Video editing is the art of cutting, compiling, and combining raw footage into a completed video project. It is one of the most essential parts of any film project, whether a movie, a television show, an online video, or even a commercial. Today, most video editing uses digital editing software applications like Adobe Premiere Pro, so aspiring Video Editors must learn how to use these industry-standard tools. If you are unsure that learning Video Editing is right for you, consider reading on to learn more about the myriad uses of Video Editing tools and techniques. Not only will learning Video Editing open up a number of new career opportunities, but it also has a lot of potential personal uses.

What is Video Editing?

Video editing is the art of taking multiple different film clips and manipulating them to create a single finished video composition. Video Editors cut together clips, add, remove, and mix sound, digitally alter and remove elements of the film, and add special effects in post-production. Taking cues from the arts of cinematography and photography, video editing is a necessary component of producing video content. It is also a hidden art, as Video Editors strive to make their presence invisible, creating a seamless edit that washes over audiences.

Video Editors use tools like Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X to create finished video projects by blending different video and sound files. Video Editors are responsible for synching audio and visual elements of the film, ensuring continuity between individual frames and scenes, and cleaning up elements of the film, such as correctly handling green screens or removing ambient sound and replacing it with desired music. Video Editors will work with directors, cinematographers, and producers to dictate a video's pace and movements, and even though their work isn’t always lauded, they represent an essential part of making professional quality video productions. 

Read more about what video editing is and why you should learn it. 

Professional Uses for Video Editing

Video Editing is an essential part of every video project since editing is the final stage, where all of the creative work that has been done is compiled into a polished product that is ready for release. Video editing is also an important part of the creative process since the act of cutting two images or shots together creates new meaning independently of what those images mean separately. Professional video editors can find work on various projects that involve varying degrees of creative control on their part.

Technical Editing

At its core, video editing is a technical art form that requires a keen eye for detail as Video Editors control the flow and continuity of a video project. A decent amount of the work of a video editor will ensure that the footage is cut together cleanly, flows naturally from shot to shot and that continuity is maintained between cuts. It is the editor's responsibility to ensure that the viewer isn’t taken out of the viewing experience because of jarring cuts, poorly synced audio, or noticeable continuity flaws. In many cases, the best Video Editors are invisible in the final process since the goal is often to create a perfectly natural video as if it weren’t edited in the first place.

Creative Editing

This isn’t to say that video editing isn’t a creative art. There is a reason that there are so many awards for excellence in video editing and that it is understood to be one of the most foundational elements of filmmaking. Video Editors will need to understand how the transition between two shots and scenes creates meaning in the eyes of viewers and how this can be utilized by creatives to enhance a video process, making it more compelling, evocative or persuasive. Experienced editors have the final say on the look and feel of a video project, giving them an incredible amount of creative control over how audiences react to the completed product.

Sound Mixing

Video Editors, particularly those working on smaller projects, will have to handle other mundane technical elements of the filmmaking process that help viewers stay immersed in what they are watching. One example of this is sound mixing and audio editing. Video Editors will use programs like Premiere Pro and Audition to ensure that audio and video files are synched up properly (even a fraction of a second delay between them can be incredibly noticeable). On top of this, editors may have to insert sound effects or remove background noise from a shot as the need arises. There are a lot of different kinds of minor video editing tasks that professionals will need to learn how to handle.

Motion Graphics and Special Effects

Motion graphics and special effects animation are an important part of modern video projects since technological advances have made it much easier and more affordable for small projects to utilize 3D computer graphics and animated models. Video Editors will need to work alongside Special Effects Artists to edit these digital effects into the final video project, ensuring they look natural and feel as if they are present in the scene. Editors will also work alongside creatives, such as storyboard artists, to plan where these effects will be added and how they will contribute to the overall project.

Other Uses for Video Editing

There are other non-professional reasons that creatives might want to learn video editing skills. Since they are so important for completing any video project, it pays long-term dividends for anyone hoping to work in video or film.

Edit Your own Content

Anyone aspiring to make their own video content will want to learn the basics of video editing. With the popularity of TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch, and the ease of creating raw footage, the marketplace for digital content creators is larger than ever. At the same time, it is an increasingly crowded marketplace, and aspiring content creators must work to ensure that their work stands out. An important part of this process is editing the content to look as professional as possible, ensuring viewers aren’t turned off by a poor editing job. Many creatives aspire to enough success that they can hire a professional editor, but at the beginning, it pays to know your way around Premiere Pro.

Filmmaking Knowledge

Editing is one of the four basic elements of filmmaking, so anyone who aspires to work in the film or television industry can benefit from understanding the basics of cinematic editing. Writers, storyboard artists, directors, actors, and even producers will benefit from understanding how they interact with editors and how their creative work interacts with the editing process. Since filmmaking is such a collaborative art form, creatives must be on the same page concerning the overall goals of the project, and this process can be facilitated by learning about how editing work is done.

Complementary Creative Skills

Many creatives, particularly those working in motion graphics or 3D animation, will learn how to work with important film editing software applications since there is overlap in their functionalities. For example, a student taking a motion graphics design course is likely to learn a bit about using Premiere Pro as they are learning After Effects. Students who have this foundational knowledge can build upon it at a later stage of their career, and students who are just getting started in motion graphics design can pair their 3D animation training witn video editing training in a course like Noble Desktop’s Video Editing & Motion Graphics Certificate program. Expanding on your knowledge base never hurts, so professionals in adjacent fields can strengthen their resumes by learning complementary skills.

Learn Video Editing Skills with Noble Desktop

If you are looking to learn video editing skills, Noble has hands-on training classes to fit your needs. Whether you want to learn in person at Noble’s Manhattan campus or online from the comfort of your home, Noble has you covered. Noble’s courses are taught by experienced instructors, meaning that students can receive feedback and assistance on their edits regardless of whether they are taking the course in person or online. In addition, Noble makes sure to keep class sizes small so students don’t have to worry about fighting for their instructor’s attention. Plus, each course comes with a free retake option, giving students the chance to get even more hands-on experience to complement their initial training.

For students looking to learn the basics of video editing software, Noble’s Premiere Pro Bootcamp offers students a chance to receive hands-on experience editing video clips, adding sound effects, and mixing dialogue. Students will also learn advanced editing techniques, such as how to alter the speed of a clip, how to edit multi-camera shots, and how to work with chroma key replacement and green screens. This course is an ideal choice for students who want to learn how to edit film but aren’t entirely sure that they plan to make a career out of video editing. This makes the course perfect for anyone looking to make their own video productions look as professional as possible.

For students who are looking to learn new career skills to become Video Editors, Noble’s career-focused Video Editing Certificate will give students all the tools that they need to start editing film professionally. This course will teach students how to edit using Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition. Students will get hands-on experience working through editing exercises that mirror the real-world work they will be doing in an editing bay, such as manipulating film clips, creating animated assets for title sequences, and clearing up and mixing audio tracks using Audition, among other skills. Students will also receive one-on-one career mentorship and professional development, and by the end of the course, they will have built a practical demo reel that they can take onto the job market.

Students interested in learning more about their options for video editing classes and bootcamps should check out the options available to them through Noble Desktop.