Want to be an expert at video editing but not sure how? Find out in this article by Red Jacket Media
This article is aimed at business owners who are thinking about utilising videos in their business, but may not have the budget to use a video production company for video editing.
You might be looking to edit a corporate video which educates your audience about your business or looking at video editing for your social media campaigns. For cross channel marketing, your video may need to be shorter in length, created in different frames or cover a specific section of the video. Featured in this article are free or very cheap apps and programmes you can use for video editing.
Let’s begin with what your options are; I’ll go through the pros and cons of each and what platform they’re available on. If you’d like to see individual tutorials on how to use these apps and programmes, we’ve provided external links to each where you can find more information.
Lets begin with GoPro
GoPro’s App is free to use. It’s simple, has a few options for background music and has some great opening title options which are easy to edit. Editing in the app is as simple as selecting the videos and photos you’d like to use in your gallery. It does around 80% of the work for you. You then have to go in and trim and cut the footage as required. Now, this app is great for getting you a usable video. What you have to remember is; a lot of it is geared around some sort of action packed activity. The whole idea was to quickly edit on the go while you’re out doing awesome things. However, a lot of people have used the simplicity and ease to jerry rig their videos and it works. It’s a great App to dip your toe into editing. After a few weeks or month’s you’ll start to wonder what else you could do to the “timeline”. GoPro Studio Software – Create pro-quality GoPro videos.
FilmoraGo (Android)
This is where the next app comes in. FilmoraGo is an Android only App. I’ve thrown this in the mix to keep it fair for the non Apple crowd out there. I’m going to start by saying this App has Ads. But it’s worth the Ads. If you’re looking for a simple to use App to edit videos this is for you. There are no watermarks, it’s free and I don’t feel the Ads are overly intrusive. You haven’t got multiple tracks, but you have the option for in-app purchases for certain effects and music. FilmoraGo 5.0.6 for Android – Download (uptodown.com)
I-movie (IOS)
It’s a little unfair, but, Apple have developed a very serious editing application for all their Apple products. You can use I-Movie on iPhone, iPad and your Mac. It’s got Multitracks, which is a fancy way of saying you can layer multiple videos and photos in your timeline. This helps when you’ve recorded a piece to camera but need to overlay a photo or a presentation over what you’re saying. You’ve also got multiple audio tracks, Which means you can add a layer of background music to your video with ease. It’s not riddled with complicated features, but it’s powerful enough to let you create really nice titles, add music and voiceovers. The newer Apple devices even deal in 4K if that helps sway you. Yes I’m a little bias, arrest me!
Now the Apps above are all focused around editing on your phone or tablet. If you want to get a little more serious and have a little more control, you really need to edit videos on a computer. This is for a few reasons; you get finer control with cutting clips and precisely nudging clips to match the music because you’re using a mouse and not your stubby fingertips. A computer is basically going to give you better performance. I’m not going to bore you with the details of RAM and Proxies and all that wonderful geeky stuff. Trust me, computers will handle it better for many reasons.
Before I start on this list, I want to clarify: this list is aimed at business owners who are looking to utilise videos, NOT for any budding filmmaker looking to create a short film for the next film festival. You as business owners aren’t looking for things like motion tracking and LUTs (fancy way of saying filters), keyframing or any of the fancy stuff most filmmakers like to use to create a feature film. I’m saying this because some clever s*** out there is going to challenge this list. Imagine this list was for your Granddad, and all he wants to do is make a video showing off his stamp collection. He DOES NOT need 3D rendering or Motion Tracking Graphics! I’m sorry, where was I? iMovie – Apple (UK)
HitFilm Express
I’m really impressed with this programme. It’s absolutely FREE and available across all platforms. It was made for the young backyard filmmaker. So, if you go exploring you will find options to create lightsaber battles and a bunch more. But other than that, it’s got everything you would need to start a YouTube channel. It’s got multiple tracks for video and audio, as mentioned above. You can use this for presentations or product spec videos. You can add music and one feature I really like is their stabilisation. If you took some handheld video of your product or recorded someone, you can get rid of some handheld shake in the programme. It’s very powerful and with that comes Uncle Ben’s old saying: With great power comes great responsibility. Download HitFilm Express – Free editing and VFX software – fxhome.com
Davinci Resolve
Ok, this is a premium product for FREE. It has all the bells and whistles you need, and don’t need. There is an incredibly steep learning curve with this programme. (Nothing YouTube can’t talk you through). I know professionals in the industry who use this programme for editing client work. There is nothing this programme can’t do. It’s even considered better for certain things like colour grading. If you have the time to learn this you might as well become a freelance editor. I have no idea as to why it’s free. This should easily be a £800.00+ product if not a £50-£60 per month subscription based service like the Adobe suite. Use this programme at your own risk. I say this because you will be up until 3am trying to figure out how to do something at some point. DaVinci Resolve 17 | Blackmagic Design
That’s my list of video editing tools. I will not be doing my industry any justice if I didn’t say the following. Editing your own videos are great. HOWEVER; this does not mean you will be creating meaningful and impactful videos. Filmmaking is an art, not a science. As a business owner you will feel like you need to include details and information which will help you sell your product or service. As a Filmmaker we would tell you to Shh…
Telling a story is more than just a person standing in front of a camera and rattling off information about the product or service. There is audience retention to consider, correct story telling and visual aesthetics and the list goes on. These are all things filmmakers have spent years honing and perfecting.
At the end of the day, if you’re going to invest time and effort into a video, you obviously care enough to want it to have the desired result. Unfortunately, a lot of self made videos never hit the mark. The time and effort is wasted because a few filmmaking fundamentals weren’t met. Mostly they are subtle changes, but the end product created by a professional will hit the mark and get your message across.
Want to create great videos or need help with video editing? Contact Malik at Red Jacket Media
The good news is that more people are spending time online than ever before, and there are plenty of simple ways to reach your customers digitally without breaking the bank.
Want to take your video marketing a step further? You might like to read part 2 of this series on video editing captions and subtitles or 5 Top tips for marketing and optimising your video for SEO.
Discover what you as a business owner can do right now to improve your marketing efforts and make sure you are not missing out on opportunities and potential sales. Get in touch with White Communications today to discuss your marketing and how video can do wonders for your business.
