Why this page is in an unusual order
Every editing guide runs trim, assemble, export. The risk runs the other way.
Actors spend their editing time on the timeline choosing between takes, then export in a rush with whatever settings came up — and find out it will not upload with forty minutes left.
Too big, wrong container, will not play. Fatal, common, and completely preventable. So it goes first on this page.
Cutting inside a take carries a named consequence from a named casting office: not being shown to the director.
The walk-in, the dead air, the arm reaching for the off button. Cosmetic, and named repeatedly by casting.
There are also two risks nobody in the actor space writes about — one legal and one confidential — and they are at the bottom of this page rather than the top only because you need the mechanics first.
Before you touch the timeline
The platform decides your edit, not your taste.
How many files you can send, how big they can be, and whether you can fix a mistake afterwards. All of it is set by where you are uploading — and the platforms genuinely contradict each other.
The one creative rule
Editing a self-tape is subtraction, not construction.
SAG-AFTRA states the purpose flatly: the point of editing is simply to remove unwanted or awkward parts. This is one of the very few questions in the whole Academy where nobody dissents.
The whole rule, in one line
You may cut the ends. You may not cut the middle.
You can edit out the before and after — but do not edit the best bits of each take together. We need to see one clean take. It is a red flag if you cannot do a continuous take, and you will most likely not be presented to the director.
Just Add Milk Casting · published self-tape guidanceThat is the sharpest stated consequence anywhere in this guide, and three other sources say the same thing without the teeth. Luca Papp: do not edit within the scene — each scene should be one continuous take. Puro Casting: one decent interpretation from start to finish in one unbroken take, not cut together from a variety of takes. The CDG guide: send the best one, at most two of each scene.
The continuous take is what casting is actually assessing. Not whether the words came out well once, but whether you can sustain a scene — which is precisely what a set will require of you. An assembled performance answers a different question from the one being asked. It is the same logic the pillar chapter sets out: a self-tape is a demonstration of what it would be like to work with you, and a tape stitched from three takes quietly says you needed three.
The part everyone actually came for
Where the tape starts, and where it ends.
The in point
Already acting
- Weeble Mountain: go directly into the scene, starting with the first line in the sides.
- “Do not read the scene description or repeat your slate information.”
- You should already be acting — by listening — when the tape starts, even if you do not have the first line.
- So: a beat before your first line, while you are listening. Not a beat of you settling.
The out point
Let it land
- The CDG says do not cut the scene off too quickly — directors like to see the actor looking thoughtful and in repose afterwards.
- A talent agent puts the other half of it: do not let the end of the scene just fade away either.
- So: a beat after your last line. One beat, not five.
The clean statement of both, from the acting press: start right before your first line and end right after your last. Cut the awkward silences, and do not let dead air eat your running time.
Make it look as professional as possible. We do not want to see “any arms coming round to press the off button.”
The CDG guide for self-tapingPuro Casting says the same thing in duller words: know how to trim the beginning and end of a take, especially if you are self-operating and dashing in and out of frame. The two most common trimming errors are opposites, and both take five seconds to fix — leaving the walk-in, the settle, the glance at the camera and the arm reach; or cutting so tight that the last line has nowhere to land and the tape stops mid-thought.
Where does the slate go?
One file, several files, and the slate question.
This one has no single answer, and anyone who gives you one has not read the sources. The slate chapter covers what goes in the slate. This is only about where the file goes.
The brief wins, then the platform wins, then Liem’s default. If the office said where to put it, put it there. If they did not, and the platform accepts multiple files, send it separately — that is the version that works whichever way the office prefers to file it.
A direct contradiction, and it resolves cleanly
Can you put a title card on it?
Two credible sources, opposite instructions
No titlesSAG-AFTRA: adding on-screen titles and text, or creating transitions, can be distracting — it is best to leave them out. The acting press agrees: no effects, no transitions, no filters, no background music.
Yes, a cardPuro Casting asks for one: centred white letters on a black background with your name, your agent, the role and the project. Four or five seconds. No whirling titles, no zooming letters, no Star Wars scrolling text — “keep it simple and classy.”
They are not actually disagreeing
Puro’s title card is attribution, not decoration. They receive two to three hundred tapes a day, and a plain card is a second line of defence if the filename ever gets separated from the file — which, as the directions chapter sets out, is exactly how tapes get lost.
SAG-AFTRA is objecting to titles as production value. So: a plain identification card at the head of the tape is a filing device, and at least one casting office requests it. Anything animated, styled, or mid-tape is decoration, and every source is against it. And if the office specified either way, that settles it.
The part that actually kills tapes
The export checklist.
Assembled from five platform documents and two casting offices. Hit all seven and your file will upload and play on every platform in the table above.
Two casting-side voices on why compression is worth five minutes. Caroline Liem: “make sure to reduce the size of the file” — quicker upload for you, quicker viewing and download for them, easily done through QuickTime’s “Export as…”. And if you are sending a link rather than uploading, make sure the video is downloadable for the recipient.
Puro Casting calls compression one of the most important steps and lists four reasons: less stress against a deadline, saved space on your device, casting directors saving time and hard-drive space, and the one nobody thinks about — directors in remote places without fast internet getting a file that streams immediately instead of buffering.
One checkbox, and almost nobody explains it
Faststart, in three sentences.
What it actually is
Your MP4 has an index, and it is probably in the wrong place.
An MP4 carries an index called the moov atom. Many encoders write it at the end of the file, which means a player may need the whole file before it can start — the spinner, the progress bar with no duration, the video that will not scrub.
Moving that index to the front is called faststart — “Web Optimized” in HandBrake, “prepare for internet streaming” in older QuickTime. With it on, playback can start as the file downloads.
And crucially: it does not change your encoding settings, your quality, or your file size. It is a free rearrangement.
Which is why there is no reason not to tick itWhy it matters for a self-tape specifically
The CDG’s Code of Practice notes that the majority of tapes are downloaded and viewed offline or via another platform. Casting is clicking links, streaming previews and scrubbing through files on mixed hardware and variable connections. A file without faststart is more likely to stall on a preview or refuse to scrub — and a casting director with three hundred tapes does not troubleshoot yours.
Puro Casting already tells actors to tick it. Their HandBrake instructions include “you can also check the box for Web Optimised” — without ever saying what it does. Now you know.
A fifteen-second habit
Name it after export, not before.
The directions chapter covers what the name should say. The editing-specific point is one of timing, and it is the seam where careful actors still lose tapes.
Many editors and phone export flows generate their own filename — a date string, a project name, Untitled_1. Puro Casting describes exactly this failure: without renaming, your editing software labels the file numerically and the tape arrives as something like “My Great Movie 2,” which they cannot route to anybody.
Export first. Then name it. Then look at the name on the file you are actually about to upload. The hard mechanics, from Actors Access: lower-case extension, no special characters, and one period only — the one before the file extension.
Question four, with a complication
Which app — and the one worth reading about first.
Contested · reported August 2026 · re-check before you rely on it
The CapCut question.
CapCut is the most-recommended free editor in actor-facing guides. It is also owned by ByteDance, and it updated its Terms of Service on 12 June 2025. This is contested and it is moving, so here is both sides with dates attached.
What the reporting says
Legal commentary describes the June 2025 terms as granting a “perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable license” to use, edit, distribute and exploit uploaded content — applying whether or not the content has been published, including material merely stored in the app.
Claudia Sandino, a director at Omnivore, told TechRadar the language grants “a worldwide, royalty-free, sublicensable, and transferable license,” notes that it covers voice, face and likeness whether published or not, and that the perpetual nature means the rights are retained even after you delete your account.
What CapCut says
CapCut responded publicly, saying there had been confusion about pre-existing legal language regarding user-generated content, and that people were wrongly concerned it gave the company broad rights to use or monetise their content or likeness without consent. At least one report states the IP agreement applies solely to the extent necessary to provide the service. DPReview consulted attorney Bert P. Krages, author of The Photographer’s Right, who confirmed there were reasons to be wary while adding nuance. If this matters to you, read that piece in full rather than taking anybody’s summary — including ours.
Every other user of a free editor is uploading content they made. An actor is uploading their own face and voice — the asset the entire career is built on — plus dialogue from an unreleased script.
Why this lands differently for an actorWe are not telling you what to conclude. We are telling you it is a decision rather than a default, and that as far as we can tell no actor-facing source has said so.
What we would actually recommend
iMovie (Mac/iOS) or Clipchamp (Windows) to trim. HandBrake to compress and tick Web Optimized. DaVinci Resolve if you want one free tool that does all of it.
All four are free, all four are watermark-free, all four run on your own machine — and none of them claims a licence to your face. That last point is the next section.
The question the field has not asked
You are editing NDA-covered material.
Every fact in this section is sourced. The connection between them is ours, and we cannot finish it — but we think it is worth saying out loud.
Edit locally rather than in a browser. iMovie, Clipchamp, DaVinci Resolve and HandBrake all run on your own machine, and all four are free. For anything marked confidential, that removes the question entirely — and it costs you nothing to prefer them.
The last section, and mostly a list of don’ts
What not to fix in post.
You can fix
Framing, buzz, levels
- Crop. Caroline Liem: scenes sometimes get shot too wide, or something in the background was missed. Apps can crop out distractions and reframe chest-up.
- Buzz. Liem again: iMovie and Audacity will reduce it with noise reduction or an equaliser.
- Modest exposure and level corrections. Nobody objects to these.
You cannot fix
Resolution, reverb, colour
- Cropping costs resolution. A 1080p frame cropped to half its width is a 540p frame upscaled. Crop as a rescue, not as a framing method — if you can re-shoot, re-shoot.
- Reverb. Absorption removes reflections. Software mostly does not. See the audio chapter.
- Colour grading. Casting is assessing your face, and a graded tape looks processed rather than accurate.
The honest state of the evidence
Where the sources disagree.
Title card?
YesPuro Casting: plain white on black, four to five seconds, name, agent, role and project.
NoSAG-AFTRA: on-screen titles and text can be distracting. Leave them out.
One file or many?
ManyActors Access recommends separate files. The SAG-AFTRA panel: send the slate separately.
OneBackstage allows one tape per request. RADA requires one file per stage.
Where is the slate?
FrontMost guidance, by default.
End, or separateCaroline Liem: at the end unless directed otherwise. The SAG-AFTRA panel: its own file.
Resolution
1080pThe common default, and safe everywhere.
720pCasting Networks recommends it. Puro says no 1080p and definitely no 4K. The CDG says under 70 MB total.
How hard to compress?
HardPuro Casting: around 10 MB for a two-minute tape, with barely visible loss.
Not too hardThe CDG, same organisation as the 70 MB rule: files that are too small are not considered high enough quality for US productions.
CapCut?
RecommendedWidely named in actor-facing guides. Free, and mobile exports clean as of mid-2026.
Read firstJune 2025 terms reported as granting perpetual rights over face, voice and likeness including unpublished drafts. CapCut disputes the characterisation.
Cutting takes together?
Nobody supports itJust Add Milk, Luca Papp, Puro and the CDG all prohibit it.
—Rare unanimity. There is no other side to this one.
Before you upload
The export check.
- I checked how many files this platform takes and what the cap is — before I opened an editor.
- Each scene is one continuous take. I cut the ends and nothing in the middle.
- It starts a beat before my first line, while I am already listening.
- It ends a beat after my last line — and there is no arm reaching for the button.
- Export: .mp4, H.264, 720p, under 300 MB, mono audio.
- Web Optimized is ticked.
- I named it after export, and I checked the name on the actual file.
- I watched the exported file, not the preview — no watermark, no surprises.
Cut the ends. Set the export. Send it.
The creative part of editing a self-tape takes about ninety seconds, and the rule fits in one line. Everything else on this page is plumbing — and plumbing is what loses tapes, quietly, before anybody has watched a frame of your work.
Get the file right and the tape gets a fair hearing. That is the whole job.
Shrink a file for upload