In the world of video editing, the journey from rough cut to polished product is often far from straightforward. It’s a process filled with trial and error, feedback, and countless revisions. Yet, those who embrace this reality can craft truly remarkable work. Below are ten editing secrets you wi...

My name is Austen Menges, and I've been a professional editor for over 20 years. And this is a hammer.🔨

What does a hammer have to do with video editing? We’ll get to that. But first, if I had to start over as a video editor today, I’d do it completely differently than most beginners. I want to ...

YouTube keeps serving me up video editing showreels, and I see the same mistakes over and over and over. How do I know they’re mistakes? Because I’ve made all of them myself. 

I’ve not only been a pro editor for over 20 years, but I’ve also hired lots of editors over my career, having reviewed h...

I turned 40 recently, and I’ve been a pro editor since the age of 19, so I’ve been at this for quite some time. I thought I’d mark this milestone by sharing five things I wish I knew earlier as a young video editor in hopes it’ll help you on your journey. Watch the video above for the full lesson...

Should you edit for free? A lot of you might say, “absolutely not”. But what if I told you that one of my biggest paychecks as an editor came from a project that I initially worked on for free?

I’ve been a pro editor for over 20 years, and I really struggled with evaluating editing projects unti...

What if I told you that the best way to organize your files for video editing involved doing less, or even stopping for a time?

In this video, I'm going to share my best tips on file structure, management, and organization that have helped me get to a place of peace with my files after strugglin...

I’m going to tell you about the time I edited out a $10,000 shot…

But first I’m going to explain how editing is largely cutting out the bad bits, what it means to "kill your darlings", and the dangers of the sunk cost fallacy.

If you’ve read my articles, you’ve heard me talk about Walter Murch ...

In this article I’d like to share what I learned from editing Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey.

Last summer I got a phone call to work on a project for Matthew McConaughey’s Just Keep Livin’ Foundation. His non-profit was launching a program to help schools apply for federal safety grants...

In today’s article I’m going to share THE most important criteria for successful editing.

In order to illustrate the concept, I'll be referencing the 3D-animated short film Pigeon: Impossible that was released in 2009. I was the editor and I also contributed to the story.

I would consider this ...

In this article I’d like to share why I think video editors should be on set for the projects they’re editing.

The relationship between production people and post-production people can be strained at times. 

In large part, I think it can be attributed to the loaded four-word phrase: "fix it in ...

The dreaded rough cut: a blank page, an empty canvas, and what used to be the bane of my editing existence until I finally figured this out:

Your rough cuts suck. And so do mine. And that’s OK.

In this article I’d like to provide a little perspective that will make your rough cut process a lot ...