With the digital shift from the past 12 months, it’s no wonder you’re looking for the best video editing tips.
While this isn’t a guide for a simple drag and drop job, it will provide some of the best tips from our experts at Liquona.
Our cut throat advice? The process is called editing, so edit it. Keep it snappy and lean. Cut out what you don’t need and only keep in what you absolutely do need … even if the dolphin has a really cute smile.
Prep like a King, or Queen
Make sure you’ve got a fast computer with enough RAM, and then organise your bins to segment parts of your project.
Our editors find that organising folders from the beginning is a small task for a big reward. Need to find ‘Smiling Dolphin Cut 1 Sound Effect’? Well, it’s in the sound effects folder!
2. Choose the Right Software
Our preference is the Adobe Creative Suite. Do some research and see what programme you’ll most need – perhaps you don’t need the full suite, but just Premier Pro.
Get to know video formats; codecs, bit rates, frames rates and resolution. These will help deliver the right video for your client.
3. Learn the Lingo
Here are the basics, and a great place to start:
J cut: A scene transition where the audio of the next scene precedes the picture change.
L cut: The audio carries over from the previous scene into the following one, despite visual changes
Match cut: for continuity editing. When one scene is cut to the next, objects from the two scenes are graphically matched, to establish the video flow
Cutaway: A shot that ‘cuts away’ from the main action. This might add more visual information, or fix an error with the continuity of other shots.
4. Shortcuts will Save Your Life (not literally)
Get up to scratch with your keyboard shortcuts, customise your own if it helps, this speeds you up. If you’re working for a client, it’s more than likely you’re working to their deadline. Don’t bog yourself down and use shortcuts to save wasting precious time!
5. It’s all about Looks
Learn colour correcting. A video’s perceived production value is greatly increased with good colour correcting! Bad correcting, on the other hand, can hinder your project. Try it out and practice on some different shots with different lighting and colour balances – see what works well and what doesn’t.
Adding music and text to your video, that are relevant to the content and your message will give your video the wow-factor.
Check out some of our creative video editing here, here, or here!
Discover more tips and tricks about the power of music and the importance of lighting .