Video editing is one of those things where it’s easy to get into a routine and form habits. While some of them may be good habits, there’s an equally high chance of forming bad habits which won’t do you any good in the field of video production. Let’s take a look at some of the most common bad habits out there which you may or may not be making.
1. Messy bins – There are many video services out there who are terrible at organizing their work. Make it a goal to organize your work in such a way that another editor can work on your project. Finding their way through your work should be logical as well as intuitive. If you open a dictionary, there’s a logical way of finding the word you’re looking for. This makes searching quite quick compared to if all of the words were in a random sequence. Sort your work out in a logical way so that you can find your work quickly in a pinch.
2. A cluttered workspace – Video editing in a dedicated video agency isn’t the cleanest job out there. However, that’s no excuse to leave a workspace in a messy condition. Video editors who keep their workspaces clean and organized are more proficient at their work. It’s also easy on the mind to see a clean workspace rather than a messy one.
3. Overusing transitions – A fundamental part of video editing is transitions. Every video editor has a favorite method of transitioning from one shot to another. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of using editing defaults which results in transitioning between different shots in the same way. A good video editor uses what the project asks for instead of what he/she is comfortable with.
4. Terrible versioning – Young editors need to learn about versioning. There are two parts to versioning.
a. Creating a copy of your editing timeline.
b. Naming it clearly.
Using * or an empty space in a file name will result in the named clip being sorted to the top of the bin when it’s arranged in alphabetical order. In addition to this, adding the date into the name of the timeline will allow you to see which sequence is the most recent.
5. Ignoring audio – Audio needs as much love as video. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always translate to real life. It’s a very bad habit to mix audio as a role technical process because it ruins a lot of good videos. A good video editor will make sure that there aren’t any audio cutoffs, the audio levels remain consistent, and that any music bed used enhances the edit.
6. No autosave – Set up your autosave preferences to save your work regularly at regular intervals. This will protect your work in the unfortunate event of a computer crash. A good interval of time for autosaves is 5 to 7 minutes. Video editors make many decisions. Setting up your autosave preferences too far apart will result in too much work being lost. Setting up your autosave preferences should be the first thing you do on a new system.
7. Forgetting about graphics – Graphics are an important part of the arsenal of a video editor. Not every video editor is a graphic designer, and this is okay. However, many editors fall into the terrible habit of using the same graphical techniques as well as graphics all the time. Using a graphic or graphics technique can land a video editor some trouble. Video editors can stay away from this problem by adopting the mindset of a perpetual learner while trying to always come up with something new and fresh.
As you can see, there are many bad editing habits that video editors fall victim to. No matter how experienced you are as a video editor, there will always be another person out there who’s more experienced.
If you’d like to avoid bad habits, you should adopt the mindset of always being a student and never a master. This mindset is critical to enjoying growth throughout your career as a video editor. It’s also never a bad thing to ask for help from people working in video production companies or video production agencies.
