By Mark Pierce, Esq.
- Business Skills: Video Editing
Business Skills: Video Editing
Creating videos often involves recording and then compiling multiple shots to create a unique video. Video editing is the post-production process, which may involve rearranging clips, creating transitions, correcting color, adding audio, and adding titles and subtitles. The goal of video editing is to choose the best clips, create a cohesive flow, and add effects to tell the story you want to tell in a way that engages the viewer.
Writing a Script
Your video needs to be informative and engaging to keep people watching. Writing your video script helps you organize the information presented, actions included, filming angles, and any special effects that you plan to add in the editing stage. Gather all of the ideas you want to present, and structure them into a message. Don't forget to include keywords and phrases that connect with your message and purpose. Think about the purpose of your video, your target audience, the promise or solution you are presenting, and your call to action for your audience. Know what action you want your audience to take, and make sure your script encourages this action.
Editing Videos
Basic video editing skills to learn should include trimming, rearranging, and combining clips and shots to create a full video. You might simply combine various shots with basic transitions to make your video. Or you could combine clips, add new elements, overlay audio, and insert advanced transitions to create more complex videos as you build your video editing skills. Video editing is often done on a small scale for simple productions. Think about the narrative and desired flow, remove unwanted footage and elements, select the best clips, and add special effects to produce an effective video.
Adding Audio to Videos
Adding audio to a video enhances the overall impact and is among the most important video editing skills to learn. The music or other sounds must synchronize with the video to create a cohesive effect. When the audio matches the visual content well, it helps engage the audience, and it enhances the overall quality of the video. Many programs and apps have compiled libraries of sounds and music that are specifically intended to be used in videos and provide these tracks for free for video creators. If you aren't selecting audio from one of these libraries, you will likely need to get permission from a copyright holder before using a track. You could also search for audio that has a Creative Commons license that is compatible with how you want to use the audio.
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe Premiere Pro is video editing software used by industry experts, and it allows users to really expand the range of their video editing skills. This program offers powerful tools that enable you to produce and polish videos in a variety of formats. You can also integrate Premiere Pro with other programs and apps, such as Adobe Photoshop, as you edit and produce videos for your business. Adobe continues to update and expand Premiere Pro to make it more powerful and easy to use.
iMovie
With iMovie, Apple's video editing software designed for MacOS and iOS devices, you can make your own videos and even 4K-resolution movies. The software lets you edit videos on an iPad or iPhone and then transfer the project over to a Mac to finish it. You can add audio, titles, and special effects to videos. High-fidelity filters can help you to produce professional-quality videos, and you can record voice-overs or add a soundtrack to a video, too.
Copyright Considerations
When making videos, you must adhere to copyright laws that protect content created by others. Content created after 1922 is automatically copyright-protected, and you must acquire permission to use it unless it's royalty-free content. Royalty-free content is material that is provided for reuse in specific ways. The reuse may be general, non-commercial, or non-commercial with modification. Royalty-free content may require a one-time fee to use it. Some copyrighted content is available to use without permission under fair-use laws. Fair-use laws dictate how others can use content, and users need to research how these laws pertain to specific materials before using them.