If you have a lust for outdoor adventure and a POV action camera, you probably also have hours of unedited video stashed somewhere. You and the boys got sendy on your trip to Snowbird, but once you shot all that sweet footy and watched it at home, chances are that was the end of the line. And let’s be honest: no one really wants to watch a bunch of unedited video clips of your last pow day. So what do you do? If you are not a video editor, don’t know the first thing about editing software, processors, music licenses and blah blah blah, you might consider having someone do all this for you. ProEditors is an online service that is up to the task, and for a fee they will put your footage into a coherent movie that can be enjoyed by more than just you and your cats.
Real life is jacked: turns out I can’t just review gear and go on fun adventures to write articles about…no, I have to have a “real job” to “pay bills”. As it happens, my job is as a Video Production Specialist. Sounds fancy, right? It means that I produce, shoot and edit movies pretty much all day, er’ day. Which puts me in a pretty good position to judge the overall process of ProEditors services. I hit up their website (proeditors.com), created an account, and began to load up my footage. Here’s what I thought of the process and final results:
Ease of Use: Creating an account was simple, and once you are logged on things don’t get much harder. You follow the instructions to create a new movie, and begin to upload your video files. Yes, this will take a long time, even longer if you have a slow internet connection to contend with. Expect this to take anywhere from an hour or two to perhaps a full day. Biggest downer of the whole process, but until we all have 100G upload speeds, it’s a necessary evil.
Customize Your Edit: While your video is uploading, you will be able to tailor the movie to your specifications. ProEditors offers several styles of final product. I chose “Extreme”, because I am a regular Billy Bad Ass, and nothing less than Extreme can truly encapsulate my lifestyle. Also, you can opt to include stock footage at no extra charge; this could help add some production value to your legendary documentary. Didn’t capture any amazing drone shots down in Moab? ProEditors will throw one in for you. Finally, you can choose “Moments” from each video clip. Scroll through each clip, pause on the best moment of action, and mark it. ProEditors will make sure to include these in your final edit. This part of the process was easy, and helps make the video feel more personal, as opposed to having someone guess which moments you like best.
Turnaround Time: I submitted my clips and customizations on a Monday, and got a finalized edit back before the weekend. Times may vary, but a few days ain’t too shabby!
Here is the finished product from ProEditors. Needs more powder!
Final Edit Quality: ProEditors turned my raw clips into a 1:10 completed movie. Overall, I was quite happy with what they put together. They chose a music track that keeps things upbeat, and as an editor I can tell you that selecting music is often the most arduous part of building a video. Also, their music is royalty-free, so you can post your movie on video hosting sites without it being taken down for copyright violations. There are some creative edits points that kept things exciting. Also, they mixed my POV clips and action shots around enough that it never felt like I was seeing the same thing. The only details I don’t like are the title (too simple; a little cheesy looking) and the end slide (which is a promo for ProEditors). I could not find an option to remove this end slide, so chances are you will just have to deal with it.
Bang for Your Buck: Bottom line time, folks. Is the ProEditors service worth it? For $50, I uploaded my raw video clips, made several easy customization selections, and in a few days got back a polished movie that I can enjoy for years down the road. I do a fair amount of freelance video editing, and charge between $30 and $80 per hour (depending on the project). For a project like this, I’d be closer to the $30 range. My best guess is that this would be a two hour undertaking, so ProEditors’ pricing is right in the wheelhouse for a professional editing service. Once you consider the fact that everything needed to create a video of this caliber costs a lot of money (laptop/desktop computer, editing software, and your personal time), I think the benefits are apparent. You certainly get your money’s worth.
Additionally, ProEditors also hosts a helpful ProTips Blog on their website. There you will find tips and tricks that are helpful for action cinematographers of all skill levels. Better shooting= better videos! Now, turn those GoPros on, send it down your favorite line, and get yourself a video your cats will be proud of.