Video Editing

Video Editing

With video galvanizing today’s marketing world, many companies are using it to increase their visual presence and boost traffic and sales. Video editing helps you create polished, professional content that has a higher probability of resonating with your target audience than unedited alternatives. While there are many aspects involved in creating the perfect video, such as an intelligent script and skilful audio, camera, and directing work, what brings them all together to form a coherent story is video editing. Combining technical skills and creativity, video editors control the tone and mood of the piece, transforming raw material into palpable emotion.

Video editors use dedicated software to manipulate camera footage with special effects, CGI, motion graphics, sound effects, and colour to create an entirely new video. Video editing is a key tool for any type of video production because it allows you to mold your information into a clear and concise message. It simplifies selecting the best clips from a shoot and splicing them together so that you can effortlessly create one consistent video. While big businesses often use professional video editors, smaller ones may opt to use a high-grade in house video editing software as it is more economical on a smaller scale.

Popular video editing software for beginners includes SDC, Pinnacle Studio, and DaVinci Resolve. Skilled professionals, on the other hand, can use programs with more advanced features, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, and Lightworks. When choosing a software, it is important to consider that it suits both your budget and needs. Short, simple videos are unlikely to require an overly complex solution. Higher quality content, however, may benefit from hiring professional video services. Given the popularity of video in social media and content marketing today, this can be a valuable investment. In fact, over half of marketing professionals consider video content to have a higher ROI than other marketing assets.

Video editors are responsible for examining your footage and selecting the best takes to create a final product that aligns with your script, storyboard, and core message. They are not simply mechanical manipulators, but masterful story tellers that maximise the value of your content while staying true to the style and intention of the original. Video editors must have the ability to see the video through the eyes of the audience, so that they can create evocative content that entices consumers to believe in your ideas. Videos can be shown in many different formats, from full length videos such as those uploaded to YouTube as well as time-restricted ones, such as 30-second television ads or 5-second bumper ads. It is up to the editor to calibrate the final product to its appropriate distribution platform.

During a video shoot, the director often captures much more footage than will actually be required. This is because it is far easier to shoot additional footage while on set than to decide after the fact that a shot was missed or should have been filmed differently. Multiple takes and variants are shot in the name of having greater choice during the video post production phase. Video editing goes far beyond this and extends to complex motion graphics, animations, special effects, CGI work, music, and sound effects. Although video editors themselves may not be responsible for creating these, it is an important skill for them to be able to work with these types of files and adapt them to the video in question. A good edit will balance these features in a visually interesting, easy to follow way that makes a compelling call to action.

Every edit should start with a well-crafted plan. This usually takes the shape of a script and detailed storyboard that outlines ideation to delivery. Other things to take into consideration when planning include music, graphics, text, and effects. Once you have the footage, it can be reviewed and the best clips can be selected and sorted into a rough cut. Post production tools can then be used to refine the edit into the final polished version, such as stabilization of shaky footage, colour correction and grading, transitions, graphics, visual effects, or any other enhancements that suit your objectives. Length and timing should also be considered, with most marketing videos ranging from 30 seconds to 3 minutes long. When your video is complete, it can be exported and shared to the appropriate marketing channels.

Video marketing content provides businesses with a versatile and shareable medium to reach their target audiences. It offers an ever increasing “pass-along” value in the current digital market, as it can be shared on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Over eighty percent of internet users in the United States watch video content every month, and every minute, 24 hours of video are uploaded to the network, with five billion videos being watched daily. Not only this, but online video content has been found to be a more effective marketing tool than print and direct mail combined. This is driven by the stronger viewer retention and emotional connections formed by video messages compared to that of text - in fact, the brain processes video 60,000 times faster.

This increasing popularity of video is fueled by recent technology and the continual rise of handheld device usage over desktops. Nowadays, more people watch online content than they do traditional televisions. Tablets which were once used for ebooks and video games, now also serve as portable televisions. In addition to these factors, increased social media use means that users are much more likely to view, connect with, and share video content than any time in the past. A recent survey showed that 85% of consumers would like to see more video content from brands, with 97% of marketers agreeing that videos help increase understanding of their product or service. Using video editing to create clear, targeted, and emotionally relevant marketing materials should therefore be a part of any agency’s content marketing strategy.