Not for: Not a price list for what to charge couples, and not market rates for editors. What you charge depends on your market, your work and your clients, and it is your call.
Three ways to pay for an edit
A wedding film is paid for in one of three currencies. Your own time: the evenings spent watching footage and building the first cut, which you could otherwise spend shooting or selling. A freelance editor’s fee, agreed per film or per day, which buys your time back but adds a hand-off. Or Auto-Edit credits, which pay for the first cut of a highlight, after which you still finish the film yourself. Many studios use all three, for different films.
Your own time
The first cut is usually the slowest part: watching everything, choosing the moments and laying them to the song. Count it honestly, including the evenings, and put a value on it. If an hour of your time is worth more spent shooting or meeting couples, the first cut is the part to hand to someone or something else, while you keep the finishing that makes the film yours.
A freelance editor
A good editor brings their own eye, and they need a brief, the footage, the songs and time for changes. Agree what you are paying for: which films, how long each is, how many rounds of changes. Freelance rates vary widely by city, experience and the kind of film, so ask around in your own market rather than relying on a figure from elsewhere.
How Auto-Edit credits are counted
The editor, the colour page and export are free with a Vantacut account. Only Auto-Edit uses credits, in two charges, by the second, each made only once its work is done. New footage costs 10 credits a minute, the first time it is analysed; it is not charged again until its copies expire, 30 days after a reel last used them. The film costs 40 credits a minute of reel. Each new account gets 750 credits to start, once.
A worked example
A wedding with six hours of new footage is 360 minutes, so analysing it costs 3,600 credits, once. A 5-minute highlight film from it costs 200 credits. A 1-minute teaser from the same footage costs 40 credits more, because the footage is not analysed again. The whole job is 3,840 credits. Packs come in 1,000, 4,000 and 12,000 credits; their prices are on the pricing page.
What to charge
Add up what each film costs you to make: your hours at the value you put on them, any editor’s fee, credits, music, storage and travel. That is the floor. What you charge above it depends on your market, your work and the clients you want, and it is your call. Knowing the floor makes it easier to say what is included, and what a second round of changes or an extra teaser costs.
The worked example in credits
A full wedding with six hours of new footage, a five-minute highlight and a one-minute teaser, at the rates on the pricing page.
| Charge | Minutes | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| New footage, analysed once | 360 | 3,600 |
| Highlight film | 5 | 200 |
| Teaser from the same footage | 1 | 40 |
| Total | 3,840 |
Your footage stays on your computer
Editing, playback and export run on your computer, and your original footage and songs never leave it. To find moments, Auto-Edit shares low-quality copies of your clips, still frames and the speech, and the app asks once before anything is sent. The editor works worldwide, in English; credit packs are priced in Indian rupees.
Questions
How many credits does a wedding take?
It depends on the minutes of new footage analysed and the minutes of film made. New footage is 10 credits a minute, analysed once; each minute of film is 40 credits. The worked example on this page adds them up for a full wedding.
Does a second film from the same footage cost the analysis again?
No, as long as its copies have not expired, which happens 30 days after a reel last used them. The second film pays for its own minutes only.
How much should I charge for wedding video editing?
That depends on your market, your work and your clients, and it is your call. Count what each film costs you to make, including your time, before you set a price.
Get the editor
Windows and Linux now; macOS is coming. The editor is free; create your account when it first opens.