Can Editing Be Self-Taught? A Complete Guide for Editors

An inspiring editing workspace representing the creative journey of mastering editing skills independently

Imagine we don’t have a spare fifty thousand dollars, pounds, or euros to spend on three years of film school. Or we’d rather not spend a large percentage of our life in crippling debt by taking on an enormous student loan for a film degree.
But we do have a calling for the beautiful art of editing.

Is it game-over? Or can we go our own way and learn it by ourselves? Is editing a skill that can be self-taught?

The short answer is yes. It can be self-taught. I know because that’s exactly what I did.

How I Taught Myself Editing

I went from editing low-budget charity videos and actor’s showreels to editing dozens of documentaries and reality TV shows for many of the world’s biggest broadcasters.

I didn’t have that fifty grand, and I couldn’t afford to take three years off work while living rent-free somewhere.

But was I special? Did I have some rare, innate talent for editing?

Definitely not.

There is nothing I did that any other aspiring editor can’t do either. It wasn’t particularly easy—it required sacrifices, and there was no one to help or encourage me. But for those driven and focused enough, it is entirely possible.

Can You Learn Editing Without Film School?

So, if you love editing, if you have a passion for our “invisible art form,” but for financial or geographical reasons, you have to teach yourself… this essay is for you. I’m going to break down how to do this without spending any money beyond an editing software subscription.

I'm going to teach you the skills you need to go it alone.

The Key to Learning Video Editing: A Holistic View

First, you have to know that editing is not actually one skill. It’s about ten or more interconnected skills that overlap and support each other.

The editors who rise to the top of the industry are the ones who achieve a very high level in each of these skills. This is rare and why the same 100 or so editors in any one country get all the high-end work.

So, the intelligent way to approach learning this art form is to break it down into its component parts and practice each one separately.

7 Essential Editing Skills Every Editor Must Master

Here are the basics you need to know, be proficient in, and manipulate with confidence:

  1. Dialogue Editing
  2. Shot Flow
  3. Pace and Timing
  4. Intercutting
  5. Starting & Ending Scenes
  6. Music Scoring
  7. Narrative Structure

(Please note: These are basic skills only, not advanced.)

Skill Breakdown: What Makes a Great Editor?

  1. Dialogue Editing

In unscripted editing (most genres except drama), you have to compress raw interview footage into short, impactful dialogue assemblies. This is about three major things:

  • Cutting out all dialogue that isn’t relevant to the scene.
  • Keeping in dialogue that is relevant.
  • Restructuring what’s left into a dramatic and engaging story arc.
  1. Shot Flow

Shot Flow is principally about how you cut your B-Roll or observational footage together. The goal is to create smooth, fluid, and believable picture editing. We pay strict attention to things like:

  • Continuity: Does it make sense visually?
  • How action and camera movement play out across cuts.
  • The connection (or disconnection) between B-Roll and dialogue.
  • The cut point: What happens with the outgoing and incoming shots.
  1. Pace and Timing

Social media editing is usually cut at one pace only: fast. High-end narrative editing, on the other hand, takes you on a multi-tempo rollercoaster of different paces across a whole film.

Knowing how to manipulate the speed and tempo of shots, dialogue, and music for dramatic and emotional effect is a key skill to practice. Pacing is driven by many factors, including:

  • The speed of the cuts (fast or slow).
  • The speed of the action that plays out in front of the camera (fast or slow).
  • The subject’s distance from the camera (close-up or wide shot).
  1. Intercutting

Intercutting is one of the most powerful structural tools in editing. Whether used in a short montage or on a grand scale within a film, it’s a key pattern to master.

  1. Starting & Ending Scenes

How you start a scene (hook) and how you end one (resolve + potential future hook) is one of the truly powerful narrative skills you can have. Working out the most interesting way in and out that intrigues the audience and doesn’t just give them facts and logic is essential.

  1. Music Scoring

One of the most common questions directors ask about an editor is: “Are they good with music?”

Your ability to work with music is one of the most powerful skills you can develop. It’s a huge part of the art form, but at a minimum, you need to know how to:

  1. Work out the emotional tone of your scene.
  2. Audition and select the perfect music track based on that emotional tone.
  3. Structure the music track within the sequence for maximum effect.

7. Narrative Structure

This term is talked about a lot, but very few people truly know what it means with regards to editing. Simply put, you need to know how to build a basic visual story on the timeline.

What you show the audience visually, what you let them hear from a dialogue perspective, and in what order—all of this is critical. It’s probably one of the most difficult of the basic skills to master.

The Secret to Getting Better at Editing: Practice

One of the main reasons that film schools fail to prepare editors for creative work is lack of practice.

If you want to get good at dialogue arcs, you must cut lots of them. If you want to master pacing or intercutting, you must practice those cutting patterns repeatedly until they become reflexes.

Take these seven fundamental skills, write them on a poster for your cutting room wall, and chart your progress in each.

Editing Practice Plan: Build Your Skills Step by Step

Focus on one skill each week or month. For example:

January: Pace and Timing

  • Week One: Cut three sequences slowly.
  • Week Two: Cut three sequences quickly.

If you’re fitting this around a day job, skip two episodes of Netflix tonight and instead spend 60–90 minutes practicing.

The One Thing You Need to Succeed as an Editor

In the end, it all comes down to one factor: your willpower.

Will you have the drive, discipline, and focus to cut out distractions and keep practicing with no immediate financial reward?

That’s how I did it, how many of my friends did it, and how you can do it too. There’s no reason you can’t achieve the same.

Don’t start tomorrow. Start today. Start right now.

Stay cool, stay safe, and stay cutting.

Paddy