I've hired a video editor for a very basic edit.
In this video, I'll tell you why I erased the whole project
once I reviewed the edit
and I started all over again from scratch.
Video editing is the biggest time consuming step in growing your video
business or YouTube channel, if that is your direction.
In this video,
I will share a system I've put in place to get the most out of my time.
Most importantly, I will share the latest tools
which will help you to get to the finish line much faster.
This video is sponsored by StoryBlocks.
Ahoj, this is Zdenka.
If you're into photography and a video, consider subscribing.
Let's talk about building a system in a video editing. System
which will make the most out of your time and energy,
especially if you have a full time job and are doing this as a side hustle.
If you have a system, if you have a checklist of steps
to follow, all of a sudden you can do more work in a shorter period of time.
I have a system for everything.
I'm a one person production.
There's nobody else. There's just me.
I'm doing all that stuff.
I also have a family and kids and dog, and I cook
and clean and drive them to activities and exercise sometimes and all that,
so yeah.
It all starts
with a system for generating ideas for video filming.
I make sure to use the same camera settings, the same
light settings, especially for filming in a studio.
Product close ups.
So then I avoid color correcting in the post.
I have saved presets and Luts for everything, including presets for audio.
Most of the time I press the button only one time.
The worst thing you can do is to create everything
on the go for every single video.
Instead of editing 3 hours, you're going to end up editing 5 hours.
And if you create title animations and transitions manually,
you will end up with 8 hours of editing and even more.
If you look at the thumbnails on my channel, you will see that
they are all very similar.
There's a template I follow, so I don't need to come up with a new
look every single time, which will eat up more of my time.
It starts with capturing the thumbnail.
I don't take photos.
I record myself for about 5 to 20 seconds posing for the thumbnail.
Then I take the frame out of the clip and use that as a photo.
Then I just go to Lightroom, throw a preset on it, one click, done.
Then I go to Photoshop add text, crop, resize and done.
There is no time wasted by taking photo and editing them individually.
This is way faster. When you are starting out,
you will spend the most time and energy on learning
how to do video editing, and that's something you can't avoid.
What you should keep yourself asking is
what takes the most time during this whole process
and how can I make it faster?
Learning keyboard shortcuts is one, saving
as many steps as presets is another one.
Avoid color grading by saving LUTS.
Small tweaks just adjusting brightness here and there are fine.
Lastly, AI tools.
You either love them or you hate them, but we cannot avoid them.
It's here and it's here to stay.
And some of the tools are actually very helpful.
It is worth checking them out and perhaps add some of them to your system.
Some of the AI tools are already being added to video editing software
such as Wondershare Filmora.
There are many of those tools already included and do make a difference,
so choosing the right video editing software is quite crucial.
I still edit in Adobe premiere Pro, which for example, don't
have some of the tools
Wondershare Filmora already has. Adobe Premiere Pro has
for example, captions I use all the time. With a press of a button
it will generate captions automatically and they are very precise.
If I compare it to auto generated captions
in YouTube studio, this is way better.
I just export them and upload them to YouTube.
Another tool is Autocut.
This is an extension you can download if you are editing in Adobe Premiere Pro.
It's not free.
You can either subscribe or buy a lifetime key.
The same thing is also offered by Autopod which is also not free.
However, just a few minutes ago
I was saying that is quite crucial to choose the right video editing software
because the same tool is already included in Wondershare Filmora for example,
which is much cheaper video editing software, unlike
Adobe Premiere Pro and it is already there.
It's called Auto Cutter.
I'm going to continue there. This A.I.
tool eliminates silent moments in a clip.
It will automatically create jump cuts.
It will create cuts with one click.
You don't have to sit and watch a whole video.
Make the cuts physically yourself.
Once it is done, then you can tweak it yourself to make it sound more natural.
Sound more natural.
Now is the time to explain why I erased the whole project
from the hired video editor.
I wanted to get some free time on my hands, so I looked into hiring
a video editor.
I have never done this before, so I needed to learn the whole process.
I needed to figure out how this can work.
I knew that the first attempt might not even workout,
that I might lose money, but I needed to try to learn to experience it
so I know how to approach it in the future.
I signed up with Upwork. You post your project,
video editors will offer their service.
You pick one and there you go.
I received over 35 offers.
I purposely picked a student who was also doing this for the very first time.
We were both learning.
We were both trying to get through the whole thing
and see how it's going to work.
All I wanted was a very basic edit, just a plain cuts.
Just follow the script,
take out whatever I said wrong, or take out some of the silent moments.
I also mentioned my YouTube channel and asked her
if she can look at my videos to see my style.
We were both facing some obstacles.
She had trouble getting my files as they are huge.
I wanted to use Adobe Cloud so I can see what she is doing,
but that didn't work out on her end, so I didn't see what she was doing
and I couldn't point out what not to do.
She also didn't want to release the final edit before getting paid,
and that is a big no no.
Once I got the edit, what I immediately saw
was jump cuts, which were heavily unnatural.
Just like this.
I'm going to talk to you and you will be very annoyed
because there will be so many unnatural cuts.
It looks like I cannot express myself in a natural way, that. I am
not sure if she use an AI tool or if this is the way she edited.
Normally the video editor has to log into Upwork
so you can see how many hours are spent and then you pay.
However, she entered those hours manually.
For me to fix the whole edit, I would have to spend even more time.
So the easiest for me was just delete
the whole project and start all over again.
She was surprised that
I don't need color grading and all that, but like I said before,
I have system for everything.
One time click, edit.
I have Luts and presets.
Bottom line, I learned that if I'm going to try another video editor,
I absolutely have to use a system where I can see what the video editor
is currently working on so I can say, stop. Don't do this.
Do this instead.
It was a great learning experience.
I absolutely learned a lot and I got a lot of clarity.
I don't regret this at all.
Another reason I didn't want her to do further editing,
such as adding titles and transitions, is because I don't create them.
I download them.
First of all, they are time consuming and second of all, there are talented
people out there who make those things looks amazing and very modern.
I have been using story blocks for roughly two years now.
Story Blocks is a stock media provider with over a million
royalty free assets available in their library.
I've been using lots of their animated titles.
For example, this pop up subscribe is from them.
I've been using many of their transitions and even some footage.
They have thousands of pre-made templates for editing programs
such as After Effects, Premiere Pro or Apple Motion.
When you download the templates,
they come with instructions on how to work with them.
Their library also offers audio files and images.
You can choose a monthly or annual plan, which will give you access
to an unlimited library so you don't have to pay per download.
I have placed link to Storyblocks below video and a video description
for you to check them out.
Thank you very much.
Storyblocks for making this video possible.
Another amazing tool which can save lots of times
when it comes to video editing is Autopod
Multi-camera editor.
It's also a plug in for Adobe Premiere Pro.
I didn't find anything like that for other software.
So if you film with multiple cameras at the same time
getting different angles,
it will edit sequences automatically.
It works up to ten cameras and ten microphones.
It works for solo shots,
two shots, three shots, four shots and wide shots.
It will also allow you to customize everything, such as increasing
the frequency of wide shots, and you can save any preset. One
click edit. Let's stay with Adobe.
There is one new tool available which is completely free.
You don't even have to be part of Adobe.
It is available online and it is Adobe
AI Audio Enhance. It removes noise from speech.
It makes voice recordings sound as if they were
recorded in a professional studio, as they say right here.
You just upload an audio file which is no longer than one hour.
Maximum file size is 500 megabytes.
It's free but keep in mind that there is a daily limit, which is 3 hours.
Quick example.
Here's a clip which doesn't sound that great....and I know
that you still hear lot of echo. Even thought the microphone is very close to me, it's not ideal.
And here's the enhanced Adobe AI sound.
And I know that you still hear lot of echo. Even thought the microphone is very close to me,
it's still not ideal because this room is so open.
Last great tool I personally use is Adobe Reframe.
In the earlier mentioned Wondershare Filmora.
I primarily film long form content in horizontal mode.
I don't film vertically, so when I need to cut some parts
for social media reels, I use this Auto Reframe AI tool.
It will automatically follow you wherever you move in the video
and it will keep you always in a center of the frame.
How do you cut down video editing time?
Create a system, create presets,
Luts. Use AI tools to get to the finish line faster.
Well, give me the thumbs up if you found this video informative or helpful.
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Leave a comment below.
Let me know what other tools you are using which you find helpful.
See you in the next video. Cau... Ahoj...