Knowing how to edit videos professionally is not an easy task, since it requires a series of theoretical, technical, and practical knowledge that you do not have without adequate preparation. The editing process can be long, and it is necessary to be very clear about what you want to achieve so as not to waste time and unnecessary resources on a given project.
If you are just starting out in the world of editing and post-production or if you are interested in being part of this sector and you are wondering how to make a video professionally, here are ten tips for video editing.
Seven tips on how to edit videos professionally
Get Trained
As we were saying, the knowledge you need to become a professional editor is not generated spontaneously but is the result of adequate preparation. Of course, you can learn by yourself, but this will not only take you much longer but will also make your path to success as a professional video editor much longer.
If you are looking for training capable of offering you all the knowledge you need to succeed in the world of video editing, at 35mm we have exactly what you are looking for: with our Video Editing and Postproduction Course you will learn everything you need to be able to develop your professional career in this sector. Find out now!
See Movies Through The Eyes Of An Editor
One of the best ways to learn something is to see how people who succeed in doing it do it. In this sense, stop watching movies as a mere spectator and start seeing them through the eyes of an editor will teach you many of the tricks used by professionals in this sector.
Did you see how the shot changed just at the moment the protagonist entered the room? Have you noticed the very long silence of the scene that generated the ideal tension before the bomb explodes? Those are small decisions that the editor makes that can often be overlooked but that, evaluating them one by one, will allow you to learn a lot about this profession.
Be Organized
It is extremely common for those who are just starting out in the world of editing to make the mistake of simply throwing all the material to be edited on the desktop or in a particular folder and that’s it. Well, to put it as bluntly as we can, don’t do that. Every time you go to start an editing project, create a project directory.
It’s pretty simple, really. All you have to do is create a folder for the project, and within that folder, create some other folders called, for example, Raw Material, Sound, Music, Photos, Graphics, etc. Then you must divide all the material you have according to the type of content, and that’s it.
Correctly defining the name of each file is also important, since if all the files look alike (calling them file1.mov and file2.mov is useless) you will never know which one to use at each moment. The project file created in the video editor does not need a special folder.
Doing this will make your project much more organized, things more accessible, and work much more fluid. Nothing creates a better workflow than being able to find exactly what you want in the shortest amount of time.
Always Make Backup Copies
This is one of the points that many of those who want to learn how to edit videos overlook.
No matter how confident you are in your hard drive or memory card, the technology can fail, and if it does you won’t want your work to load. With this in mind, always make sure to back up to a location other than your computer. Cloud storage is fine, but the reality is that it takes a long time to upload and download files when it comes to video. It’s always best to keep a copy of your project directory on your computer and a separate copy on a different external hard drive, memory card, or computer.
When you’re done with the project and want to keep an archive of everything you’ve done, save the files to an external hard drive and delete the files from your computer (the hard drive on the computer you use all the time is more likely to fail compared to one you always use). that you only access eventually).
Clean The Files
This is another of the tips for video editing that comes in handy for beginners since it points to another of the vices that we all have when we start in this world: “empty” content.
It is very common at first to believe that by inserting a video into the timeline we already have the job done. It’s not like that. Make sure to trim the beginning and end of each clip so it’s clean and there are no empty seconds of the open field before something happens.
Choose The Video Editing Program That Best Suits What You Need
When choosing a video editor, it’s all about control. Do you need something simple that just allows you to put some videos together and add some titles? A simple editor like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker will do the trick.
Now, if you came here wondering how to edit videos professionally, you are probably looking for something more powerful. In that case, Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects will be two excellent choices. Of course, keep in mind that there is a learning curve for these programs, so it will take you a while to learn to use them fluently.
If you want to know more about these two editors, visit our article “Editing and post-production: The best programs to edit videos”
Avoid The Jumps
The so-called “jumpcuts” (the abrupt jumps that take place between two parts of a video by eliminating the middle part) were funny at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th when, as we can see in the following video, they were used to create special effects never seen before. But now we are in the 21st century, we achieve special effects in a different way, and jumps look very, very bad when they are not done on purpose (it is worth clarifying that jumpcuts have also been developed as a very attractive artistic resource for certain moments).
It may be very annoying for a person to say “Uhm” thirty times during an interview, but removing each and every one of those little sounds by cutting and pasting will result in a video that is so jumpy that it will be impossible to enjoy. Make sure you remove only those “disguisable” segments and you will be getting a much neater final work.
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