Video Editing

[WolfieBot]

Hi all.

First post in this section. Just looking for some advice on editing videos from a small camera, essentially creating one longer video from lots of small clips.

I've got all the files formatted and have given PowerDirector a go. I know how to crop and merge etc that's not a problem.

What I was wondering about is how to manage all of the clips. Do you add them all in to start with so you've got one really long video, then edit them all down and rearrange them together? Or is it a case of add one in, edit that, then the next?

I appreciate people will have different opinions but just looking for some best practices advice so to speak.

Cheers

[GetCarter]

I do the latter, but I am almost always editing to music... hence.

[SCEtoAUX]

Typically on a video edit you'd join all of the sound together so that it made sense, and then you'd fill in with pictures that make it look nice and illustrate the piece.

Of course if you're just cutting something to music then the above doesn't apply.

[WolfieBot]

Thanks for the replies. There will be music but it's more about the video than the sound.

Essentially it's a holiday video, I tend to take lots of short 3-5 second video clips rather than pictures, then stitch them all together into one video and add some music afterwards.

[singlecoil]

Are you aiming for there to be a narrative (even if it's unspoken) flow to the finished video?

If so then a proper video editing program would be essential. The more you pay the more you will get. Vegas is a good one and even the basic one will do all you want from the sound of it.

[GetCarter]

WolfieBot said:

Thanks for the replies. There will be music but it's more about the video than the sound.

Essentially it's a holiday video, I tend to take lots of short 3-5 second video clips rather than pictures, then stitch them all together into one video and add some music afterwards.

Yep... get what you're saying... my vids are generally about the visuals too ... but laying down the music first makes it a lot easier to edit the visuals - a bit like a foundation.

Here's a couple of examples. You may (or may not!) be interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCbHziHvpRs&t=... (placing the right bit of footage at the right time so that the music adds)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbDa-2ckvXw (using the 8 and 4 bar phrases to create edit points)

[rich888]

GetCarter said:

WolfieBot said:

Thanks for the replies. There will be music but it's more about the video than the sound.

Essentially it's a holiday video, I tend to take lots of short 3-5 second video clips rather than pictures, then stitch them all together into one video and add some music afterwards.

Yep... get what you're saying... my vids are generally about the visuals too ... but laying down the music first makes it a lot easier to edit the visuals - a bit like a foundation.

Here's a couple of examples. You may (or may not!) be interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCbHziHvpRs&t=... (placing the right bit of footage at the right time so that the music adds)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbDa-2ckvXw (using the 8 and 4 bar phrases to create edit points)

Out of interest GC, what software do you use for your video editing, I've always used iMovie for the occasional video I make, it was included free with my iMac and it seemed pretty easy to use so I stuck with it

[b2hbm]

WolfieBot said:

What I was wondering about is how to manage all of the clips. Do you add them all in to start with so you've got one really long video, then edit them all down and rearrange them together? Or is it a case of add one in, edit that, then the next?

I don't think there's a right or wrong way to approach editing, I'd imagine everyone has different ideas. I also use Powerdirector and usually for holiday clips I pull the source clips from a particular scene/location and edit those into a half decent clip. For holiday video the sound from my camera is usually rubbish so I normally pick out anything decent/relevant that I want to keep (for example waves breaking on the beach) then overlay an appropriate music background.

That gives me a short clip that's "finished". I'll remove everything from the edit window and load up the next scene/location clips, rinse & repeat until I've a set of edited clips with different background music to suit the scenes. I find it easier that way to sort out music to match the video but there's no reason why you can't add the background afterwards on a long clip.

At that point the edited clips come together on the timeline, add chapters/menu automatically if you're burning a dvd or just render the whole timeline if you're putting it on a USB drive.

Edited by b2hbm on Saturday 30th December 17:10

[GetCarter]

rich888 said:

GetCarter said:

WolfieBot said:

Thanks for the replies. There will be music but it's more about the video than the sound.

Essentially it's a holiday video, I tend to take lots of short 3-5 second video clips rather than pictures, then stitch them all together into one video and add some music afterwards.

Yep... get what you're saying... my vids are generally about the visuals too ... but laying down the music first makes it a lot easier to edit the visuals - a bit like a foundation.

Here's a couple of examples. You may (or may not!) be interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCbHziHvpRs&t=... (placing the right bit of footage at the right time so that the music adds)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbDa-2ckvXw (using the 8 and 4 bar phrases to create edit points)

Out of interest GC, what software do you use for your video editing, I've always used iMovie for the occasional video I make, it was included free with my iMac and it seemed pretty easy to use so I stuck with it

Yep... I also generally use iMovie. I have used Premier before, but it's overkill for the sorta stuff I do.

[SCEtoAUX]

Don't get carried away with fancy effects either. They were fun in the 1980's, now, not so much.

Cuts and dissolves are all you need to transition between shots.

[bazza white]

The gopro software is pretty handy for video editing.

Davinci resolve has a free version. Takes a little getting used to but you can grade and add luts to the free version. There are a few things not available on the free version but more deeper editing stuff.