Rapid innovation has brought forth technologies like 4K and VR, which have literally pushed the video production industry to a whole new level! In such a thriving situation, the demand for competent video editors has also registered an exponential rise.
From editing short films and polishing wedding videos to making vlogs and using an instagram video editor, organizations across the world are looking for editors who possess adequate knowledge and proper experience.
However, being a video editor is not as simple a task as it sounds. Apart from basic domain knowledge, it also requires you to have a good amount of diligence and patience!
As a prospective editor, if you want to work on your video editing tactics, here are 7 simple ways to help you sharpen your skills while enabling you to bring out the best possible outcomes.
Learn Keyboard Shortcuts
Time holds the greatest value for every video editor. An experienced and professional editor always looks for methods to save a good amount of time without compromising on the quality of the edited video.
And what better way is there to cut down on extended editing time periods than learning quick, keyboard shortcuts! Whether you want to playback, reverse, forward, insert, or mark in – there is a keyboard shortcut for almost all of these jobs.
For reference, you can either print a cheat sheet that prompts you to use the shortcuts as and when feasible, or you can purchase an editing keyboard, which has all the shortcut icons already marked out on it.
This life hack will help you increase your productivity and cut slack during the entire editing process.
Add Audio Effects
The addition of audio effects to a video usually works wonders for its ability to capture and retain audience attention.
Remember all the times when you heard clapping sounds in a comedy show or heart-wrenching music in a dramatic scene? All of these were a direct result of meticulous post-production video editors.
A video embedded with music does not just add a certain level of layering and depth to your vision but also lends it an extremely believable and natural look.
As an editor, you have to make sure that each beat is added at just the right place in the montage. The beat has to fit in with the visual while giving it a glorious push. Furthermore, the sound of this audio must also be adequately leveled against the dialogue.
Try Speed Ramping
Speed ramping is a major editing skill that is mostly ignored by most video editors. This is because the actual speed of the real-time footage is considered to be the best way of accurately representing each frame. But, in a real-life scenario, this is not how things work!
Consider that you have a clip of about 5 seconds, but in your overall sequence, there is a hole of measuring 4 seconds. This can result in disastrously glaring video gaps if the speed of your clip is not ramped up to fit the said hole.
Similarly, if the hole lasts for 4 seconds, but your clip has a length of 3 seconds, you will have to slow down your clip in order to plug this gap. With such speed ramping, the continuity of your video would become smooth and realistic.
Look For Stability
Every video that you shoot needs to be coherent and stable. However, there are occasions when maintaining such continual stability is not really possible. For instance, if you are shooting a video while running or are capturing the clip of a moving object, the ultimate result is bound to be shaky and fuzzy.
With video editing, you can easily streamline this movement and lend your video the right amount of consistency and stability. For this, you can use a variety of plug-ins that can either be imported or built-in within your editing software.
Make sure that you tweak with all its settings and understand the details of every available parameter. Your skill to stabilize videos will give you a decisive edge over all other competitors.
Make Color Corrections
Color correction, in simple words, is the process of adjusting your recorded footage to an appropriate color baseline. Such adjustment is necessary because, despite the best of your efforts, the video you have recorded will not be color-consistent.
Depending on the light in which it is shot, there will undoubtedly be some form of color mismatch and variability. To reduce this color incoherence, it becomes vital for video editors to make adequate corrections.
In this regard, it’s vital to remember that videos shot on formats like RAW are much easier to manipulate than videos shot on formats like AVC-HD.
Once the color adjustments have been made and the entire video looks congruous, add the titles, captions, and graphics to give your video a surreal outlook!
Get Organized
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that video editors tend to be a tad bit disorganized. In their pursuit of excellence, their digital folders spread out over a large area, thereby reaping limited results.
As such, getting organized is the key that can help video editors increase their proficiency and sharpen their skills.
Start with labeling each segment of your footage and classifying it under the most relevant section. Whatever is of no use to you, send it to the trash bin.
Create a structure where your footage is backed by other folders like project files, graphics, titles, audios, and images. Divide each of these folders into more sub-sections and keep them handy.
Such a credible organization will equip you to work faster, learn smarter, and hone your craft in a highly efficient and effective way!
Cover It Up
Give your final video a detailed perspective by covering up or deleting all its unnecessary parts and portions.
For example, if you have recorded an interview where the speaker is seemingly dragging their words without answering the actual question, it would be wise to add some footage from the b-roll and, thus, keep the audience’s interest alive.
If you need to transition from one cut to another, ascertain that these transitions are smooth. Cover up all loose ends and give your video a deft and slick push.
In layman’s terms, reset and reinvigorate the video but keep the story moving.
Wrapping Up
Video editing, as a discipline, tends to be both a science and an art. Just like improving skills in either of these fields requires an intermix of knowledge and practice, in video editing too, you need to apply what you know – as much as you can and as often as you must.
Start with trying your hand at editing different types of video projects. Use a decent outro maker. Become familiar with various kinds of video software, editing strategies, keyboard shortcuts, and other technical specifications.
Simply put, the more diversity you induce in your potential workflows, the greater would be your ability to produce the best video outcomes.
