Video Assembly Editor

ABOUT L36 STORIES

L36 Stories makes premium family documentary films. Our subjects are parents and grandparents telling their own life story on camera, guided by our AI interview coach. Families receive a finished film as a keepsake, so the bar is high: clean, quiet, dignified, broadcast-quality assembly.

We are looking for an assembly editor to take our AI-prepared materials and build the first clean cut in Premiere Pro. A senior finishing editor does the final polish, so your job is to deliver a tight, correct assembly, not a final master.


WHAT YOU'LL RECEIVE FOR EVERY PROJECT

- A papercut (the selected interview clips, in editorial order, with timestamps)
- An XML file that opens the selects directly in Premiere Pro
- Access to Eddie AI (our editing assistant) for transcript search, b-roll suggestions, and captions
- The family's raw b-roll, photos, and scans in a shared folder (unsorted; organizing them is part of your job)
- Licensed music tracks already chosen for the film
- Title and matte templates and a written QC checklist

You will not be choosing the story or sourcing music. The story is already d ---------- . You organize the materials and build it cleanly.

AI tools are welcome. Use Eddie, Premiere's AI features, Adobe Enhance Speech, Descript, or anything else that gets you to a clean cut faster. We care about the result and the hours, not the method.


WHAT YOU'LL DO

1. Organize the family's b-roll, photos, and scans: sort into our folder structure, rename, flag unusable files, straighten and crop photos, note which assets match which chapters of the papercut
2. Import the XML into Premiere Pro and confirm the assembly matches the papercut
3. Tighten the interview spine: trim breaths, false starts, dead air, and clean jump cuts
4. Clean up and place b-roll and photos over the interview at the moments indicated
5. Place mattes / letterbox and keep all framing consistent
6. Lay in the provided music at the right entry points and set levels so voice is always clear
7. Add title overlays (name, dates, chapter titles) using our templates
8. Basic sound: remove clicks, hum, room noise; level the dialogue; simple EQ; mix to our loudness target
9. Basic color: correct exposure and white balance across interview clips so they match; apply our base look consistently to interview and b-roll (no creative grading; the finishing editor does that)
10. Export a review file and a Premiere project package, and complete the QC checklist


HOURS BUDGET PER PROJECT

We pay hourly, but every project comes with a time budget. Please read this carefully, because it is how we will evaluate your work.

SHORT FILM
Runtime: 3–5 minutes
Budgeted hours: 12 hours
Pay at budget: $60

LONG FILM
Runtime: 15–20 minutes
Budgeted hours: 36 hours
Pay at budget: $180

Task-level budget (Short / Long):
- Organizing b-roll, photos, and scans: 1 hr / 3.5 hrs
- XML import and sync check: 0.5 hr / 1 hr
- Assembly to papercut and interview trims: 3 hrs / 9 hrs
- B-roll and photo cleanup and placement: 2.5 hrs / 8 hrs
- Matte placement and framing: 1 hr / 3 hrs
- Music placement and levels: 1 hr / 3 hrs
- Title overlays: 0.5 hr / 1.5 hrs
- Basic sound cleanup and mix: 1 hr / 3 hrs
- Basic color correction and match: 1 hr / 2.5 hrs
- Export, packaging, QC checklist: 0.5 hr / 1.5 hrs

Hours are tracked and paid as worked. If a project is going to exceed budget by more than 10%, message us before continuing so we can agree on the overage. Consistently finishing on or under budget with clean QC is what leads to more projects and a rate increase after 90 days. One round of notes is included in the budget. Payment weekly via PayPal, Wise, or GCash.


HOURS AND OTHER WORK

We guarantee a minimum of 15 hours per week, with up to 25–30 hours available as our launch grows. Family films always take priority. When no film is in the queue, your hours go to:

- Social media cuts (vertical 30–60 second clips from finished films, captioned)
- Our in-house documentary projects (feature-length, same interview-driven style)

This is a steady, ongoing role, not a one-off gig. We want one editor who learns our style and stays.

Turnaround: short film within 5 days of handoff, long film within 10 days.


REQUIREMENTS

- Adobe Premiere Pro is required. 2+ years of real project work in Premiere. Applications from editors who work only in DaVinci, Final Cut, or CapCut will not be considered.
- Comfortable importing XML and working from a written papercut / EDL
- Strong sense of pacing for interview-driven, documentary-style video
- Able to organize large, messy media folders (hundreds of family photos and clips) into a clean structure without being told file by file
- Basic sound: noise reduction, dialogue leveling, EQ, loudness (Premiere Essential Sound or Audition)
- Basic color: exposure/white balance correction, shot matching, applying a LUT (Lumetri)
- Reliable internet for downloading large project folders (20–80 GB per project)
- Good written English; you will read detailed notes and write short handoff summaries
- Portfolio showing at least one interview/talking-head or documentary project you cut

Nice to have: After Effects, Photoshop or Lightroom for photo restoration, experience with ---------- or Descript.


HOW TO APPLY

Put the word HEIRLOOM in the first line of your application so we know you read the full post. Then include:

1. A link to 1–2 interview or documentary edits you assembled (say exactly what you did on each)
2. Your Premiere Pro experience in one paragraph
3. Your internet speed (screenshot of a speed test)
4. Your availability in hours per week

Shortlisted applicants will be sent a short paid test (organize a small folder of photos/b-roll, then cut a 2-minute assembly from a real papercut, 3 hours at $5/hr) before we start real projects.