How to work as a freelance shreditor: the complete guide

How to work as a freelance shreditor: the complete guide to producing and editing with a business mindset

A shreditor is a blend of the English words "Shoot, Produce, Editor," and it refers to a professional who handles camera work, video editing, and video production all at once. In many cases, it's a one-person team. The role comes with a large amount of technology gear that supports their work and speed. It's a new term that could be classified as a hybrid professional. This person is capable of taking on far more roles than a company traditionally would. A shreditor's work should be integrated into the client's marketing plan and complemented by a content strategy to improve communication and engagement with the target audience. A shreditor's work is essential to video marketing and strengthens your brand's audiovisual storytelling. The shreditor can create advertising spots and making-of videos that reinforce your brand identity and improve your digital presence. The shreditor is part of your social media plan and brand, improving ROI, and should be measured with the right KPIs to optimize results.

A few years ago, the production landscape was very different. To shoot a video or a small production, you needed many specialists, each dedicated to a very specific task. A creative able to write scripts and storyboards to define the shots, specialists capable of handling sound, image, recording, focusing, producing, assembling it in an editor, and finally distributing it.

What technology has achieved is that, with a simple camera or phone, all of these tasks can be done in a single pass. And by a single person, too—though their command of multiple skills must be acknowledged. Today, thanks to the arrival of digital cameras and other resources, it isn't that complicated to do. The challenge lies in the level of professionalism it can reach.

Why it's a valuable service for your clients

Video is an essential tool for communicating, and its use isn't limited to television or social media. It can be used to close business deals, improve procedures, support human resources, or simply motivate your team. Even so, its main uses—where it's most often seen—are in marketing. Video marketing should be integrated into your content strategy and social media plan to improve engagement and communication with your target audience.

For your clients, having a freelance shreditor (in situations where you can't rely on a more professional shoot) capable of producing at a scale similar to that of an external agency is essential. Not only in business situations in remote locations, but also in cases where, for example, weather conditions make it impossible to work as usual. At the same time, in terms of cost, it's a huge difference compared to hiring a third-party company or agent to do this work.

If you also have a solid strategy and good preparation, you'll make far better use of your resources. That's because it's much more transparent to work with you, and all the creative resources can be accessed in a single pass. On top of that, having someone solely specialized in this makes the process very efficient. And by working closely together, you get enough context about the company that you don't have to waste time educating someone.

The day-to-day work

The way a "shreditor"—someone specialized in producing and editing video—typically works is complex. It usually starts with ideation, which can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to weeks of preparation.

Afterward, once the concept is designed, they prepare scripts or simple bullet points that break those original creative ideas down into the things that need to be filmed. They get all the gear ready to carry it out, and then production or filming begins.

Finally, after gathering all the content, they set up an editing session, which requires a relatively powerful computer to produce that content. It's distributed in a video format—the moment the final video file is produced and distributed according to its intended use. Placing it in a presentation, uploading it to a website, posting it on social media, or any other internal communication use, for example.

Key point for the "shreditor" video editor

Creatives solve problems, and in the case of an editor it's a tricky situation, since many things can go wrong. They're doing the work of multiple people at once, supported by how much technology has eased that today. This means it requires some experience, and at first there can be mistakes that affect only quality, or simply make some files unusable. Here's a set of principles, as a list, to consider in order to make sure everything goes well.

• Quality and consistency of the recordings
• Clear, leveled audio (not clipping)
• Files properly labeled and saved
• Meeting quality standards, deadlines, and business strategy
• See guides or tutorials to improve

Organization, the company, and a good kit

If this person works within a company, you have to keep in mind how hard it is to land a job like this. Plus the experience it requires, since it's a fairly technical role and an extremely in-demand—and therefore well-paid—specialist. At the same time, it calls for budgets and a different way of organizing their files. In many cases it can be a phone and a computer, but in others, to get more stable recordings and better sound and video, there has to be a large amount of gear that takes audiovisual production and quality to the next level.

Most likely, you've been inside a company where budgets are limited, so audiovisual quality will be entirely tied to it. There are many techniques—for example, we've talked here about how to save money or spend it more wisely. One of them is using stock content that can be blended or mixed in with the company's own content. This raises the audiovisual quality without keeping that "blandness" and lack of character that make up stock content.

The limitations

It's worth stressing that not everything is so rosy, and that finding a worker capable of doing this is not only extremely in demand but also very well paid. A shreditor is much more expensive and harder to find than a simple video editor, which is already complex.

The investment in gear also has to be considered. A good video camera can cost around €1,000 (just like a phone with professional quality). If you start adding stabilization upgrades, audio gear, and computers to edit on, we'd be talking about a figure of around €5,000. Although it may seem like little, this kit is basic in terms of what you can do, and it becomes outdated/obsolete fairly easily.

We've observed that in many cases the gear's depreciation isn't put to good use, and that the not-so-great salaries of these kinds of professionals drive costs up excessively. This is because they work very slowly or with little experience—costing more than an external production. Their lack of experience and context on social media or other areas is also a problem. It's very hard to fully develop all your skills as a filming professional while also knowing the depth of the strategies and the company's context. Everything is changing, especially in communication and marketing. So you have to be very careful not to fall behind and use outdated techniques and gear.

Shreditor: Simple setup for audio and video editing

Shreditor: Simple setup for audio and video editing

Signs your shreditor service is scaling well

• Delivering on time without compromising audio quality or storytelling.
• A library of reusable assets to speed up production.
• A results-based pricing model, not just hours of editing.
• The client's business metrics improving after each cycle.