Editing your video footage is straightforward, provided you have the right tools and know a few tricks!
In this article:
Video Editing
Editing doesn’t have to be complex. Mainly you’re cleaning up your footage, removing ums, ahs, and unnecessary pauses, and adding in additional media to augment your lessons.
Get to Know Your Tools
Most editing programs (we’ve listed a few in the article Select the Right Equipment) work more or less the same. If you’re new to editing, this tutorial from Vimeo Video School is a great place to start: Video 101: Editing Basics on Vimeo. Or check out some of our recommended Skillshare classes below.
Organize Your Assets
Streamline your workflow by organizing your raw footage into folders. If you have slides or other assets, make sure you have those ready too, and labeled accordingly.
Stick to Shorter Lessons
As a rule, try to keep your lessons between 2 and 8 minutes to keep your students engaged. If you have a longer demo, consider breaking it up into specific steps or parts.
Keep It Simple
In a high-quality class, good editing should not be noticeable! You don’t want your editing to distract from what you’re teaching; ideally, you’re using it only to enhance your lessons. Ensure your edits are clean, clear, and well-timed. If you’re not an experienced editor, straight cuts and simple transitions generally work best.
Show, Don’t (Just) Tell
One of the keys to an engaging class is finding ways to illustrate or highlight what you’re saying on camera with compelling visuals.
- Vary your visuals. As a rule, for talking head shots, we recommend switching things up with a new camera angle, graphic, or slide every 30-45 seconds in your lessons, or every 3-5 seconds in your intro video. This will keep students engaged and focused on your material.
- Use slides or text to highlight top tips and key takeaways. Insert slides or additional on-screen text where necessary to organize the content of your lesson, highlight important concepts and phrases, or break down complex techniques or concepts.
- In screencast videos, consider highlighting or zooming in on key actions so students can really see what you’re doing.
- For physical demonstrations with an overhead setup, switch to close-ups every once in a while to show textures or the tools you’re using in your lessons.
Use Timelapsed Content Strategically
Students do love watching teachers work and you should include demonstrations in your lessons while narrating your process and creative decisions. In any lesson where you practice the same action repeatedly, however, we recommend timelapsing (speeding up) your video to keep your class engaging and succinct.
Audio Editing
It’s not a bad idea to do a final pass on your audio, especially if you’re adding music to your intro or conclusion videos — you want to make sure you have a balanced mix! Music should never distract from your voiceover.
We highly recommend editing audio with a pair of good headphones to ensure you’re hearing the correct balance and your final mixed audio isn’t too loud or too soft.
If you’re finding that your audio is too dynamic (that is, loud in some areas and too soft in others) you can use the Compressor or Equalization effects in Audacity to reduce its dynamic range. These tutorials give a little more information on how to do that:
- Audacity: How to Change the Volume of an Audio Selection
- Audacity: Compressor and Equalization
- How to use the Compressor in Audacity
Go Further
If you’re new to editing and need some additional instruction, look no further! Top Teacher Sean Dykink’s Skillshare class, Video Editing Techniques: A Practical Guide to Creating Visually Appealing Edits, is a great introduction to editing no matter what software you’re using.
These Skillshare classes teach editing through specific software — select the class that works best for you.
- Learn Premiere Pro and Edit a "How-To" Video for Beginners by Hallease Narvaez
- Video Editing with Adobe Premiere Pro for Beginners by Jordy Vandeput
- Video Editing in DaVinci Resolve: Four Essential Post-Production Techniques by Oliver Astrologo
- Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - From Beginner to YouTuber by Ali Abdaal