Video Editor for TFIL

Part-Time

Remote

$750-$7,500 Per Project

About the job

Elton here! I created TFIL in 2016 with two of my best friends and a list of 1,000 things I wanted to do before I die. It’s an incredibly ambitious and rather obnoxious list of the most ridiculous things you can possibly do in life. It’s not just “skydiving,” it’s “get a tattoo while skydiving.” It’s not “visit the Paris Catacombs,” it’s “stay overnight in the Paris catacombs.” It’s not “visit Afghanistan,” it’s “have dinner with a Taliban Commander” (which we just did and were the first ones in history to do as tourists).

Since 2016, we’ve gone on to accomplish roughly 273 items while traveling to 25 countries and, fortunately, building a fan base that has been overwhelmingly supportive of us. For the last 8 years, my main goal has always been providing the best version of any video I possibly can to our current and potential viewers. I know how valuable time is, and I want to make sure that if someone chooses to spend as little as 20 minutes or upwards of hours watching our videos, they get the best possible experience. The channel has been built around allowing viewers to feel as though they are a part of every experience with us. The production mindset is that these videos may very well be the only way 99.99% of people watching will ever get to travel to these locations, enjoy these experiences, learn about these cultures, and so on.

That appreciation for the audience and understanding of the content goal is absolutely crucial to editing for this channel. We try to make the absolute most of our footage so that viewers can get the full experience, the full story, and the full appreciation for the journey we bring them on. The editing in our videos isn’t extremely technical; in fact, it’s all rather basic, but the “heart and soul” of the video is what truly matters. The right music to match or enhance the mood of the content, creating a flow that’s fun, engaging, and paced well to watch while still allowing comedic or authentic moments to live naturally—these are the most important things.

Our goal is to hire 1-2 editors who can handle an entire country’s worth of filming (this will range from 2-22 days of footage based on the size of the country, things to do, etc.). This will come with guidance of course from the team and will always have an open line of communication for any questions at all to make things as easy as possible for everyone.

Of course, notes & guidance will be needed in the early stages but we're hoping to quickly to get to a point where the Version 1 edit is “YouTube ready.” Truly hoping to get to a point where I can essentially let the editor have full control and directly upload the video to the channel without any notes or adjustments.

Ideal candidate

An editor who has a passion for travel, education, sharing these adventures and is aligned with our goal to give viewers the best possible experience they could ever ask for. We don't just want an editor looking for a gig - we want someone as passionate as us and is looking to be a part of this very odd family we've built since 2016.

That is the dream, is to have editors on board who can simply be trusted to make great choices in terms of pacing, music, content kept in and be extremely proud of their work knowing that it very well could be viewed by millions of people. Tens of thousands of hours can be spent by complete strangers all across the world watching the content they have edited and feel as though they experienced the ultimate version of what was filmed.

That’s my mentality with these videos, why I care so deeply about them, and making the most out of what was filmed. So if you also have that as a minimum level of passion and compassion for the YouTube content creation realm, then this is the right fit for you. If you don’t, then any of the below doesn’t matter.

We have provided a full-length “country cut” from our recent trip to Afghanistan (Country 1 of the series, of course, that can be viewed here: https://f.io/jStMgVsS), and the edit is done by our current editor and best friend.

We consider this to have all the “heart and soul,” proper music choice, pacing, maximized filmed content, etc. It’s a phenomenal reference for the type of footage you will be working on. It’s also a great way to see the personalities of the people you will be editing for and working with, as every person in the videos is a part of the team in pre- and post-production as well.

To be completely honest, this edit is actually significantly better than what I want in terms of quality, montages, etc but since it's the opening country for the series, more effort was put in.

Job requirements

Premiere Pro (everyone on the team is in Premiere and we all utilize each other's PRJs when needed)

Must be able to turn over videos on a timely basis. If you're late one time, even by one hour, that will be the immediate end of the working relationship. We let editors set their own deadlines and then everyone else on the team plans according to when it should be ready.

The most important, genuinely care about travel, different cultures, education and sharing these experiences in a way that makes viewers feel as though they went to these countries with us.

We are doing a zoom call with all potential editors on July 29 at 2:30PM PST. This is meant as a way for you to ask any questions you may have to ensure this is a good fit before anyone burns any time doing edits, etc.

So if you're interested, please submit the form.

It's just a few questions so we can review your work before the zoom call, etc.

Pay is also done on a per video/per day of footage basis. We already have 62 days of footage ready to go & there will be a consistent flow of filming over the next 7 years until this project is complete. We conscientiously film in a manner that is always thinking about the editor and simplicity. Most filming is on a single DSLR and when needed we go to GoPros for any action-adventure moments. Our goal is to get single video ($750) edits down to a single day, from harddrive to upload.

We pay bonuses for hitting 1M views & always adjust pay if some videos end up being far more work, etc. When traveling in the nature we do, there is no set shot list so sometimes days of filming are significantly better than we hoped and some are pretty not great days - it all tends to balance out.