How to Learn Video Editing Skills
- What is video editing?
- How Can I Learn Video Editing?
- Type of Content
- Editing Software for Videos
- Where to learn video editing
- Video Tutorials
- Online Education and Classes
- VJump tutorials
In the age of digital dominance by video content, it's becoming almost essential for everyone to possess fundamental video editing skills. With a bit of interest, this valuable skill can be cultivated from the ground up. Mastering it could propel you from a beginner editor to an advanced one, opening doors to earning through your passion. This opportunity isn't limited to content creators; it extends to aspiring editors eyeing a path into the film industry.
What is video editing?
Video editing involves manipulating and rearranging video footage, audio, and visual elements to create a cohesive and engaging final product. It encompasses tasks such as trimming, cutting, and merging clips, adjusting color, adding transitions and visual effects, and synchronizing audio tracks. Editors utilize specialized software to assemble raw materials into a polished and coherent narrative or presentation. It demands a keen eye for detail, an understanding of pacing, storytelling, and technical proficiency with editing tools. Ultimately, video editing crafts the visual story that captivates audiences across various mediums like film, television, online content, and more.
How Can I Learn Video Editing?
Before starting to learn video editing, you want to ask yourself about two things that will decide your learning curve.
Type of Content
At first, you need to decide what is your goal in editing videos. If that is just a hobby-wise for making your home or gaming videos a bit more engaging. Or maybe you want to become a content creator and thrive on making short-form content for YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok. Or you are going to make this your whole life and the goal is to get to cinematography as a professional video producer. These are three different levels and each of them has its learning curves with intricacies and methodology.
Editing Software for Videos
The second question is what editing software is better to create the content of your choice while improving your video editor skills. If you are willing to make this a small hobby and get the beginner level in video editing, then you can start with phone apps that usually have basic tools for cutting, arranging, cropping, and adding audio tracks on top of the video.
For advanced level of video editing, you may use a more powerful and dedicated software such as Sony Vegas or Even Adobe Premiere Pro with After Effects - the last two are used in professional video editing, product placement videos, ads, cinema, and many other applications.
Where to learn video editing
Many say that the best way to learn video editing is through practice and experimentation. However, while doing videos is a good practice, that is very time-consuming to learn comprehensive interfaces of complex software such as Premiere or After Effects on your own. Hence you may want to opt for easier solutions.
Video Tutorials
To get more familiar with how to use video editor software you are going to watch a lot of tutorials according to tasks you want to complete in your projects.YouTube is a great starting point as it offers a wide range of tutorials covering various aspects of video editing. Many professional editors began this way, where you can grasp both the basics and advanced techniques by using specific keywords to find these video tutorials. The software mentioned earlier is widely used on YouTube education content for editors, so finding solutions shouldn't be challenging. Beginners often follow tutorials step-by-step, but it's crucial to infuse your creativity even when mimicking someone else's process. This approach helps you familiarize yourself with the software and its tools, paving the way to learn more techniques. As you watch others' videos and notice engaging effects, aim to recreate them while adding your unique touch. Keep exploring for fresh editing ideas, learn the names of effects, and discover how to apply them while infusing your creativity.
Online Education and Classes
If you prefer another way of learning how to edit videos, then you may go for special video education practices in classes or online courses. Websites like Udemy, Coursera, and LinkedIn Learning offer structured courses taught by industry professionals. These courses often cover everything from basics to advanced editing techniques
VJump tutorials
Some applications, such as VJump designed for short-form video content in specific, allow you to thrive on TikTok as there are video editors manually working on your footage to create trending transitions and effects. This app includes tutorials that explain how to do these effects and transitions which in turn may also help you learn.
Author
IT entrepreneur and co-founder of VJump. His passion is travel photography, within which, he has already visited 75 countries. Photos taken during his travels are actively posted on his social networks. For example, his Instagram account has more than 1 million followers.
In addition, his documentary short film Terra del Fuego was awarded more than 30 international awards and certificates at film festivals worldwide.
