Video editing is a difficult skill to master. Adobe PremierePro is a complicated program to learn, and while it isn’t hard to pickup, mastering it and getting fast with it is a totally different thing. That’s not even considering how much the program costs!
There are easy-to-use alternatives, but the quality of the work is usually a bit behind. Free alternatives exist too, but those often leave a massive watermark that you have to pay to remove.
While you could hire someone to do that work for you, or find a big-name agency, you’ll end up paying the price. You’ll be paying more, without a lot of flexibility or input on your project that you should have. An online video graphics editor can be the middle ground, offering experience and flexibility without breaking the bank.
But if you don’t want to pay someone to do it for you, this is the place to turn to learn how to properly edit your videos.
Getting Started: What Program do I Use?
This is the tough part. There’s not any one program to use, although most people will suggest Adobe PremierePro, iMovie, or Final Cut Pro, as that’s what most YouTubers turn to.
While they each come with benefits and drawbacks, it ultimately boils down to what you’re willing to spend, what you’re using to edit, and how much control you want over your video.
PremierePro is the most advanced program, offering an incredible amount of control when it comes to editing your video. That said, it’s also the most difficult to learn. Adobe isn’t the most user-friendly, so expect to be Googling a lot of tutorials with this one. PremierePro is available to use on both Windows and MacOS, so while the shortcut keys will change, the rest of your experience will stay the same.
iMovie is free with Mac but can’t be used on Windows, although alternatives do exist. As with everything Apple, iMovie is pretty user friendly, and a video you start editing on your phone can be finished on your laptop or desktop without issue. iMovie is also compatible with Final Cut Pro, which can be handy for the extra features it provides.
Speaking of Final Cut Pro, the program is Apple’s answer to PremierePro and costs a one-time $300. It’s meant solely for Mac. The program has its learning curve, but if you have any experience with iMovie, you have a leg up.
What about Editing?
Editing your videos can be really easy or really difficult depending on how fancy you want to get with it.
If you have some family videos to splice together for a birthday, it won’t be too difficult. The programs all have a zone where you can drag and drop audio/video files along a timeline to show what will play and when. As long as the files are in compatible formats (mp3 and mp4, with others you probably haven’t heard of) you’ll be in good shape.
If you watched a YouTube video and decided you wanted to give it a try, you’re in for a bit more of a difficult time. Learning to cut together video recordings with multiple streams of audio, and not to mention adding effects, can take hours to not only learn how to do, but learn how to do well.
All these programs have separate sections and filters for different effects, from video filters to voice distortion and other audio effects. Figuring out how to fit them smoothly into a video is the tough part though.
Is that all?
That just about covers it for video editing. Of course, there are hundreds of specific things to learn that make life easy while editing videos, but picking a program and learning the basics isn’t hard. Video editing is a tough skill to learn, but it isn’t impossible with enough time put in.