You may spend a lot of time studying how to do things correctly, but you can learn just as much (if not more) by researching what you shouldn’t do. As with many creative professions, video editing offers many choices and techniques for finishing a project.
Sometimes it is just a matter of personal taste, with no advantages or drawbacks to a specific technique. Other times, one path may produce problems or errors and should be avoided.
A solid screenplay, excellent equipment, and skilled performers are required to create a high-quality video. Even if you accomplish all of these things, your video may still look or sound bad if you don’t use proper video editing methods.
It takes time to become proficient in video editing and you won’t become an expert overnight. Here are seven typical errors committed by inexperienced video editors.
7 Video Editing Sins You Should Avoid
Film editing is both technically and creatively demanding. It determines how a film is organized and whether or not it makes sense to the audience. It has an impact on tone, viewpoint, and speed.
With so many cinematic aspects reliant on excellent editing, it’s obvious that when it’s poor, the whole production suffers. Identifying and rectifying these 7 video editing errors will surely help you ace your video-editing game and ensure high-quality video production.
1. Not Having a Robust Storyline for Videos
The story is king. Even on YouTube, you should have a thorough line that draws viewers in from the start and keeps them watching until the conclusion. It doesn’t have to be a complicated storyline and something just enough to keep everything together is good to go.
As a result, you should make editing choices that support your narrative. Tossing a glitch transition into the midst of a wedding ceremony is unlikely to work and will likely pull the viewer out of the event.
2. Publishing a Very Long Video
During a shoot, it’s generally best to gather as many takes and variants of a photo as possible. This is typically extremely useful throughout the editing process. However, you must be careful not to utilize more and more videos and choices just because you have them.
If you have a lot of material and utilize it all, you’ll simply wind up with a lengthier, possibly dull film. You may also screw with things like pace. Even though a shot looks great, if it doesn’t add anything to the video, it should be eliminated.
3. Not Having Proper Audio
Even the most stunning video will be ruined if the audio is bad. In many instances, audio may be more essential than visual elements. Consider how many times you’ve viewed a low-resolution stream and been perfectly OK with it.
Consider how many times you’ve sat through a whole video with crackly or incomprehensible audio. Do you see what I mean? Even when recording clear audio, some freelance shooters/editors believe they can just change settings and be OK.
If you want the full experience, you need to learn how to use basic EQs to bring out the finest in the audio. You wouldn’t complete a video without at least a basic grade.
At the absolute least, check sure you’re not cutting or distorting the video in any way. During recording, aim for -12 to -6 dB and then normalize the audio in post. If you’re not an audio pro, there are plenty of plug-ins or even a video editor that can help you with this.
4. Deploying Out of Place Transitions
Transitions may add a touch of whimsy to your video (star wipes, anyone?). You still don’t want that beautiful whip pan or effect transition on every edit. At the very least, transitions must make sense, and elements like the edit transition and motion lining up are important.
Transitions should be subtle. They should seem natural or very thoughtful if you want the viewer to be hooked.
5. Not Leveraging Sound Engineering
Natural sound is a wonderful place to start, but it does not always convey the sense of a living room. Sound design may assist by adding sound effects to highlight what is occurring in the video. It may make a video seem much more complete.
Sound effects may be very subtle and just modified copies of the sound from the scene – don’t be scared to substitute local sound with better sounding effects. It’s something else to think about when you’re editing. Just make sure it isn’t distracting.
6. Deploying Irrelevant Jump Cuts
Every editing method has a time and a place. The jump cut is a tried-and-true method of achieving the objective of editing, which is to compress time. Jump cuts are used to save time and advance the plot.
Because newcomers don’t know what alternative cuts to employ, they often misuse this technique. It’s particularly noticeable when you shoot a single shot and simply clip time out of the same frame, giving the actor the appearance of moving into a new position in the same scene.
7. Work With Professional Video Editors
Mastering video editing takes time. You will not become an expert overnight. Hiring the services of an experienced video business is the best way to prevent making errors like these and other less frequent ones.
Working with more experienced individuals can help you avoid errors and teach you additional methods that will assist you with future projects. Moreover, if you are just starting out, advanced video editing tools such as InVideo can also help you with professional-looking video creation with minimal effort.
Conclusion
If you’re just starting started with video editing, these tips will show you how to prevent common editing errors and make your final product seem even more professional.
The aim of your edit should always be to convey your own narrative, which may need breaking certain industry norms in order to make your work more creative. These seven suggestions are only intended to make your video seem more professional.
