by Benjamin Cutler
But let’s see where you are now. Can you see yourself in the role of a professional video editor? If yes, then it’s high time for you to start learning how to edit your videos like a pro.
Editing a Video like a Pro. What Does This Mean?
Video editing is a mixture of artistic taste, talent, creativity, and skills. A video editor is the person who can change the film’s narrative or influence the emotions of the viewers by making the right choices in the post-production process. Though it may seem simple for a person who is not involved in video editing, the process itself is far from the common thought. Video editing requires lots of knowledge, and of course, quality video editing software. Even if you are still making your first steps on the way to the dream, start working with professional video editing programs to get the necessary skills. The selection of software that might be worth your attention is not large but includes such great products as those by LWKS and FXhome. Not ready to pay for the software? Then check out the Shortcut video editor.
Tips to Help You Create Professional Videos
Some video editing techniques can help to speed up your workflow and avoid some common mistakes, so let’s get down to tips that can move you on to the next level in video editing.
1. Cut Right
Cutting the film footage is the main job of a video editor. However, making rough cuts, you can literally “chop” the scene. A professional video editor knows how to mask the cuts. A seamless transition between the shots can be achieved if you make cuts in the middle of the movement of a character or a camera. Using this technique, you can trick the eye of a viewer. While concentrating on the action taking place on the screen, they will miss the moment when the scene is cut.
2. Watch Your Film Speed and Duration
When you start working on a film, you get definite requirements for its duration, which you can’t ignore. Any film footage consists of hours of video, which you should sort through and pick out only those scenes that add to the movie plot. The film should keep the viewers interested, not bored, so the task for a video editor is to cut out anything that slows the pacing of the movie. What is meant here? You should get rid of senseless scenes and long pauses in the dialogues. Another thing that can help you cut short is to cut between different camera angles to remove the unnecessarily long pieces of footage.
3. Add B-Rolls
B-rolls are a great way to support the central drive of the scene. These supplemental pieces work well for enriching the storytelling and heating up the emotion of the viewer. B-roll can be a flashback explaining the current behavior or choices of the character. Some object close-up, external view of the building the action is taking place, or the faces of people listening to a character pronouncing their speech. The secondary footage can vary greatly depending on the type of video you are working with, yet it should definitely be present in any professional video.
4. Your Cuts Should Be Motivated
When working on a film, it’s crucial that every next scene is motivated by the previous one. This creates a link between the shots making the story flow smoothly. Just imagine that you look at a character’s face close up with the emotions making it change from sad to happy or from indifferent to terrified. Would you like to know then what exactly makes their facial expression change so much? Probably yes, so your task as an editor is to show who or what is causing such emotions.
5. Simultaneous Video and Audio Cut Is a Bad Idea
The transitions between the cuts or scenes should be smooth. If you cut a video and music simultaneously, this will drag the viewer’s attention to this, which is wrong. You can fix this by stopping the music in before the video cut or vice versa continuing it after the video cut. Crossfading audio tracks in between the scenes can also make the transition less noticeable. It will smooth out the scene and make your editorial work invisible, which is what you should be striving for.
You can experiment with cutting video and music to find the perfect option. Any professional video software features a preview so that you can check the result of your action. Just make a click to get such a program to your PC.
6. The Sound Plays a Role
To edit a film like a pro, you should be precise when matching the video with the sound effects. Music and video synchronization mean much for creating the right atmosphere in the scene. If the music that should accompany the shot will be late for at least a second, you can destroy the overall scene mood. Just imagine a horror film, where music plays a huge role in creating the right emotions of the viewers, with the bad guy appearing out of nowhere but without that very exact sound that makes everybody jump of fear. The effect will be lost then. Don’t let this happen in your video.
Summing Up
Even some initially bad ideas for movies, like video game movies, can become better due to the proficiency of a video editor. Your artistic vision of the final product and excellent video editing skills can do much to create a great film, so never stop developing on your way to becoming a video editing pro.
