YouTube Video Editor / Storyteller for Two Brothers Building a Company

YouTube Video Editor / Storyteller for Two Brothers Building a Company, Making Music & Documenting the Journey About the Project My brother Tim and I are launching a YouTube channel called The Stokes Brothers. The basic premise is simple: Two brothers who have spent their whole lives building things together are finally coming together officially to build a company, make music, and see what happens. We recently moved into a house together in Los Angeles and started a consumer products company, where we’re currently developing our first physical product with industrial designers and engineers. But this is not just a startup channel. The larger story is about two brothers working together, learning things we don’t know how to do yet, making music, designing products, meeting interesting people, occasionally failing, and trying to build a really interesting life together. We’re looking for an editor who can help turn all of that footage into an ongoing story people actually care about following. The First Video The first video is particularly important. It will essentially introduce who we are and why this channel exists, and will probably remain pinned near the top of the YouTube channel for a long time. I have a large archive of footage going back many years, including: * Childhood and family footage * My brother and me working on projects together * Building a chicken coop * Remodeling / working on our mom’s old house * Trips and festivals together * Music and DJ footage * Different phases of our separate careers * My best-man speech at Tim’s wedding * Recent footage of us moving to Los Angeles * Starting our company * Working with engineers and designers * Building prototypes * Making music together The story is roughly: We’ve always built things together. Then life took us in different directions. Tim became a software engineer. I went into music, entertainment, marketing, and creative work. Now we’re bringing those different skill sets back together and giving ourselves a real shot at building something together. Neither of us has ever manufactured a consumer product before. That’s part of the point. We’re going to figure it out and document what actually happens. What We’re Looking For We’re not looking for someone who simply cuts clips together. We’re looking for someone with strong storytelling instincts. Someone who understands pacing, emotion, humor, music, tension, callbacks, and how seemingly ordinary footage can become meaningful when placed in the right context. Stylistically, we want something that feels: * Personal * Cinematic when appropriate * Funny without forcing jokes * Sentimental occasionally, but not cheesy * Modern and visually interesting * Authentic rather than overly polished/corporate * Fast-moving when the story calls for it, but comfortable slowing down for meaningful moments There will be a mixture of: * Archival footage * Phone footage * Dedicated camera footage * Conversations between Tim and me * Meetings * Product development * Music sessions * Voiceover narration * Lifestyle footage * Occasional direct-to-camera segments A lot of our footage is naturally captured rather than staged specifically for YouTube. That means part of your job will be finding the story inside the footage. Workflow Our ideal workflow would be collaborative. We provide you with organized footage and explain the basic story we’re trying to tell. You create an initial story/edit. There may be sections where narration would improve the story. You can send those sections back to me with notes such as: “We need 20–30 seconds of narration here explaining what was happening.” I’ll record that narration and send it back. Then we continue refining the piece together. Over time, I’d love for the editor to understand us well enough that the process becomes increasingly intuitive. Short-Form Content — Big Bonus A major bonus would be someone who can also identify moments from the long-form videos that can become: * Instagram Reels * TikToks * YouTube Shorts * Facebook/Instagram video posts Ideally one long-form shoot/edit can produce several short-form pieces that lead people back toward the main channel. This isn’t absolutely required if your long-form storytelling is exceptional, but it would be extremely useful. Editing Skills That Would Be Helpful Strong ability with: *excellent written and spoken English, strong communication, and an instinct for conversational, personality-driven humor are essential. * Long-form YouTube storytelling * Archival footage * Music-driven editing * Voiceover * Dialogue cleanup * Basic color correction * Audio balancing * Subtitles/captions * Punch-ins and tasteful digital camera movement * Light motion graphics * Screen recordings / screenshots when useful * Mixing footage from different cameras, phones, years, and resolutions * Creating energy from relatively static footage We don’t want every second overloaded with effects. Taste matters more to us than complexity. Important: Product Confidentiality Because we’re documenting the development of a physical product, some footage may contain designs, engineering discussions, prototypes, or other information that cannot be publicly shown yet. You need to be comfortable following clear instructions about what can and cannot appear publicly and potentially signing an NDA. This Could Become Ongoing Work We’re not just hiring somebody for one video. If we find the right person, we’d like this to become a continuing relationship as the channel develops. Upcoming stories already include: Video 1 — Who Are The Stokes Brothers? Our history, why we’re doing this, moving to LA, music, starting a company, and what we’re trying to build. Video 2 — Starting Over in Los Angeles Moving into the house, officially forming the company, getting everything set up, preparing our first major DJ set together, and an unexpected side adventure where we find a lost dog and try to reunite it with its owner. Future episodes could follow: * Hiring our first industrial designer / engineer * Designing our first product * First 3D prints * Failed prototypes * Manufacturing decisions * Music sessions * DJ performances * Building our company * Launching our first product * The realities of building a company for the first time What Matters Most to Us We care far more about taste and storytelling ability than flashy credentials. When applying, please send: 1. The 2–3 videos you’ve edited that best demonstrate storytelling. Please don’t send a giant portfolio. 2. Tell us briefly why you chose those specific videos. 3. Tell us what you think makes a YouTube video emotionally compelling rather than simply well-edited. 4. Tell us about any experience working with archival footage, documentary-style content, founders, creators, musicians, or long-form YouTube. 5. Let us know whether you also edit short-form content. 6. Tell us what editing software you primarily use. 7. Tell us your approximate availability each week. One question we’d especially like you to answer: If you had 15 years of footage of two brothers and needed to make a 10–15 minute video that made strangers care about them, how would you begin finding the story? There is no perfect answer. We’re mostly interested in how you think. Paid Test For the strongest candidates, we’d like to start with a small paid editing test using the same footage. We’ll give several editors the same limited group of clips and a basic story objective. We’re not looking for free speculative work. The purpose is simply to see how each editor interprets the material before committing to a larger project. Long-Term Goal The ambition is for The Stokes Brothers to become the umbrella for everything my brother and I build together over the coming years. Our current company is the first major project. Music is another part of it. There will almost certainly be other projects. We’re looking for an editor who gets excited by the idea of helping us document that journey from the beginning — and potentially helping define what the channel feels like as it grows. We're aiming to find someone to work with long term, for the entirety of the channel and other projects.