WRITTEN BY THONYCAR P. BASTILLADA

These pointers helps you cut the editing time in half and doesn’t exactly teach you how to edit your video. It improves the editing time and construct a better output on the video that you are working on.

Edit on a fast computer

Upon using the editing softwares, you will be needing a fast computer to be able to edit your videos smoothly. Just about any computer these days can edit a simple video, even your smartphone. For serious video editing, you’re going to need to step it up. The most important things to consider when buying a computer for video editing are the processor, storage, RAM, GPU, and screen size. You can choose whatever computer brand or model you want, as long as it’s fast enough for you to store huge and tons of files and allows you to focus more on your editing work without having to worry about slow rendering. A powerful video editing PC is built around a powerful CPU, RAM’s at least 8 GB should be alright. An SSD helps everything else faster and is a valuable addition and get the recommended GPU and CPU for the editing software you’re using.

Selecting the exact software

There are numerous softwares that are available to edit on. The most common softwares are: Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve, these softwares are really good and each have functions that are almost alike, and also there are functions that are distinct to each other. Selecting the exact software for you and your work is the first step in improving your video editing process. These softwares vary on their purpose and are also dependent on what outcome you want to have, for example: there are things that adobe premiere pro can’t do but adobe after effects can. These softwares normally offer everything, but you may prefer one over the other depending on their usability, user’s interface, and features. The point on selecting the exact software to use is what really works for you and the outcome or output you want.

Efficient workflow

You’ll need to be organized in order to become an efficient editor. To improve your workflow, sort all the projects and files in folders in a way that you will be able to locate them easily. Allocate folders intended for music alone, project files alone, images and graphics, clips, etc., inside these folders you can also create subfolders for you to determine a specific project or files effortlessly. You can also work faster by using external hard drives, preferably SSD’s which can be connected via USB 3.0 and thunderbolt to have your file transfer faster. Also, for editing software programs: Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve are efficient to use by creating and memorizing your own custom keyboard function shortcuts, it allows you to perform better in editing.

Storytelling and cutting

Telling an exceptional story, make your video pleasing and deliver the message you want to convey. Use your technical knowledge in achieving this instead of just applying and overdoing a bunch of effects and cool transition to impress your viewers, which clearly doesn’t tell a story. Expect that there will be an impromptu changes to the planned run, elements will be added out of the blue in view of improving the story of the video.

Basic cutting:

·    Match Cut

• Matching previous and following cut that has the same element.

·    Jump Cuts  

• Cutting a single shot making the subject appear to jump forward in time.

·    J Cut  

• Audio from a following scene overlaps the footage from the preceding scene.

·    L Cut  

• Audio from a preceding scene overlaps the footage from the following scene.

Choosing music, adding texts and graphics, color correcting/grading clips,.

Music should also be as good as the visuals. Before using just any music, you may be able to get free music from a royalty free music provider. But the best audio usually comes at a price. Choosing a music can be quite tricky, you’ll want the right music for a specific scene, for instance cheerful comedies can be a little forgiving, but it can also overdone with upbeat songs. Selecting music can be difficult if you’re doing it on your own, have a musical scorer that can help you out of it.

Text and graphics is also dependent on which project you’re working on. If you’re into educational videos, you can add flashy and creative texts and graphics, you can create them using Adobe After effects, it is the best choice for creating motion graphics. If you want a ready-made texts and  graphics you can always find templates online.

Some Editors do color correction; correcting colors that is seen in a normal eye, and Color grading; to give the video a different look, some might apply LUTS or some will manually grade them. Both color grading and color correcting are essential depending on the output you want to convey, either you want a realistic approach or you want to exaggerate the footage and relate it to the story or the happening in a certain clip. Coloring grading a video is a major element that can be manipulated to highlight certain subjects, emotions, and can also set the mood of the scene.

Exporting for Youtube and Facebook

Most editors export it at the largest video resolution possible which is only applicable if the video will be played in cinemas or in an ultra HD screens. When exporting for web, we need to create a file that maintains its high quality without making it too large to upload. The recommended export settings for sites like Youtube and Facebook are:

o   Maximum Resolution for Youtube is 2160p(4k).

o   Facebook is 720p or 1080p.

o   both have the same recommended Codec (H.264).

o   Youtube’s bit rate for standard frame rate(24fps, 25fps, 30fps) is 35-45mbps, for 4K and for high frame rate(48,50,60) is 53-68mbps.

o   Facebook’s target bitrate is 6mbps-12mbps at, or below 30fps. 

References

Paul, J. (2015, March 26). How to Properly Export Video for Facebook. Retrieved

from https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/how-to-properly-export-video-for-facebook/

Brannan, K. (n.d). Social-Media Export Settings in Adobe Premiere Pro: The 

Ultimate Guide. Retrieved from https://blog.pond5.com/12628-social-media-export-settings-in-adobe-premiere-pro-the-ultimate-guide/

D’Costa F.J. (2019, May 20). Best Video Export Settings for Youtube in 

Premiere Pro CC 2019. Retrieved from https://www.4kshooters.net/2019/05/20/best-video-export-settings-for-youtube-in-premiere-pro-cc-2019/