- So you wanna make high quality videos?
Well, to do that
you actually need to not only be a faster video editor,
you need to be a better video editor.
So today we're gonna talk about eight tips
that you can use to make high quality videos
and become a better editor.
Last time we talked about consistency,
which is basically a quantity play.
Today we're talking about quality.
First things first, prioritize your audio.
Audio is what is going to ultimately help decide
whether you have a high quality experience or not.
We can forgive less than perfect video.
We will not forgive bad audio.
There is no way.
So how are you going to improve your audio?
Well, for one thing, aside from using the right microphone,
which is a play that costs a little bit of extra money,
let's talk about what you can do
as far as your audio editing.
I would definitely recommend using things like,
DeNoise or De- Reverb.
These are often presets you can find
in almost any modern video editing software,
whether it's something for beginners
or it's a little bit more advanced.
There's usually something to help you clean up the audio.
De-Reverb is great if you have hardwood floors
or tall ceilings.
And DeNoise is good to help you with anything
that might be going on in the background,
including the hum from a fan or an air conditioner.
So these are pretty much your staples.
There are of course other,
more advanced audio editing techniques.
I could do a dedicated video on that for you if you want,
but these are enough to get you by.
Tip number two.
I always like to prioritize learning the shortcuts
of a video editing software.
It's gonna make you a much more faster,
effective, confident editor
and it's obviously gonna make you a faster video editor.
But I have a trick for this,
aside from just trying to memorize
and use these shortcuts by practice,
practice, practice, practice.
I actually cheat.
I bought a sticker that I put on my laptop
with all of the shortcuts for my video editing software,
Adobe Premier Pro.
You can actually find this for Adobe Premier Pro,
Final Cut Pro.
I'll link to some in the description down below for you.
But I buy these off of Amazon.
I slap them on my laptops.
I even have a dedicated mousepad
that has some shortcuts on it as well
for some other programs.
So this is something that I think will help you
in terms of speeding that up.
Because you'll have it right in front of you.
And you can use this until you're used to all the shortcuts
for your video editing app.
Obviously the sticker trick is gonna work
if you're using Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premier Pro.
I think even DaVinci Resolve.
There may be sticker packs out there for others.
There may even be keyboard shortcut stickers
for some of these other video editors.
But I think it's usually the pro software
that you can do this with.
Tip number three.
Use B-roll footage to break up long stretches of video.
Talking head videos like mine,
they can get a little static
even though I do my best to carry the performance on camera,
bring the right energy and keep you informed
and maybe just slightly entertained.
I try to apply the 80/20 rule.
80% education, maybe 20% of my personality
and a little bit of entertainment.
But the point is, the B-roll is going to help you
show instead of just tell.
And you can shoot this yourself,
which is gonna take a little bit of extra work
to make that custom B-roll footage workout.
But I like to, once again, cheat
and use Story Blocks for a lot of my B-roll footage.
And it's been working out pretty well so far.
I've gotten good feedback from all of you
and it's very convenient.
So that will be linked in the description
down below for you.
Tip number four.
Prioritize color correction.
When it comes to color correction
I always focus on the accuracy of skin tones.
But some of you, you wanna be fancy.
So there are presets and LUTs and things out there
that can give you a cinematic look
that has your footage being a little bit more crispy.
I like to do a lot of this stuff in camera,
as far as lighting, good auto focus,
you know, sharp lenses and glass.
But I throw money at this problem,
because that really just helps, to be frank.
But when you can't just throw money at the problem
in terms of your hardware,
you can go ahead and you can use your software
to your advantage.
At least just a little bit.
So what I do in this case is,
I go ahead and I manually color correct and color grade,
but you can use presets if you want,
that come in your video editing app of choice.
Or you can buy LUTs packs from different places.
Peter McKinnon, and several other great YouTube filmmakers
sell their own custom LUTs.
I've actually bought several of them.
And while I find them to be nice
and I just found that for me, they didn't always work out.
I had to kind of make my own based on my lighting,
my settings and my skin complexion.
But it can also be just very educational
to let you see what you do and don't like.
So I always recommend trying to get a handle
on color correction and color grading.
If you shoot in the same place all of the time,
the good news is once you lock this in,
you can just set it and forget it.
Make a preset of your own, make a LUT of your own
and just always apply it if you have the same setup.
If you shoot in three or four different rooms or locations,
go ahead and try to dial in the settings for each of those
and make them a preset, so you always have them.
This will not only make you a faster, more efficient editor,
it will mean that you're taking
that little extra attention to detail
to make your footage look amazing.
Just a little bit of attention to detail goes a long way.
Tip number five.
Good sound design is important
and it can make your content a little bit more distinct,
help it stand out if it has its own unique sound.
And this is more than just choosing background music.
Obviously I use Epidemic Sound for that,
who's sponsoring this video.
And I also use them for my sound effects.
But there are a couple of things that I do on my own.
I kind of do have a few sound effects that I made myself
using just my own mouth.
So I have my own plopping sound.
(soft popping)
I have that.
I literally just recorded that for myself.
And so I have my own popping sound
for things coming up on the screens sometimes.
But other times I'll just use something
that's in my sound effects folder
and it's just fine.
But having your own sound design
in the way that you do things, having unique sounds,
this can help you in terms of making your content
a little bit more memorable.
Also when you're throwing stuff on the screen,
if I talk about money just having a dollar sign,
a cash register kind of go off,
that helps a lot with just, you know
reemphasizing a point or calling attention to it
or making something stand out.
So don't neglect good sound design.
Also choosing good background music
and also mixing your music properly,
so it doesn't overwhelm your voice and your main audio.
That's something that's super important
that people take for granted.
You won't always get it right.
Even I don't always get right, but it's good to keep trying
and refining it over time.
Which also, speaking of time,
it's time to plug today's sponsor, Epidemic Sound.
I've made over 1500 videos on my YouTube channel
and many many other videos besides.
And for most of them I've actually enjoyed
using Epidemic Sound for a very long time
to help me with good sound design, good background music.
And it's convenient because it's also copyright free.
And this works,
not only for content creators on the internet,
it helps if you're doing a podcast,
but also if you have freelance clients
that you're editing for.
And with an absurdly large library
of music and sound effects,
you do have the opportunity to create your own unique sound.
Check out Epidemic Sound,
link is in the description down below.
Get a free trial and let 'em know Roberto sent you.
Tip number six.
When you have long stretches of video,
especially talking head videos like these.
Sometimes there's just not a set of good B-roll
that's going to be the proper pattern interrupt
to keep watch time and retention.
And that's where Motion Graphics come in.
You can obviously manually make your own animated text.
You could work at Adobe After effects if you want to,
but I, again, have a cheat code.
In Adobe Premier Pro
I use the essential graphics panel
to go ahead and use these Mogrt files.
Which basically, motion graphic art files, Mogrt files.
That I can use without having to go
into Adobe After Effects,
which is very complicated software to learn.
But weirdly I'm better at the VFX and Rotoscoping
and doing things like that,
than I am at making like, simple animations in it.
Go figure I can do the hard things
and yet the simple things are too much for me.
But with that in mind,
I just use the essential graphics panel.
I use some of the templates that already exist
and when something isn't working out,
I go to Adobe Stock or Envato Elements
and I find what will work for me.
This is also how I've made
some of my digital charts and graphs.
And those effects was all done with these Mogrt files
edited in Adobe Premier Pro
with no extra after effects skill required.
Obviously not all of you will edit in Adobe Premier Pro.
I have a hunch that most of you do,
at least if you're watching my content.
But there are other programs out there
that have their own variations of these type of files
and, you know, animated motion graphics.
And so, you can play with those to your heart's content.
The one that I think besides Adobe
probably has the best options for this,
is probably Final Cut Pro.
And like I said, there are plenty of options
if you go to either Adobe Stock or Envato Elements
to find things that will fit your content.
Tip number seven, transitions.
Transitions are something that are used and abused
way too much by social media content creators
to tweak their editing.
I think that you can just stick to jump cuts
for the most part.
I mean, Casey Neistat doesn't use wild transitions
in his videos.
He either stands with like, standard J-cuts and L-cuts
or he does something like a whip pan with the camera.
And that's it.
You don't have to be too fancy with this,
but subtlety or something that makes sense can be good.
And when combined with sound design,
transitions can actually be super effective.
You just have to get it right.
And finally, tip number eight.
Export settings.
Export settings are where some of the quality conversation
really does need to happen.
You're shooting on great cameras,
you got great lighting,
but you decide that you're gonna export
to make the smallest file possible.
That's a mistake.
Big files means that you have more of the data,
which means you have more of the pixels,
more of the image, more of the data to go ahead
and send your properly color graded, edited,
wonderful masterpiece to the internet in all of its glory.
And you're undermining that on top of the compression
that it's already gonna experience in YouTube,
Facebook, Instagram or God forbid,
how bad Twitter is with video compression.
You're already going to have some loss of quality here.
So making the smallest file possible
isn't really doing your content any favors.
The opposite is what really needs to happen here.
You need to learn the proper settings
for exporting your content in its best overall quality.
And what you really need to think about
is things like Codecs.
I mostly am exporting now in the H265 Codec.
One, it's more efficient.
Quality is really good.
And the file size, you know, it's like a little bit smaller
than it would be if I used H264,
which is less efficient these days.
In my case, obviously I shoot and produce and edit
everything in stunning 4k video.
And because I use Sony and I use the good, good cameras,
I'm shooting in a color profile that is basically
4:2:2:10-bit color.
Which is just a fancy way of saying
that I'm capturing everything, everything.
So when it comes down to it,
don't undermine high quality footage
with overly compressed export files.
I will do a dedicated video on the best export settings
for Adobe Premier Pro and Final Cut Pro at a later time.
But for now, just start to really think
about the fact that you are shooting high quality video
and then you're crunching it down to the smallest file
to save space.
When all you need to do is just let it be uploaded,
because it's gonna get compressed anyway.
So let it come down from a higher standard of quality.
There you go.
Eight tips that are going to make you a better video editor.
You're finally going to get some higher quality content
if you actually take this advice.
If you enjoyed this video
you probably also should watch my video on consistency.
Now that you know about quality,
You also need to up that quantity
and consistency is going to help.
Also watch my other videos about video editing.
They will help you become faster and better.
As always, thank you so much for watching
and don't forget,
go out there and create something awesome today.
Take care.