video editing

You cannot master business, or education, or anything without mastering video.

In days gone past, video was almost a domain in itself, but it’s just not the way anymore.

People also think to do video they need a 3k camera, a powerful computer, licensed music, and expensive editing software.

This too is largely BS.

Like anything, video has been taken over by marketers.

I’d say being authentic with the video medium, and telling a story is way more important than quality at this point.

So don’t be afraid to just send up what you have.

Oh and another thing. The workflow effort required to create content is a CRITICAL factor.

You might be an absolute gun film maker. But if you take 4 months to film, and 3 months to edit, and you need a new video every single day, you’re cooked.

So here are some tips to getting video right:

Base editing principles

• You need a story, even if it's in only in your mind:
• Every cut of a video or a series of content pieces must tell a story.
• Think about the story, the pace, the tension, the emotion and what you want to convey.
• Think about what will ‘bounce’ a person’s brain. Like social media you need to figure out what will delight, horrify, amuse—and ultimately engage the audience.
• While you are creating images and sounds on a screen that move. You want to understand the imagery and emotion that content will create for your audience.
• Rhythm and pace:
• Figure out if it’s a documentary, or an MTV action reel. Don’t jump around, and don’t just document everything that happened.
• No one cares about 99% of what you’re doing.
• They’ll only watch if they’re amused or interested in some way.
• It’s the written copy and context that makes someone watch a video most of the time.
• Flow:
• Maintain a consistency of flow, you don’t want to purposely jar from one concept to the next unless you intend it.
• Sometimes jumping around and confusing can be funny.
• But as a rule, don’t assault the brain of the person. Make them feel comfortable. That’s why TV is so slow. It’s designed for the dumbest people.
• The visual hierarchy in slides extrapolates to video:
• Walk the user through concepts.
• Use motion to invite the transition of concepts.
• Don’t be afraid to frame concept transitions with sounds.

Video tips to be aware of without being a videographer

Some things you can use to help you with your videos:

Blah blah blah—go use AI to expand on those and give you a lesson.

Tools you can use

I would not assume you need Adobe Premiere Pro. It’s stupidly expensive.

One smart move is to just buy a Mac—on Education Discount and bundle in Final Cut Pro.

That’s like $240 bucks or something. It’s not crazy if you’re a student. Make the investment, cause I’m pretty sure you can just use it perpetually.

The more complex the app you use though, the more complex it is to run computationally as well.

Apple iMovie will get a lot done on its own. This is particularly relevant when your computer is not that powerful. Even iMovie on an iPhone works really well for video.

For social media Canva is ridiculously good. Only because it has frames and templates galore, and you can create videos in the precise format that will work. A LOT less complexity.

I wouldn’t edit feature length documentaries with it—but it’s good to go for screen share content and short edits.

The other thing you should add to your toolbox is Google Veo 2/3 and Runway ML. These tools are fantastic for filler content that’s creative. Most of it is 4 to 8 seconds of video content that can be entirely synthetic or created from content you feed it. It’s crazy what you can do with it.

Unless you’re a pro—don’t buy Adobe Premiere Pro. It’s a massive headache and time waster. Stick with Apple products. Or just use Canva. Or Capcut even.

Editing for speed

Unless you are a professional video maker, or you’re going for quality, the ‘speed’ of your editing abilities matters.

What do you think is going to be more useful for your business.

1 super high quality video a week.

or 3 videos a day consistently—with one reasonable quality launch video a week.

Think about it. Speed matters in social media, so it’s something to consider.

You also need to think about the acquisition cost. You could spend all week making videos and make no actual money doing anything else, whilst not keeping anyone happy.

And if you get the formula I’m talking about right—you’ll crush even established film makers, because you’re feeding the attention machine and they’re not.

Here are some steps of how to make films:

1. Bring the footage in:
• In order of time is a good start.
• If you can create a linear edit you’ll go way faster. The more angles and complexity you add, the longer and harder it’ll be.
2. Do a rough organisation into the general story:
• Order the content into the order of the story.
• Trim crudely and widely to the essential elements.
3. Add the music or sound:
• Why add the sound now?
• Often sound adds a great background from which to edit off.
• Adding it prior to fine-grain edit can help set a tempo.
• If the tempo's not working, choose a different track.
4. Make fine grain edits:
• Refine transitions, tighten pacing, add B-roll, and insert placeholders for graphics.
5. Color grading:
• You can do this by establishing a primary grade for mood, then tweak for consistency.
• Or just get a good camera and style it.
• If you’re in a studio, just get the lighting decent to start with.
6. Graphics and titles:
• Use this in limited ways. Less is more.
• Crude is often even better.
• And remember, if the social media platforms detect text they may bury you. Use cautiously.
7. Export in right format:
• Format correctly for platform, and use the correct resolution. YouTube you can generally go a high resolution. Facebook however really wants 1080p. Don’t overengineer it.

Final comments on your editing workflow

• Know the keyboard shortcuts: They make you race ahead.
• If you can use Proxies in workflows do it: High-res raw images will kill most computers.
• Version control: Make a cut every now and then. Sometimes you’ll screw it up and want to fall back.
• QA your work: Make sure you watch it fully before shipping. Sometimes you just can’t see it in edit.
• Err on the side of being brutal with edits: You may love a piece of content, but if it doesn’t tell the story it shouldn’t be there. Be brutal.
• Don’t be afraid just to ship it: No one cares if a video is perfect, most people won’t watch it anyway.
• Say what you want to say immediately—in video the probability someone will watch the whole thing is low. So don’t waste the first 10 seconds to get the gist across.

Conclusion

Video is a key part of all social media now, but the investment you need to make should be thought of really carefully. The time and cost of video is massive. It can quickly turn into a full-time job, because the filming, editing, production, and deployment can be a massive amount of time.

Sit back and really think if that’s what you want to be doing all day. I’d use it simply, have a tight workflow, and don’t overengineer it.

Even filming in high res can be dumb I reckon. The amount of data, time, and cost is amazing.

Just moving content from storage mediums is a PITA. If the platforms you’re using only display a sampled down format for streaming, why bother with 4k or greater?