Movie studio Lionsgate is hiring fan editors, and professional editors have a lot of thoughts on the matter.

What are fan edits?

Fan edits have become a popular trend on social media sites like TikTok. They are typically clips from a certain fandom set to music. For example, if you ship Belly and Conrad on The Summer I Turned Pretty, your algorithm has probably shown you fan edits of their scenes together. Now, studios like Lionsgate are hiring fan editors to help promote their films.

A fan edit for Ryan Coogler’s 2015 film Creed is being used as an example of how fan edits are helping studios. TikTok editor Areq recently helped the 10-year-old movie go viral with a fan edit. According to Yahoo, viewership of Creed has increased by 29% since the video was released. You can watch the fan edit below:

@areqaep CREED | #creed #creededit #edit #fyp #viral ♬ original sound – ່🦦

Lionsgate explains why they’re hiring fan editors

The head of worldwide digital marketing for Lionsgate Films, Briana McElroy, has called fan edits “love letters from fans.”

“Within our digital marketing team, we operate like fans,” McElroy shared (via Variety). “If we’re trying to have a conversation with fans online, we need to be able to speak their language.” Lionsgate works with “legacy agencies” to create a more “polished” voice on Facebook and Instagram. Meanwhile, TikTok users make content that is “native to the platform.”

Lionsgate’s first big test will be for the re-release of Twilight, which is currently back in theaters.

“When we started posting Twilight content on TikTok, it wasn’t with the goal of driving revenue or bringing the film back to theaters,” McElroy explained. “Our goal was just to make sure we’re creating a community and sustaining it.”

Editors react to Lionsgate hiring fan editors

On the r/editors subreddit, editors are sharing their thoughts on the latest news.

“Guys. I’m surprised this is in any way news on this sub. I work as marketing editor at a studio and make this style edit all the time, just one of the many of the suite of edits I’ve got to make as an employee,” u/No_Copy_5955 explained.

“Adapt or die (I want to die tbh),” u/shwysdrf joked.

“I talked to a Netflix exec recently and they said they consider YouTube their biggest competitor and are adjusting their editing style to be more like YouTube editing,” u/gnrc added.

“I work for a large-ish clothing brand, and we have started making ‘social edits’ to go alongside our commercial edits,” said u/Nothing_Jon_Snuhhhhh.

“Well, I kept getting asked to cut spots like these fan cam edits, and every time I wondered why they didn’t just hire these people if that’s what they wanted. Looks like someone finally did,” u/Buffalo-Clone-264 shared.

“The evolution of a billion ‘make it pop more’ notes has brought us here. No unscrambling that egg,” u/SNES_Salesman added.

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