The Sloppy Choppy Papi Gets No Love

Yesterday, I offered up some hot tips for shooting great videos. Now it's time to edit your footage into something entertaining your friends will enjoy and hopefully share with others. It's worth the effort, so there's really no reason to get sloppy when it comes to editing. Believe me, your friends will give you no love when it comes time to watching more. So, please spare your friends from video overdose and take some time to edit something they will look forward to watching again. It's much easier than you think and in many cases it's completely free.

Let's discuss your software options. If you're using a Mac then you're in luck. iMovie comes preinstalled in these computers and won't cost you a thing to get started. It's highly intuitive and easy to use. Nearly all my home videos were edited using iMovie but I have one complaint, it can start to crash as you start adding too many cuts and transitions. Sometimes it will crash and actually delete your original file. Don't let this intimidate you.

However, there is a solution. Just remember to save often and create a backup in case iMovie decides to slap you around a little by deleting your entire file. For the most part it's a great program. I highly recommend it for people just starting out and do not have time to learn more complicated programs like Adobe Premiere or Director's Cut. Adobe Premiere Elements also has a fairly simple interface to figure out and is a nice stepping stone to it's bigger badder brother, Adobe Premiere. If you are a PC lover then these programs should do right by you but these unfortunately are not free.

STYLIN' PROFILIN'

When watching your favorite tv shows, movies and even commercials start paying attention to how these videos were edited and even the camera angles. How are the credits or other type used. Do the scenes change abruptly or do they seem to overlap eachother in a smooth transition? Are there sound effects, music or do voices speak over other video that was obviously recorded at another time. Eventually, you'll pick up on a style you gravitate towards and will get ideas how you want to edit your own movies.

DOES YOUR FOOTAGE MEASURE UP?

OK, first things first here. Did you actually take enough video to start editing your movie? If you did it right, then you'll have waay more footage than you'll ever possibly need. Hopefully, there is a couple minutes or so of video entertaining or visually stimulating enough to use in your movie and the rest will never see the light of day. Believe me, your friends will thank you for your discretion.

Try to keep your final edited movie to 4 minutes or less. Most people do not have the attention span to watch anything much longer than that. Also keep in mind that YOUtube does not allow you to upload videos longer than 10 minutes.

To separate the wheat from the shaft, you MUST watch all the footage you've taken. What's nice about Adobe Premiere Elements is that you can load all your videos into your file and tag/organize them so they are easily referenced. Remember, if you get bored watching them your friends will too. So, choose only the very best videos or a clip of that video to edit into your movie. In this case, too much footage is not a good thing.

Don't discard video just because it's too long or the audio is messed up. Those panaramic shots of the beach from the resort balcony or random people shots at a party or on the street might be boring in of themselves but could be fun as a transition between scenes. Short snips of these types of videos are a great way to quickly offer your viewers a sense of the setting and what's about to go down. All these editing programs I mentioned will allow you to discard the audio and allow you to add music or use audio from one of your other videos to create a more dynamic movie.

PACE YOURSELF

Even video footage of a slug can seem action-packed and exciting when edited properly. Using several short clips using different camera angles can make even the most boring subject seem exciting and engaging. Upbeat music and appropriate sound effects edited into the background or replacing the audio of the video altogether will help to bring some continuity to these different clips. Using the overlap transition to simultaneously fade out one clip and superimpose a fade in of your next clip over the top of it will help to make all these cuts appear seamless. Remember to play with the timing of your overlap to set the tone and pace you want to communicate to your audience. Longer transitions offer a more elegant feel while faster overlaps are great for keeping your movie upbeat. Music or sound effects can help to determine where and how long these types of tranistions should take place and how often. There will be times when using an overlap is not needed and just a quick cut to the next scene is more appropriate.

I definitely recommend you experiement with the transitions available in your editing software to get a feel of what they do and which ones appeal to your sense of style. I tend to veer away from most of the transitions offered but that's just my personal preference. Most of them scream home movie and do not offer that polished look of a professional film.

CLASS IT UP

It's not always possible to work with great footage everytime. Sometimes the color isn't right, it's too dark or too bright. Whatever the problem not every video will convey the upscale experience you are hoping to communicate with your audience. This is most relevant for weddings, anniversaries and musical performances. Each of these editing programs offer video effects to tweek the quality and color of your videos. One sure fire way to add a little class to your video is by using the black & white video effect. You still might need to adjust the contrast and/or brightness if your video was really hurting but it's worth the effort. You can even help to decrease or remove wrinkles entirely from your subject by using this method. If you make your friends look good they will thank you and the odds of them sharing your video with others drastically increases.

TYPE

Now that you've edited your movie into something short and sweet it's time to add some movie titles and credits. The font and style you choose should emulate the content of your movie. Bubbly typefaces are more appropriate for videos of the kids while bold, simple sans serif typefaces are great for most other videos. Try to avoid using thin typefaces when laying type over video as it can be difficult to read especially when your video is converted to a less quality version to be made available for the internet or emails.

There are all types of transitions for type as well but I usually like to keep it simple. When I want to promote friends in the video I will use a rolling credit at the end. More important contributors like friends who supply original music I will give a credit at the beginning of the movie in case someone doesn't make it through the entire video which does happen.

Again, pay close attention to your favorite shows and watch how the editors use type. Personally, I like to start with a black screen with some background noise from the video that's about to appear playing while my movie title slowly fades in before the video does. I try to keep it simple and short to save as many of the credits for the end so it doesn't compete with my content. I also prefer to use only one or two different fonts that look nicely together. Anything more than that and it starts looking sloppy and unprofessional.

LATER THIS WEEK: FLIPBOOK ANIMATIONS

I will discuss how you can transform your most basic photos into a flipbook style animation set to music. This simple technique will bring a new dimension to your photography that will blow those standard slideshow presentations away. Your friends will commend you for being a master movie maker. So, stay tuned for more hot tips that will bring your photos and videos to the next level.