Video Editing How To: Step-by-step Guide on How to Edit a Video as a Beginner
Video editing is now more accessible and more simple then ever, thanks to the technology improving every year, as well as software improvement and amount of free information that is being shared online.
Even though it’s not that hard to edit a video, there is still a need of video editing and video production, it is commonly used in video marketing, content marketing, making YouTube videos or just creating better Instagram stories.
The reason you want to learn video editing isn’t that important right now, because I created Step-by-Step guide on how to do it… So let’s begin.
Foundation
Building without a good foundation is more likely to fall, and same applies to almost everything including video editing, without a good foundation you will hit a brick wall easily, especially as a beginner.
So a good foundation starts with a good footage.
Get a good footage
Having a good camera is the way to go with this, but this is just the first step.
The second step is learning how to make a good shots and use your camera.
You want to make sure you take multiple takes of shots, and making sure you are telling a story, before moving on, the reason is you will have more options and more opportunities when you start editing.
Do different angles, poses and styles to mix things up and have more room when you start editing.
The great way to improve with this is to think like a producer (the person that makes, grows or supplies goods or commodities for sale). When you see a good ad for product, a good montage or just a well edited video you want to ask yourself:
“How he did that?”
Thinking this way will help you grow and learn more about shooting better shots and making sure that you never stop learning.
Find software that suits you
Depending on what type of content you want to create you need to make sure that you are using the right software for it.
The popular options are: Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve, and less popular ones but still good are: Lightworks, Autodesk Smoke, and Sony Vegas.
This is your personal opinion, what you think is the best for you and your work that is the one you should use, but feel free to explore and try different software because they have slightly different features and options.
Use a decent computer
As the technology rises, the more accessible good hardware is becoming. Nowadays you can edit a video using mid-range smartphone, or even low-end desktop computer. Now you shouldn’t use your 10 year old laptop to do some serious work, neither should you spend thousands of dollars on a good computer.
Of course the more you invest the better, but you should first define what type of work you want to do: do video editing for your job or your business, or you just want to make good edits for your social media account.
If you feel like you need a upgrade you should pay attention on those components:
- RAM — some programs require at least 4GB of RAM memory, but you should at least get 8GB or more. If you plan to do very high resolution editing (4K or more) you should aim to get 16GB+.
- Processor — a recent Intel Core i5 or Core i7 should do the work well. For more budget builds, newer AMD Ryzen 5 gives good performance at a low price.
- Storage — nowadays you should have a PC that has an SSD because they are now at affordable price and they are way faster than Hard Drives, but if you plan to store large files with high resolution or you are running out of space, it’s a good idea to get a high capacity Hard Drive to store those large files.
Make a plan
Without a solid plan this entire process will become boring and difficult. You need to define what message you want to deliver to your audience. This will force you to spend more energy on important parts of your video.
It also helps to watch over and over again you footage, to get really familiar with it and also feel free to take notes, this will save you a lot if time and effort in the future.
It’s all in the preparation
Now that you got your foundation you are done with first half, now it’s time for a fun part and that is editing your video.
1. Create a Project
In most programs you will need to create a project. Just click “Create New Project” and similar window will open. Of course you will need to name project and set its location.
Now you should leave rest of the settings alone, unless you want to change something if it matches your needs.
Organizing your files is a very good practice, especially if you plan to have a lot of files. So have a couple of folders for different types of video that you plan to create and inside you should place your project files, and you should pick some descriptive name so you can easily tell what it is.
2. Import footage
To import files into your project simply drag and drop them into project, or you can go Files>Import.
When importing files you should try to stay organized, having a folders with different names(songs, sound effects, footage, photos…) will do the work. Also you should avoid long names of files, naming them something easy and simple is the way to go.
If you are editing small video such as family vacation, you probably won’t have a lot of files to work with so you don’t have a lot of things to organize. On the other hand if you are making a big project staying organized is crucial, because it will save you a lot of time and headache in the future.
3. Place your footage on timeline
From here simply drag and drop you footage on timeline. Make sure you are placing your footage in order so that they form a story.
The most important thing to remember is:
Your goal is to tell a story
3. Start cutting
Once you placed footage on timeline it’s time to make them usable, because video editing is often a reductive process. You are removing long pauses, boring parts, beginning and ending of a shot and just parts that you don’t like.
Your job here is to clarify the message that you are trying to deliver. Remove parts that distracts your audience from the main story, you need to make sure that all of your clips are going in a nice flow and that they are easy to watch and understand.
Jump Cutting
Jump cutting is used in video editing to jump forward in time.
Jump cutting is useful for removing boring and long parts of your clips, making your final video shorter and more enjoyable to watch.
Here is a great example:
4. Add effects and Color correction
With your video mostly assembled it’s time to add makeup.
Effects can be transitions between your clips to make your story flow better, or you can add some swipe effect to make it a little more professional.
When it comes to color correction this can make a big difference. Adding more warm colors can change the vibe to hot summer, or more cool colors can add the vibe of coldness and winter.
Increasing the contrast can make your clips look more dramatic and really bring up those dark colors.
Increasing the saturation will make colors “pop” more. You can boost saturation if you are filming the nature.
But wait, don’t go crazy on adding effects and color correction, instead try to go with “less is more” mentality. It is easy to go crazy with effects but that will only make a disaster and make you go off the point.
6. Add music
You filmed your shots, added them to your project, transformed them so that they form a story and added some effects, what’s next?
Adding a music.
Just imagine watching a movie without music? Boring right?
The same applies here, depending on the type of message that you want to deliver you should find appropriate song to add to background, because it adds to the vibe.
Make sure to turn the volume down on music if someone is speaking, so that audience can hear what narrator is saying. You can also turn volume up when no one is speaking, to make your clips a little more dramatic.
7. Export
Boom, you are done!
The next thing is to export your edited video to your preferred video format and share it with world.
Helpful tips for beginners
Learn Shortcuts
As you get more experienced with using certain software you should aim for learning keyboard shortcuts. They will save you a lot of time.
Where to get inspiration
What content we feed on, is the content that we will produce.
If you spend a lot of time watching TV Shows, Netflix, TikTok.. it will bring down your creativity level.
I am not saying that you shouldn’t relax and watch some Netflix, but if you spend all day feeding on bad content you will product bad content.
Spend some time watching YouTube videos on topic that you want to get better at, listen to podcasts and read books. This an excellent way to grow your skills and get better at them.
This is the one thing I want you to remember from this post, because is crucial in everything not just at video editing.
Conclusion
Don’t expect your very first edit to be perfect. We all start from the bottom and work our way up through consistency. The goal is to never give up and never stop learning.
Experiment, watch YouTube Tutorials, enroll in courses and just have fun, it’s not the point to hate what you do.
And also don’t wait for the perfect time to start doing something, because the perfect time for something doesn’t exist. Start today!
You will fail but also you will learn a ton in the process of failing and that is the beautiful part of it.
What about you? What is your favorite tip for making better video edits, make sure to comment down bellow and also make sure to follow me on Medium and Pinterest to never miss latest tips.
