Short-form editing for YouTube Shorts, TikTok and Reels: vertical cuts that open on the hook, captions kept inside each app's safe zone, and batches cut from the long videos you already have.
Mark Studios edits short-form video in batches. Send a long video or a folder of raw vertical clips, and Mark Santos cuts them into 9:16 Shorts, TikToks and Reels at 1080×1920, with captions, music and the hook in the first second or two. A batch of 5–10 clips usually takes 5–7 business days. To get a quote for a batch, enter the clip count and your footage in the instant quote, or post every week on a monthly plan.
9:16 masters at 1080×1920, with a 1:1 feed version on request
The strongest line moved to the first second, with a text hook when it needs one
Word-by-word, full-line or highlight-word captions in your fonts and colors
Pauses, breaths and false starts cut so every clip keeps moving
B-roll, product shots and screen captures laid over the talking
Royalty-free music, or a trending sound you name, mixed under the voice
5–15 clips from one long video, picked by watching all of it
Color and loudness matched across the batch, so the clips look like a set
Separate exports for Shorts, TikTok and Reels, named and ready to scheduleInstagram does not recommend reels over 3 minutes to new audiences, and YouTube has counted a view from the first frame since August 24, 2026: each platform's limits and view rules are in our video length and retention statistics.
More short-form edits live on our portfolio.
One edit, exported per platform. Posting mainly on Instagram? See Instagram Reels editing.
Comparing providers? See the short-form video editing services, side by side.
| Platform | Longest video | Shape | What we deliver |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram Reels | 20 min in the app; not recommended to new audiences past 3 min | 9:16 recommended | 9:16 at 1080×1920, safe-zone captions |
| YouTube Shorts | Up to 3 minutes (since October 15, 2024) | Square or vertical | 9:16 at 1080×1920, safe-zone captions |
| TikTok | 10 min in the app; 60 min uploaded | 9:16 recommended; at least 540×960 | 9:16 at 1080×1920, safe-zone captions |
| Facebook Reels | No length limit; 3–90 seconds via the API | 1080×1920 recommended | The same 9:16 master, or a 1:1 feed version |
Clipping tools score a transcript and return the most quotable lines; they often drop the setup a payoff depends on, or start a clip one sentence too late. Here a person watches the full video, picks the moments and trims each to its setup and payoff. The side-by-side is on our Instagram Reels page, and the full playbook is in how to repurpose long-form video into Shorts and Reels. Weighing an AI clipper first? Our list of Opus Clip alternatives compares the tools and the human services on price.
Send the original file of the long video (a YouTube upload, podcast or webinar) or a folder of phone clips, plus where the clips will post, how many you want and one short whose feel you like. Horizontal footage is reframed to 9:16; vertical phone footage is cut as shot.
A one-off batch is priced per clip in the instant quote; regular posting fits a monthly plan with a set number of Shorts. You see a fixed price before anything is cut, with no hourly billing. For market rates, see what short-form video editing costs in 2026.
Mark watches the whole source, marks every moment that stands on its own and cuts the batch: hook first, then captions, music and b-roll. First versions arrive fully captioned, so you judge each clip as it will look in the feed.
Short-form notes are quick and exact: a caption typo, a different opening line, a clip swapped for another moment. Leave them at the timestamp on each clip in the review tool; 3 rounds are included, each back in 24–72 hours.
Each clip is delivered as a 1080×1920 MP4 for every platform you named, with captions inside the safe zones and a 1:1 version if you asked for one. Standard turnaround is 5–7 business days, and single clips can go rush.
For a Florida self-defense school, Mark Studios cut 60 clips and just under two hours of 4K from two cameras into 8 long-form videos and 31 new shorts, all to the school's written brand rules. The training school case study shows the batch and the channel it fed.
Mark has posted to his own YouTube channel since 2011 and grew it past 200K subscribers. Each clip in a batch gets the test he uses on his own: would someone stop on the first frame, and does the clip pay off before it loops?
Captions are read against the audio before delivery, so a misheard name or a mistimed word doesn't go out under your brand. On a muted feed the captions carry the whole clip, which is why they're proofread rather than left as raw transcription.
“I went through about 20 editors before I found Mark Santos, who has been a loyal and reliable and incredible editor. He is creative. He is responsive. He is polite. He takes feedback very well.”
Dr. Nick Norwitz · video testimonial · Read the case studyShorts, Reels and TikToks come in every monthly plan: 4 a month on Starter ($750, with one long-form edit and 2 thumbnails), 8 on Growth ($2,000), 24 on Scale ($2,700), and as many as you send on Unlimited ($3,500, one request in progress at a time). All four are on markstudios.com/pricing. Clips on their own are priced per clip by the instant quote.
Editors price Shorts per clip or per month, and the price moves with the work each clip needs: picking moments out of a long video takes longer than trimming a single phone take, and animated captions, b-roll and sound effects add time. Mark Studios gives a fixed per-clip price in the instant quote before you pay; market ranges are in what short-form video editing costs in 2026.
Yes. Short ads cut from UGC or product footage are quoted per batch, and the number of ads, hook variants per concept and target platforms set the price. Video ad editing covers hook variants for testing, UGC assembly and feed sizes for Meta, TikTok and YouTube; either way, start in the instant quote.
Usually 5–15, depending on how many moments stand on their own. A 20-minute interview with three strong stories gives fewer usable clips than an hour of rapid-fire tips, so the count is set when the batch is scoped rather than guessed afterwards. If a video can't fill the number honestly, you're told at scoping.
The source video or raw clips, the platforms, the number of clips, your fonts and brand colors, and one or two shorts whose look you like, yours or anyone's. Send the original file of a long video rather than a download from YouTube; the download is compressed and looks soft once it's cropped to vertical. No footage yet? In Palm Beach, Broward and Martin counties, Mark can film a content day at your business and edit the whole batch.
Three families: word-by-word pop captions that light up each word as it's spoken, full-line subtitles, and a mix where key words are colored or enlarged. Font, color, size and position follow your brand or a reference clip, and every caption is checked against the audio for spelling and timing.
Long enough for one idea and its payoff; most clips cut from long videos land between 15 and 60 seconds. YouTube Shorts can run up to 3 minutes and TikTok uploads far longer, but a clip should end when the point lands. Give a target length per platform and each clip is cut to it.
If you name a trending sound, the edit is timed to it. On business accounts, where many trending songs aren't cleared for commercial use, royalty-free music is the safer pick, so it's what gets used unless you say otherwise. Either way the voice stays on top of the mix.
A batch of 5–10 clips takes 5–7 business days from complete footage. Single clips can go rush when a post date is close; put the date in the quote and it's confirmed before checkout. If you post every week, a standing batch day means new footage goes straight into the next slot.
Send the source video and how often you post. Mark scopes the batch, usually within 1 business day. Want the clips posted for you too? See video posting.
Short-form is the most-asked work: 240 of the 698 first messages in our buyer study (34%) asked for Shorts, Reels or TikTok videos, more than asked for YouTube long-form (27%): what buyers ask before hiring a video editor.
Not a fit if you want hundreds of automatic clips for a few dollars a month. An auto-clipping tool such as OpusClip is cheaper; Mark picks the moments and cuts each clip.
Prefer to talk first? Book a free 15-minute call with Mark.
