Editing videos can be complicated, and when you first start out you’ll be struggling to figure out what needs to be done and how to do it. Suffice to say you will probably make lots of mistakes, and will need to learn from them when you do.
That being said there are some common mistakes that you can avoid quite easily. Knowing what they are and how to avoid them could even help you out quite a bit:
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Forgetting the audio when cutting videos
Beginners often try to find the perfect spot to cut videos, and in the process forget about the audio. That leads to audio that is disjointed when it is split, sometimes even mid-word or mid-sentence.
To avoid this mistake you just need to remember to pay attention to the audio when you make your cuts. On top of that it can help to use the J cut and L cut to transition the audio separately from the video.
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Leaving in flash frames
Flash frames are essentially a few stray frames of video that were accidentally left in after editing the video. When it is played they just ‘flash’ across the screen for a few seconds then disappear, which can be distracting to viewers.
The only real solution to this problem is to carefully review your work while you edit the video and after you’re done. If you watch the video closely you should easily spot flash frames and can remove them quickly.
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Adding in effects for no real reason
At first you may be excited about all the different effects that you can add to your video during post-production. In fact you may try to use as many of them as possible in order to make your video look really great.
Although well intentioned, adding effects for no real reason is almost always a mistake. At best it will make your video look tacky, or at worst it could actually end up distracting viewers from the content of the video. Simply put you should only use effects when you have a reason for them.
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Using the wrong editor
One of the main mistakes beginners make is they choose the wrong editor. Many assume that expensive professional software are better, and opt to try it out.
Unfortunately such software are designed for experienced professionals, and aren’t that user-friendly. Instead you’d be better off with a more intuitive editor, such as Movavi Video Editor for Mac (https://www.movavi.com/mac-video-editor/) for example.
Avoiding these mistakes will definitely help you to produce far better videos, in both the short and long term. All you really need to do is be aware of them, choose the right editor, and keep the rest of the mistakes in mind when you use it to next edit a video.
If you can do that you should be off to a good start. From there it will just take time and practice for you to start editing your videos like a pro.
