You’ve filmed a YouTube video,
movie, or shot
a music video, and now it’s time for the other
half of the battle: the post-processing stage. In this article, I aim to help
you make the video editing process much easier and more productive by providing
a few helpful tips, & techniques.
1. Choose the Right Software
The first step in improving your
video editing process is to choose the right software for you and your work. They normally offer everything
you need to perform standard video edits, but you may prefer one over others
for their usability, digital interface, and features. Top favorites include
After Effects, Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve, which
offers a free and comprehensive Lite version.
2. Use a Fast Computer
You can choose
whatever computer brand or model you want,
as long as it’s fast enough for you to store huge files and allows you to focus
more on your editing work without having to worry about slow rendering.
It definitely helps to invest in a faster storage drive (SSD) that
will allow you to access your files and software faster, as well as speed up
your rendering, loading, and export times.
3. Watch Video Editing Tutorials
Youtube, blogs, and educational
websites are full of useful tutorials for creating great video content. Most of
the tutorials you’ll find out there are free, which makes them even more
accessible.
4. Get the Project Files
When
following along with a tutorial, many new video editors prefer to use the same
project files as the instructors in the tutorial. This will help you learn the
steps correctly, because your work will look exactly the same as the sample
from the demo. Many tutorials allow you to download their project files for
this exact reason.
5. Obey the 321 Rule
Just like woodworkers learn from the
start to measure twice and cut once, video editors using any program should
practice the 321 rule. Keep three copies of everything you create, in at least
two different places, with one of those places physically separated from your
other locations.
6. Edit for a Story
One
of the most important takeaways from this article is to remember your creative
goal: to tell a great story.
Go beyond the basics—cutting away extraneous footage and correcting the order
of your clips—and take the opportunity to make your film aesthetically-pleasing
and dramatically compelling so as to evoke the right emotions and effectively
impart your intended message. Use your practical and technical knowledge in
achieving this instead of just adding a bunch of effects to impress your
viewers.
7. Maintain an Efficient Workflow
Even with a super-fast computer
system and editing software, you’ll also need to be systematic and organized in
order to become a more efficient editor. One way to improve your workflow is
to organize your projects and
files in folders that you can use again and again. Create homes for
your projects, footage, audio files, images, and graphics, in which you can
also create more subsections and folders.
8. Color Correct Your Clips
Color is a major design element that
can be manipulated to highlight certain subjects, evoke specific emotions, and
set the mood or atmosphere of your scene. Fortunately, today’s video editing
programs give us a lot of color editing options that used to be only possible
with photos.
9. Select Good Music
Don’t just focus on the visuals; it
should only be as good as your music. If you’re creating a drama film, for
instance, you’ll want just
the right song or instrumentals to
make key moments more effective.
10. Add Text and Graphics
Depending on your film type, you may
have to include more text aside from the title, opening/closing billboards (for
broadcasting), and film credits. You’ll usually want to keep it simple, with a clean and white
sans-serif font that doesn’t grab too much attention.
11. Export Web Versions
Once your video is done and ready to
be exported, the natural tendency of most editors is to export it at the
largest video resolution possible. This is definitely the way to go if it’s
going to be played in cinemas and ultra HD screens. But in today’s generation
where video projects are usually marketed online and on social media, you
should also export smaller,
high-quality versions for easier playback.
Kenneth Omalla – Video Editor at Kent Photography (Wizzykent00@gmail.com)
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