The Editing Chef: Boosting Your Editing Speed

Good editing is not about software but rather about good storytelling.

Right? I bet you've heard it more than 147 times before. 

And I share this point of view. 

No doubt. 100%. I’m in! 

But learning storytelling and software is rarely enough to make a good living as an editor. 

So what’s the missing piece? Or - as a matter of fact - missing pieces?

Technique, productivity, and mindset. Mastering these essentials makes a good storyteller unstoppable. With strong foundations, you can edit anything.

So how do we work on these skills inside The Editing Chef?

I’m glad you asked! Let me roll up my sleeves and explain. 

What Does The Editing Chef Teach?

EDITING PRODUCTIVITY

Focus and effectiveness in your edit bay are important because it not only allows you to do more work but also to have a meaningful life outside of the timelines.

The goal is not to do things faster (that’s just a side effect) but to do them smarter. 

Life throws numerous challenges at us every day. Especially as freelancers since we have to make our own hours. It's great to no longer have a boss standing behind you staring at your monitor…

…but it opens doors for procrastination, distractions, and concentration problems. 

14 video lessons in this module will teach you about designing productive editing sessions. 

You’ll be working on your editing effectiveness, streamlining workflow, and your ability to focus deeply. It’s industry-focused productivity education you won’t find anywhere else.

Let me tell you something they never tell you in film school: shaping good stories fast becomes easier - as soon as you eliminate distractions.

Once you take on the challenge you will be able to do more work in less time and still feel energized before the weekend.

TECHNIQUES & WORKFLOWS

It’s one thing to be a good storyteller. It’s another to know tricks to make the ideas, a reality. 

How you organize and label your projects makes a difference not only in how fast you’re able to find what you need but, also in making your creative decisions.

17 video lessons in this module will teach you about workflows, project organization, best editing practices, and more. You can watch them at your own pace.

EDITOR'S MINDSET

Mindset is crucial because things like your attitude, and your approach to the craft or client feedback are the most important factors for getting clients to return.

There is a video lesson that dives into how to evaluate your mindset as an editor and what to do if you find out that the mindset you have is not serving you well. 

There's also a video lesson about mindset towards feedback and working with clients and directors, plus an extension podcast episode about dealing with client feedback. 

BONUS!

Short Film Dailies

You will get real short film footage to download and practice.

You can even use it for your editing reel!

Private Discord Community

In The Editing Chef community, editors like you are progressing their careers, mastering flow in the edit bay, and loading their tool belts with new editing techniques.

This is a place where I, as a host, care about your progress but I also want you to interact with other like-minded editors.

Self-directed learning is great, but it never allows us to truly gauge how good we are and what we still need to learn.

That’s why we have a private community hosted on the same platform as the video library. You don’t have to visit third-party tools to be part of it. The link between the community and the content is literally one click away.

It will be your resource but also a go-to group of industry colleagues hosted in a place without advertisers fighting for your attention and pulling you away from things you should be doing.

Once you edit something in or outside the program curriculum, you can send it for feedback from me or other members of the community.

We watch your edit and provide you with detailed notes and suggestions on how to improve it.

Here's the Curriculum

Module 1: Editing Productivity

• How to set up your editing bay to boost your productivity.
• Discovering distractions in your daily schedule, and how eliminating them allows your creativity & focus to flow.
• Why you SHOULD plan for boredom, breaks, and mistakes and how to bounce back quickly on days your schedule runs over.
• Learn my five steps for a focused editing session.
• Understand the value of time-blocking to create traction and consistently achieve your editing goals.
• Good questions to ask before you begin any editing session, so you achieve razor-sharp focus.
• How to recognize creative blocks and clear them to enjoy more freedom and satisfaction when you edit.
• Why embracing constraints, establishing a quick result and feedback cycle, and avoiding “the curse of knowledge” means your positivity and creativity will remain high.
• Discover the Hemingway Rule. You will always come ready to start your next editing session like a rocket ready for takeoff.

  

Module 2: Editor's Mindset

• Cultivate a can-do attitude in just 3-steps.
• How to break free of creativity blocks and master powerful storytelling every day.
• Ideas for how to streamline your client feedback loop to eliminate unhelpful comments.
• Things you can do to experience less negative energy around the feedback process and glide through frustration.
• How to handle difficult notes and still come out smiling.

Module 3: Keeping Projects Organized

• Uncover "The Bus Factor" and discover why you need to harness it for your editing business today.
• Setting up searchable systems - so you can stop hunting cluelessly through files once and for all.
• Struggling with editing choices? How to use the power of hooks, stakes, and story to catapult you into your opening scenes.
• Case Studies breaking down project organization for two real-life projects I worked on.

  

Module 4: Tech & Workflows

• Discover how to choose and maximize your tech for greater efficiency.
• Tips for handling your media cache and auto saves - so you never lose work again.
• How I edited 4k footage on a 7-year-old machine just using proxies to speed my workflow. (And how you could too).
• Find and free up bottlenecks and save yourself hours.
• How to use presets to propel you from the middle to the end of your project.
• What presets are really necessary and tutorials on how to use them for motion enhancement, audio effects, titles & captions, and to automate exporting.
• A fast and frictionless approach to graphics for the story-driven editor.
• Shortcuts you can’t live without, plus my own custom shortcut files for you to download.
• Learn smart rendering strategies for smoother playback and fast exports.
• Best practices for keeping timelines tidy, and one whole class dedicated to game-changing pancake timelines.
• How to use Excalibur (a powerful plugin for Premiere Pro)