We recently connected with Chris Salters and have shared our conversation below.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hey! I’m Chris Salters: post-production nerd and editor of impactful video.

Thought-provoking stories and brands with character that pack a punch are what I’m all about. Whether it’s a hard-hitting promo, intelligent brand film, or interwoven documentary. I thrive on piecing the puzzle together.

My post foundation was built grinding through the ranks of the high-pressure, fast-paced world of Hollywood’s leading trailer house, Trailer Park. There I learned how to turn round after round of revisions over quickly, manage the expectations of producers, directors, and clients, all while guiding a project’s unified vision and endless deliverable list through to final delivery. I’m fast, workflow savvy, detail-driven, and adaptable to every individual project’s unique needs, including compositing, motion graphics, and color correction.

Based in Dallas-Fort Worth, you can usually find me tearing through edits and tweaking keyframes in my personal edit suite. I work closely with directors in remote edit sessions, am available to cut in your facility, or can cut using my mobile setup that’s always ready to roll on location. My internet is ludicrously fast and these are my favorite story-telling tools: Premiere Pro | DaVinci Resolve | Avid | After Effects

​Outside of the editor’s chair, I’m a dad to two cute little girls, a husband to a very understanding wife, and the head wrangler to a giant fluffy white dog. I pretend to be good at casual carpentry, enjoy cycling (road or mountain), drink way too much coffee, and love a good beer.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve always suffered from a bit of cocksureness, especially in my early 20s. At the time I graduated college, I was editing for a small production company and, personally, I thought I was the greatest editor to ever grace a keyboard. Naturally, I assumed that every studio in Hollywood would be dying to work with me, so was utterly confused as to why I received few, if any, responses after pitching myself through various cold e-mails.

Eventually, I snagged a job as a PA with a trailer house and it was one of the best things that could have happened to my career. While grabbing coffees and dubbing HDCAM SR tapes, I was also exposed to professional editors that could not only edit a promo and craft a story, but most were pretty humble about it. It took time to sink in, but I found that working my way up from the bottom taught me deep insights into multiple workflows, problem-solving, and how to work on a creative team.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Two years ago I had the itch to start a YouTube channel with the goal of selling an advanced editing course that focused on the technical side of the craft. I launched the channel Better Editor with a bang, popping out a free 10-video course that taught the basics of how to use Premiere Pro. I even used a bit of paid advertising to promote it. Within that first year, I launched Better Editor’s Advanced Workflows course, teaching editors new to the craft the skills that working at agencies and studios needed from an editor. It’s been about three years and I’m just shy of 4,000 subscribers but have recently stumbled on a new vision.

This exercise was an awesome way to learn about becoming a very small personality on YouTube, building Word Press sites, and blogging. What I’ve discovered though is it can be taxing as a solo freelancer to handle the day-to-day business while also trying to build this audience. It almost caused me to burn out. After taking a break from Better Editor I’m more focused on my career and providing useful knowledge to those who need it, rather than increasing subscribers for the sake of pumping up numbers.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chrissalters.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seesalt13
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissalters/t
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeeSalt13
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BetterEditor