Online Editing
Online editing, conform and delivery.
The stage between a locked cut and a master that actually passes QC. Conform, versioning, cleanup, and delivery specs that match the platform's real requirements. I treat online as a quality-control environment as much as a finishing one — the aim is a master you can send without checking it twice.
I work as a freelance online editor and conform artist from Melbourne, with production companies, agencies and post-production teams across Australia and remotely. American and international clients usually call the same role an online editor and finishing colorist; the deliverable is identical either way.
Rebuilding the offline against camera originals, matching every cut and effect, and leaving a timeline someone else could open in a year and understand. Online is where shortcuts taken earlier in the pipeline come back to bite.
Cutdowns, market versions, aspect ratios, supers and legals, platform specs. Versions get built from one source of truth so a late change to the hero propagates rather than being re-done fifteen times by hand.
Rig removal, tracking and patching, screen replacement, dust and gate checks, motion cleanup, and the dozen small fixes that nobody notices until they are missing.
Correct codecs, correct colour metadata, correct loudness, correct file names, checked against what the broadcaster or platform actually requires — not what someone assumed three weeks ago.
Online is where you find out whether the offline was disciplined or not. Clean conforms, proper timeline hygiene, locked version control, correct delivery specs - this is the stage where shortcuts from earlier in the pipeline come back to bite. I treat online as a quality control environment as much as a finishing one. The aim is confidence in delivery: knowing that what leaves the suite matches what was approved, plays correctly on the target platform, and doesn't generate a panicked email at 11pm because something was missed.
Corporate content gets a bad reputation because most of it prioritises looking polished over actually communicating anything. I focus on structure, message clarity, and brand cohesion so internal comms, investor updates, and external messaging feel credible without tipping into the kind of over-produced corporate gloss that makes everyone in the room quietly disengage. Restraint is the skill here. Say what needs saying, make it look professional, and get out.
Game advertising is a production collision: gameplay capture, pre-rendered cinematics, UI elements, graphic overlays, and legal supers, all fighting for space in a thirty-second spot. The challenge is establishing a coherent visual language early enough that it survives the iteration cycles - because there will be many, and they'll come fast. I manage that process so speed doesn't erode clarity. Every version should still feel like it belongs to the same campaign, whether it's the hero trailer or the sixth platform-specific cutdown.
Finishing is the stage where a project either lands cleanly or dies in a spreadsheet of revision notes. It's look continuity across deliverables, version control that actually protects the work, and delivery specs that match what the platform or broadcaster actually requires - not what someone assumed three weeks ago. I focus on keeping the path from final edit to sign-off as short and frictionless as possible. Aesthetic decisions get balanced against compliance requirements and schedule reality, because a beautiful grade means nothing if it's rejected on ingest.
Selected clients
Send the timeline, the media, and the delivery spec. If the spec is the part you're unsure about, that's usually the most useful conversation to have first.