Story-Driven Craft Films (YouTube) — India, Long-Term

Story-Driven Craft Films (YouTube) — Long-Term Editor, India Paid trial task leading to a long-term retainer. 8–9 films and ongoing shorts. I'm launching a video-first storytelling channel about artisans in North East India — handwoven silk, natural-fibre craft, traditional painting — on YouTube and Instagram. I'm looking for one editor to build the series with me: 8–9 long-form films over the coming months, plus a steady stream of shorts, moving to a monthly retainer once we're in rhythm. These are not appreciation films. Each one is built around a question the viewer wants answered. The first story is ahimsa silk in Meghalaya — silk made without killing the cocoon, when nearly all silk on earth is made by boiling the worm alive — and the woman who built a business and a village's livelihood on refusing to do that. The craft is how the story moves, not the subject of a lecture. Each film weaves together three layers: The people — sometimes a single maker, sometimes a whole workshop. Here it's the woman who runs the handlooms and the women from surrounding villages who weave with her. The craft and its history — told through animation and motion graphics, and used to pay off the viewer's curiosity, not to decorate. Where the technique came from, why it nearly died, what it costs to keep it alive. Maps, timelines, illustrated process sequences. This is the most important skill I'm hiring for. The voices — interview audio recorded with the artisans in Hindi and English, which most speak fluently; occasionally a local language with subtitles where that's how someone tells it best. Combined with voice-over recorded after the shoot. No presenter, no corporate narrator tone. Reference points: the research and motion-graphics style of Johnny Harris, Vox or Aevy TV, applied to subjects like Business Insider's Still Standing. Documentary-quality craft, built for YouTube retention — not a slow festival cut. How this works Step 1 — Apply See the questions at the bottom. Step 2 — Paid trial: ₹1,500 / $20, ~2 hours I'll send you a brief on the ahimsa silk story. You send back a one-page shoot brief covering: Structure and proportions — for a 10–14 min film, roughly how many minutes go to the maker's story, the craft's history, the hands-on process (cocoons, reeling, dyeing, looms), and the wider context. Tell me what the film opens on, what question it holds open, and where it lands. Interviews — how many people, who, how long each, and the questions that matter most. Flag anything I must get on tape or the film won't work. Shot list — per process step, what coverage and angles you need: wides, hands, macro, over-shoulder, cutaways, plus the ambient sound to record separately. Mark which moments are specifically for vertical. Narration coverage — what to capture on location so the film can be carried by the artisans' own voices, by post-shoot voice-over, or a mix. Technical specs — frame rate, resolution, audio, log profile, file delivery. No script needed at this stage — that gets written from the footage once we're back, with you. Step 3 — The pilot Whoever's brief I shoot to gets the edit, in two parts: Shorts first: 3–4 vertical cuts (30–60s) delivered within a week of the shoot, so we can start posting while the film is being built. Then a further 8–10 across the following weeks — a mix of story beats, process/ASMR moments, and product-facing cuts. The film: one 10–14 min long-form with substantial 2D animation carrying the craft-history sections, narration assembly, subtitles, thumbnail concepts, colour and sound. Fixed price per deliverable; quote shorts separately from long-form. Step 4 — The series. 8–9 more films across Assam and Meghalaya, plus ongoing shorts. Fixed price per film and per batch of shorts. If it's working well for both of us, I'm open to moving to a monthly retainer. What I'm looking for Strong 2D animation and motion graphics (After Effects) — illustrated process sequences, maps, timelines. Show me history you've made visually interesting. Story-driven YouTube editing — strong hooks, tight pacing, no dead air. Not vlog cuts, not talking-head reels. A feel for tension and structure: knowing what to withhold and when to pay it off. Strong vertical instincts — shorts aren't trimmed long-form. Show me short-form work you're proud of. Ability to build a narration spine out of raw interview audio and post-shoot VO. Sound design instincts — a loom shed is noisy and the audio has to carry emotion. Comfortable cutting for both 16:9 and 9:16. Understanding of Hindi is a strong plus; subtitling experience welcome. To apply, please include Two links to work you edited that most resembles this — tell me what you specifically did on each. At least one should show your animation or motion-graphics work. For a 10–14 min film on this, how would you split the runtime between the woman's story, the craft's history, and the process itself — and what would you open on? Name one thing about ahimsa silk you'd build an animated section around. One sentence on what makes a craft film land emotionally, versus feeling like a corporate CSR video. Your rate: per long-form film, per short, and as a monthly retainer. Your realistic turnaround for one 12-minute film with animated sections. Please don't send a generic template. I'll read every application that engages with the actual brief.