Studio.
Four editors, one room in Chicago.
We started cutting for one woodworking channel in 2021. Now we edit thirteen channels a week from a room above a print shop in the West Loop, and every channel has one editor who knows it.
How a week works.
The same four days, every week.
Monday
Footage arrives in your folder by noon. Your editor watches all of it before cutting anything.
Tuesday
First cut by six, with a review link. Leave notes on the frame, not in an email.
Wednesday
Notes in, answered and recut the same afternoon. Colour, sound and captions finish.
Thursday
Thumbnails tested, title chosen, video scheduled for your busiest hour. Usually 5:00 PM.
Rules we keep.
Four of them, written down.
One editor per channel
The person who cuts your first video cuts your fiftieth. If they leave, they hand over in person.
Nothing generated
Captions are typed, music is licensed, voices are yours. We use software to work faster, never to make things up.
We cut for the viewer you have
Not the one a trend says you should want. The retention graph decides, not our taste.
Footage is yours
We keep files for a year after the last edit so re-cuts are easy, then delete them unless you ask.
The editors.
Each one cuts three or four channels.
Noor Haddad
Lead editor
Cuts Burl & Bench and Pantry Hours. Ten years in documentary before YouTube.
Owen Pike
Editor and colourist
Grades every video and edits Northbound Miles from three cameras and a phone.
Lucía Marín
Sound and captions
Mixes to −14 LUFS and writes captions in English and Spanish.
Sam Whitley
Packaging and schedule
Tests the thumbnails, writes the titles and sets every video live at the right hour.