The process of filming a movie or shooting a music video is all fun and easy until you step into the next battle: the post-processing phase. Like filming, you will need a perfect blend of technicality and creativity in this step.
This article is the right place to make your video editing task much more productive and manageable with helpful techniques, tricks, and hacks.
13 Tips for Easy Video Editing
Let us start!
1. Choosing the Right Video Editing Tool
The first step towards an improvised video editing experience is choosing the right online video editor that offers all you need to execute a top-notch video edit. You must prefer the one with a better digital interface, usability, and features.
The ideal solution is choosing the editing tool that works for your editing style and preference, instead of picking just the most advanced one out there.
Some of the top editing tools offer a free and comprehensive version of their platform to attract users. Some high-end video editing tools are emerging as industry giants with their innovative platform features.
2. Using a Fast Computer
Here, we don’t wish to get into the debate on PCs and Macs. It doesn’t matter what computer brand or model you choose as long as it ensures fast access for storing huge files and smooth editing work with no rendering or interruptions.
Investing in an SSD or a faster storage drive will definitely enable you to access files and editing tools faster, and boost up your loading, rendering, and exporting time.
One other thing that can help you shorten the time taken in editing tasks is increasing the computer’s memory, which is RAM. Having a RAM of at least 8 GB is essential if you want to carry out video editing for commercial and professional work.
In addition, get the recommended video card and high-speed processor for the editing tool. Customizing and upgrading a PC is usually easier than an Apple computer, but you can use both for your video editing task.
3. Watching the Video Editing Tutorials
Blogs, YouTube, and academic sites are filled with great tutorials to create unique video content. You will explore a significant number of free tutorials, making them even more accessible. Some popular websites like Video Copilot ensure plenty of specific tutorials for enhancing your video content.
While looking for tutorials to get specific looks and finish certain tasks, focus on the software version of the tool you are using. Several companies try to adjust menu settings and functionality depending on the version.
4. Getting the Project Files
When following a tutorial, numerous new video editing software uses the project file similar to the instructors in the tutorial. This aspect will let you learn about the steps correctly, as your work will appear exactly the same as the sample in the demo.
This factor is the exact reason why several tutorials let you download their project files. If you gain more experience with the technique, you can repeatedly do the same process with your video projects.
5. Following the 321 Rule
You must know that woodworkers have learned to measure twice and cut once. Similarly, as a video editor, you must practice the 321 rule while using any program.
You must keep three copies of whatever video files you are creating and keep them in at least different places. That will surely speed up the video editing task and make the process more seamless.
6. Editing for a Story
One of the most vital things is remembering your creative goal: to deliver a great quality story. You have to exceed the basics. Start cutting away the unnecessary footage and correct the video clip order. You must ensure to make your video project aesthetically appealing and dramatically pleasing for triggering the right emotions and efficiently delivering the intended message.
Also, use your technical and practical knowledge to achieve this, rather than adding a bucket of effects only to impress the viewers. You can simply go with the storyboard typically used during filming and make some on-the-spot changes for a content flow, effects, and scene transitions.
7. Maintaining an Effective and Efficient Workflow
Despite using an ultra-fast computer system and editing tool, you will have to be organized and systematic for becoming a better and more efficient video editor.
The best way to enhance the workflow is organizing projects and files into specific folders that you can use repeatedly and efficiently. You can create homes for your video footage, projects, images, audio files, and graphics, where you can create added folders and subsections too.
You can also choose to work faster by using an external hard drive to store your video footage, as it will free up a significant amount of your computer memory. It is advisable to use hard drives that can be well-connected via Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 to enjoy faster file transfers.
Moreover, you can consider allocating the RAM to enable more users to edit and get a gaming mouse that allows you to set some editing-specific functions through its buttons.
8. Utilizing the Keyboard Shortcuts
Coming down to the buttons, remember that most editing tools enable the use of keyboard shortcuts to execute a wide range of in-platform editing operations. You can easily review, make a list, memorize, and customize the various set of shortcuts for video editing tools.
If you have a bit more to spare for your editing budget, you can buy an editing keyboard. You can also buy a replaceable editing keyboard cover consisting of keyboard shortcut icons. These keyboard shortcuts are usually software specific, so there won’t be any hassle related to the compatibility with the best editing tools.
9. Learning Important Industry Terms
You will need to communicate and get along with your clients and other video editors in the video editing industry. It means you have to learn a lot of terminology, jargon, or video editing lingo.
For the new video editors who have not heard of them, some video editing terms can be extremely challenging to figure out without the help of research. That is why you may require to learn them beforehand. Some basic concepts include:
- J Cut
- Jump Cuts
- L Cuts
- Montage
- Cutting on action
- Cutaways
- Match action/Match cut
Apart from these few terms, there are several other cuts and terminologies to learn. Simply give time to read and do research.
10. Color Correction of the Clips
Color is one of the most crucial design elements that you can customize to highlight particular messages, trigger specific emotions, and set the tempo of the video scene. Luckily, today’s advanced video editing platforms enable plenty of color editing options that were previously accessible only for photos.
As an editor, you must do two things:
- Do color correction to ensure the consistency of the footage coloration in every scene.
- Perform color grading for ensuring a different angle, style, and look to the film.
These things are crucial as they give a realistic depiction of the scenes and make them distinctive for some specific settings. Instances include editing using presets like monochrome and sepia on scenes like ‘flashback.’
11. Selecting Good Music
You must focus equally on the visuals as well as the music. For example, if you are making a drama film, you will look for the best song or instrumental piece to highlight the key moments and make them more appealing. The musical effect helps to take out the guesswork and brings thrill to the scenes.
However, you must not add any music. Always go for the safest option by using music from any royalty-free music provider. This aspect will help you avoid copyright issues. Although having free music is safe and reasonable, the best audio mostly comes at a price. Professional video editors usually include music in their production budget.
12. Adding Texts and Graphics
Depending on the type of video, you may need to add more text alongside the standard texts like title, billboards for broadcasting, and film credits. Keeping the text style simple by using a clean and white Sans-Serif font is advisable, as it won’t captivate much attention.
However, if you want to add flashy graphics, you can make them with the help of an editing tool. Nowadays, the most popular tools enable you to create unique, attractive, and best motion graphics. If you are yet to know the process of making them by hand, you can always choose to add ready-made templates from one of the best editing platforms.
13. Exporting Web Versions
It is the usual tendency of video editors to export their videos at the largest available resolution option. Well, this is a good option if you plan to make videos for ultra HD screens and films, but today’s generation usually markets videos on social media. That is why exporting the videos to a small yet high-quality version for easy, render-free playback is essential.
Ending Note
So, get access to the best video editing platform available on the internet to enjoy a seamless and efficient video editing experience. Also, we request you follow each and every step given in this article to become a pro in this industry.