Video editing is one of the popular professional because of YouTube and other platforms that require this skill. The skills will vary depending on how many programs you know to use and what kind of work you want to do. There are many options you can consider like editing movies, videos for someone or yourself that are used for different platforms and websites.
Something more advance is to learn how to manage movies, series, and larger projects. If you are at the beginning, this is the first thing you should know. You can learn everything but it will take too much time before you get the first job.
Types of Editing
Beginners usually don’t know what the possibilities are when they start learning so it’s hard to know what to focus on. There are a lot of things you can do and each one of them might be done in a different program. So, you should focus only on one thing in the beginning and become good at it before learning something else.
For example, the job voice editors do is different from doing length reduction and managing live events. Even when you can master some of the things very fast, starting from one type of assignment will let you get on the right path towards other possibilities. You will know what software you will use and it won’t be a struggle figuring out which one is the best.
Finding a Software
Because there are numerous possibilities with this job, people made a lot of programs where some focus on a certain part of the job. For example, you have a lot of programs focusing only on subtitling but also some of the most popular programs have this option. So, it will always be a better idea to get the one that only has this option because it’s easier to manage.
If you can’t decide which one to choose, visit a few review websites that will help you determine which one is the most used and why. Without trying them out, you can read the reviews and compare two programs to see what features you would want and other details that matter. Some of them will provide professional top picks, so you won’t have problems with choosing the best option. Check this out for more info.
What to Look For?
When you decided what you will do in the beginning and what type of software you would like, it’s time to figure out which one is the best. Based on the feedback from other users, you will probably make a list of a few potential programs. A review website will let you compare the two and you can write down all the features you want.
This may be difficult at the beginning because you don’t know what each of them can have. But, based on what you have in the description you can see which one has more options. Another important part when choosing is to be able to navigate through it easily.
Watch Tutorials
This is what most of us do when we want to learn something new. We would go on YouTube and try to find tutorials and guides about the topic. Sometimes this isn’t the best thing to do when you switch from one topic to another. So, you should try to find one professional that is reputable and has everything in one place like a course.
When you find one person to follow and learn from, you will have some kind of route. You won’t get distracted by other things you have to learn and you’ll start to understand their way of presentation quicker. This is why many courses are better than YT videos.
Keyboard Shortcuts
This may seem like a tip that doesn’t matter a lot but it’s proven that knowing all the shortcuts can increase your efficiency by up to 50%. It’s the biggest problem for beginners because it takes a lot of time to learn them all and be able to execute them during the work.
Key bindings and shortcuts are there to allow you to work faster so why not use them. The amount of time you can save is huge and at a certain point, it will become a natural thing for you. Some of the most popular programs like Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects allows you to customize the different set of shortcuts.
Important Terms
If you plan to work in the industry or for an individual that is familiar with video editing, you would want to know all the terms that are used. This will allow you to have better communication with your team or client. You wouldn’t be able to figure some of them out without doing proper research.
For example, jump cuts refer to cutting parts to skip expected situations and keep visual attention. Cutting on action means that you will cut the scene during the movement instead of after finishing the movement to make the scene more interesting. One of the most used things is the cutaways which represent the small transition parts that show the surroundings and set the mood.
Focus on Details
The biggest difference between high and low-quality editing is the details. An editor needs to think much more besides the picture and what he sees at the moment. For example, if you are doing every part of the video, you would want to find the perfect type of music that will be implemented or the right text on the screen if needed. When you work in the industry, this probably won’t be your job.
A good tip is to learn some basics before even opening the program. Start by exploring colors and image editing which will help you understand how some parts function. Using the right color can be a huge difference so executing it well will make you stand out from the competition.
Make sure you save your work in two formats and in two places because you might need it someday. Your portfolio starts with the first project and you would want to save everything you do.
