- Today we're going to talk about one thing
that's gonna make you a better editor.
(upbeat music)
Now I know when you get into the edit bay,
you just wanna start going after it
and getting into the footage.
Well, there is one thing that you need to do
before you even start editing
and this is something that I think
a lot of people just kinda skim over.
And what that is is going through
and actually watching all your footage
and understanding where all your footage is
and what you have to work with.
This is one of those things that if you do this
before your start editing, you will be a much better editor.
And the reason for this is
when you actually go through your footage
and watch all the shots
and understand what kind of footage you have,
then when it comes time to start editing,
you have a better sense of what you can play with,
what you can work with.
You'll know exactly what you're looking for
when you go to your bin of footage.
And I know it's something that is super tedious,
and I know it's something that a lot of us
don't wanna do.
When we get into that edit bay,
we wanna just start going after it
and just start cutting the cool shots together.
But this is something that I learned from cutting
other people's footage
and a lot of times as creators,
we're shooting, we're editing.
You know we're kind of doing everything
for video versus being like in one specific role.
And so when you're working on bigger projects,
when you have a team working together,
to create different content,
that's when each person has a specific task
and they have more time to focus on that task.
When it comes to editors,
the first thing that happens is
the editor needs to organize and go through all the footage
and understand what there is to work with.
As a YouTuber, as a creator,
as just someone who does like their own productions,
and you don't have a huge team,
this is where a lot of people skip over this step.
And I also think it's one reason
why a lot of people suffer when they go to the edit bay.
Now when it comes to something like vlogging,
if you're just shooting vlogs,
a lot of times you're shooting beginning to end
and it's easy to just drop that in the timeline
and just cut beginning to end.
You don't necessarily need to know everything
that you have in the footage
and because you shot it, you have an understanding
of where everything goes and where the piece actually goes.
But if you're doing something more like a travel film
or something that's more of an experience film,
a cinematic film, something that has footage
from different days, different areas, different locations
and you're mixing it all together,
that's where you need to really understand your footage.
When you are working with footage from all over the place,
you nee to organize it
and you need to see what you have.
Because when you go through and you start looking
at all the different things that you have
within your footage, you'll be able to start
making connections and be able to start
being more creative with what it is
that you're working with
rather than relying on things like transitions,
overlays and all these like snazzy effects
to try and make your footage look cool.
Some of the best edits that you can make
come from the footage next to each other.
The specific shots chosen in succession,
versus the transitions and the overlays
and all that crazy stuff that you can do.
Now adding effects, adding transitions,
doing all these cool kind of things you can do in post,
will enhance your project
but they're not gonna make your project awesome.
And so that's one thing I really just wanted to stress
in this video is that
understanding what footage you have
and how it works together is more important
than all the fancy stuff that you can do.
And some of the best videos out there
don't even have any of the like sexy transition work
or overlays, whatever you wanna do to your footage.
Instead, they have a story.
They have a way of putting pieces together
where you just feel emersed.
You feel engaged with the video.
Versus just like watching the experience.
So I highly suggest, when you're getting into the edit bay,
take a little bit of time.
Go through your clips.
Even if you're just scrubbing through them
and seeing every bit that's in there.
You need to understand what footage you have.
When you can step back and look at all your footage
and be like, I know what's here, here, here.
I know how the story's gonna go,
then you can basically edit before you even start editing.
And what that is, is you're just creating the story.
You're creating the path.
You're creating the journey in your head.
And then you're using the tools of your editing software
and all that other stuff
to basically tell that story.
So when you're approaching your next video piece,
I highly suggest taking a step back,
look at all your clips,
organize it so you understand
where every piece of information is
and then get after it
and see how much easier the edit is
versus you were to just jump right in
and try to start editing.
Alright guys, that's it.
If you're new to this channel,
make sure you hit that subscribe button.
There's a lot of awesome film making tutorials
and camera reviews.
Guys this is part of my 30 days of film making tutorials
that I do every December.
So if you haven't seen some of the other videos,
make sure you check those out.
I'll put a link down in the description.
And guys, that's it.
I'll see you in the next one.