I'm gonna run through the ten mistakes
that I see most new video editors make
wasting a ton of time and killing the
quality of their videos and I'll also
share how you can easily avoid them with
a ton of video editing tips for
beginners thrown in along the way he's
Justin Brown here from primal video
where we help you imply your business
and brand with video if you're new here
make sure you click that subscribe
button and all the links to everything I
mentioned in this video you can find
linked in the description box below so
let's jump into it as a beginner video
editing can be totally confusing and
it's easy to fall into some of the
mistakes and the bad habits that can
cost you a ton of time and kill the
quality of your videos making the whole
process much more painful than it needs
to be and believe me we've all been
there so what video editing can be one
of the most daunting aspects of the
video creation process the good news is
is that with some simple tips to fix
your workflow it can become one of the
most rewarding parts of the creative
process so in this video I'm gonna run
through the top 10 mistakes that
beginner video editors make and how you
can avoid them right now okay so mistake
number one is not considering your edit
or your editing project at the time of
actually filming your content so when
you're filming your content you want to
make sure that you are asking yourself
am I definitely going to be using this
is the length of time that I've captured
of this shot is that enough or do I need
to get more you don't want to have extra
footage for footage sake because more
footage means more footage you need to
edit so it's going to slow down your
editing process because you need to go
through and cut down more video footage
so when you're filming be mindful of
what it is you're actually capturing and
whether you've got enough or whether
you're actually going to use it in your
end video project this can save you a
ton of time not just in your filming but
also everything that flows on into the
editing beyond that mistake number two
is jumping straight into your video
editing without having a plan in place
for the end video that you're looking to
create so what are the goals of the
video why are you making it what do you
want it to achieve what do you want
people to think to feel to know or to do
after watching your video having a plan
and some goals and everything laid out
around
do you want your video to do and why
you're actually making it in the first
place and the feeling that you want your
viewers to have while they're watching
your video is again going to make your
editing far more targeted far more
streamlined and much more efficient as
well because you know with clarity what
it is you're creating and why leading on
from that then the third one is not
having a process in place to edit your
videos down we see so many people to
jump into the editing applications
they'll dump their footage into the
timeline and they'll just start color
grading or tweaking the audio you really
need to focus on the content first you
want to make sure that you've actually
got enough footage to tell the story you
want to make sure there's nothing wrong
with the footage that you've captured so
that you can tell the story jumping
straight into color grading or tweaking
the sound or tweaking the audio making
it look or sound pretty is the stuff
that you need to do later in the process
adding all of that stuff in and doing
that upfront he's going to slow down
your editing systems gonna slow down
your computer because it's got to have
to process all of those things that
you're doing but also you might find
that you actually don't have enough to
finish the video or there's extra stuff
that you need so you really should be
first and foremost focusing on the
content first but also following a
process step 1 import your footage step
2
drop it down into the timeline make sure
it's all there step 3 remove all the bad
takes now if you're interested in our
process that we teach for the most
efficient way to edit your videos down
with minimal wasted time and rework I
will have a link at the end of this
video where you can download a PDF
version and follow along with that
process while you're editing your videos
number four is file management or file
organization you want to make sure that
you are organizing everything that you
are using in your editing project into a
logical place and ideally all in the one
place in the one folder now spending
that little bit of time upfront and
making sure that everything is organized
is going to make it much easier for you
while you're in the thick of editing if
you quickly need to find something it's
going to be in a logical place so what I
mean here is having a folder for your
music for all of your sound effects all
of your footage full of your b-roll
whatever it is that you're you
in your project put it all in a logical
place where you can find it while you're
editing but also it's gonna make it much
much easier for you if you've ever got
to come back to this project at a later
date and try to find everything it's
gonna be all in one logical place or if
you're ever gonna be working with
another editor or at some point if
another person needs to open up your
editing project it's going to make it so
much easier for them to find everything
if it's all filed away in a logical
place and obviously if it's all in the
one place instead of looking on external
hard drives and different drives for
different bits and pieces so make sure
you're just taking that little bit of
time and just put everything in a
logical place mistake number five is not
taking the time to learn some of the
simple keyboard shortcuts learning and
understanding the keyboard shortcuts are
going to speed up your editing tenfold
simple keyboard shortcuts like being
able to play forward backwards and stop
learning how to trim the top of your
clip or the tail of your clip or ripple
edit left and ripple edit right if
you're not already using them these are
gonna change the game for you and make
your editing so much more efficient
saving you with what you would do with
multiple mouse clicks with just a single
key press on your keyboard so if you're
not using some of the keyboard shortcuts
yet I would strongly recommend that you
go up to the help area in the editing
software that you're using look for
keyboard shortcuts or even do a quick
google search for your editing
application and keyboard shortcuts to
start to get familiar with some of those
because they are definitely going to
speed up your editing and make you a
much much faster editor and the top ones
that I think you should look at a JK and
L so controlling the playback of your
video but also look for ripple edit left
ripple edit right it may also be called
trim top and trim tail you'll thank me
later so that brings us to mistake
number six which is all around using
music in your videos specifically using
the wrong music in your videos having
music in it that is the wrong fit for
your video and the feeling that you want
your viewers to have be missed match
with the music that you're putting in
there the music is the easiest way to
make your viewers feel something while
they're watching your content so the
mistake here is having your wrong music
in your videos or having the music in
your videos much too loud so it's
distracting and it's annoying for your
viewers and making it hard for them to
actually consume the content because
it's too overpowering so in regards to
the volumes and the best places to set
it it is going to come down to an
individual video per video basis again
come back to the goals what do you want
your viewers to think and to feel and to
do after watching your video and how
does the music help or add to that if it
doesn't turn it down or remove it if
it's not adding to the video now if you
want some help on how you can find the
best music tracks to suit the types of
videos you're making check out the video
it linked up in the cards on exactly
that topic mistake number seven is over
editing your videos making way too many
cuts removing out every little pause or
every little breath just adding cuts for
the sake of adding cuts or going the
other way and adding in way too many
transitions and too many effects and all
that does is annoy the viewers and make
it distracting and hard for them to keep
watching your content if anything stick
to simple cuts remove the mistakes
tighten up stuff if it needs it for the
most part the more you simplify your
videos the easier they're going to be
for you to edit but also the easier for
your viewers to watch without them just
being overwhelmed and distracted by a
whole lot of unnecessary noise or
distractions in your video mistake
number eight is not saving backup
versions of your timeline or of your
editing project as you progress your
edit so what most people do especially
beginners is they'll just be working on
the one timeline from start to finish
with one project from start to finish
but this doesn't give you anywhere to go
backwards if you need to if something's
happened or if you're looking for
something that you had in the last
version you'd then have to go back to
the original raw footage to find it if
you didn't have those backup versions of
your timelines so what I would recommend
you do here is as you progress through
every now and then or every time you hit
a milestone or ideally every time you're
moving into one of the next steps inside
of our primal video method editing
process which again I'm going to link to
you at the end
then you've got the ability to quickly
go back and find stuff or to open up a
previous version of your project if you
need to if something bad happens if the
project gets corrupted or you'll lose it
somehow sometimes stuff happens mistake
number nine is a real procrastination
point for a lot of people but especially
beginners and that is thinking that the
video editing software that you are
currently using isn't the one that you
should be using or that there's
something better out there this is a
huge thing that is slowing down and
stopping a lot of people the grass is
always greener on the other side it's
maybe some other editing application
will let me edit faster or give me so
many more effects that I can use in my
in my edits what I want to say here is
the best video editing software for you
is the one that is the fastest and the
most efficient for you to do everything
you need to do video editing software
they're all just tools to edit video
down yes some have more advanced
features yes some of them may render
faster than others so you really want to
find which one is the best one for you
moving forward and then if or when you
start hitting the limits of what you can
do in that software that's when you
should really consider looking at some
of the other options out there but not
before then focus on creating the
content focus on really learning editing
as an art form and as a process that way
you can apply that and apply the
fundamentals to any video editing
software out there not just one specific
application now if you are in that
position where you are looking for maybe
different video editing software or you
just want to make sure that the one
you're using right now is the best one
for you then I'll put links below in the
description for our recommended video
editing software on Mac and on Windows
right now but please don't use this as I
procrastination point and now number 10
this one is actually more of a pro tip
that's going to help you edit faster
instead of really a mistake but it'll
make sense to you when I explain it so
what a lot of people do with their video
editing is they're going through and
they are working through from start to
finish
based on how they've recorded their
content and if you're coming down a
piece to camera video like this where
you're presenting to camera you're going
through
all the bad takes and you're trying to
find those good tapes in there in a lot
of cases you might even be cutting
sentences in half where you've got the
first half was really good and then
you're grabbing the second half of the
sentence from further down your timeline
and you're piecing those together
there's nothing wrong with that but
that's a really slow way to edit and
obviously to create content and if
you're all about systemising and putting
a process in place around this stuff you
can actually speed up your editing back
in the filming by doing a couple of
things that I'm going to run through now
the first one is that you can leave
yourself markers or notes so if you want
to leave a note or a message for
yourself while you're filming you can
review later in your editing you could
put your hand up towards the lens you
could clap so you've got those audio
spikes in your audio waveforms when
you're editing something that's going to
grab your own attention when you're
editing your videos down to then be told
that message or to remind yourself of
something so it could be that you're
actually saying actually will use the
first take not the second one or I
forgot to put this piece back over here
so when we're editing can we move this
back it may sound silly but just adding
those notes to yourself while you're
filming is going to make it much much
faster for you to edit and it will save
you trying to sit there and take notes
while you're actually recording your
content so that's one thing that you can
do but what we do with our videos is
take that one step further then I will
only ever move on to the next dot point
the next paragraph the next section of
the video when I am happy with the last
take so the tip here is to make the last
take while you're presenting the best
one and then when you jump over and do
your editing you know that that last
take is always the one that you want to
use that's the best one so then instead
of editing from left to right or start
to finish you're actually able to edit
from the back so go to the very end of
your timeline and that last thing that
you have said is the one that you want
to use then you're going backwards
through and you're hitting those best
takes first so it's much much faster for
you to edit down a piece to camera a
piece of content like this one where
there is someone just presenting on a
topic or reading a script you can do
that much faster if you've actually
presented a tech
in the way where the last take is the
best one this tip is an absolute game
changer and it will totally change the
way you are creating your content and
make it so much more efficient for you
to get content out there faster so those
are the top mistakes that we see
beginner video editors making and
obviously how to overcome those things
as well now earlier in the video I
mentioned our video editing process the
primal video method which is linked on
screen now and it's also below in the
description you can click on that and
get access to the exact process that we
use and that we recommend for you to
edit your videos down with minimal
wasted time and rework is literally step
1 do this step 2
do this and this is going to allow you
to create content much much faster in
the most efficient way so grab your copy
and I'll see you in the next one