Ahoj! Five video editing mistakes new creators make and how to fix them
to make you look and sound flawless.
I used to make all of them, one of them I still needed to fix.
This video is sponsored by Epidemic Sound. And if you are new here, welcome.
My name is Zdenka Darula. This channel is all about photography and video.
Creative camera challenges, hidden giveaways and vlogs.
If that's something you are interested in, consider subscribing. Mistaking no.1.
Let's play a video where I intentionally make lots of mistakes.
Let's see if you are going to notice them because personally
this drives me crazy.
I've got here all lenses I reviewed on this channel for
Canon M cameras.
Which ones do I use and which ones are just literally
collecting dust on the shelves?
The first lens here is just a kit lens which came with the previous camera
Canon M50.
The aperture starts at 3.5.
What was wrong with the video
were a fast cuts. Cut almost made
after every second sentence, making it look almost like a Morse code.
There are ways of fixing it.
The obvious one is that the person
needs to collect the thoughts before delivering it on the camera.
Or maybe even write a script.
Read it one time, say it one times off the camera, and then record it.
I have a script. I have a script right here
even for this video. I might not say it exactly how I wrote it.
I might say to my own words, but I use it as a backup when I get stuck
or if I get very, very tired, or
if there are very technical parts which I actually need to read.
There are two things you can do.
One, you have to do while you're recording, and the other one in a post.
When you are recording and you've made a mistake and you know
that you don't want to go all the way back to doing it all over again,
try to remember your exact body position you ended up with,
so you can get to that position and then continue again.
Because the worst thing you can do is having these cuts where arms are here,
then here, over here. Hair is in the front then it is in the back.
The viewer gets disconnected, doesn't focus anymore
on what you are saying because a brain is registering this extra movement.
Once in a while when I make
a big mistake myself and I see it when I'm editing.
There are 3 or 4 cuts way too close to each other
and it just doesn't look good.
I camouflage it.
I just slap on a B-roll clip, which is very much relative
to what I'm saying, and place it at the beginning
or ending of the clip or even over the entire clip.
That way it will have a better flow and you will get rid of those fast cuts.
Mistake number 2. This mistake, I'm not going to play
in case you're watching
this video late at night and you have family or kids sleeping,
so let me explain instead. Here's a speaking part,
here is a visual break, no speaking, just to give a viewer a little time
to think or just take a break. And it continues with more speaking.
You just grab the music, slap it on, don't
adjust the volume, leave it as it is and call it down.
Sometimes the music can be very loud, even though it doesn't have to be.
It depends what do you want to achieve.
If you want to show off the visual part and you need the music to make an impact,
don't leave it louder than spoken words.
Pay attention to the volume of spoken word and see where it is going.
If the music is going a bit higher, hitting reds
and you need to bring it down a bit to match to spoken word.
-3. -4. That's usually what I do.
For those wondering, I edit in Adobe Premiere Pro.
If I don't want the visual and the music to make an impact.
For example, if I want the viewer to take a little break
to sink it in, to kind of think about the words I'm saying,
then I even lower the music more because I don't want the brain
to disconnect from the train of thoughts.
I don't want the brain to disconnect from the information I'm saying.
Speaking of the music and the sound you're listening to
in this video and all my other videos on this channel,
they all come from Epidemic Sound Service, which I use for a number of years.
Their library is massive and they get new fresh music all the time.
They own 100% of the music, so you don't have to worry
that you will receive a copyright strike or take down.
You can use it on social media,
such as Facebook and Instagram and also on monetized YouTube channels.
What makes them unique is the fact that you can download
not only full songs but also separate stems.
You can choose between personal and commercial plans.
If you sign up to Epidemic Sound by using my link below the video
in a video description, you will receive a free one month trial. Any music
you will use during the trial will remain safe and protected.
Even if you cancel your subscription after your trial month is over.
Thank you Epidemic Sound for making this video possible.
Mistake number 3. When I used to work as a radio announcer back in Europe,
we were always using the background music while we were speaking.
It just adds that little bit of something that tone to a plain voice,
and I like to use it till this day.
The problem is, though, if you are using the wrong type of music
and even bigger problem can be if you are selecting the wrong
audio level. What do I mean by wrong audio levels?
The music is way too strong.
It's overpowering what the person is saying
until to the point that the viewer gets irritated,
gets disconnected, and then eventually clicks away from the video.
The music needs to be very quiet.
If you want to only use it for a few seconds,
or as a transition to B-roll, then it is okay to have it louder,
especially if you want to make a visual impact.
However, if you want to play it for a long time,
especially as a background music, it has to be very quiet.
That's the first thing on my mind when I'm adding a background music to my videos.
How loud is it?
I usually go all the way to -37, -40,
-45, depending on the beats.
I always wear the headset while I'm editing to hear it,
to hear properly, and see if the music is actually still there,
but it's very quiet.
Now let's talk about the type of music. Easy beat.
Not too pronounced. Easy for listening.
Non invading.
Definitely not
future bass with very strong beats.
Something which is not interrupting your speech.
I also try to avoid using the same beat throughout the whole video or
using way too much of a calm music because I don't want people to fall asleep.
My approach is interesting beginning, neutral middle and then upbeat ending.
Just mix it up.
Mistake number 4. This mistake might actually not be a mistake.
It might be a personal preference.
I realize that we all have different views and different tastes.
What I'm talking about is connecting two clips of spoken
word under a visual.
For example, I have a first part of sentence one clip
and second part of the sentence second clip, and I want to put them together.
Should I leave
the sound
of taking a breath in or should I completely cut it out?
How do I time it
so it sounds completely naturaly
that the viewer doesn't even know that there was a cut?
First, let's talk about timing.
Just like I was talking about fast cuts at the beginning of the video,
cutting a sound, spoken word
can result in quite unnatural sounds as well.
I zoom in all the way to see how much sound space
I have there as I usually do this cut when I actually make a mistake when I speak.
Once I have two clips together, I listen
If it sounds natural. I know that I will place
B-roll on top of it to hide the cut so you don't see different body positions.
The little trick I do to make sure it sounds natural, it's very simple.
When I'm editing, I'm listening to the sound,
I simply close my eyes so I don't have the visual of the screen.
It doesn't just interrupt me, and I close my eyes and I listen exactly
those two clips connected together.
If it sounds very natural, done.
If it doesn't sound natural, I know that I got to fix it.
If it is too fast together,
I just add a space.
If there's too much space, I shorten it.
Should you leave a sound of taking a breath?
Once in a while, I leave it there.
Once in a while I actually even intentionally add it there.
If I have a few sentences before that where it's
not there because I want to sound as natural and authentic
on all in all my tutorials. Sure you don't want to leave it
all the time because it can get irritating.
It's everyone's call. It's everyone's preference.
Mistake number 5. This mistake can cost you
click away, smaller watch time,
people moving away to other channels.
Attention span these days is very short, so
you might want to rethink your intro.
That little part which works kind of like your signature.
If you have a channel like me,
which is meant to be straight to the point, a lot of information,
then there is really no room for a long introduction.
It needs to be quick, short, sweet, and very visually interesting.
I have three different intros.
One of them is still very long and that's what I need to change.
I usually redesign them once a year and now is the time.
One way to shorten the intro is to place a voiceover,
call to the action part where I say, Subscribe to this channel.
I do that right over the intro to really shorten this part of beginning.
And don't play the intro in every single video
I sometimes don't play intro at all in some videos because when the video
is packed with information, it would just feel it is way too much.
Speaking of too much, I think that that's enough for today's video.
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If you have any questions comments,
please leave them below and I'll see you in the next video.
Cau.... Ahoj....