VIDEO POST-PRODUCTION: ESSENTIAL EDITING STEPS FOR BEGINNERS

Every edit starts with a plan. For most professional productions, the plan takes the form of a well-crafted script along with detailed storyboards honed to make production of the video as smooth as possible, from the initial idea all the way to delivery of the video.

Every good video tells a story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Write your script around the story you want to tell. You’ll also want to plan how you’ll use music, graphics, text, and effects, so there’s a logical flow and consistency to it.

If you didn’t shoot with a script or storyboard, now is the time to come up with a plan for editing and telling a story with your video.

Most video editing software allows you to preview clips without importing them into your project, so that’s a great way to review the video footage and decide what you’re going to use. Remember, some “bad” footage can be salvaged. You can be color-correct your footage if necessary, or stabilize shaky footage. It's always best to avoid problems like this in the first place, but if that's not possible, then your post-production tools can come to the rescue. Get a good feel for what your editing software can do, and you’ll know what footage you’ll be able to use despite the problems it has.

Once you’ve decided on the files you want to use for your video, import them into your project. Then, you can sort the footage into folders or “bins.” For example, you might sort B-roll or insert shots into a single bin. Or, you could sort footage into bins by scene. You have a lot of flexibility, and each project may require different organization techniques, so determine what works best for your project.