Editing: styles & programs

What is editing a video?

Editing a video is a process of organizing and manipulating the different assets into a timeline to create a story.

Editing is also about thinking about how to present the information and the different effects this can have on the audience’s interpretation. How we present the story matters as we’ve seen during the whole course, and the editing part of this process, is where all these strategies come together. Editing is the most beautiful (and laborious) part of the process precisely because it’s about preparing all the material to be seen. This is the moment where the final product really becomes made and polished.

Editing is a very slow and crafty process, sometimes it can be frustrating to want to do something very complicated (like animations) and not be able or quickly about it. Editing is a process that starts very challenging but it is simple to grasp in its basic forms and then through time and practice things get very interesting. As a process, editing is very generous, there is always something more to explore, including different editing styles, storytelling strategies, visuals, and animations.

What does an editor need to consider?

In order to create compelling and powerful content, the editing process needs to consider these elements:

Technical Skills: the skills needed to manage, modify, and organize the assets into a timeline. An understanding of the software, its possibilities, and the main techniques of editing.
Sense of timing: editing is all about time; how long does each clip take, how does the change happen, and how is the material presented in the timeline, it’s a bit like dancing.
Emotional landscape: editing is also about the emotional effect that the content produces; every video has its atmosphere, more casual, serious, playful, tender, romantic, shocking, objective, etc. It’s important that the style of editing matches the emotional tone the video wants to portray.

Some tips before starting your editing process…

As you will learn in this module, editing is a pool of infinite learning possibilities, your learning process will continue as long as you continue to create videos. But before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s see some of the basic steps you need to consider before actually starting your editing journey:

Organize your footage: this part is essential, you will need to go over the assets that you have and organize them according to types: video, audio, music, text, graphics, etc. It might be useful to have them in separate folders, most editing software programs allow you to import folder structures as they are in your files.
Make an editing plan: this will depend on the type of video you are creating and the time you have to edit it, but mostly is about creating a plan that is feasible for you. Our recommendation is that this plan goes something like the steps we are listing here.
Choose relevant clips: this is commonly known as a ‘rough cut‘; it is when you organize your video clips and make them roughly the length you need them to be to have the basic structure of your video.
Establish shots: these are the shots that establish the context of the sections of your story, choose the best ones you have that best represent the part of the story each section tells.
Define transitions: after you have a rough cut, you can decide what transitions fit best to each change of shot. Transitions should support the story you are telling.
Pay attention to pacing: while editing, make sure you watch the full content of what you are creating and ask yourself if the pacing/timing of the video is engaging; are there boring parts? Where do you lose attention?
Choose the right music & sound effects: sound provides the tone and atmosphere of the video, the way the video makes us feel, so make sure that music and sound effects are there to support the story. Sound should feel organic and natural, audiences should not notice it so much, this has little to do with volume and lots to do with coherence.

Editing software programs

For computers

Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve are the two most popular/professional editing software in the market right now. Although both have a form of free access Premiere Pro only offers free and limited access to the software for 90 days, whereas DaVinci Resolve’s free version appears to be for life (this might change in the future so hurry and download it now!)

Adobe Premiere Pro is most often the go-to software for content creators because it’s a great tool and it can be combined with other programs within the adobe family like Illustrator, After Effects, InDesign, etc.
DaVinci Resolve was originally created as color correction software so it has great tools for this and has since then expanded into the rest of the post-production processes like assembly, sound, effects, etc.

Both software programs are rather similar and easy to learn on your own, once you have the basics of editing and are familiar with the workspaces. Because it is a paid software and learning it can sometimes be more difficult, we will focus this course on Adobe Premier Pro. It is also worth mentioning that both programs have very similar features and so learning with one can be useful in using the other. However, in case you prefer to go directly to Davinci Resolve, here is a great and complete learning resource for it: https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci-Resolve-16-Beginners-Guide.pdf

In both cases installing the software requires having a computer that can manage the space and capacity needed to run them, you can share the requirements with participants or refer them to the websites:

For smartphones

It is also possible to edit your film directly on your phone, especially if you are recording with your phone and are producing short videos for social media, this might be a good option. However, if you are serious about becoming a content creator and you are producing a considerable amount of videos you might encounter some difficulties like lack of storage and lack of control of the editing process. Even when creating content for social media and using your phone to record, we highly recommend that you take the editing part of your process to your computer, it will be easier to manage and better for your eyes in the long run!

Here are some of the smartphone software programs we can recommend with the pros & cons of each one:

Program	Pros	Cons
FILMR	– Intuitive and easy – Offers nice effects and features – Different export formats – The Pro (paid) version is flexible (offers different options for subscriptions)	– Intended to be for vertical videos only – The free version is limited – Song library is limited and difficult to import your own songs – Limited amount of projects before it asks for a paid version – Many adds – Watermark for the free version
INSHOT	– Easy to use – Has. a desktop version, which allows you to sync the editing process from your phone to your computer – Lots of free features: templates, images, sounds, etc. – Flexible subscription model	– Cannot add multiple videos/soundtracks simultaneously – Watermark on the free version – No zoom or pan across photos – Difficult export process and limited export formats – The default aspect ratio is 1:1, you need to change this setting every time. – Saving changes and continuing editing at another time is tricky and often the work is lost.
KINEMASTER	– Lots of powerful tools – Easy interface to use – Precision controls – Free version is quite complete	– There are some versions of this app that are NOT safe to use, make sure you are downloading it from a trusted website (Playstore from google or app store for IOS) – The subscription model can be expensive in the long run – Difficult to select a clip you want to move or edit – Watermark on the free version

Key takeaways:

Editing a video is a process of organizing and manipulating the different assets into a timeline to create a story
Make sure you have a plan before you start editing your video
Be patient and practice!
Try out the software and choose wisely, it is better to stick to one but of course, if you feel it’s not working for you or what you need to do: change it!

Pro tips & references

Here are some useful links to videos about editing, exploring different topics, and tips you might find useful:

Finally, one great way to become better at editing is noticing how different videos are edited; so if you are watching your favorite show, an ad, or a documentary, pay attention to each style and strategy!