Video Editor for UK & Ireland History Documentary Youtube Channel (Archive Footage Supplied, Ongoing)
Confidential employer
I'm launching a faceless YouTube documentary channel about lost and forgotten infrastructure in the UK and Ireland: closed railways, abandoned tunnels, drowned valleys, colliery lines and how things were built.
I'm looking for an editor to cut a first batch of 10–15 videos, with ongoing work if the channel takes off.
The style I'm going for:
Please watch at least one of these before applying:
[America's Forgotten Titan: George Westinghouse]( ---------- ) by Business Casual. Old photos and engravings get layered 3D motion, so a story told mostly in stills never feels static, and the pacing holds for 24 minutes. This is the closest to the look I want.
[Why The UK Lost Its Oil Wealth (And Why Norway Didn't)]( ---------- ) by Business Casual. It applies the same treatment to black-and-white British archive stills on a UK industrial subject.
[This plane could cross the Atlantic in 3.5 hours. Why did it fail?]( ---------- ) by Vox. Period footage of Concorde is cut with clean, minimal typography, title cards and data callouts.
[The Blimp Extinction]( ---------- ) by Ordinary Things. It's a long history of a lost technology built on rare archive film, with music chosen for each era and small animations in an early-cinema style.
[Why England Erased This Welsh Village]( ---------- ) by Faultline. It covers Capel Celyn, the village drowned for a reservoir, so the topic is very close to mine. Watch the archive sections for the transitions, like the turning year counters. Ignore the on-camera presenter parts.
What I'm after is polish on top of real archive. Stills should move smoothly, maps should be clean, the sound design should be tasteful, and what's on screen should match what the narrator is talking about.
What I provide for every video:
The finished script and voice-over
Archive footage, photos and maps
What you'll do:
Edit each video to roughly 15–20 minutes
Place the archive I supply so it matches the narration as closely as possible, for specific places, machines and years
Source suitable b-roll for scene-setting, atmosphere and transitions. Good examples are today's landscapes, overgrown trackbeds, reservoirs, tunnel mouths, period-appropriate trains or machinery, and close-ups of rails, brick and water. Use UK or Ireland footage where possible, and pick clips that fit the era or mood.
Add some motion to stills (parallax or a gentle 3D-style move works well), and tidy up or grade old film where it helps
Grade the b-roll so it sits comfortably next to the archive
Use route and location maps when the story moves somewhere new
Add captions for names and dates, and then-and-now pairings where they fit
Use music and sound design that suits the era and keeps a calm documentary tone
Please don't use:
AI-generated video or auto-edit tools such as VidRush
B-roll that's clearly from the wrong country or era, presented as the real place
You're a good fit if you:
Have edited history, documentary or archive-based YouTube videos (please share links)
Are comfortable with motion on stills and with grading mixed old and new footage
Can deliver the first cut within 5 days of receiving the files, and revisions within 2 days
Communicate clearly and give revisions within 1–2 rounds
Budget: $50 per finished video, fixed price per video, with more for strong archive-editing experience.
To apply:
Send 2–3 links to documentary or archive-style videos you've edited.
Tell me briefly which example above is closest to your style.
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