Use editing to create a story

​This standard is about the editor using, selecting or refining acquired content to create or realise the story envisaged by the client. 

It involves conveying the story and key messages and reflecting the characteristics intended by the client.

This standard is for the following job roles: editor, assistant editor, senior editor and junior editor.

---

1. ​work closely with the client to understand the artistic or communication aims of the project
2. suggest the ways in which editing can help convey the story and key messages
3. suggest the ways in which editing can help reflect the characteristics intended by the client
4. develop new ideas that help tell the story or solve a problem
5. edit the sequence of the material to reorder or create the story
6. evaluate shots and scenes for their role in the story
7. make technical judgements about quality of content
8. cut and assemble shots and scenes to create, pace and rhythm, impact, story direction, mood and tension to engage the audience with the story
9. use the editing tools to achieve creative aims
10. engage with colleagues to identify and commission additional materials and effects to problem solve or enhance the content
11. work creatively and inventively to meet the brief and within editorial and ethical guidelines
12. collaborate with the client to test and adjust your decisions so that the result reflects a collaborative approach

---

1. how the choice of platforms and distribution channels and the context in which the story will be shown may impact on editing work
2. how editing decisions are affected when material is part of a series or may be re-edited for future use
3. sources of information about client needs, audience, and context
4. how to assess quality of material to expected artistic standards
5. the style, aspirations, and artistic vocabulary of the client
6. the ways in which mood, story, meaning, and information are conveyed in different genres
7. what is appropriate for the style of production and how to make sure the mood reflects the content
8. how to picture the flow of the story and how it might be perceived by the audience
9. the contributions that can be made to a project by post production colleagues
10. how to tell a story and when alternative dialogue might assist the story 
11. techniques, conventions, and equipment for cutting
12. how footage can be cut in different ways to achieve different outcomes
13. how to present ideas and accept and maintain relationships when ideas and work are criticised or the brief changes
14. when and how to use editing tools to enhance the story
15. current viewing standards and current professional, national, and international deliverable standards and expressions of best practice for the range of platforms and content

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

2

---

2026

---

Current

---

Original

---

ScreenSkills

---

SKSE2

---

Arts, Media and Publishing, Associate Professionals and Technical Occupations, Crafts, Creative Arts and Design, Design Associate Professionals, Media and Communication

---

3416

---

editing; story; editor; media; producer; director; client; key messages; genre; characteristics; conveying

---