You don’t need to empty your pockets for great video editing. Especially if you’re lucky enough to have a strong currency like the US dollar, Euro or British Pound.
More and more YouTubers and brands outsource video editing to the Philippines. Why?
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- English is an official language!
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- Lots of talented video editors = more competition = higher quality talent pool
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- The cost of living is much, much lower. You can pay a Filipino video editor a great living wage and still save a significant amount of money
Why listen to us?
Because most of our team is Filipino, so we’ve gone through the struggle and learned the ropes. We have a crack team of 25+ video editors based out of the Philippines, and we couldn’t be happier. Our customers are happy with and stick around, too.
But just because it’s a great opportunity doesn’t mean it’s simple to pull off. So we’ve put together this guide to help you decide if you want to add “outsource video editing Philippines” to your to-do list.
And if you do, we show you some of the top places to look to find your next talented video editor for pennies on the dollar.
Why Outsource Video Editing To The Philippines?
You want to outsource video editing to the Philippines for three main reasons. Good English, high-quality talent, and it’s affordable – Oh, and you can definitely find a great video editor there…Let’s examine each one.
English Is An Official Language
Yes…English is actually an official language in the Philippines! They have the 5th largest English-speaking population in the world – ahead of the UK!
In Education First’s 2022 English proficiency index, the Philippines ranked #22 out of 111 countries. And with a 97.95% literacy rate, tops in SE Asia, you can expect excellent customer service for client-facing roles such as video editing.
Access Top-Notch Talent
Are Filipino video editors any good? Short answer – Yes.
It’s not just a great place to find a virtual assistant or data entry specialist. You can also find some of the best video editors in the world to help you create music videos, feature films or your next YouTube or social viral hit.
Also, many Filipinos work graveyard shifts to work in your time zone- or you can let your video editor work while you sleep. There is something very satisfying about setting a task at home at 7 pm and waking up to it completed.
What video editing tasks can you get help with?
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- YouTube channel videos
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- music videos
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- corporate training videos
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- ads
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- visual effects & special effects
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- sound effects
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- motion graphics
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- animation
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- stabilize shaky camera footage
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- act as your creative director to help you produce videos
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- and much more…pretty much anything related to digital technology
You Pay Substantially Less
The Philippines has a much lower cost of living when measured in USD. The average salary for a Filipino video editor, according to ph.indeed.com, is only $518 per month.
What if you want the best video editors? You can hire an expert senior video editor with 5-10 years of solid experience for $1500 a month. Anything less gives you an overwhelming number of candidates to sift through and quality is significantly lower.
Generally speaking, it’s a good idea to pay a little extra to retain better talent. There are a huge number of outsourced jobs available, and you don’t want your video editor jumping ship for something as small as $50 a month.
And Now For Some Headaches To Be Aware Of
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, though (with maple syrup, naturally). There are some very real pitfalls to hiring remote workers from foreign countries. Here are the most common hassles you must deal with if you go it alone.
Vet Your Potential Hires
It may seem simple, but you can’t take candidates at their word. Many candidates are in a tough financial position and some will say anything to get a chance to earn a paycheck. So you need to take the time to find out what they are capable of and what their background and situation is.
How can you double-check their skills?
Look for a cohesive story relating to the video content your candidate has completed. They can only BS you so far when you ask good questions and test whether or not they actually produced quality work. Get them to write their answers or send you a video where they discuss their knowledge and experience. You should also hop on a Zoom call and interview them at the appropriate time.
Get a firsthand account of their English language abilities and communication style. When you ask the right questions, you find out if they know what they are talking about.
Would you like to learn more about hiring a video editor from the Philippines? Check out our article on how to hire video editors in the Philippines for more info!
Is it ok to request a test project?
Absolutely! And you definitely should test their skills. Consider paying them $20-$40 for their time and effort if it’s a harder or longer test. It’s easily worth the really small cost to find the right candidate.
Your test project should include all required source files; raw footage, music and audio files, logo, intro, outro, stock footage or anything you want to see in the final video. Give them one video for inspiration with your very clear instructions. Or, if you already have a finished video project you like, send that as the inspiration and see how closely they can edit your files to recreate it.
It’s also a possibility to do the test project live and give them a deadline. That way, you can see how they work under pressure. The only issue here is that it takes more work from you.
Do They Have A Reliable Computer?
This may come as a big surprise, but trust us when we say it isn’t…
We recommend you ask each candidate for a screenshot of their CPU’s specifications. They need to have a good enough video card and ram to render video files in a timely manner, and project files can be huge. So your new video editor needs a good amount of storage space too. We recommend the following specs as a baseline:
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- Processor: Intel i5-6th gen or better, or comparable AMD
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- RAM: 16 GB
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- Video Card: 4GB of GPU VRAM
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- Operating System: Windows 10 or Mac equal
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- Editing Software: Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro
Ask About Their Current Software
There are two things you need to find out. What ‘video editing software do they know how to use? And more importantly, do they have any editing software packages already installed on their computer? Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro are the most popular and powerful editing programs widely used today.
If they have a software program you’re happy with installed on their computer, that’s great. But make sure to also ask what edition they have. It may not matter, but then again, the 2016 version may not have all the required features or could cause compatibility issues.
How Fast Is Their Internet?
Ideally, they at least have a consistent 25 MBPS. You will be sharing files online from cloud storage, and they will be downloading and uploading projects. A slow internet connection drags out project times and costs you more money (if you pay by the hour).
Big cities such as Manilla and Cebu tend to have the fastest connections. Ask your potential video editor to screenshot and share a speed test.
Set Clear Expectations Early
To successfully manage remote workers you likely won’t ever meet in person, you must get your systems and processes nailed down.
Clearly define roles and responsibilities, and make sure your video editor understands your goals and objectives. Also:
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- How will you communicate?
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- How do you share files?
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- What are their expected turnaround times for projects?
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- When and how do you pay?
No matter how you structure the work arrangement, always put all the relevant details into a contract. You invite trouble if you skip this step.
Payments Can Be A Hassle
We assume you want to do things legally and stay compliant. This leaves you with three options:
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- Open a legal entity in the Philippines
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- Hire an Employer of Record (EOR)
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- Pay workers as contractors
We’ll skip over opening a legal entity as most pay their workers as independent contractors. It’s the cheapest way to go. Common ways to pay include Paypal, Wise and Remitly.
If you want to learn more about payment options, check out this article on how to hire a video editor in the Philippines.
Outsourcing Options in the Philippines
Let’s look at your options for finding your next Filipino video editor.
Upwork – Free Job Post
The easiest way to get started is using a platform like Upwork. And you can use Upwork to search for editors in the Philippines. After searching for “video editor,” you can filter by location and type in “Philippines.”
The good news is Upwork does everything for you and gives you an easy way to pay freelancers. And you can post a job for free.
The not-so-great news is that it’s expensive. Hiring a freelancer is always more expensive per hour than hiring an employee. You’ll find the best Filipino video editors charge close to rates back home. And it makes sense as most people aren’t filtering the job search by location.
While it’s not directly your problem, Upwork also takes a hefty 10% off the freelancer’s income, so you might need to pay extra to compensate them. For example, if you pay $500 to a freelancer, Upwork keeps $50. And $50 is a lot of money to a Filipino.
Upwork, working as the middle man, gets their pound of flesh from you, too. Upwork charges clients a 5% payment processing fee for Paypal and credit card transactions. If you are an eligible US client, you can get it down to 3% with ACH payments.
Onlinejobs.ph
There are many job boards to choose from, but we’ll skip right to our favorite and recommend onlinejobs.ph.
Onlinejobs.ph has a great talent pool of video editors at extremely reasonable rates.
The downside is you can’t trust what candidates say about themselves and need to thoroughly vet each one. A quick filter by “IQ score” and “English Score” shows a whack of candidates who rate themselves as Einstein-level geniuses with perfect native fluency. And then you compare that with their profile…
But if you’re willing to put the time and effort in, you could score a great video editor at a bargain price.
You can also check out virtualstaff.ph & jobstreet.com.ph for more options.
Work With A Recruiter
If you want to lower the risk of hiring a less-than-ideal candidate or save yourself time and effort – you can partner with a recruiter to find a video editor for you. Because honestly, there’s a lot to learn about hiring in the Philippines when you’re doing it for the first time. It can be a real ordeal if you don’t have any experience or the patience to learn.
A good recruiter listens to your specific needs and finds you a pool of candidates within your budget range. They also:
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- Find candidates with proven work experience
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- Can offer job or skills tests
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- Interview candidates for you
Some recruiters may even guarantee the hire. Meaning if you don’t like your video editor, they find you another one for free.
As with anything in life, convenience comes at a cost. Most recruiters either charge an upfront fee of around 15-20% of a candidate’s yearly salary or take an ongoing monthly fee as a percentage of the monthly salary paid.
Check out outsourced.ph for an all-in-one outsourced solution.
Team Up With An Agency
What should you do if you want the best talent at affordable prices but don’t want to learn about legal compliance or have to hire and manage staff?
You can work with a video editing agency based out of the Philippines!
If you work with us at Vidpros, you get:
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- A dedicated and experienced video editor assigned to your brand – work with them over the long run and get their creative ideas too. We’ve curated a team of over 25 kick-ass video editors and provide continual ongoing training
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- 2 hrs per day of editing time – 5 days per week. Need more time? We can scale up with you!
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- A team to edit your videos if your video editor is sick or needs a day off
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- Fast turnaround times, as short as 24-48 hours for simple jobs. Plus, our video editors work in the future if you’re out West. This means you can wake up in the morning and have a first draft submitted for your review
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- Unlimited revisions – we won’t stop working on your project until you are happy
And the best part? You get all this and more for only $1,000 per month! We also have a 14-day free trial if you want to take our services for a test run.
Save Money And Grow Your Brand
Want to outsource your video editing to the Philippines with the ease of using an established reliable video agency? If so, head over to here to schedule a call, where you can find all the details, pricing and samples of the work we’ve done for our happy clients over the years. If you want to talk to someone for advice on hiring for regular video editing, we’re here to help.
Let us know if you have any video or editing-related questions we can help you with. We live and breathe video and are always happy to chat. Feel free to get in touch and ask away!
For tips on interviewing a video editor, check out this post of video editor interview questions.
Good luck and happy outsourcing!
