How I Edit My Videos

Recently I put out a post on Instagram asking what people wanted me to write about on my blog and the topic of video editing came up a lot. I was asked how I edit, how I developed my style of editing and what my creative process is, so, this post is dedicated to just that.

Editing for me is a hobby and it's something I love to do in my spare time. I really love the collection of videos I've created over the years, I'm an extremely nostalgic person so it's nice to have something more than just a photo to look back on. Filming my friends has certainly taken some time to get used to, I remember when I first started filming it was an incredibly awkward thing to do and my friends would always cover their faces or push the camera away. At other times they'd mistake me filming for a photograph and pose - these however are the moments I love capturing the most, you end up filming the authentic reactions surrounding it, usually the laughter of their realisation. But, over time, they've warmed to it and because of that I've been able to create some really beautiful videos.

Software

There can be a lot of stigma around which software an editor uses, I think people assume the more prestigious the software you use, the better the editor that makes you, but I don't necessarily agree with this. Premiere Pro and Avid are considered the industry standard and, if you are looking to go down the editing route, are certainly worth knowing the basics on, however when I edit for a hobby, I always edit on Final Cut Pro. I've been using Final Cut Pro since I bought my first laptop back in 2015, at the time it was quite pricey for me but cheaper than Premiere Pro, and I certainly wouldn't have understood Avid at the time. Final Cut is a relatively straight forward software with keyboard shortcuts that make sense i.e B for Blade. It's got all the basic transitions and texts so, as far as editing for a hobby goes, it does the job very well. The main downfall of Final Cut Pro is the way in which you import your media. You have to import your footage directly to a library within the software, which is great if you're editing shorter videos, and is a great way to organise your footage, but overtime these libraries build up and can cause storage problems. Unfortunately I'm talking from experience here, and when I was less educated on how to go about fixing this problem, I ended up deleting project and losing it for the sake of gaining some more storage. Other softwares like Premiere Pro work around this issue by not directly importing the footage to the software, meaning you can come and go with editing as you please, as long as you have the footage to hand. Overall however, if you're just starting out with editing or are just looking to take it up as a hobby, I'd recommend Final Cut Pro because of how straight forward it is to use.

Side note: you can actually take courses on softwares such as Premiere Pro and Avid which grants you certification in the software. The courses usually consist of text book lessons followed by two multiple choice exams, however, they can be quite pricey. I was quite lucky that my University offered them for a cheaper rate, allowing me to receive my certificate in Avid for a lot less than what would have been offered outside of academia. I'd definitely recommend taking up one of those courses, if you're looking for a job in the editing industry, as companies will probably look for applicants with those accreditations so that they don't have to pay for you to get certified through the company.

My Editing Style

It's interesting, I've never really followed other editors, nor have I ever tried to edit any other way to my own rhythm of editing. I think that's the beauty of editing, everyone does it differently and develops their own style as they do it. For me I really like to focus on the music. Most of my edits, specifically the ones I post to my Instagram, all rely on the music, whether that's for dictating the pace of the edit or provoking emotion, it's always where I start. Usually, if it's a trip that I'm filming, then I choose the music for the edit based on which song was most present on that trip. For example, when my family and I went to New York we listened to the song Permanating by Steven Wilson a fair bit because it had just been released. This then was used for the video and it worked as a nice summary of the trip! Other times I use music if I think it will work emotionally. A lot of the time when I edit, I like to focus on nostalgia, I like my videos to provoke an emotional reaction so I sometimes opt for songs that have emotional lyrics. For example, one of my most recent videos, my Decade Video, includes the song 'World Without You - Hudson Taylor', not only because that's a band I listened to a lot during that decade, but the lyrics were thought about to send a message to those within the video, as it was how I felt towards them.

When I've chosen my music for the video I'll then look through the footage and decide which shots I like and just mess around with the edit until I like it. Usually I'll edit things in order of events, that tends to make the most sense, especially for trips, that also helps to speed up the editing process. Another thing that I guess you could consider my 'style' is how I always cut to the beat/rhythm of the music. I know a lot of people do that, it's nothing new, it's just something I find really satisfying to do and I also think it helps drive the edit forward too. It's probably quite funny to watch me editing, when I play back the rough cut you'll usually catch me waving my hand around, as if I'm beating a drum, to make sure that the cuts happen directly on the beat. It's a really fun thing to play around with and it's also why I usually use the penultimate chorus of songs, you can be a bit more creative with the drop of the beat that way.

My Favourite Edits

It's quite hard to describe how and why I edit through writing alone, so, I thought I'd try and talk through the creative process behind some of my favourite edits on here to see if that makes it any clearer.

Norfolk for New Years

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My most recent video 'Norfolk for New Years' is actually, currently, my favourite edit. It feels quite sentimental to me and I think it sums up that weekend perfectly. The song 'Places we were made - Maisie Peters' was played a few times over the weekend and despite not 'being made' in Norfolk, it was a really pretty song that worked really well with the vibe of the whole weekend. That weekend made me really appreciate the saying "it's not where you are, but who you're with", I felt a real appreciation and love for my friends during that time and I wanted that to come across within the video. As it was a trip video, I just made a sequence out of the footage in chronological order, making sure that the climax of the song happened during the climax of the weekend - the hour of New Years. Other than that I just wanted the edit to be a sweet one, showing all the laughter and smiles of my friends, along with the beautiful sunsets we were lucky enough to experience. The pace is relatively slow, due to the rhythm of the song, which reflects the slow pace of life we experienced on the trip. I think the most important thing for me when it comes to the edit is to make the video as authentic as possible. I try my best to make the video reflect the emotions felt during that time to act as a nice summary of memories for myself, and for others.

Jungle Drum

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My next favourite edit is Jungle Drum, this was a video I created in 2018 when my friends came to visit me at university in Falmouth. I love this edit because it's a really playful one, it reflects the playfulness of my friends within the footage, i.e trying on silly things in shops and playing with toys. Like I said previously, I like the edit to reflect the tone of the event, and because of the upbeat music, I was able to be a bit more creative with the cuts. This song choice came around because Lily (featured in the video) suggested to me that I edit to that song at some point (Jungle Drum - Emilíana Torrini). I'd never heard the song before so I put it on whilst we were walking in a field and as soon as I heard it I agreed it would be a great one to edit to. Something I'm very aware of when I'm editing my videos is the idea of 'Instagram vs Reality', there are a lot of times when I think, by editing the footage to upbeat songs, I'm potentially making the memories seem better than they are, the idea that everything you see is all 'perfect' and jolly. This is why I decided to add in all of the 'outtakes', as it were, of the trip. For example, when the song changes key, the second half of the sequence cuts through Ethan falling off his skateboard into a bush and Lily and George having seaweed chucked at them. It just brings back the tone of the video to reflect reality, showing that it's not all posed for, it's genuine stuff that I record. You could have thought that Lily and George's moment on the beach hugging was romantic - until you see Ethan and Laurence chucking seaweed at them. I'm very aware that the videos I create act as my memories for certain occasions or trips, and for that reason I really try to make them as authentic as possible. At the end of the day, these edits that I make are for myself and the people in the videos, what's the point in over-editing them to the point where it's no longer an authentic reflection of that memory?

In terms of the creative aspect of this edit, the song literally references to the beat in the title 'Jungle Drum' so it was important for me to mess around with the cuts this way. The end of the video cuts through a series of clips in relation to the beat, this again made more sense to do within this video because it was a playful edit and the fast pace of the song allowed for it. I think for that reason, and because of the silliness of my friends within the video, it will always be one of my favourite edits.

End of Year Video: 2017

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The last video I wanted to talk about was my 2017 end of year video. The end of year videos are my favourite to edit because it means I get to use all the miscellaneous bits of footage that I've accumulated over the year, but not yet had a purpose to use. They're also my favourite because not only is it nice to have a summary of the year to look back on, but to see how much changes in the space of a year. This leads me on to why the 2017 video in particular is my favourite. 2017 was a big year for me, it was the year I did my A-Levels, finished school forever and embarked on the very scary (but exciting) transition to independency, also known as University. The video literally evidences new people coming into my life as it features people that haven't yet been featured in my videos. A lot happened that year also in terms of travel, I went to my favourite festival, in Belgium, with my friends (for what was our potentially last time), I visited Amsterdam, Menorca AND New York(!) so I definitely had a lot of footage to play with. It was an incredibly good year, one that I wanted to show appreciation for as I realise how lucky I am to be able to experience such things. Hence the song 'Love You Like That - Dagny', which I actually (and rather ashamedly) found through watching the Sims 3 Pets trailer on Boxing Day...

Despite that, I thought it was perfect for the edit as the lyrics "you know when they say, you've got the real thing, and nothing else matters, I love you like that" really summed up my feelings towards everyone that had been a part of my 2017.

The editing of this one is also something that I love, I wanted to start off slow and build up the pace gradually until the beat drops and the chorus comes in. I think in doing that it elevated the excitement of the year but also managed to romanticise the appreciation I felt for my friends through the slow-mo shots at the beginning. I also love that edit because of the timings. Throughout, I'm cutting to the beat as ever, but my absolute favourite part is how perfectly the chucking of a glass of water over Jack occurs in relation to the climax of the song, it works to set the new pace of the second half and really provokes an uplifting tone. I think that edit will always be one of my favourites because it really does reflect how I felt that year, nostalgic yet excited

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2017 was a year for reflection as much as it was one for moving forward into a new chapter of my life (university) and I really wanted that to come through in the edit. As well as the fact I just had a lot of exciting footage to use due to all the trips I'd filmed that year - especially having all my friends to film at the festival. It was a really good year and I'm going to continue to make yearly videos for as long as I'm editing. I think it's a lovely thing to be able to look back on and it's exciting to see how much can change in the space of a year.

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That was a rather long, but hopefully interesting, insight into my editing process. I really love creating the videos that I do for my instagram, it's my own little way of saying thank you to the people who mean a lot to me and go through all these crazy memories along with me. I hope that also answers any questions for everyone that specifically asked for me to talk about this topic and that it was somewhat interesting/useful!

Thank you for reading and I'll be back with another post very soon,

All my love,

Emily x