With over a billion active users, YouTube is the ultimate platform for video marketing. Video transcription service providers can ensure accurate written transcripts of what was said, allowing the content of these clips to be optimized for search engines. However, while YouTube allows you to present your product or service in a unique manner, you need to ensure perfect flow of content in your videos. That’s why it’s important to edit your videos before posting them on YouTube. A key element in the post-production process, editing brings the images and sounds together and balances them to create a cohesive whole.
Importance of Video Editing
The video editing process creates the final cut of the project. The process involves bringing down the footage and audio into something manageable. Here are the reasons why editing YouTube videos is important:
- Allows review of entire content: Shooting a video is a fast-paced process and many aspects can be overlooked. The editing stage allows review of all the content which is important to bring it together and create a coherent picture. Unrelated clips are blended to result in a meaningful story.
- Creates the perfect flow: The editing process makes the footage as smooth and organized as possible. Video editors capture the flow of the footage with the necessary cuts, pace and sound to provoke emotion in the audience and make a dramatic film.
- Makes smooth transitions: The editing stage is where major decisions are made about color, visual effects, transitions and more. Various types of transitions such as cuts, dissolves, fades, wipes and visual effects enable viewers to understand the relationships between the shots and scenes on their screens. Transitions connect the shots together. Proper video editing makes the transitions smooth and elegant.
- Ensures smooth flow of audio: Sound editing is as important as editing the visuals. As an article in Vanity Fair notes, the desire to enrich a film through its sound has grown exponentially. Sound editing involves assembling all the sound in the final clip, adjusting the volume levels, and then choosing and manipulating the right pieces of sound to accompany the visuals. Sound editing an important step to convey the intended message. The individual sounds created for a particular scene in Unstoppable, which was nominated for an Oscar for sound editing, is an excellent example.
- Enhances creative decisions: Skillful video editing enhances the creative decisions made from the pre-production stage through to the post-production phase. Editing brings together all the work to produce a unified whole.
Editing a video can be a hectic experience. The process involves viewing the digital video clips on a monitor and manipulating them with a mouse and a keyboard. Here’s how to go about editing a YouTube video:
First, choose a video-editing program. Google removed its web-based YouTube editor in September 2017. But other effective options are available. Apple’s iMovie is ideal for iOS or macOS device users. The Clips app for iOS is an excellent alternative as it allows users to record and edit short videos quite easily. A TechRepublic article also recommends the free FilmoraGo or VivaVideo for Android users, open source video editors OpenShot or Shotcut for Windows/Linux users, and Lightworks. If you want a web-based solution, try WeVideo or Stupeflix. Sophisticated programs like Adobe Premiere Elements, Sony Movie Studio Platinum and Pinnacle Studio offer more dramatic effects.
Next, edit the video. Drop the video into your timeline and trim it. You can make the video shorter or cut out pieces that you don’t want. You can more shots around, shorten them, and add transitions such as fades or swipes between shots. The end result should be a single, seamless video that conveys your message.
After editing and assembling your video into a cohesive whole, add special effects. You can superimpose pictures and other graphics as well as your website URL or toll-free phone number on the video. You also can add your own background music or choose a theme provided by the editing program. However, take care to see that the special effects you use enhance your story and don’t draw attention away from your key message.
Next, select a suitable file format to upload your video. Formats such as .AVI, .MP4, or .WMA are supported by YouTube and other video-sharing sites. Don’t forget to render your video in high resolution. When you’re editing your video, use a 16:9 ratio widescreen format and present your file in either 720p or 1080i high definition. This will ensure that your video will look good even if it is viewed on a big-screen, high-definition TV.
Video Editing Best Practices
Complying with certain video editing best practices will improve organization and efficiency.
- Organizing footage: Creating separate folders and subfolders for different aspects such as audio, video, graphics, still images and exports is important to stay organized. The editing process can be streamlined by creating a proper folder structure based on the project’s depth. When exporting versions of the video, adding a version number in important to be able to find the latest cut quickly. Such organization will make finding things easier.
- Rename files: Depending on the nature of the project, files can be renamed by subject, date, scene and take numbers, and so on.
- Add metadata: Metadata with regard to vide refers to all the textual information that comes with a video and helps search engines understand the content better while helping users find a video online. Meta data can include information such as the videographer’s name, scene, and take numbers, date of your shoot, or any technical details. Metadata can be added via Premiere Pro’s Project, Metadata panels or Adobe Bridge. Adding meta data allows editors to search, browse, and filter their assets.
- Create backup: Backup files can be created easily and quickly with the right hardware and methods in place. This will ensure safe storage of the project. Besides backing up source files, multiple versions of project files can be saved on a USB with the names related to the date.
- Get feedback: Getting friends or colleagues to watch the video and provide feedback is critical to improve the product. Others will be able to spot something you have missed while editing. Be open to constructive criticism – it may help you improve on your work.
Examples of Well-edited YouTube Videos
In Reebok: “25,915 Days”, Reebok focuses on the fact that the life span of the average human being is 25,915 days and encourages viewers to use those days to continuously honor and push their bodies to their physical limits. This well-edited video that promotes the #HonorYourDays campaign does not have any spoken words, but conveys a powerful message: Make the most of the days you have by, as they put it, “honoring the body you’ve been given.” It shows a woman running in reverse, starting with running the Reebok-sponsored Spartan Race as a middle-aged woman, to running track in high school, and all the way back to the day she was born. Reebok wanted its customers know they’ll be there to cover their athletic gear needs throughout their lives.
In the Mercedes-Benz – Loki (360-degree experience) video, Mercedes used 360-degree cameras, a wolf dog called Loki and his owner Kelly who go for a drive. A well-edited masterpiece with all the right visual and sound effects, the video displays the interior and exterior of the vehicle, demonstrates its off-road capabilities on some beautiful terrain, uses the enthralling experience of 360 video, and captures the irresistible combination of dog and owner playing in the snowy landscape.
So the next time you use a YouTube video in your marketing campaign, make sure it is edited well to ensure an impressive final product with a polished look. Going by best practices that can make the task of editing easier, improve the outcomes, attract more views, and help you get the most out of your YouTube videos. A digital transcription service provider can help with adding captions and transcripts. This is important for marketing success as more than 85% of videos are actually watched without sound on Facebook alone.
