Video Editor - Cinematic Film & TV History Documentaries (Faceless YouTube, Ongoing)

About the channel cinemabhs is a faceless YouTube channel telling the behind-the-scenes history of film and television: casting battles, on-set decisions, creative standoffs, and the production stories behind famous movies. Think cinematic video essay, not recap or gossip. A voiceover carries the story; real film clips, archival footage and stills support it. Every video is built to hold attention from the first second to the last. We are past launch and building a reliable production pipeline. We want one or two editors we can work with every week, for the long term, at a fair and rising rate. What you'd be doing: You'll be given everything you need: a finished voiceover recording and a detailed two-column script. Your job is to turn that into a finished 10 to 15 minute cinematic documentary edit. Each video, you would: Cut a fast, gripping hook in the first 30 seconds. Source the right footage yourself: real film clips, archival material, behind-the-scenes and stills of the actual people and films. Follow the script's shot list exactly (more on this below). Grade everything into one consistent, cinematic look. Map music to the story so it builds, drops and resolves with the narration. Add clean subtitles and chapter markers, and deliver to spec. The one thing that matters most - please read: Our scripts have two columns. The left is the narration. The right-hand column is a shot list - it tells you the exact visual for every single line, and the edit must follow it line by line. It is not a mood board or a set of suggestions. This is the single most important thing about working with us, and it's where most editors fall down. If you're the kind of editor who reads a brief closely and executes it precisely, you'll do well here. Three standards sit alongside it, and they are non-negotiable: Accuracy is our first rule. Every person, place and clip on screen must be verifiably the real thing - the right person, the right film, the right era. Generic stock standing in for real people and films does not work for us. If you can't confirm what a clip actually is, it doesn't go in. We expect a dedicated accuracy pass before delivery. Footage must be sourced to the story. Everything on screen is about the actual subject of the video. No unrelated filler. Craft. Motion on every still, pacing that varies like music, music mapped to the beats, and a consistent grade throughout. Who this is for: Editors with real experience in documentary, history, true-crime or long-form retention-style YouTube content. Comfortable in Premiere Pro and/or DaVinci Resolve, with the hardware to handle 4K. Genuinely good at sourcing archival and film footage, not just assembling supplied clips. Reliable on turnaround and easy to give notes to. Not a fit: motion-graphics-only editors, short-form/Reels specialists, anyone who works mainly from stock libraries, or anyone who needs the visuals decided for them beyond what the script already provides. Rate & structure $60 to $200 per finished video, depending on experience and how much direction you need, rising with proven reliability. Paid trial edit first (a short piece, paid from the first frame), so we can see how you work before committing to ongoing videos. No unpaid tests, ever. Ongoing, weekly work for editors who hit the standard. Performance bonuses on high-view videos. All work and payment stay on Upwork. How to apply - please do this properly: Applications that ignore these will not be considered. This is deliberate: we need editors who read instructions. Link two or three videos you have personally edited that are closest to cinematic documentary or history storytelling. Tell us specifically what you did on each. Your setup: editing software and hardware. Answer this one question so we know you've read this advert: in your own words, what is the right-hand column of our script, and how would you treat it? We read every application that answers question 3. We look forward to seeing your work.