How to shoot a good video for the article contest bonus - Part 3 What to consider during editing

Hello Community:

Let's go with the last article on how to record yourselves for the Article Contest video bonus.

I'm not going to go into how to do very specific things in editing because it varies depending on the program you use. The keyboard shortcuts and menus are different, but the concept is the same. You are going to use a programme to organise the recorded material, remove the excess and give it structure. Many of these softwares are free (Capcut, Canva and if I'm not mistaken DaVinci had a free version). I've been editing with Adobe Premiere for almost ten years now (wow, I'm getting old), so if you have any questions about this software, feel free to write to me.

Here are some concrete tips:

ORGANISE YOURSELF AND GET ALL THE MATERIAL BEFORE YOU START

This is the advice of years of work. Once you open the programme it's non-stop editing (until dinner time, that is). I'm a fan of doing things one at a time, so the first thing to do is to collect all the material. Once you have everything organised in folders on your computer: music, video clips, screenshots? open the programme and get started.

THE SCRIPT IS YOUR FRIEND AGAIN

Let's remember the importance of structure. Doing a quick read through of the script again is worthwhile. Remember: an introduction with a hook, a step-by-step development and a closing that answers the question of the introduction. Now is the time to execute it.

REMOVE WITHOUT FEAR. ELIMINATES NOISE.

One thing you realise over time is that you think everything you've recorded is worthwhile. This is often not correct. Take away without fear. It has to be fluid, dynamic. Remove a 5-second pause if you're silent thinking about how to say something. If you can't be seen on camera while you're speaking, you can remove the noises and mumbling, i.e. cut the audio track so that everything is much cleaner.

A question that may help you: does this part really interest whoever is watching the video? If not, remove it. If it doesn't, remove it. I'm not talking about gags or jokes, I'm talking about redundancies, silences or loading times.

FREE IMAGE LIBRARIES

Have you thought about it? There are free image libraries where you can take images to make your video more attractive. Be careful because in the small print it usually says that you have to mention where the images have been taken from. Here are some of them:

• Pexels
• Freepik
• Unsplash

BALANCED MUSIC AND AUDIO

This is an important point. Adding music will add a layer of depth and relax the viewer. It is important that it does not cover your voice. You can find free music in libraries, just like in the images.

CHECK IT BEFORE EXPORTING

Do not be overconfident. Before exporting, take a look at it. Give it a play. It will save you time. It has already happened to me many times that I have had to open the programme again and change things because I said ‘I'll export and I'll check it later’. It's not the most efficient thing to do.

This concludes the tips for the video bonus. I wish you all the best of luck in the English contest and I encourage you to keep the Spanish contest in mind in May.

See you soon :)