What's up travelers? Today I'm going to
show you the basics of how to edit footage
from your trip into a great travel video.
With these simple steps, you will be able
to take your video editing from this...
to this. I'll be showing you the process I
follow for organizing my files, picking
the right song, cutting my clips in the right
spots, and adding transition effects that
work best for my style of video. I know that
everyone has access to different video
editing software, and there are many affordable
video editing softwares available, like iMovie,
Filmora, Lumen5... I use Final Cut Pro, so
I'll be showing you how I edit my videos
in that. This would be a very similar
process for how you should do it in whatever
software you're working with. The first step
is to gather all of your footage in one spot.
Make a folder and keep it all in one place.
Preferably on an external hard drive in case
your computer crashes. Name the folder for
your trip. You can even make sub-folders for
different days of your trip. Then, import
files into the editing program. Make sure
to choose an option that imports the files
directly into the software. Because this
accomplishes two things. One, you now have
two spots where your files are saved in case
anything gets lost. And two, you now have
the ability to edit your video without having
to plug in your hard drive everywhere you go.
Which is good for travelers on the move,
especially. Step two is picking a style.
Once everything is imported, it's important
to pick a style you want to go with for
your video. Do you want it to be slow and
cinematic? Or maybe fast and snappy?
Or maybe something in the middle that
just builds hype and momentum as it goes?
This is a very important step as it influences
how you cut your clips. It also influences
the music you choose and how your video
flows overall. What I do is I look for other
YouTuber's videos for inspiration. There are
some great channels out there like J.R. Ali,
Benn T.K. and even our own World Wild Hearts
YouTube. Take a look on here, get inspired,
and see what styles you like to start
thinking about how your video is going to
look in the end.
Step three is picking a song.
Once you've got your style in mind, it's
super important to pick a song that goes
with that theme. There are many royalty
free songs on YouTube channels like
VLOG No Copyright Music and Free Music For
Vlogs that you can use. You can also find
copyright-free songs on soundcloud or even
DM soundcloud artists and ask if you can
use their song. They're usually into
collaborating to gain exposure for their tracks.
Just make sure that the songs have a free
download link that says where you're allowed
to use it, and that you give credit to the
artist when you post the video on your
social media channels. There are also a
couple of great paid music services like
Envato and Artlist. My personal favorite
is Artlist.io as it has tons of Indie music
perfect for travel videos and you can
even narrow down your search by genre,
instrument, video theme, and moods.
The possibilities are endless and they have
been adding great new music daily.
Step four is to cut your clips.
So now that you've laid the foundation of
your video with a style in mind, you can
get to work cutting your clips. What I do
is go in order of when I took the shots
during my trip and take the best part of
each of those clips. So drag the clip into
your timeline, cut the clip to the length
you like, and then move onto the next one.
Try to aim for a moment in the clip that
has something dynamic happening.
So it keeps your audience engaged.
For instance, if you have a clip that
includes a shaky shot of a tree on its
own. but within the same clip you have
people walking next to the tree, choose
the one where people are walking. This
gives a more dynamic and interesting feel
to the video. Definitely keep some shots
withe b-roll and nobody in it to give
context to the viewer of where you are
but as a general rule, I like to keep shots
dynamic for my travel videos and add any
b-roll that I like to use really far away
shots or really close up shots that
move slowly in one direction.
Step five is to tell the story. Now that
you have cut all your clips, you have
to think about the story that you want to
tell in your video. This is really
important so that your viewer understands
what they're seeing. Think of how you lived
the adventure through your eyes and
sequence in which it happened.
A good rule of thumb is to start with long
shots and work in. For example, if you
have a panning shot of a lake and a close-up
shot of your friend at the lake, then
arrange the panning shot first and then
cut to the close up shot. If you simply
use this style in sequence with all of
your videos and activities that you did
on your trip, your story will be easier to
follow and way more dynamic than just
cutting cool shots that you had in a random
order. People will feel like they're
there with you.
Step six is to add your effects, titles,
and transitions. Once you've got all
your clips in the order you want, now you
have the creative freedom to add effects
of your choice. I like to vary my videos,
having a mix of slow motion, timelapse,
fast, and standard shots. This helps break
up the video and keep it engaging for your viewer.
For whatever software you're using, play
around with the effects that are included
in the program and use what fits best to the
style of video you're going for. In terms
of titles, almost all programs have a decent
intro and credits title.
You can easily select these, type in your
text, and drop it in wherever you would
like between your clips. Overlaying the
text can also give a nice effect, depending
on what type of title you used.
I've also included links below of free titles
that I've found online if you want a more
professional style in your video.
Transitions are another element that will
add life to your videos. However, make
sure not to overuse them as they can look
tacky if there are too many.
Ryan Nangle has a great mix of these free
transitions specifically built for
travel videos that will go nicely with
pre-built ones in your editing software.
If you're just starting out editing, I
would say aim for one transition every
thirty seconds of video and mix up the
style of transitions. You'll start to develop
your own style and taste for transitions
over time. Step seven is to time your
clips to the music.
To use your music music to the fullest and
make your video more professional, it's
super important to time up your clips to
the beat of the music.
This may mean cutting your clips or
extending them a bit more as you go.
What I like to do is first play the song by
itself and just tap my finger to the beat
on the keyboard.
[music playing]
This gives me a sense of when I should be
adding the cuts. And then I check for how
short or long the total clips combined are
compared to the song to see how much I
need to cut or extend. Then I go clip by clip
and cut right where the beat hits naturally.
Like when a bass drum or percussion plays
in rhythm. There's not an exact art to this
but the closer you get to a varied array of
clips that time with the beat, the more flow
you will have in your video which is ultimately
what will keep your viewers engaged the
whole time. Step 8 is to add your sounds.
I like to mute all of my clips when I'm editing.
This allows me to just feel the music and
time up the cuts. When those are done,
then I raise the volume on a few clips
when there is good sound quality that adds
to the moment. For instance, a waterfall
sound when you walk past it, or the wind
on top of a cliff. These things bring the
viewer further into your video and make
them feel like they're in the moment.
If you have poor audio quality, then you
can also download sounds for free from
freesound.org which has tons of nature
sounds to choose from. I use it a lot.
And make sure that if you have added any
transitions, that you add sound to that as well.
Step nine is to edit your colours. Depending
on what type of camera and what settings
you shot your footage on, your clips will
hav different coloring. However, if you
balance the colors, the true color of what
the scene looked like will come out.
Final Cut Pro and iMovie are easy in that
they give you the option to automatically
balance your colors using the magic wand tool.
Doing it manually means getting the white
balance correct and this is more complicated,
but I've left a link in the description if
you want to know how to do that.
Step ten is to export and upload.
Each editing software is different but just
make sure that you're exporting with the
maximum resolution that you shot your
footage in. For instance, if you shot in
1920 x 1080... export at that setting.
Then, simply upload it to the social media
channel of your choice and make sure
you save your file on your hard drive
in case it gets deleted by accident
somewhere later on. And that's it. If you
follow these ten steps, you'll be on
your way to editing higher quality
videos in no time. There are a lot more
tips and tricks you can do to keep improving
your travel video editing and filming skills.
So make sure to watch the other tutorial
videos on our YouTube page and subscribe
for new videos coming out.
Don't forget that we can edit your travel
videos for you as well. Just head to
worldwildhearts.com to learn more.