Video Creator
Freelance · Los Angeles · $500 per short video
Host City is looking for a Los Angeles-based video creator to make videos about the 2028 Olympics. Most of the work is short vertical video for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, and we’re also open to longer YouTube pieces if that’s where your strength is. You come up with the stories and make them from start to finish, and they run on Host City’s channels. Our editors give feedback along the way, and we handle distribution.
About Host City
Host City is an independent publication covering LA28 as an ambitious, city-shaping moment. We report on the neighborhoods, the infrastructure, the leaders and brands making decisions, and the cultural memory the Games will draw on. Host City has no affiliation with LA28, the USOPC, the IOC or any host-city government office.
What you’ll do
Pitch stories built around a person, a place or a deadline the Games are creating
Report and shoot in the field, at council meetings, bus yards, construction sites and the blocks around venues
Write and host direct-to-camera explainers when a story calls for one (on-camera work is welcome but not required)
Edit your pieces with captions and on-screen type in Host City’s visual style
The stories we want sit where the Olympic deadline creates tension, where history explains what’s happening now, or where infrastructure shows up at human scale. We are also open to local athlete profiles or venue previews!
Who we’re looking for
You live in Los Angeles and can shoot around the city
You’ve made short-form video that people actually watched, ideally news, documentary or explainer work
You can shoot and record clean audio on your own gear; a phone is fine if the footage holds up
You can take a story from pitch to publish without much hand-holding
You know some corner of LA well, whether that’s transit, housing, labor, local politics, sports business or city history
Story instinct matters more to us than credentials. If you’ve never worked for a publication but your feed shows you can find and tell a local story, apply!!
Terms and pay
$500 flat per short video, covering the pitch, reporting, shooting and a finished edit
Longer YouTube pieces are priced per project based on length and scope
We expect to commission two to four videos a month from the right person, with room to grow
You keep archival rights to your footage, and Host City takes publication rights
Every piece is credited to you and promoted across Host City’s Substack, YouTube and Instagram
Host City pays for every commissioned piece. We don’t run unpaid work.
How to apply
Email editor@hostcity.media with “Video creator” in the subject line and include:
A paragraph on what you’d want to cover and why Host City is the place for it. Be specific about what you’ve done and where.
Three to five samples of your video work, vertical if you have it. Links are fine.
Three to five video pitches, two sentences each. Tell us the story and what we’d see on screen.
We review applications on a rolling basis.