How fan edit culture has helped transform PR of the entertainment industry
Fan editing has been alive since the beginning of the social media era. Fans of music, television and film have created video edits and posted them to platforms such as Instagram, Youtube and more recently TikTok.These videos consist of scenes from a show or movie with music including transitions. In simple terms these can count for fan made trailers.
Recently, HBO hired a fan editor, Melanie @uhbucky, after discovering a viral edit she made for the hit show Heated Rivalry that she posted on TikTok.Their main purpose in hiring her was because the edit brought attention to the show and impacted the audience's reach. She got many comments suggesting HBO needs to hire her for trailers and they saw it and made it happen.They gave her the role of Associate Producer to work on official trailers and promo content.
Fan editing culture has impacted the television and film industry tremendously within the most recent few years. Many social media accounts dedicate their profile making under 30 second videos of these shows and movies which then leads to promotion of it. This is important to the PR industry because it drives engagement, audience reach and brings new meaning to tv shows and movies through social media. Lionsgate has done similar in hiring editors if you look at their TikTok account. They use edits as a way to promote upcoming movies such as Michael (2026) and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (2026). The edits are some of the most liked videos on the account which shows the results of how loved these are within the industry and fan culture. It creates fan engagement and excitement hopefully boosting ticket sales.
This also counts as free publicity for entertainment companies. Many editors make videos for fun and don’t get commission for it because it is fan-made. There are a variety of edits across all social platforms that incorporate different niches. Not only does it impact newer entertainment but it also brings awareness to classic films to a newer audience when they use more recent music. The Twilight franchise is a series of films having a resurgence through edits. An artist Julia Wolf released a song called In My Room which many fans loved and believed fit the Twilight series perfectly so it became a trend to edit them together. Many people now resonate the song with the Twilight films, platforming both at the same time.
This not only helps the film and tv industry’s PR but also the music industry. Many songs have been revived through fan made video edits. The most recent is Purple Rain by Prince. After Netflix’s Stranger Things featured the song in their season finale, many editors began to make edits. It began with Stranger Things edits and transformed to other shows and movies. Similarly this happened with “Lover, You Should've Come Over” by Jeff Buckley. Many editors used different parts of the song and created videos highlighting emotional scenes in movies and shows. This brought a resurgence to both songs and made them trending on TikTok allowing the newer generation to be exposed to older music.
Personally, I love watching edits on TikTok, Instagram and Youtube. I have found some of my favorite tv shows and movies through watching edits on social media. Anytime I watch a movie or show, I immediately go on TikTok to find edits on the characters. It allows viewers to see different perspectives and interpretations of the storylines of the show or movie. There have been multiple shows I don't watch but know the whole storyline because of edits. It brings awareness and a sense of community to viewers which plays a role in PR.
Bio: Alyssa Lupercio is a student at California State University, Northridge majoring in Journalism and Public Relations with a minor in marketing.