“The shoot took three hours, why does editing take three days?” A fair question. Below is the whole journey from the memory card to a link with files: what happens at each stage, how long it really takes for a package of four reels, when it can be faster, and how to give feedback so revisions take an hour, not a week.
The journey of one reel
- Offload and selection, 1 hour. Three hours of footage leave 15–20 minutes of usable material. The rest is retakes, corrections and transitions between shots.
- Structure and pace, 2 hours for four reels. Each reel is 8–15 shots arranged into a rhythm. This is the stage that decides whether anyone watches to the end.
- Colour, 1 hour. Footage from the S-Log profile looks grey until it gets colour. This is where the venue starts to look like a venue rather than CCTV.
- Sound, 1 hour. Levelling the voice, cutting the fridge hum, leaving room for the music you pick when posting.
- Captions and covers, 1.5 hours. Word-for-word captions in your brand's style, plus a cover for every reel.
- Versions and export, 30 minutes. 9:16 for reels, 16:9 if ordered, clean files without any platform logo.
About seven hours of work for four reels in total, spread over two days, because the stages need a break between them: colour is judged with fresh eyes.
What happens at each stage
Selection: finding the first second
While going through the footage, we first mark candidates for the opening shot. That shot decides whether the thumb stops: a flame, a cut, a reveal, a close-up of the result. Only then do we build the rest. A reel that opens with the sign or a slow push-in on the door loses before it starts.
Structure: rhythm instead of music
Because you choose the music when posting, we cut to the rhythm of the picture and the natural sound: a cut on the knife hitting the board, on the oven door, on a word. That way the reel works with any track you pick, and with no sound at all.
Colour: from grey to real
First we bring the S-Log footage to a normal image, then we match the shots to each other, because the light in a venue changes over three hours. Finally we watch the two things viewers notice at once: skin tones and the colour of food.
Captions: in the safe zone
A large share of reels is watched without sound, so captions are not an extra. We keep them out of the bottom of the frame, which the caption and buttons cover, and away from the right edge, where the like icons sit. We design the cover so the text is readable in the profile grid too, where only its middle section shows.
Export: why not 4K
We shoot in 4K but export reels at 1080 × 1920 with a high bitrate. The platforms compress every file anyway, and on a phone screen 4K makes no visible difference. We use the extra resolution from the shoot in the edit: to reframe from horizontal to vertical and to punch in without losing quality.
Where the 72 hours come from
Because editing a session does not start a minute after the shoot. Other sessions are in the queue, and a good edit needs two passes with a break. 72 hours is a deadline we keep, not a “we will see” promise. For larger packages and a brand film with graphics the deadline is 7 days.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Shoot day | offloading the files and a backup |
| Day 1 | selection, structure, first cuts |
| Day 2 | colour, sound, captions, covers |
| Day 3 | check on a phone, export, link with files |
When it can be faster
A single reel for a specific occasion, an opening or a dated promotion, can be done the next day. Say so when setting the date and we will plan the session so that this material is shot first.
How to give feedback
The fastest revisions are the ones with timecodes. Instead of “something is off in the second reel”, write:
- 0:04 – shorten, the door is on screen too long.
- 0:12 – typo in the caption: “pierogi”, not “perogi”.
- 0:18 – swap the shot of the room for the one of the garden.
All notes in one message, for all reels at once. Watch on a phone, not a computer, because that is how customers will see them. Two revision rounds are included, and one is usually enough.
One thing worth keeping in mind: a revision is a change to what we filmed. A new idea for a reel after the shoot is a new reel. That is why we agree the shot plan before the session, when changes cost the least.
What extends the deadline
What you get at the end
A link with the finished reels in the vertical version, the covers and, if ordered, the horizontal version. For a full or half shoot day the raw footage is in the same place. The files are yours to use with no time limit.
How the whole process works step by step, from enquiry to report.