Does EditStock Have Free Or Low-Cost Footage?

The simplest answer is yes, and it's worth understanding what's free, what's cheap, and what will help you reach your goal.

The free option

EditStock offers a free sample, which includes a partial scene from a documentary and two narrative films.

The three projects are: 

• A scene from Anesthesia (5 clips)
• A scene from Bingo Night (4 clips)
• A scene from Built By Life (5 clips)

The free sample is the right place to start if you're totally new to editing and EditStock or if you're not sure what you're looking for yet. You'll understand how the material works, how organized it is, and what kind of editing you're getting yourself into. It costs nothing, so there's no risk.

Low-cost projects under $50

The Films Under $50 collection is for beginners or new-to-narrative editors who want real material without spending too much money or time on a project. Many of the projects in this collection include full scenes but of half of a film. So, unlike the free sample, it contains all of the camera angles and clips for each scene included, but you don't get all the scenes in the entire film.

Editing a film takes time. A good rule of thumb is that for every one day of filming it takes one day of editing to get to a first cut. A film like Bingo Night was shot over five days. That means you need to spend 40 hours to get a first cut of the film! To make the material more manageable for beginners we split the film in half. In the Films Under $50 collection you can order just the ten scenes of the theft itself. We call this project Bingo Night: Heist. It's all the footage from ten scene, but not from the entire film - plenty to work on and put on your demo reel.

Other projects like Overtime: Night Shift, and Pumpkin Princess: Dreamer are the same. 

The Main EditStock Library

While editing a short project is a great way to get your feet wet, if you're serious about making film editing a career or if you want to upgrade your current career skills, there is nothing better than editing an entire short film from our library. 

The projects in the EditStock library include films that played at the Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca, the Los Angeles Film Festival and others. Our award winning films are used by the world's leading film schools including Emerson, USC, AFI, Full Sail, Chapman, and many others around the world. By ordering a full film you are gaining experience typically not available to editors until they are five or even ten years into their filmmaking careers.  

What to evaluate when choosing

If you finish the free sample and you want more material, the Films Under $50 collection is the next logical step. But before you jump to larger projects, ask yourself a few questions:

Did you edit the entire free sample project, or did you get stuck halfway and move stop?

• If you stopped it could mean that you need to reset your expectations of how much work learning to edit takes. For many people, it's a full time job. 

Is editing something you're doing for fun?

• If the goal is to edit professionally then you need to build up your editing stamina and proficiency. If you're editing for fun, then a Film Under $50 will be really cool.

Are you cutting for a reel, or are you learning fundamentals?

• If you're learning fundamentals like cutting continuity or how to use software, a shorter project teaches you the same skills. If you're building a reel, you already know what you're doing and a larger project makes sense.

Do you want to edit professionally?

• I'm not going to lie, editing is hard work. When you're learning you are also less efficient than a professional. What takes you ten hours to cut could take a pro five. But there is no shortcut to improvement. You must edit dozens of shorts before gaining the skill and stamina required to edit a feature film, which takes months of full time hard core work.