5 Easy Editing Tricks for More Powerful Storytelling
Most beginning editors start off learning the basic concept of making cuts in their videos to create a finished project.
Once they have learned to do that, the emphasis tends to go a little off course at that point and they start drifting into that vast wasteland I like to call, transitions!
The problem is that their intended goal is that of keeping the viewer engaged but the whole “transitions” thing leads them off into the undergrowth, possibly never to be seen again.
The real key to all of this is learning why and when to cut rather than how.
If you take a look at the video below on editing techniques to improve storytelling you will notice that in most cases he uses a straight cut.
No fancy swirly, spinny transitions or masking effects, just straight cuts.
The difference is where and why each cut in being made and what purpose it is serving to the story.
How to Design J-Cut and L-Cut Transitions in Powerdirector
One of the absolute basics anyone should be learning as a new video editor is the use of J-Cuts and L-Cuts.
You should learn why they are the most common cuts in pro editing and how to do them.
So for the second part of that equation, the how, check out the video below because although they seem kind of simple, they are pretty easy to mess up!
As far as the why goes, heres the short version.
Both the J-Cut and the L-Cut are cut points where either the video cuts just before the audio or the audio cuts just before the video.
Youll see in the demo below which is which so I am not to ramble on about it here!
The reason it is so powerful and is used like flour in a bakery is that they both mimic real life.
In real life, you are constantly receiving visual and auditory information but you are rarely receiving both visual and auditory information from one source at the one time.
If a dog barks at you when you are on the street you will most likely hear the dog before you see the dog.
If you are in a crowded room at a party you will be seeing then hearing then hearing then seeing and only on a very few occasions will the hearing and seeing happen simultaneously.
J-Cuts and L-Cuts reflect that reality of life and provide a very polished and professional edge to your videos without your audience being aware of why that is.
6 AI Tools That Make Video Editing 10X Faster
These are six tools in PowerDirector that I can totally get onboard with.
Its not because they are A.I and all the cool kids are using them or that they are creating my videos for me!
Its because they do what I want A.I. to do and that is to take boring, repetitive or just plain fiddly tasks off my hands and get them done painlessly.
A.I as a tool for creators and not a replacement of them is where we should be going right now.
How to Improve Audio Quality in Filmora (4 Easy Steps)
This is a run-through of some of the main audio tools you can find in Filmora 15 at the moment.
I say at the moment because Filmora gets updates pretty fast so who know whats coming next.
Anyway I dont think I need to bang on and on about the importance of audio in video creation.
Its one of those invisible factors to the audience that makes them think something is wrong without really identifying what it is thats wrong.
Whether they realize it or not, they quickly switch off.
What’s New in Filmora 15.6 – Teleprompter and Pen Tool Animation
When I added the item above, showing the audio tools of Filmora 15, I mentioned half seriously some thing about them updating frequently.
As so here we are! There is a new update to Filmora 15 which takes it to version 15.6.11.
In this new version there are a couple of very interesting enhancements to at least two of the tools already in the program.
The first is that they have added a teleprompter capability to the screen capture module.
This module is actually a stand alone program that you can, obviously, use to capture whatever it is you are doing on you computer screen.
What they have done is add the capability of having a teleprompter style overlay running while you are doing you screen capture.
This is a great feature for people using the program to do demonstration videos who can now read their script or cue sheet while doing the demo.
The second one is very cool and although is presented as an enhancement to the Pen tool (which it is) it is actually a way to manually draw motion paths.
So rather than try to explain it just watch Jacky’s video showing what it can do.
Fix Wrong Aspect Ratio Color Match Photos with AI! (Easy NoteGPT Tutorial)
Last week I spoke about no longer using A.I. features as part of the selection process for video editing apps.
This week I have another video tutorial showing why I no longer consider A.I. capabilities as being a particularly important part of that process.
These days there are many, many iterations of A.I. models for us to use and each of them have their own specialities, strengths and weaknesses.
Including all of them into an editing program’s interface would just be silly at this point especially given they are all easily accessible online.
So here’s another super quick and effective A.I. workflow from Gripps2211 working inside Corel VideoStudio and using external A.I. to manipulate his assets how he wants.
Learning Resolve? Don’t Make These Beginner Mistakes!
There are two main hurdles you have to get over if and when you start editing videos for whatever reason.
The first is actually learning how to work your way around the editing software you are going to be using so that you can actually edit!
The second and less obvious is that without a workflow, things can go downhill at an alarming rate!
Knowing where to start and why, followed by the next logical step in the sequence and why will get you to where you want to be way faster and without a whole lot of pain and with your sanity and enthusiasm for the activity (relatively!) intact.
Here’s great video from Casey Faris that walks through each step of the correct sequence and why and gives a great foundation to get you started off right.
On top of that he is also offering access to his free course for beginners which I recommend wholeheartedly.
VHS Tape Effect – DaVinci Resolve
Like most effect specific tutorials, I always watch and learn from them on the basis that I probably wont actually use that effect!
I know that seems a bit strange but what I am more interested in with these kinds of tutorials is how the effect is achieved, not the effect itself.
I have found over the years that whilst learning how to pull off an effect, you inevitably go through a bunch of steps involving tools and settings within the software.
The key here is to learn the tools and not so much the effect.
This one for example is how to manually recreate an old VHS tape effect.
Personally? Couldnt care less about an old VHS tape effect!
How Daniel gets there? Very interesting.
Key Takeaways
- Beginners should focus on when and why to cut in video editing, rather than just learning transitions.
- Mastering J-Cuts and L-Cuts enhances storytelling by mimicking real-life audio-visual experiences.
- AI tools in video editing should alleviate mundane tasks instead of replacing creators.
- Improving audio quality is vital for audience engagement and spans multiple tools in Filmora.
- Updates in Filmora 15.6 include new features like a teleprompter and enhancements to the Pen tool.