Scripts, shoots, edits, thumbnails and Shorts for YouTube channels. We cut for one number: how many people are still there at the end.
00:00:03Win the first three seconds
00:00:30Earn the next thirty
00:12:48Deliver what the title promised
Everything else is decoration.We don’t cut for our showreel. We cut for the retention graph in your YouTube Studio, one second at a time.
The edit · scroll to scrub
This is how an Uplink edit gets built, pass by pass: jump cuts every few seconds, B-roll on every claim, captions on every word, and the retention graph on screen the whole time. The episode is from Fifty-Two Fridays, a made-up channel; the numbers are illustrative.
79%
Still watchingOld edit at this second: 44%
Open on the result. Three cuts before the first breath, no “hey guys”.
Say what they’ll get and when. Show the gear on screen, then get past it.
Put the evidence on screen while the host is still talking about it.
New angle, new sound, new image every 20 to 40 seconds.
Tease the best part so the back half of the video gets watched too.
Retention with the Uplink editSame channel, old editAll figures illustrative
Results · illustrative
Views are vanity until people stay. These are the four numbers we report to every channel on the first Monday of the month, with the video that moved each one.
All figures on this page are illustrative, for a concept site. Channel names are made up.
71%
Still watching at 0:30Median across client long-form uploads this year. The same channels averaged 49% before us.
2.3×
Average view durationCompared with each channel’s last ten uploads before we started cutting.
48M
Views in twelve monthsAcross the eight channels on our roster, long-form and Shorts together.
11.4%
Thumbnail click-throughMedian on new uploads in the first 48 hours, up from 5.1%. Every thumbnail ships in three versions.
What we do
Hire us for one piece or the whole pipeline. Every job is judged by the same graph, so the writer, the shooter, the editor and the designer argue about the same thing.
We write the first thirty seconds like they’re the whole video, then outline the rest so it never sags.
Shoot days on our stage by the LA River or at your place. Two cameras, clean sound, and a director who cares about energy.
Jump cuts, punch-ins, B-roll on every claim, sound design and color. Built in passes, checked against the graph.
Three concepts per video, designed with the title, then tested against each other where YouTube allows.
Cut from your long-form, reframed to vertical, hooked in the first second and captioned word by word.
Packages · per month
Monthly, because channels grow on schedules, not one-offs. Each plan shows what a typical month looks like: orange dots are long-form uploads, blue bars are Shorts, squares are shoot days.
01 · You film, we edit
$3,600/ month
For channels already filming every week who want their evenings back.
02 · Most pickedMost picked
$8,900/ month
For creators ready to hand over everything but the talking. We plan, shoot, cut and package.
03 · Weekly, end to end
$17,500/ month
For channels where YouTube is the business: a weekly show plus sponsors, run like a small network.
Three months to start, then month to month with 30 days’ notice. You own everything we make: raw footage, project files, layered thumbnails and captions. Shoots inside LA County are included; travel beyond is billed at cost.
Channels we cut for
We keep the roster small so the same editor cuts your channel every week and learns where your audience leans in. Two spots open in January.
They cut my intro from forty seconds to six. People stopped leaving before the truck even started.
Channel names, hosts and subscriber counts are made up for this concept site.
FAQ
The questions creators and producers ask on every first call. Anything else, ask Shea.
Ask us directlyYes, if you can commit to a schedule. Most of our channels came to us between 10K and 100K subscribers. Under 5K, start with Edit Desk and a free teardown, so you spend on the parts that matter first.
72 hours from the moment your footage finishes uploading, 48 on Full Studio. Revisions come back the next working day. You review in a shared link with time-stamped comments, so nobody has to describe “the bit around the middle”.
Two rounds per video on Edit Desk and Channel Partner, three on Full Studio. An extra round is $150. Most videos land in one, because we agree the hook and the structure before we cut.
You do. Raw footage, project files, layered thumbnails, caption files and music licences in your name. If you leave, you get a drive with everything on it and a handover note for your next editor.
No. Half our channels film at home. We send a kit list, a framing guide and a 15-minute setup call, then fix what we can in the edit. Shoot days happen on our stage in Elysian Valley or on location anywhere in LA County.
We schedule uploads, write descriptions, chapters and end screens, and set up thumbnail tests, working as managers on your channel. You keep ownership and the keys. Comments and community posts stay in your voice.
No one honest can. We guarantee the process and report what we control: retention at 30 seconds, average view duration and click-through, every month, with the video that moved each one.
We script and cut the read so it doesn’t sink retention: after the first payoff, under 60 seconds, with its own mini hook and B-roll. Included in Full Studio, $300 a video otherwise.
Three months to start, because the first month is spent learning your audience. After that it’s month to month with 30 days’ notice. Invoices go out on the 1st.
Free teardown
Within one working day you get a ten-minute screen recording from an Uplink editor: where your retention drops, why, and what we’d cut. Keep it either way.
