Three Tips on Editing Videos Quickly for School or Hobbies

Three Tips on Editing Videos Quickly for School or Hobbies

We are all guilty of over-shooting footage we want to use for our videos.  Here I have too many clips and footages that it took a long time to sort through and pick the right footage I wanted to use.

I’ve always been interested in video editing as it serves such a wide range of functions in modern life.  We can’t live without our screens, but as technology progresses, I’ve found that people are much more engaged with videos than pictures, and it’s been a fun learning experience throughout the years.  Before COVID-19, I had my own podcast and vodcast during school.  It was my first glimpse at video editing, social media, and sharing information using different mediums.  I particularly loved video editing because there’s so many elements and features.  If you were on a budget, a phone camera could shoot some incredible videos, if you’re at a higher budget, there’s plenty of equipment and technology that enhance video quality.

Examples of previous educational videos I had made for my business.

Fast-forward to during COVID-19, I was very adept at online live-streaming, gaining followers quickly and increasing subscribers daily.  Even though many would say that it’s an experience that doesn’t always apply to my daily life, I personally found it made an enormous impact on my ability to market and use technology proficiently.  During this time, I would learn how to create my own brand logos, following animations and clips that would make it user friendly and engaging.  Today, these skills are still valuable as I have my business in health care.  I love learning a new skill and not knowing where it might be useful down the road.

What are some things I learned about video editing that could be summed up in 3 points?

  1. Plan ahead

Picture of me creating videos in batch.  All the planning was done ahead of time.

As with any social media content that you produce regularly, make sure you have a deadline in mind and set a schedule for yourself.  When I was live broadcasting every day during COVID-19, I set a rigorous schedule and stuck with it.  I made sure that during the time I was creating content that I was engaged and on topic.  The same goes for video editing, make sure you plan your videos, what you will say and what scenes you need.

  1. Shoot enough footage but not too much

This is something I struggled with when I first started shooting footage for a video.  I would shoot so many scenes as a result of being perfectionistic.  But this also slows down the editing process since you will have to review these footages and pick the best one.  I would recommend for each scene or intro that you film them a few times and make sure the last take is the one to your liking.  The more perfectionistic you are about videos the longer they take to edit.  Don’t be afraid to make small mistakes on camera because you can always crop it out or cut the scene where you fumbled.  If you worry about over shooting, you can always shoot your scenes in small batches instead of one long video.

  1.  Compile your music ahead of time

This is an example of the music I pick out on the phone and pre-downloaded for each video I plan to make.

Sometimes, finding the right sound, music and audio files can be heavily time-consuming.  Finding some music and creating a file in your computer that is easy to locate will speed up your video editing process.