You’ve just finished shooting the perfect movie, vlog, or music video and now it’s time to tackle the next phase of video production; post-production. One problem, you’re an absolute beginner. Well, the good news is you don’t need to know everything there is to know about video editing to produce a high-quality final product. Knowing the most important video editing tips and tricks will help you create a smooth workflow and a fantastic result. Here are 8 of the best video editing tips and tricks for beginner video editors!
1. Choosing the right software
This is the first and often one of the most important steps when starting your video editing journey. There is a plethora of video editing software to choose from so it is not always easy to decide which one suits your editing style and what works best for you.
The Top 3 video editing software on the market right now I would say are Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve. Even if you are using a Mac, my recommendation for the best video editing software for a beginner is still either Premiere Pro or DaVinci.
Premiere Pro is pricey but offers some of the most powerful tools available for editors right now. Plus, there is an extensive and long-lasting community surrounding Premiere Pro with endless amounts of resources and tutorials online for any tool or technique to use in the software. With DaVinci, there is a studio-paid version but a comprehensive free version as well. The software can do almost everything Premiere Pro can do and has the best tools for colorists out there right now at the consumer level. So if you want to get started editing for free, DaVinci Resolve is the best choice.
2. Don’t bloat your edits
If you shoot 5 minutes of footage, your final draft after editing should not be 5 minutes. We live in a busy world and taking on the task of trying to keep an audience’s attention span is a challenging one. The most common mistake amateur filmmakers make in the editing room is that their clips are cut out too long.
You should only be putting the best of the best of your clips. Aim to look for clips with the best lighting, the cleanest movements, and the best composition to put in your final edit. Be brutal with your own work – a 30-second edit with the best clips will always be more engaging than a 5-minute edit with all of the clips; including the mediocre ones.
3. Cut on action
When cutting between takes, different angles, or even different scenes altogether, try to cut midway through an action rather than when things are not moving. What this does is create a smoother cut as our minds fill in the gaps with any movement on-screen.
If you cut from a close-up shot of someone to a wider shot of the same person as they move their arms out for a hug, for example, our brain will fill in the gaps we miss from that motion even though we are cutting in between the motion of the arms moving to their new position. This is an important technique to learn quickly as it creates fluid and interesting sequences and it makes your films look more professional.
4. Use cutaways to great effect
As filmmakers, we try to create stories that are dynamic and interesting to consume. And as an editor, we can accomplish this with a number of techniques. Cutaways are a great way to change the look of a shot that is lingering for too long. It makes your videos feel less static and increases the pace.
The most common example of a cutaway is when there are spoken dialogue scenes with two or more people. If one person is talking, cutting away to catch the other person's non-verbal response can add an extra layer of depth to the scene. Another common example of this is using B-Roll to add visuals to what is being said like when someone is vlogging to a camera.
5. Colour Correcting and Colour Grading
Colour correcting is an important process to go through with every sequence you make. The essential goal here with correcting the colours of each clip on the timeline is to gain a basic consistency with each clip. Footage from two different cameras will use two different sensors that capture colour and light differently, so in this scenario, it is especially important that they match each other both when shooting and when in post. Make sure to take the time to balance and match each clip on the timeline.
The second step to colour correction is colour grading. Colour grading is an artistic process where you shape the current colours of the scene to match a certain “look” or “feel” that matches the tone of the story being told. Colour grading in itself is an in-depth process that serves its own blog post but most editing software come with pre-configured or user shared LUTs (Look Up Tables) that will apply either a good foundation to get you started or even grade the footage entirely with just the click of a button. At the end of the day, grading is a tool editors use for storytelling so use the right grade in the right scenario.
6. Balance your Audio
You might be thinking, “what does sound have to do with video editing?” and the answer to that would be a lot! Audio is half of the viewing experience actually but in most cases, it is the most neglected part from beginner filmmakers. So before we can balance our audio in post, it is important that we capture good audio in the first place. That means using an external mic when recording important audio and taking the time to sound design.
When balancing our audio, a good rule of thumb is to balance speech first. Spoken audio is typically the most important part of a video's sound and thus takes top priority. If your music is too loud and it makes the dialogue hard to hear, you are doing more harm than good. Adjust the audio of the spoken dialogue so that the levels match closely to one another. Once that is set and locked in, adjust the other audio elements that surround your speech like music or sound effects. Make sure they don't overpower your spoken audio.
7. Use these important cutting techniques
Two of the most important cuts every editor should know are the J Cut and the L Cut. The J Cut is when the audio from the next clip on the timeline comes in before the video of the previous clip on the timeline ends. J Cuts are fantastic when transitioning from one location to another. If we want to transition from the quiet indoors to a busy sidewalk, using a J Cut to bring in the bustling audio of the sidewalk before you show the sidewalk is a smooth and seamless way to transition. The J Cut gets its name as the cut itself when putting the video and audio elements on top of each other on the timeline is shaped like a “J”.
The L Cut is the opposite of a J Cut. It’s when the video of the next clip on the timeline comes in before the audio of the previous clip on the timeline ends. Like the J Cut, it is a smooth and seamless way to transition between shots.
Here is a bonus technique – the Match Cut. A Match Cut is a cut between two visually similar shots or scenes. For example, if you end a shot with a close-up of someone’s eyes and start the next shot with a similar frames close-up of another character's eyes (or the same character's eyes at a different time period) that’s a Match Cut. Like the two previous cuts, it adds a smooth element to your sequences while at the same time, it makes things a bit more stylized.
8. Always put story first
This notion applies to all videos we edit. Remember what your creative goal is for every project. What is the story you are trying to tell? When deciding on a shot to use or where to cut, always ask yourself this question and consider the impact the clip or cut adds to your product. Don’t just add a bunch of visual effects just to impress the viewer. Be purposefully in everything you do in the editing process. This way, your final product will always represent your vision and will always produce a stunning video.
Conclusion
Keep these 8 video editing tips and tricks in mind when you edit your next project. It will make video editing seem like less of a daunting task. Always remember to put your story first and to use the techniques found here to create smooth and fluid sequences. Remember that audio is half of the viewing experience as well and to be brutal with your edits and show the best of the best takes. Do all this and you’ll be editing like a pro in no time!
Written by Zeeshan Khamis
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