The Basics of Video Editing
How to Produce Professional-Looking Movies
Using Relatively Cheap Hardware and Software
I started producing movies about a decade ago when I purchased my first low-budget video camera. Teaching myself, I used Microsoft Movie Maker software to create a movie using raw footage from a family holiday gathering, along with music downloaded from the internet for an audio track. It was my first experience cutting, pasting, and splitting videos clips, creating credits, using special effects, and exporting the finished product to a single file that I burned to a CD. As the years have gone by I have graduated to more expensive and sophisticated hardware and software, producing educational videos for YouTube and movies featuring my music students.
Having recently been contacted by a couple of people who wanted me to teach them how to edit and produce movies, I thought it might be a good idea to write a page on my website that gave instructions in a step-by-step format. This is my very modest attempt at describing the basic steps to follow to produce a relatively professional-quality movie.
THE SCRAP BOOK ANALOGY: The entire process of creating a movie is very similar to creating a scrap book. First you take photos of people and things and collect scraps of paper such as newspaper clippings. Second, you go through a pile of photos and clippings and pick out the best ones. Third, you organize the photos and clippings in some fashion, perhaps trying to tell a story in chronological order. Fourth, you paste them in the scrap book in the order you chose. At this point you have created a book that you can read from front to back. A movie involves a similar process.
Skill One: Get a video recording device and a computer with video editing software
Skill Two: Shoot some raw video footage (or collect some videos, photos, music, or other files)
Skill Three: Transfer the raw footage from the video recording device to your computer
Skill Four: Import the raw footage and/or other files into the video editing software
Skill Five: How to preview imported media clips
Skill Six: Tracks in the timeline
Skill Seven: Adding more video and audio tracks to the timeline
Skill Eight: Adding media files to the timeline
Skill Nine: How to save your movie project
Skill Ten: How to split a clip into one or more parts
Skill Eleven: Re-opening a project
Skill Twelve: Dragging a clip
Skill Thirteen: Cropping a clip
Skill Fourteen: Unlinking video/audio clips
Skill Fifteen: Linking video and audio clips
Skill Sixteen: Dragging and re-sizing multiple clips so that they play simultaneously
Skill Seventeen: Add a music track
Skill Eighteen: Turning tracks on and off
Skill Nineteen: How to drag clips together so that they fit perfectly
Skill Twenty: The Title Room
Skill Twenty One: Create or redesign a title template
Skill Twenty Two: The Title Designer Tool
Skill Twenty Three: Typing in your own text and changing how it looks
Skill Twenty Four: Animating title text using the Title Designer Tool
Skill Twenty Five: Previewing a title
Skill Twenty Six: Saving a title
Skill Twenty Seven: Using and editing a title
Skill Twenty Eight: Adjusting the length and speed of a title
Skill Twenty Nine: The Transition Room
Skill Thirty: Taking a Snapshot of a Clip
Website and most graphics are created inhouse by Jeff Anvinson, Owner/Operator of JLA Music
Some graphics are purchased from Can Stock Photo, used by permission, and are Copyright
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JLA Music takes care not to infringe on anyone's rights. Please contact us at jla@jlamusic.com if you have questions.
Copyright 2023 © Jeffrey L Anvinson