8 Video Editing Tips You Need to Remember

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Movie magic is right at your fingertips! The average editor edits for up to two hours for a simple one-minute video. 

This sounds like a long time, but there are ways you can cut the time down. The easiest way is to study a few video editing tips and incorporate them into your editing routine.

What tools should you get before you start editing videos? What should you prioritize when you edit? How can you produce beautiful visuals and audio?

Answer these questions and you can master video editing trends in no time. Here are eight essential editing tips.

1. Buy Video Editing Technology

Most laptops come with basic editing tools. These tools may be good for informal projects, but they are not good to make advertisements, short films, or feature films. 

Look around and buy video editing software that is specifically for the videos you want to make. Most software costs money, but you can reduce your expenses by finding software for amateurs and avoiding packages. You can also get a monthly subscription that you end when you are done with your project. 

Before you buy the software, read a guide on how to edit videos on it. If you find the guide too confusing, you should buy something else.

You can edit videos on your phone, but it may be easier to edit them on a desktop. If you do choose to use your phone, you should find apps that let you make easy edits.

2. Focus On Pacing

The key to good editing is to create a consistent flow in your video. Remove anything that is unnecessary, including long pauses between lines of dialogue. It’s okay to have a pause if it serves a dramatic purpose or creates a transition, but you should otherwise remove it. 

The pace of your edits should fit the pace of your scenes. For a long scene with two characters talking, your edits should have a moderate pace. This lets the scene play out without the audience feeling rushed, yet you don’t want your audience to be bored. 

For an action scene, your edits can be faster. However, you still need to spread your cuts out so your audience understands what is going on.

3. Use B-Roll

B-roll is secondary footage that does not necessarily convey plot or character beats. You can use it to show where a character is, transition between two scenes, and express how a character is feeling. 

Use B-roll where it feels natural. As a character enters a room, you can insert one, two, or three point-of-view shots to show what the room looks like. These shots can be one or two seconds long, giving the viewer enough time to examine the room. 

You can use B-roll to cover up for edits or act as pick-up shots. Make sure this footage is not too jarring, and don’t use too much of it.

4. Prioritize the Story

Everything you do while you are editing videos should speak to the story. Your cuts should be spaced out enough that your audience knows what is happening and how the characters feel. 

Many amateur editors will change the picture when the sound changes. An actor will deliver a line, the editor inserts a cut to the other actor, and then that actor delivers a line. This is okay, but it can be boring to do this style of editing excessively.

Consider making split edits at moments when the sound does not change. You can cut to an actor’s face to show their reaction to a line of dialogue. You can also cut away from the actors to show something else happening in the room while the characters are speaking. 

5. Balance the Colors

Color correction lets you adjust your video so there are consistent colors between shots. You may need to fix the brightness if the lighting is different between two different shots. If the video seems unnatural or surreal, you can correct the white balance to make the images seem natural. 

Color grading gives your video a certain look or style. You can make the visuals feel warmer or colder, or you can create a surreal environment for your actors to be in. Experiment with the grading until you get an aesthetic style you like.

6. Balance the Audio

Bad audio can ruin your video as much as bad visuals can. Match the volume across clips so your viewer does not change the volume between scenes.

Set your music to a moderate volume so it is loud enough that your audience can hear it, but not too loud that it drowns out the audio of your scene. As you’re listening to the music, add markers where you notice the beat. You can cut your visuals to the beat to create an energetic and flowing video.

7. Follow Copyright Protections

Never use a song or clip that you do not have the right to use. Under fair use law, you can use a song or clip in your video if you are parodying or reviewing it. Otherwise, you must get explicit permission from the copyright holder before you can use it. 

You should also be careful if your footage has copyrighted materials like logos or brand names in it. You may want to blur the materials just to be safe or cut the footage out of the video entirely.

8. Protect Your Work

Save your video as you are editing it. Some software saves automatically, but you should still hit the save button if you are stepping away from your computer for a moment. 

When you’re done with the project, make a duplicate and save it to another hard drive or account. This protects you in case your drive crashes or your account gets hacked. 

Figure Out Video Editing Tips

Video editing tips are simple yet profound. You should buy software that lets you edit videos on your phone and computer. Create a good pace that lets you get through the story.

Do not forget to balance the colors and adjust the lighting. You should also listen carefully to the audio and adjust the volume levels. Save your work multiple times and keep copies of each video you make. 

Once you’ve mastered these tips, you can develop your voice as an editor. Noobie provides premium editing guides. Read our guide on how to edit videos directly on YouTube today.