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Video production is a lengthy process, heavy on time and resources. From brainstorming your ideas to actually creating your video footage and the pains of editing, reaching your final product can feel like a marathon. Within the creative process, it's the editing that will make or break your project; a simple edit can take your footage to Hollywood or the cutting room floor.
Here's the thing, though: video editing can be an exhausting process that adds excess time to your video project. How can you save time in video editing? Here's how: by optimizing your workflow.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and your masterpiece probably won't be, either. You have to invest a lot of time in your project, but that doesn't mean there's not room for optimizing your workflow and streamlining the way it comes together.
What does "optimizing a workflow" mean?
There are so many moving parts to your editing process; reaching your finished product means enduring seemingly endless hours of footage, making tough decisions on what makes the cut, juggling sound and effects editing. Making it from your first assembly to your final cut is the lengthiest part of the video production process, but it doesn't have to be. There's a range of ways you can cut down your editing process into something a lot more manageable. For the time-poor, video editing workflows are your new superpower.
First things first: you need to drop bad editing habits. There are lots of editing behaviors that are slowing you down:
Your timeline is a mess. Keeping an orderly timeline while you're editing makes it easier to stop your cuts from running away from you. Without organized clips you can waste valuable time getting lost in your sequences.
You're not autosaving. Hardware crashes can be devastating for the unorganized editor. If you're not setting your work to save at regular intervals, you're guilty of some serious malpractice.
You're manually transcribing your audio. Subtitling is important, and thanks to modern technology it doesn't need to be a manual process. If you're typing the spoken audio in your video manually, you're wasting valuable time.
You're taking shortcuts, and not taking them well. For example, it might seem like it will save time to put a full sound layer under your edited clips, but in the long run you'll spend extra time correcting your laziness down the line.
Video editing workflows allow you to optimize the time spent in the editing phase of your video project without compromising on quality. Your editing workflow process is so important when creating a great video. Saving time and producing better videos at the same time - what's not to like?
There are plenty of workflows that would be assets to your video editing process. Here's just a selection:
You have a lot of options for video editing software, and whether you're using Apple's Final Cut, Adobe' Premiere' Pro CC or anything in between you need to get to know the shortcuts available to you. There's a wealth of literature online that can help you get started with keyboard shortcuts, saving you time in manually completing every step. This might seem like a basic step, but trust us when we tell you it will drastically cut down on the amount of time you spend editing.
Unsurprisingly, free software and tools are not as efficient as those that come with a fee. If you take video editing seriously as a career or side hustle, it's well worth investing in software that performs at a higher level. You can also invest in better learning materials beyond what's readily available on YouTube and online forums.
Great software goes beyond the editing suite itself; using a paid automated transcription service, for example, will cut huge chunks of time out of your editing process. Captioning and subtitling is a time-intensive process and a key area where you can save time. Rather than manually inputting the transcription from your audio files, services like Trint transcribe your files using advanced artificial intelligence, taking the pain out of subtitling and freeing you up to focus your efforts on those seamless clip transitions.
The device you use for editing could be holding you back. If your computer is lacking in CPU power or memory it can become slow and unresponsive, leading to costly crashes and longer waiting times. Ensure you know what you're working with and the best way to look after it.
Best practices differ suite to suite, and it can be difficult to know how to get the most from your chosen editing software. In today's world there are countless online communities devoted to making the creative process as simple as possible for the video production community. Immerse yourself in helpful YouTube tutorials and online articles and visit community forums. Don't forget to give back: provide input and advice to make another person's editing workflow faster.
Save time today. Automate your captioning and subtitling process with Trint - get started with your free trial.
