Good, Fast & Cheap? Avoiding Some of the Pitfalls of Pro Video Editing

Premiumbeat.com by Danny Greer

There’s an old saying, “if you want something done good, fast & cheap, pick two.” As video editors we often struggle to provide our clients with all three, minimizing the return on our time investment and costing us our sanity in the process!

In this post, we’ll offer a few tips to streamline your editing process…so that both you and your client walk away happy and feeling good about the editing process, as well as the final product.

Don’t Lose Sight of the “Big Picture”

Know the big picture of your project going into it…and stay focused on that. It’s far too easy to get micro-focused in the editing suite, concentrating on minute details before the rough cut has even been completed. Don’t forget it’s called a rough-cut for a reason! Create a paper outline of the video structure to give you an overarching view of the project. Then, make it priority #1 to get that outline realized on the timeline. For some types of projects (corporate, news, etc) it may even be beneficial to lay out the structure first and then go back and add b-roll and supporting video. Don’t pick away with color correction, go crazy with effects or spend unnecessary time mixing audio this early in the process…as it’s possible that some sections may not even make it into the final version. Just remember…get the “big picture” put together first! read more...