Channel Update #13 (Mar) – thoughts on editing (Patreon)

If I was writing this update 13 days ago the title would have probably been something along the lines of ‘editing woes’. Luckily, 13 days later (with the Oblivion video finished and uploaded) there seems no reason to be quite so negative, but I do still feel a little… unsure about editing.

With the last video I made the change from my outdated version of premiere elements to a modern version of premiere pro. It took a little while to learn a new program, and a little while longer to learn to not be so god damn slow with that new program, but I got there in the end. It now seems likely that all future videos will be produced with premiere pro, and with the learning process out the way they should also be produced faster than they would have been before because premiere pro is a better program. I guess that means I should have made the switch sooner but better late than never.

Anyway, having made this change I have to admit I’ve been spending a lot more time *thinking* about editing. Maybe this is because I hadn’t spent enough time thinking about editing for the past 2 years and 9 months I’ve been making videos, and I’m now just making up for lost time, but regardless this thinking has left me a little confused. Basically, for a long time I thought the biggest problem I was faced with when it comes to video editing was *how?*. Having changed to premiere pro, and achieved a basic familiarity with the program, I’ve now realized the real problem is *what?* or *why?*. What is good editing? Why do one thing over another? What things are worth the time requirement? What aren’t? What looks good? Why does it look good? And so on.

These questions aren’t that easy to find an answer to but I’m planning to invest a bit of time into trying to find some answers nevertheless before starting the editing of the next video. Hopefully this will lead to better videos in the future (key word being hopefully here). Hopefully I will also be able to avoid overly time consuming editing, because the question of whether the time required is worth it is important. For example custom made motion graphics produced in After Effects are *good editing*, but they might not add enough to the video to be worth the time required to make them, at least not in videos as long as mine. 

It’s also annoying how nearly all resources on editing are focused on editing movies or trailers or at least editing talking head style youtube videos, and so they aren’t that useful to me. The only principle I know when it comes to video game focused videos is show what you are talking about, which I try to do as much as possible, as time consuming as that can sometimes be. Still I’m sure there is more to know than this and, at the very least, I want to try to improve, whatever improve actually means.

Anyway, in summary: I have changed editing program. It went ok but I feel I have a lot further to go. Also I thought I was lacking in practical knowledge but what I really seem to be lacking is a theoretical understanding of editing. Not so sure how to acquire a ‘theoretical understanding of editing’ but an attempt will be made.

So, while I’m here I may as well ask you guys:

Anyone have any good resources when it comes to video editing?

Anyone have any good examples of videos (of a similar type to mine) that stand out to you as being well edited?

Anyone have any feedback on the last video they think might be helpful?

Of course, don’t worry if you don’t have an answer to any of these. I’m just sharing my thought process here more than I am actively looking for help. That’s the point of these updates after all. At least I think that’s the point in them, I don’t really remember.

Also I think writing so many video scripts has made me dislike writing things that aren’t video scripts. I hate not being able to add emphasis to words like I can in a video. I mean, I can italicize, but it feels weird, and it’s not enough. All I can say is thank god I’m a youtuber and not a writer. Except being a youtuber means I have to know how to edit videos, and as this post has established, I don’t know how to edit videos.

Life is hard. No wonder I like video games so much.