What’s the next step after shooting the perfect video, vlog, or movie? Is there a way to make people feel emotionally connected to what they see? How can you put your creative stamp on your work, create a compelling narrative, and communicate the right message to your audience?
This is where video editing comes in.
Besides giving you final products of better quality, the post-production phase contributes to your video’s overall story and allows you to offer a remarkable watching experience to viewers.
However, the video editing process can be challenging and time-consuming, especially if you’re a beginner.
Fortunately, the good news is that you don’t need to be an expert to get great results. With these video editing tips and tricks, you’ll master your skills and understand the best practices to create fascinating audiovisual pieces.
Read on to edit videos like a pro!
The Importance of Video Editing
You’ll find many video editing tips here, but there’s something you need to know first. Let’s answer an essential question.
Why is Video Editing So Important?
Assuming you’ve finished recording footage, do you think your video is ready for others to watch it? Are you sure it’s enough to attract viewers and convey a compelling message?
Millions of videos are uploaded to YouTube and social media platforms every day. If you fail to make yours attractive, it’ll just go unnoticed.
However, editing videos means adding a finishing touch to your work, bringing everything together, and making this project shine.
In contrast, an unedited video often gives off the impression of being amateur, poor quality, and less professional. This isn’t what you want for your personal brand or business, is it?
Whether you edit your own videos or offer post-production services, this process will help you make your content more enjoyable, attract more people, achieve higher audience retention rates, and grow your customer base or followers.
The Best Video Editing Tips and Tricks
Beginner video editors can find so much information on this practice out there. There are guides, blog posts, eBooks, online courses, and more.
However, these 9 video editing tips and tricks are the ultimate way to take your footage to the next level.
#1 Choose the Right Video Editing Software
Undoubtedly, finding the right software is the first and most crucial step to start editing videos.
There are many options on the market! Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Camtasia are the most popular.
Since there are so many video editing software solutions, finding the right one isn’t always easy.
Key Considerations
Considering the following factors may help you make a better decision:
- Your budget: Some options are more expensive than others, while a few tools have free or trial versions.
- Your editing style: Each video editing software has different features and tools.
- Your learning needs: Finding resources and tutorials for a specific tool or technique in some software solutions is easier.
- Your equipment: Some video editing software is suitable for powerful computers only, while others work perfectly fine on smartphones.
#2 Keep Your Videos Concise
Did you shoot an hour of footage? Well, that doesn’t mean your edited video should be 60 minutes.
In today’s busy world, long videos hardly keep an audience’s attention span, which should be your goal.
Many amateur video editors make this mistake. Their clips are too long and fail to retain viewers’ attention and attract a wider audience.
However, you shouldn’t cut your one-hour footage to just a few seconds. Ideally, video editors should remove anything unusable, from lines that add nothing to the message or misspoken words to shots with loud background noise.
#3 Balance Your Video’s Pace
If there’s a tough challenge for most video editors, it’s definitely balancing a video’s pace. However, this tip will make this task easier.
Essentially, pace is the speed and consistency of your video. Almost all of your clips will have slower parts but will be faster in some places.
However, while that’s natural, a video with a changing pace isn’t comfortable to watch.
What Can You Do to Fix That?
When editing videos, it’s always important to consider the rhythm of your content. The atmosphere also plays a key role.
Moving viewers smoothly and comfortably from one scene to another should be one of your main goals.
Ideally, the speed and consistency of each scene should match the tone of the content or message. However, this is quite challenging when the pace is constantly changing.
Fortunately, you can solve this issue and create a sense of harmony by using cuts. Fewer cuts will make slower-paced scenes more comfortable to watch.
If you want to improve fast scenes, more cuts that are closer together could help you get a more harmonious result.
#4 Cut on Action
Cuts are valuable resources sometimes but can also cause a few problems. If you’re using different takes, they’re often jarring. Finding a solution to enhance the video won’t be difficult in these cases.
However, using multiple cameras in just one shot is different.
If you want to make your edited video look smoother, don’t cut when things are static but midway through an action. Viewers will focus on the movement, which helps cover those small continuity errors for a better watching experience.
#5 Don’t Forget to Balance Audio Levels
What if your images are impressive and neat, but your audio isn’t? When it comes to video editing, both are important.
The final product could be unwatchable if the audio is unbalanced or distorted. Therefore, you should always try to capture high-quality audio when shooting.
When you pay attention to the audio’s quality while recording, balancing it out during post-production is easier.
Key Considerations
To balance your video’s audio, consider the following:
- Make sure audio levels don’t cause discomfort by spiking or dipping too sharply
- Fix voice levels and ensure they’re consistent throughout the video
- Adjust other audio elements, including background music and sound effects, around the speech to improve the listening experience
#6 Learn to Use Color to Optimize Your Video
This process involves two color editing phases. These are color correction and color grading.
If you’ve never heard of these terms, don’t panic!
Have you edited the contrast or brightness in your photos before? The color correction process for your videos is similar.
The main goal is to make the video’s coloring more natural and resemble the world’s natural colors.
Color grading gives particular scenes a specific look with a certain style to change the feel of the video and alter the appearance in different environments.
#7 Prioritize the Story or the Message
After you finish recording, you realize you have multiple clips. Which shot should you use? Where should you cut the video when editing?
This tip is essential in these cases but can help you with every editing decision you make – consider how your choice will impact the story.
No auditory or visual element should distract the viewer from the video’s main point. Consider the message you want your audience to take from the content before making decisions.
This doesn’t apply only to music videos or fiction movies. All videos tell a story.
#8 Always Check Your Rights
YouTube and social media platforms have strict rules about copyright and often take down videos with copyrighted music.
However, many beginner video editors use songs without having the proper rights. This is a common mistake.
Instead of using your favorite hit, try to find alternative tracks. Many websites and services offer royalty-free music to take your video content to the next level.
Remember to read the terms and conditions carefully to ensure you can use those songs in the way and for the platforms you want.
Some musicians might also permit you to use their tracks, but you should contact them and come to an agreement before adding their songs to your videos.
#9 Back Up Your Work
Finally, here’s one of the most essential video editing tips for beginners and experts – always create a backup of your video content.
After spending hours editing your footage, you don’t want to lose all your work. However, a small error or equipment failure can result in wasted time and effort.
Luckily, there are many solutions, such as editing applications that make automated backups from time to time.
Furthermore, you should back up your video to two or more different locations, including cloud servers and an external hard drive.
Final Thoughts
Video editing isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Most video makers take a personal approach to this process. Also, it involves many things, from reviewing footage and cutting or pacing clips to color correction and audio balancing.
However, these tips can help any video maker customize and optimize their editing workflow!
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can I Get Better at Video Editing?
If you’re a beginner, the best thing you can do to become a skilled video editor is to practice. Experimenting with your footage could benefit your learning experience, especially if you try new things every time!
What Is the 321 Rule for Video Editing?
As mentioned, backing up your work is essential. That’s known as the 321 rule in video editing.
This rule says that all video editors should keep three copies of each file they need for their video in two locations.
What Is the Golden Rule of Video Editing?
There are many crucial rules in video editing, but this is the most important one: Don’t do something or add something without a positive reason.
Every decision you make, and every element you add must contribute something to the story or message you want to convey with your video.
What Do Most YouTubers Use to Edit Their Videos?
As mentioned, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and Camtasia are the most popular editing software. These are the tools that most YouTubers use to edit their videos.
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Mark Wonderlin is the visionary founder of Mosaic Media Films. He is passionate about crafting creative business videos that captivate and convert. Mark and his team stand out by creating visually stunning videos and ensuring they align seamlessly with the client’s broader marketing objectives.
