Devin Stevens is a video editor at Uppercut, an editorial company with offices in New York, Atlanta and soon, Los Angeles. “I’m based out of the New York City office, located in the heart of Manhattan on 5th Avenue and 18th Street. We’re definitely an up-and-coming shop with a great team and company culture,” he says.

In general terms, what does editing entail?
Editing is all about bringing together video and audio components to tell a story in the most captivating way possible. Beyond that, the job entails working collaboratively, thoughtfully addressing feedback and generally overseeing a project until it goes live.

What would surprise people the most about what falls under that title?
One thing that might surprise people is just how much of the story an editor might have to build. Some jobs will come to an editor with no footage in place whatsoever, relying on an editor to pull licensable footage from stock houses and the internet and truly build the project from the ground up.

What’s your favorite part of the job?
My favorite part is when the story and flow of the piece first start to come together. It’s exciting to see the hard work of all the people involved begin to align and form something tangible. With a structure in place, it also means that I can start to add the finer touches that really make the edit unique.

What’s your least favorite?
It’s always tough running into a mental block and getting stuck on an edit, but that’s also just part of a creative process sometimes. I usually get stubborn and don’t want to get up from my computer until I solve the problem, but whenever I step away and come back to it fresh, it’s easier to find a fix.

What is your most productive time of day and why?
I had a professor who once told me that he believed people’s creativity peaked on a 24-hour cycle, and I’ve always found that to be true. For me, I usually am clicking toward the end of the day; this is when I’m really settled into a groove and know what final goals I want to accomplish before calling it a day.

If you didn’t have this job, what would you be doing instead?
I would’ve loved to have been a film critic. I took a film criticism course in college, and the process of watching and discussing film as thoughtfully as possible was invigorating. Nowadays, I try to see all the new releases that have good buzz or catch my eye, and usually in theaters. One year I kept track, and I saw over 80 movies in theaters.

How early did you know this would be your path?
I decided at the age of 12 that I wanted to be a professional skateboard video editor, but I quickly realized that wasn’t an actual job and pivoted to video editor. Once I landed an internship at Whitehouse Post, my path really started to come into focus.

Can you name some recent jobs?
I recently cut a campaign for Aether Diamonds that was a lot of fun to put together. I was working with dance footage that had an in-camera fractal effect, giving me some beautiful and frenetic film to work with. Another recent project is the short film On Beauty. The film followed artist Louis Thomas as he painted a series of portraits showcasing the diversity of beauty. Director Lacey Uhlemeyer wanted an unconventional approach to the edit, so I was able to get creative with split-screen and picture-in-picture effects to tell the story.

Do you put on a different hat when cutting for a specific genre?
Editors always have to adjust their perspective when starting a new project and working within different genres. Sometimes that involves putting personal preference aside and making choices that work best for the final piece. For instance, it’s always fun to cut to music you love, but sometimes The Strokes just aren’t the best fit for the spot.

Did COVID affect the way you worked at all?
We’ve stayed quite busy at Uppercut throughout the pandemic. During the peak of COVID, we were exclusively working from home just like many others. That separation naturally made for a lot more unsupervised edit time, sending links to show progress and discussing the edit over email and Zoom.

However, we’re starting to see people want to work together in person more and more, and it really is great for collaboration. It’s so much easier to brainstorm and test out ideas when you’re all in the same room to see what does and doesn’t work in an edit.

Do you expect hybrid workflows to stay with us going forward?
I think working from home is definitely here to stay, but people are going to keep gravitating toward spending some time working together too. Different projects have different demands, and everyone has to find a balance that works for them.

What system do you edit on?
I edit on Adobe Premiere Pro. I started on Final Cut Pro and then quickly graduated to Premiere. As an assistant I became adept at both Premiere and Avid Media Composer and found a lot to love in both the programs. In the last couple of years, Premiere has released some incredible new features, so I’ve gone fully down the Adobe path and haven’t looked back.

Do you have a favorite plugin?
Years ago, I came across a plugin created by the editors of the movie Deadpool that can add a hand-held feel to any clip. It’s a great trick to add some energy and authenticity to a moment. Beyond that, I love playing with glitch effects and film burns to add some extra texture to an edit.

Are you often asked to do more than edit? If so, what are you asked to do?
As an editor you have to dabble in many different departments to effectively tell the story you want to tell. That involves all kinds of responsibilities, from sound-designing your own spots, to designing and animating titles in After Effects, to parsing countless music libraries to find the perfect music track. The mechanics of editing are just one of the many components of the job.

What are three pieces of technology you can’t live without?
First there is my car, which is a pain to own living in Brooklyn. It’s been sideswiped countless times, but it has helped keep me sane during COVID by giving me an escape from the city. Then there are my AirPods, which make my commute and journeys around the city entertaining. The third would have to be my cat’s automatic feeder. He demands breakfast at the break of dawn, so I would never get a good night’s sleep without it.

What do you do to de-stress from it all?
I love traveling, so it has been dope getting to do some of that again. Like seemingly every other person on social media, I just went to Europe, bouncing around Spain for two weeks. In the winter you can catch me snowboarding or rooting for the least successful NHL team, my beloved Arizona Coyotes.