Department guide · Post: editing, sound and grade
The best free offer in the industry is here, and it is not close.
One manufacturer gives away a professional editing, colour, visual effects and audio post application, then gives away the training for it as well: full-length video courses with downloadable media, and a shelf of official training books as free PDFs. No catch, no trial period, no feature-crippled tier. We looked hard for a comparable offer in any other department and there is not one.
That makes post the department where being broke stops mattering fastest. If money is the reason you have not started, start here. This is for editors, assistant editors, colourists and anybody who wants a craft they can practise tonight on a laptop.
Where to start
Download the software, then work the books.
01
Get the free software first
DaVinci Resolve has a free version that is a genuine professional tool rather than a demo. Install it before you watch anything, because all the official training assumes you have it open and comes with the media to follow along.
02
Then the beginner’s guide
The free beginner’s book covers editing, colour, audio and effects in one pass. Work through it with the project files rather than reading it. It is a course, not a manual, and it expects you to do the exercises.
03
Then pick a lane and go deep
After that there is a free specialist book each for editing, colour, audio and visual effects. Choose one. Assistant editing and colour are where the paid work concentrates in the UK.
The official exams sit alongside the free books. The books and the training videos are free; check the current position on exam fees on Blackmagic’s own training page before assuming.
The list
Free, checked, and every one of these links out.
DaVinci Resolve, free edition (opens in a new tab) · Free · no watermark, no time limit · everyone
A professional edit, grade, audio and compositing application, given away complete. There has never been anything like it, and it removes the last financial excuse in post.
Blackmagic Design — free training books and videos (opens in a new tab) · Free · PDFs and project files · any level
Complete, professionally written curricula for editing, colour, Fairlight audio and Fusion compositing, downloadable without payment, with matching video courses and media to work on. A publisher would charge forty pounds a volume. These are the spine of this page.
This Guy Edits (opens in a new tab) · Free · YouTube · anyone who wants to edit rather than operate
An ACE member on editorial thinking: coverage, rhythm, why a cut works. It is about judgement, which is the half that software training cannot reach.
Cullen Kelly (opens in a new tab) · Free · YouTube · aiming at the grade
Colour grading theory, workflow and the reasoning behind a look. He explains colour management properly, which is where most self-taught colourists come unstuck.
Boom Box Post (opens in a new tab) · Free · written · audio post
Dialogue editing, Foley and sound design written up step by step by a working post-sound house. Cross-listed from Sound, and correctly so: post sound sits in this department on most UK jobs.
Production Expert (opens in a new tab) · Free · articles and reviews · working technicians
Post audio workflows, tools and the troubleshooting pieces that save a delivery deadline.
ScreenSkills — post job profiles and skills checklists (opens in a new tab) · Free · no account · UK grades
Post production runner, assistant editor, editor, online editor, colourist, post supervisor. The assistant editor profile in particular is the best-hidden route into post and few people read it.
British Film Editors (opens in a new tab) · Free to read · honorary society · know it early
The UK society for film and television editors, founded in 1966. Its awards and events are a useful way to see who is cutting what in Britain, years before you are eligible to join.
Film Courage (opens in a new tab) · Free · YouTube · long interviews
A very large archive of long interviews with editors, writers and producers. Enormous and uneven: the value is in specific interviews rather than in the channel, so go in with a name.
LinkedIn Learning (opens in a new tab) · Paid · usually free with a UK library card · software fluency
Structured courses on Premiere Pro, After Effects, Avid Media Composer and DaVinci Resolve. This is the one department where LinkedIn Learning earns its place, because the need here is software fluency rather than set craft. Check your library service before paying.
Every link here goes to the owner’s own page, in a new tab. How we treat other people’s work · Last checked September 2026.
Money on it
Later than you think
Post is the department where you can go furthest before spending anything, so be suspicious of anybody selling you a course before you have finished the free books.
Adobe Creative Cloud or Avid Media Composer
The two industry-standard edit systems. Learn on Resolve for nothing, and buy the subscription the week a job specifies one. Not before.
Paid
A calibrated monitor
Not software. You cannot judge colour on a laptop screen, and no amount of training substitutes for a display you can trust.
Paid
Your local library card (opens in a new tab) · Usually free · everyone · check this first
Many UK library services give members free access to LinkedIn Learning and other paid platforms. The first thing to check before subscribing to anything.
The books
Two, and the first is under a hundred pages.
| Book | What it is for |
|---|---|
| In the Blink of an Eye — Walter Murch | Why a cut works. Short, and it changes how you watch everything. For every editor and every director. |
| The Conversations — Michael Ondaatje | Murch on editing, sound and film at length. The best long-form account of what a post supervisor’s judgement is made of. |
Where you are
The same list, sorted by what you have already done.
| If this is you | Do this, in this department |
|---|---|
| Never been on a set | Download Resolve tonight and work the beginner’s guide. You can learn a paid skill this week for nothing. |
| You have a first day | If the day is in a cutting room, learn the file structure before you touch a timeline. |
| Building a career | The assistant editor skills checklist, then the Blackmagic books for the lane you are entering. |
| Changing department | Post hires on demonstrable software fluency more than on credits. This is the easiest department to cross into. |
| Running a department | The delivery specs, the Bectu cards you are hiring inside, and a monitor you can defend. |
The grades
What each rung actually does.
Any word on this page you have not met before is in the glossary, in UK terms.
Where the gap gets filled
With other people’s footage and other people’s opinions.
The fastest way to close that gap is to cut material you did not shoot, for somebody who will give you notes. Offer to cut for local filmmakers, student productions and community groups. The work is real, the notes are real, and it is how nearly every editor we know started.
Our own route in is the production simulations, where the footage comes off a unit you were on and goes to a delivery deadline that does not move, and the story course for the structural half of the craft.
Indie Films Showreel
To be embedded once uploaded.
