How to Get Indie Game Trailer Gigs
If you want to be an indie game trailer editor, networking and marketing skills are arguably more important than your skills as an editor. If they're not THE most important they're definitely a close second. Being a great video editor doesn't pay the bills if you don't have any gigs.
So where do you go to find gigs and how do you sell your services without looking like you are? There are a handful places I recommend: Twitter, TikTok, reddit, and MAYBE Fiverr.
By the way, if you're not a video editor I'd very much appreciate a reply to this email with where you've look for game trailer editors or how've you've connected with them!
Fiverr
Let's start with Fiverr. I don't have much experience with this site, but there are people who sell video editing services (including game trailers) The best thing about this sort of freelancing site is people use it to search for video editors. The downside is those people are looking for low prices. Fiverr is probably an okay place to start when building a portfolio and reputation. You're likely going to be getting very low paid gigs for a while until you've made lots of good work and can command a higher price.
You can also become a Fiverr Pro which is a subset of sellers who've had an application with their portfolio approved. This will make you stand out from the rest, but again, you're still on Fiverr. I did a quick search and the Fiverr Pros selling game trailer services starting around $300 per trailer, and some offered premium services at around $1500.
Pro: Easier visibility, buyers looking for editors
Con: Buyers looking for cheap prices, site has reputation for lower quality work.
reddit has some subreddits where you can post your services like r/gamedevclassifieds and some devs post when they're looking for an editor. But moderators tend to frown upon self promotion posts made in subreddits not explicitly made for that purpose. The benefit of reddit is there are a lot of developers there and there's potential to get seen by a lot of people even if you don't have a following.
I don't honestly know what sort of post can make it through reddit moderators, but my suggestion is always to give and share knowledge. For example, a post saying "Check out how good my trailer work is!" is only valuable to YOU because the best case scenario is people like it and hire you. It's much more valuable to everyone else if you make a post which shows a trailer you made, teaches people how you did it, and what lessons you learned. Even better if you have documentation of your process including: work-in-progress versions, sketches, and notes.
If you're just starting out I also recommend not writing from the perspective of: "This is the definitive way to make a trailer" or "Here's my expert advice!" Because if you don't have the body of work, people are far less likely to want to hear your advice (even if it's good) and you'll just come off as someone who's all talk. But if you post from the angle of "This is what I've learned so far" then people will be more receptive.
Pro: Lots of developers, no preset ideas of low pricing
Con: Hard to get noticed, lots of work to make a good post.
TikTok
I post on TikTok a lot, but so far I haven't really gotten any jobs from it directly (that I know of). I do know that game developers follow me and seem to enjoy what I post. Since I already have very good word of mouth and years of work under my belt it's hard to know where or how people discover me unless they tell me. But based on comments I know that at the very least, the TikTok videos I post reinforce any confidence people have in my knowledge and expertise. And they get some sort of value or entertainment out of them.
The upside of TikTok is how good it is for discovering new people and things. If you don't have any followers, you could still post a video that gets a lot of traffic. Whereas on Twitter, if you have no followers, basically no one sees it. Follower counts grow comparatively fast on TikTok, too. To give you some perspective, it took me 12 years to get past 7000 followers on Twitter, but on TikTok it only took me 1.5 years. For a more in-depth look at TikTok you can read this post of mine.
If you're looking to market yourself as an indie game trailer editor, my rules for reddit still apply here. Provide value, show your editing journey, show your work, and you might find an audience. A lot of the most successful gamedev TikTok videos I've seen are: "I made this thing in my game" or "I'm experimenting with this feature; here's what it looks like now." I can easily see how showing fan edits or behind-the-scenes editing sort of videos could get a similarly positive reaction and show your expertise.
The thing I like best about TikTok is how raw and messy it can be. On YouTube and Instagram it's better to have higher production values, and while they work on TikTok too, they're less expected.
Pros: Easy to make content, especially rough and unpolished. Higher possibility of getting discovered.
Cons: People aren't there specifically looking for video editors. It's a lot of work to make videos and a following.
Like it or not, Twitter is the Linkedin of the indie game community. I've made so many connections with developers on Twitter which turned into real life relationships and lots of jobs. If you're not on Twitter, it's likely you'll have far fewer opportunities available to you (assuming you're not joining communities in real life meetups and groups, or online communities).
Twitter is like a giant industry party which is constantly in session and people pop in every now and then to say something, join a conversation, or just see what's going on. It's a party with a lot of people you might admire, lots of people who are already friends, and then there's you, who might know no one there at all, or maybe a handful of people.
What you DON'T want to do is butt into conversations and act as if you're already friends with everyone. Just because you can technically reply mid conversation to almost any tweet (there are settings to restrict who can reply) but that doesn't mean you SHOULD. It can make things awkward and you can easily become "that guy."
You also don't want to go to every single person and completely unsolicited say: "Hey, my name is Derek and I make game trailers, can I make your trailer? Here's my business card!" I've literally gone to real life events where people butt into a conversations, hand out their business cards to every person, and pretty much leave right away. It did not endear us to this person.
If only Twitter were just tons of tiny kittens
So how do you get in?
Don't aggressively try to draw attention to yourself. Examples would be: replying to every single tweet by a person, liking every tweet they make, and tagging them in your tweets. Tagging is when you include someone's Twitter name in your tweet like: "I'd love to work with @Derek_Lieu some day on a trailer!" when you tag someone they'll receive a notification. This puts the person in a super awkward position, especially if they're not interested. This would be like loudly yelling someone's name during an industry party when they were across the room from you.
A softer approach is to just reply when you have genuinely have something to say. For example, they post an animated GIF or a trailer you like and you want to tell them how much you liked it. "Liking" every tweet someone makes is also pretty aggressive (though I admit if I start following someone and they tweet cat photos, I will automatically be liking every single one of them).
My main tip is to just be a human being and treat people like human beings. How would you feel if someone you didn't know continuously asked for you to pay attention to them, to talk to them, or inserted themselves into your conversations between friends?
As for what to tweet, it's up to you, but if you're on Twitter for networking and business purposes you should have a relatively consistent stream of stuff which shows who you are and what you do. I tweet tips about making game trailers (because of course I do)
There’s lots of yelling on Twitter
My recommendation is to make fan trailers for small games (think of games which are unreleased or have demos) and @tag the studio or creator on Twitter showing the trailer and your appreciation for their game. Ideally, they retweet it, save your contact info, and maybe even tell their friends about you.
Obviously, you can't ONLY tweet when you post a fan trailer. So what do you do tweet about in the meantime?
Again, if you're starting out, don't just tweet out advice as if people care what you have to say. The more work you've done, the more likely people are to listen. Sharing something you've learned, or behind-the-scenes stuff is always interesting to people of all skill levels and disciplines.
Sharing other things related to your work or interests is good too, but you want to make it niche enough for people to want to follow. Unless I'm already friends with someone through other means, I generally follow people because they have a niche I'm interested in
Follow other video editors, game developers and studios you admire, PR & Marketing people who work in games, publishers, and other marketing support people who need trailer editors. You can even just look at who I follow to find a bunch of these people (plus a bunch of cats :3)
Follow the people in your niche, who are in a position to hire you, who you want to work for, and cats.
Much as I'm loath to get people to make Twitter part of their life and career, it can be genuinely helpful to be there for networking. Once you finish work you can tweet it and hopefully get tagged or retweeted by the developers. It's a VERY slow process to build a reputation and word of mouth.
Pros: The indie game industry lives on Twitter (for better and for worse). Great place to make connections.
Cons: Hard to get attention and build a following. Twitter discourse can be exhausting. Twitter can be exhausting in general.
Oh, and don't be a Reply Guy. Read more about that here. Before tweeting, I generally ask: "Am I posting this for me or for someone else's benefit?" If the answer is "me" then I'm less likely to do it. For example, my knee-jerk reaction might be to tweet something which sounds like it's being helpful, when actually it's just my ego saying "LOOK AT HOW SMART I AM, LOOK AT MEEEE!!!" (Which to be clear, a bunch of that still gets through, but most of the time it's still really not needed).
Also, don't think for a second there's no room for sharing your knowledge and journey just because someone like me has already done the same for years. You have something I don't have, which is YOU and your experience. Of course there will be overlap in knowledge in places, but the internet is big enough for all of us (there are SO MANY GAMES being released every day!!!).
One last thing. You are not only putting yourself out there to be seen by game developers. You're doing it be seen by other trailer editors! I can't speak for others, but I LOVE finding new game trailer editors, following them, and comparing notes. I also get way more inquiries for trailers than I have time or interest to take on (and the same goes for other editors out there). I'm always keeping my eyes out for people I can send work to, but of course I don't want to refer someone unless I'm confident they can do a good enough job. Your work and posts will help other editors decide whether or not they think a job is too much for you to handle.
Good luck out there and have fun!
