YouTube's best content creators can present amazing videos not just because they have great tools for recording their audios and videos, but because of the variety of video editing techniques that help them produce unique and marketable video content.
We will be discussing the various popular editing techniques used in editing videos and how they are used to enhance the quality of the videos. Before we dive into that, let's talk about the reasons you should edit your videos before uploading them to your YouTube channel.
What Is the Importance of Video Editing?
It helps to enhance the video quality
There are various editing options found in a video editing software that allows the content creator to enhance the quality of the video. This is very useful to YouTubers that do not have high-end cameras. You have options to brighten the video as well as improve the sharpness of your footage. You can also apply different filters and color tone to improve the appearance of even a bland footage.
You must have a good quality video even if you already have fascinating content. The look and feel of your video should be topnotch so that you can capture the interest of viewers whose attention span keeps decreasing day after day. Once the viewer has been hooked by your video, only then can they focus on the content.
A poor footage can be transformed into a content with an amazing story
It doesn't matter the kind of YouTube channel you operate and the kind of content you upload, the basic thing about an impressive video is what story is it able to tell to the audience. Editing is the process of enhancing a video by weaving a story out of the various footage recorded and choosing the best bits that can be improved through an array of visual effects, background music, video effects, and many more effects.
It is wrong to upload unedited footage to your YouTube channel in this time and age. A lot of effort and resources is invested by the top brands and content creators to ensure that they have top-quality videos. This is why you must master a few editing techniques that will help you produce videos that can compete with theirs.
It shows that a lot of work has been done
Viewers will not only appreciate the good content of a video. They would also appreciate the time and effort invested by content creators in making and editing a top-quality video. A well refined video indicates that a lot of time and effort has been invested in the editing process and viewers would appreciate a creator who spends several hours to ensure that their videos are properly edited before being uploaded.
Videos that are well edited are shared more, they have more views, and get better engagement than poorly-edited videos. Most YouTubers these days make use of the call to action (CTA), i.e. " like comment and share" to gain more feedback on their videos. However, when your video is properly edited and enhanced, your viewers will gladly respond to your CTA.
You'll get more work opportunities
A lot of YouTubers will pay any price to have a talented video editor work on their videos. The more quality and well-edited videos you make, the more the number of viewers and subscribers to your channel increase. Soon people begin to take notice of your editing skills and words start to spread.
In no distant time, you'll begin to get offers from other editors asking you to help them make great videos for their YouTube channels. Collaborations remain a very strong marketing tool on YouTube and mastering your video editing skills will increase your chances of collaborating with others.
What do you need to edit videos professionally?
A good video editor is one who isn't afraid to experiment with different styles and techniques. The more you experiment the better you are, and you can eventually discover a unique editing style for your videos which can become a hallmark for your videos.
Purchase a good computer, either a desktop or a laptop that will enable you to edit your videos well. Get a computer with a powerful processor, a high RAM of about 8 GB, and more. It should also have a separate graphics card that has at least 4 GB of dedicated graphics memory. You'll be able to edit faster and better when using a computer that can easily handle video-editing challenges.
There is also the need to have capable video editing software. Although there is in-built editing software for YouTubers provided in the YouTube studio, this only provides basic editing functions and lacks the other feature which is found in other video production applications. Some popular video production applications are Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, and Wondershare Filmora. You can decide to get the trial versions of each app to test and decide which is suitable.
The top techniques to learn and master
Cutting out silence and hesitation through standard and jump cuts
The standard and jump cut editing techniques are very useful for YouTubers that create talk-centric videos such as unboxing, reviews, instructionals, etc.
The Standard and jump cut editing technique is used to minimize the speaker's silence and hesitation. Viewers may become easily bored when they become too much. Many YouTubers would deliberately shoot different sections of their video so that it can be trimmed and joined later. For those that are just starting in their editing journey, it may take a while to fully master these cuts. However, the more you practice, the better you become and with time you'll begin to make very impressive videos that will attract more real YouTube subscribers.
Incorporating multiple videos in the same frame
Musicians and bands usually use this editing technique for their YouTube videos where they incorporate numerous videos in the same frame. For instance, if a song comprises a drum, a guitar, a bass, and then the vocals, the video may then consist of four separate parts showing the drummer, guitar player, bass player, and vocalist playing their respective instruments.
This editing technique is used to show the performance of each musician in the song. There are no rules to using this technique. Even if you're not a musician, you can experiment with this technique in different ways and determine where it fits. Using this technique would require a lot of computing power, which means that this technique may not work well with a low-end PC so you can choose another technique or get a better system.
This technique can be used with other varieties of techniques to create a nice video. For instance, you could decide to move from one frame to another as the video goes on. For example, you move from the drummer's frame to another band member’s frame while the video is on.
Synchronizing video and audio
To get top-notch audio for your YouTube videos, you'll need to record using a sound interface and a microphone. Once you're done with the recording process you can then easily merge the video and audio in the video production software. Although this is not difficult, it may be tricky for beginners as they will need to ensure proper synchronization of both the video and the audio.
One easy way to get this done is to retain the original audio which was recorded with your phone or camera. You can then detach the original audio from the video track using the video editing software and from there you can see the waveform. After importing the audio which was recorded on the microphone, carefully study the waveform of the audio files and then position the microphone in the timeline accordingly.
Reading this may make this editing process seem difficult but actually doing this is easier and guarantees that the quality of the audio is very high. The audio produced by a camera or phone may not be clear and this may lead to viewers been disappointed leading to a lesser number of views as well.
Using transition effects such as fade and dissolve
You can use a variety of transition effects to give your YouTube video a cinematic effect, where you can manipulate how one part of the video moves into the other part and so on.
The two most popular transition effects are fade and dissolve. These two effects are usually used at the beginning of the video or the end of a particular section of the video. You could use 'fade in' at the beginning of a video and use 'fade out' at the end of the section. You can also experiment with the 'dissolve' effect.
Although you could make your YouTube videos interesting using transition effects, overusing them is not recommended. Too much 'fading' and 'dissolving' will make your videos have a stop-and-feel effect and this may be distracting for your viewers.
Conclusion
Although we've only mentioned a few techniques in this article, there are so many other techniques that can be experimented with. These are the easiest techniques and they are the most used by YouTubers. The more you experiment the more you become familiar with your production software and its features and you can then learn more techniques.
You must put in the necessary effort and skills towards editing your videos. Utilize the tools and resources available online to learn how to edit your videos. This will make you a more marketable YouTuber and help you gain more experience and growth.
