Video · Reel editing
Reel editing in Dubai, built around the first second.
Instagram Reels edited for the way they are actually watched: on a phone, often with the sound off, and decided in the opening moment. Cut from footage we shoot or footage you already have, for brands in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Quoted per brief.
The first frame is the hook and the thumbnail. Edit it like both.
- Format
- 9:16 · Full HD
- Footage
- Ours or yours
- Price
- Quote per brief
Fig. 1
The edges of every Reel belong to Instagram.
The app lays its own interface over every Reel: a bar across the top, the like, comment and share buttons down the right, and the handle, caption and audio along the bottom. Text or a face placed there is covered for everyone who watches.
So every caption and every face is placed inside the part the app leaves alone, and checked on a phone before it is delivered.
Keep it inside the line.
The zones are approximate: Instagram moves its interface between versions and phones. Reference footage, not client work.
01What an edit includes
Everything the scroll decides on.
- 01The opening frame
- The first frame does two jobs: it is the hook in the feed and the thumbnail on your profile. We choose it deliberately and check the cover in the profile grid crop too.
- 02Hooks, not intros
- No logo sting, no slow build. The reason to keep watching comes first, and we cut several openings when a Reel is going to be tested.
- 03Captions on screen
- Sized for a phone at arm’s length, timed to the speech, and kept clear of the app’s interface. Many people watch with the sound off; the Reel has to work for them.
- 04Pacing
- Dead air, false starts and repeated takes come out. Cuts land on the words, so the Reel moves at the speed of the point it is making.
- 05Sound
- Voice levelled and cleaned up, music underneath rather than on top, and audio a business account is allowed to use.
- 06Versions
- Where a Reel will run as an ad, a clean version without burned-in text and alternative openings, named so nobody has to guess which file is which.
02Your footage or ours
Edit what you have, or shoot for it.
Most brands already have more footage than they use: phone clips from the team, event recordings, the leftover takes from a shoot that produced one film. Editing that into Reels is often the fastest way to post more without shooting more. We go through it first and tell you what it can make.
When the footage is not there, we plan and shoot it, in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, framed so a single shoot day produces the vertical cuts as well as anything wider. That is video shooting, and a shoot planned around Reels looks different from one planned around a single brand film.
03How it runs
From a folder of footage to a set of Reels.
- 01Brief
- What each Reel is for, who it is for, and what they should do after watching. One message per Reel; a second message is a second Reel.
- 02Selects
- We go through the footage and mark what to keep and what to cut, the way a contact sheet is marked up, before any timeline is built.
- 03First cut
- Edited, captioned and sound-checked, then read frame by frame against the brief before you see it.
- 04Your notes
- Your changes go back into the same cut, so the version you approve is the version you saw, not a new one.
- 05Delivery
- Final files in full HD vertical, 1080 by 1920 pixels, the cover frame, and clean versions where a Reel will also run as an ad.
04Music and people
Checked before delivery, not after a complaint.
Two things that get Reels taken down.
Music. A business account does not get the whole music library, and a track that is fine in an organic post can be a problem once the Reel is boosted. We use audio the account is actually allowed to use, so nothing has to be muted or removed later.
People. In the UAE, publishing someone’s image without their consent is not a grey area. Anyone identifiable in a Reel should have agreed to appear in it; when we shoot, that is part of the plan, and when we edit your footage, we flag anyone who might not have.
Checked before delivery, not after a complaint.
05Reels as ads
The best organic Reel is the first ad to test.
A Reel that holds attention on its own has already passed the hardest test an ad faces. So when a Reel is going to be boosted or used in a campaign, it is edited with the ad placement in mind: a version without text that would sit under the ad’s own overlay, and more than one opening, so the ad account can tell you which works.
The campaigns themselves run under paid social, from an ad account in your name.
06Price
Quoted per brief.
There is no single rate for Reel editing, because the work varies too much to fit one: how many Reels, how much footage there is to go through, whether it has to be shot first, and how many versions you want to test. Send a brief and you get a fixed quote before anything starts. Full video production is priced separately, on the video production page.
07Out of scope
What we turn down.
Not offered:
Trends copied without a reasonA trend is worth joining when it says something about your business. Copying one because it is trending is a Reel nobody remembers who posted.
Not offered:
Watermarked re-uploadsA TikTok with its watermark reposted as a Reel looks like an afterthought. We export clean files for each platform instead.
Not offered:
Views reported as resultsA view is an input. What matters is what the viewer did next: the profile visit, the message, the enquiry.
08Questions
The things people actually ask.
How much does Reel editing cost in Dubai?
We quote per brief rather than publish a single rate, because a Reel cut from a clean interview and a Reel built from a day of raw phone footage are different amounts of work. What moves the number: how many Reels, how much footage there is to go through, whether we also shoot, and how many opening variations you want to test. You get a fixed quote before we start.
Can you edit Reels from footage we shot on a phone?
Usually, yes. Phone footage is how most Reels start. We go through it first and tell you plainly what it can and cannot make — if the sound is unusable or the framing cuts off what matters, we say so before editing rather than after.
Do you add captions to Reels?
Yes. On-screen text is part of the edit, not an afterthought: sized to read on a phone, timed to the speech, and placed inside the part of the frame the app's own interface does not cover.
Which music can a business account use on Instagram?
Not everything a personal account can. Instagram restricts some tracks for business profiles, and music that is fine in a post can be a problem in an ad. We choose audio the account is actually allowed to use, and we will not put a track into a Reel that you would have to take down later.
Can the same Reel run as an ad?
Often, and it is one of the cheapest ways to find out what works: the Reel that holds attention organically is a strong candidate for paid. We edit with that in mind — a clean version without text that would clash with ad placements, and alternative openings to test. The campaign itself runs from an ad account in your name.
Do you post the Reels for us?
Editing can be taken on its own. If you also want planning, posting and reporting, that is social media management, which includes content creation.