Clipconnect: A Web-Based Freelance Video Editor Marketplace with Real-Time Communication, Escrow Payments and AI-Assisted Matching

The growing demand for digital video content has increased the need for freelance video editors, yet clients and editors often coordinate through disconnected channels such as social media, messaging applications and general-purpose freelance websites. This fragments project requirements, revisions and payment information. This paper presents ClipConnect, a web-based freelance video editor marketplace that brings the complete project lifecycle into a single platform. ClipConnect is implemented in Python using the Flask framework and supports PostgreSQL as relational back end. It provides JWT-based authentication with Bcrypt password hashing, client project management, editor profiles and portfolios, a proposal and hiring workflow, real-time chat through Socket.IO, a structured revision pipeline, escrow-based payment and invoice management, in-app notifications, an administrative control center, and AI-assisted tools for job-description generation and smart matching. The paper reports the requirements, layered architecture, UML and data-flow design, module structure and core algorithms of the system, describes a 60-case functional test plan covering eleven functional areas, and presents screenshots of the implemented client, editor and administrator interfaces. The limitations of the current prototype and directions for future work are also discussed.