Editing content for social media can be daunting. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be. With a few simple tricks, your videos will go from being mediocre to amazing. While editing your social media videos, your videos must have a similar appearance and style. Consistency in appearance will develop a sort of brand for your videos. When people see a video you created, they will recognize it as yours. Let’s look at some simple edits you can make to your social media videos to improve their quality and recognizability.
Multiple Camera Angles
Using multiple camera angles in your videos can add a lot of production value to what you are producing. Your audience is used to seeing shots from numerous angels in movies and TV shows. Why not do that in your social media videos.
Googling the best camera for YouTube delivers many great cameras that are inexpensive enough to buy more than one. These cameras, many of them mirrorless cameras, are great because they are affordable, provide smooth footage with optical image stabilization, have a fully articulating screen, record full HD or 4k video, and have excellent battery life. Buying multiples of the same camera means that the footage from each one will be similar and allow for a seamless transition from clip to clip.
Another benefit of using a mirrorless camera is that they have interchangeable lenses. Interchangeable lenses mean that you can switch the lens on the camera. With multiple cameras in the same scene, you could have one shot with a zoom lens and a wide lens. This gives you more creative leeway when video editing.
Lastly, don’t forget about the possibility of including action cameras in your gear. A compact camera, like a GoPro, is rugged and produces exciting action shots. These can be great to edit into your videos to make them more creative and interesting.
Color Correct Your Footage
Color correcting your video will significantly improve the quality of your production. Color correcting is when you alter your video’s saturation, hue, or brightness to make it appear more natural. For example, if you are shooting in the desert at midday with sunlight directly on your subject, correcting your video will make it appear more realistic by adjusting the color settings to create less contrast. Color correction is significant because it makes your video look more professional. It can be done in post-production and fairly quickly using editing software such as Final Cut or Premiere Pro.
Beyond adjusting the colors to make them more natural, you want the colors to flow nicely from scene to scene and camera to camera. Your whole video should look cohesive. You also want to make sure that the colors change throughout your video to match the mood or time of day. If you have a dark scene with a sunny location after it, the bright scene should be darkened slightly to compensate for the darkness of the previous scene.
Another advantage of color correcting is that it makes it easier to match different shots from different cameras. For example, if you wanted a shot from your mirrorless camera and your GoPro to have the same color settings, it would take some color correcting to make them look consistent.
Edit in Creative Ways, Like Jump Cuts
Jump cuts can be one of many helpful editing techniques to create captivating videos. Jump cuts are used to show a quick transition between two shots without any slow down. It’s similar to an abrupt fast-forward or rewind of time. For example, if you wanted to condense several hours into just minutes, jump cuts would be an effective way to speed up the video footage.
The jump cut has been around for many years, but it is still one of the most effective editing techniques to use in your videos. It can be used for dramatic effect. However, it can also be used for comedic effects. Whatever the goal is for your clips, try a jump cut. You may find audiences are engaged longer when jump cuts are used.
Overlay Text and Graphics
Text and graphics are great additions to your videos. Besides having them in your opening sequence, try to find ways to incorporate them into your clips. Text and graphics can be used to provide a foundation for the videos you’re talking over. You can use them to highlight specific topics or points you are trying to make. If you are shooting for something more creative, you can use text and graphics that interact with the video. This will take more time editing but can create a unique look.
All of your text and graphics should be animated within the video. They need to incorporate movement and interaction with the rest of your video. Come up with a set of transitions and animations within your editing software that you can reuse from video to video. This will save you time in the future and also give them a common brand element.
Fine Tune the Audio
Audio is just as important as the video you produce. You should spend an equal amount of time on audio as you do visuals. There are a few ways you can fine-tune your audio. First, you can use the Vocal Tune effect that comes with Premiere. You apply this to audio clips in your timeline, and it will modify them slightly to correct the pitch.
Second, you should pay attention to background noise when recording your audio. This may vary depending on where you are recording or what equipment you have available. A shotgun mic on top of your camera will cut down on some of the background noise. If there is a constant hum, you can use a plugin to fix it. It will give you precise control over the frequency range and also allow you to equalize your sound.
Another thing to watch for when recording audio is pops or clicks that may occur from stopping and starting your recording equipment, or simply by bumping the mic. These pops will be distracting to the audience and take away from the impact of your video.
In Conclusion
In the modern age of marketing, it’s not enough to create a video. Successful videos require careful planning and execution to be impactful for your business or brand. This article covered how you can make sure that your content is engaging by spending a little extra time editing.
