be reopened. Grades within Premiere using Lumetri and mixes basic dialogue and music beds, with more complex colour work passed to a senior. Looking for a video editor role with a studio that cuts longer-form storytelling work.
Senior-level resume summary example
Video editor with nine years cutting branded content, documentary and social for production companies and direct clients, working primarily in Premiere Pro and comfortable in DaVinci Resolve. Cut a feature-length documentary from around two hundred hours of rushes across a nine-month schedule, which went on to win a festival award and secure distribution. Delivers brand campaigns end to end including grade, audio mix and motion graphics, typically turning a full campaign of six deliverables around within two weeks of receiving footage. Works directly with directors and clients through structured review rounds, consistently landing final approval within three rounds of notes. Looking for a senior editing role with a studio that cares about craft rather than volume alone.

Video Editor Work Experience Examples

Three sets covering the main kinds of editing work, since social volume, brand campaigns and long-form documentary are judged quite differently.
Junior editor and assistant
  • Cut around twelve short-form social and corporate pieces a month to client brief in Premiere Pro, handling versioning across multiple aspect ratios for different delivery platforms.
  • Managed ingest, proxy generation and project organisation for the wider edit team, keeping media consistent so that any editor could pick up a project without ever hunting for assets.
  • Rebuilt the studio's folder structure and file naming convention, which made archived projects reliably reopenable after a period when several had effectively become unrecoverable.
  • Graded within Premiere using Lumetri and mixed basic dialogue and music beds to the required delivery loudness specification, passing only the most complex colour work to a senior editor.
  • Turned most jobs around within three working days of receiving the rushes, including two separate occasions where a client campaign was brought forward at less than a day's notice.
Brand and commercial editing
  • Delivered brand campaigns end to end including offline edit, colour grade, audio mix and motion graphics, typically completing six deliverables within two weeks of receiving footage.
  • Worked directly with directors and agency clients through structured review rounds, consistently reaching final approval within three rounds of notes across the whole of the past two years.
  • Cut a social campaign that substantially outperformed the client's previous work on the same platform, adapting the pacing and framing specifically for sound-off viewing on mobile.
  • Built a set of reusable motion graphics templates in After Effects for a client's ongoing content programme, which cut the graphics time needed on every subsequent delivery by around half.
  • Managed simultaneous delivery specifications across broadcast, social and web, ensuring each version met its own technical requirements without needing a separate re-export each time.
Documentary and long-form
  • Cut a feature-length documentary from around two hundred hours of rushes across a nine-month schedule, which subsequently won a festival award and secured onward distribution deals.
  • Built the film's whole structure from unscripted material, developing the narrative spine through repeated assembly passes rather than working from any predetermined script or outline.
  • Worked closely with the director through successive cuts, balancing editorial instinct against their stated intentions while holding the film to its committed delivery schedule throughout.
  • Cut picture and sound together throughout rather than treating audio as a finishing task, which shaped the pacing and made the eventual sound mix considerably more straightforward.
  • Prepared and delivered the finished film to festival technical specification, managing the full deliverables list including subtitles, audio stems and archival clearance documentation.

Top Video Editor Skills

What a producer or post supervisor screens for, split between the editorial craft and the finishing that widens what you can be booked for:
Hard skills
  • Adobe Premiere Pro
  • Avid Media Composer
  • DaVinci Resolve
  • Final Cut Pro
  • Story Structure & Pacing
  • Colour Grading
  • Audio Mixing & Sweetening
  • Motion Graphics (After Effects)
  • Multi-Camera Editing
  • Media Management & Ingest
  • Proxy Workflows
  • Codec & Delivery Specifications
  • Subtitling & Captions
  • Sound Design
  • Versioning & Aspect Ratio Adaptation
  • Archive & Rushes Organisation
  • Client Review Workflows
Soft skills:
  • Story Sense
  • Patience
  • Taking Notes Well
  • Precision
  • Collaboration With Directors
  • Working to Deadline

Certifications for a Video Editor

Certification counts for very little here compared with a reel, but these are the ones that carry any weight at all:
  • Avid Certified User or Professional — Avid
    The most recognised credential in broadcast and film post, where Avid remains standard. Worth holding if you are targeting facilities rather than agency or social work.
  • Adobe Certified Professional in Premiere Pro — Adobe
    Useful mainly for early-career editors who need something formal on the page while the reel is still thin. Experienced editors are judged on the work instead.
  • DaVinci Resolve Certified Colorist — Blackmagic Design
    Genuinely useful because it evidences finishing capability beyond editing, and editors who can grade competently are booked for jobs that would otherwise need two people.

Video Editor Salary

Editing pay splits sharply between staff positions and freelance day rates, and the median below covers employed editors only:
USD 45,000 – USD 135,000 · Film and video editor · US
National median around $75,420. Broadcast and scripted work pays above this, corporate and social content generally below, with freelance billed by day rate.

Common Video Editor Resume Mistakes

These cost editors work they were otherwise well qualified for:
  • Leaving the reel link off or burying it, when the reel is the actual application and the resume is only supporting evidence for it.
  • Listing every editing package as though they were interchangeable, which reads as shallow rather than versatile to anyone who edits.
  • Describing projects worked on without saying what you cut, so a producer cannot tell whether you led the edit or assisted on it.
  • Omitting finishing skills, which quietly narrows you out of the smaller productions where one person is expected to deliver complete pieces.
  • Ignoring turnaround and volume entirely, when schedule risk is the main thing a producer is assessing when they book an editor.
  • Keeping a reel that shows work you no longer want to do, which reliably generates more offers of exactly that work.

Video Editor Resume FAQs

The questions editors most often search when applying for post-production work, answered directly:

Lead with a reel link, then your primary editing software and the formats you cut. Add your finishing capabilities, typical turnaround and delivery volume, and two or three named projects with your specific role on each rather than just the client name.
Yes, and the reel matters more. Producers watch before they read, so the link belongs at the top of the page. Keep it current, keep it under two minutes, and cut it to the kind of work you want next rather than showing everything you have ever done.
Name your primary system with the version, then any secondary ones you genuinely work in. Facilities standardise on one NLE, so this is often a hard filter. Claiming equal fluency across four systems reads as inexperience to anyone who has actually switched between them.
List them as separate capabilities with the tools named, such as grading in DaVinci Resolve and mixing to broadcast loudness specification. Editors who finish their own work remove budget lines from a production, which materially widens the jobs you can be booked for.
Cut a reel from whatever you can get: student films, spec edits of existing footage, local business pieces, your own short work. Producers judge the cut rather than the client name, so a well-structured spec piece demonstrates story sense just as clearly as a paid job.
Yes, presented as a single role with a date range and the notable clients or projects listed underneath. Give an approximate volume so a producer can see you have worked steadily, since a gap-looking freelance period raises questions that are easy to answer up front.

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