Motion Picture Editors Guild (IATSE Local 700)

Overview

The Motion Picture Editors Guild, operating as IATSE Local 700, is the union representing post-production professionals working in film and television in the United States. Founded in 1937, Local 700 covers a broad range of post-production roles including picture editors, supervising sound editors, sound editors, music editors, foley editors, ADR editors, visual effects editors, colorists, digital intermediate technicians, post-production supervisors, and associate editors.

The scope of Local 700's jurisdiction reflects the full range of post-production craft work from editorial through audio finishing and color. As one of the largest IATSE locals by role diversity, the Guild negotiates both the IATSE Basic Agreement and supplemental agreements specific to post-production working conditions, including provisions that address the particular pressures of post schedules -- late delivery of footage, compressed timelines, and the demands of streaming platform output deals.

Membership and Classifications

Local 700 organizes its membership by craft classification, with distinct rate scales and working conditions for each category. Picture editors -- who hold creative editorial responsibility for assembling and cutting the film or series -- carry the highest classification rates. Sound editors and music editors hold separate classifications with rates reflecting their specialized skills. The visual effects editor and digital intermediate technician classifications were added to cover roles that did not exist in the analog editing era.

The Guild also covers editors working in commercials, music videos, and new media under specific agreements tailored to those production types. Remote and hybrid work provisions -- increasingly important as post-production workflows have moved to cloud-based and remote systems -- have been a recent focus of Local 700's collective bargaining activity.

Post-Production Workplace Issues

Local 700 has been at the forefront of advocacy around post-production working conditions, particularly concerning the compression of post schedules by streaming platforms seeking faster turnaround on series delivery. The Guild has documented and raised concerns about increasingly unrealistic timelines that create unsafe working conditions and compromise the quality of the finished work.

The Guild's newsletter and online resources provide post-production professionals with industry contract guidance, rate information, and advocacy updates that are valuable for both members and producers working to understand their obligations.

What Filmmakers Should Know

For productions entering post-production, understanding which post roles require Local 700 membership -- and at which classification -- is essential budget planning. Many independent productions use non-union editors during production to reduce costs, but transitioning to union post work for color, sound, and digital intermediate stages can create compliance complications if the production is IATSE-signatory.

For editors, Local 700 membership provides health and pension benefits, minimum rate protections, and professional community access that are difficult to replicate outside the union structure.

See Also

For the honorary editing society that operates alongside Local 700, see American Cinema Editors (ACE) in this directory. For how post-production costs are structured in film budgets, see Above the Line vs Below the Line.