Video Editing Techniques: A Practical Guide to Creating Visually Appealing Edits

Learn video editing techniques to effectively communicate your project's story in a compelling and engaging way. Here is your practical guide to creating a successful edit!

Hi, I'm Sean Dykink, I'm a video maker with just over 10 years of experience behind the camera and edit bay, and love the video editing process. Over the years I've learned (and still am) how to create effective video edits and why they work. I want to share my knowledge, not just by explaining what Video Editing Techniques there are, but when and why we use them. So let's get started with this course on Video Editing Technique: A Practical Guide to Creating Visually Appealing Edits.

What will you learn in this class?

• Gain an understanding of how a story shapes an edit
  • Using the "what and why" of a story to guide an edit
  • Serving the story with your audio and video choices
• Learn video editing techniques that connect emotionally to your audience
  • Video Edits, why and when to use them
  • Pace & Rhythm
  • Eye Trace
  • The process of choosing selects, assembly and rough edit, and refining the edit using video editing techniques 
• Acquire audio editing techniques for smooth seamless sound edits
  • Editing audio on the zero point
  • Signaling your audience with audible cues
  • Using rhythm to edit music
  • Reverb as a flexible audio editing tool

Who is this class for?

1. For beginners: It is recommended that you have some knowledge of how to use a chosen video editing program. However, there are a lot of video editing techniques explored that do not require you to follow along with the class project.
2. For intermediates: You might already know how to use an editing program but struggle to make an edit flow or ultimately “feel” right. You would like to brush up on your knowledge of video editing techniques, maybe you are aware of some of them but are open to seeing them from a new perspective? This is also a great way to practice and experiment with the project's footage and/or follow along with your own project and apply what you learn!

What do you need before taking this class?

You can watch these lessons, take notes and learn a lot! However, having access to a video editing program and applying the learned techniques to the class project or your own project is a great way to internalize what you learn in a deeper way. I use premiere pro to demonstrate these techniques, and recommend using premiere but don't be shy if you prefer to use a different editing program altogether. These lessons can be applied to any video editing software and any project you might be currently working on.

Upward and Onward you go!

After taking this class you will have a number of techniques to use to help you create an attractive edit your clients will love. It will also flex that part of your critical brain in understanding whether an edit is working or not. Ultimately these tools will help you solve issues within the edit and create a smooth visual piece. Because this course is mostly about learning techniques, everything learned in this course can be applied to any video you are currently working on and using any non-linear editing suite.

• Class Introduction, let's go!
• Class Project
• Set the Foundation for Your Edit Using Story
• Editing Music to Serve the Story
• Connecting Music Tracks Using Rhythm
• Editing Audio on the Zero Point
• Reverb for Flexible Music Editing
• Cueing Your Audience With Music
• Video Edits Part 1
• Choosing Selects
• Video Edits Part 2
• Creating the Project Rough Edit
• Pacing & Rhythm
• Eye Trace
• Refining the Rough Edit
• Final Recap and Thank you!