My Experiments with Video Editing Tools.

Hi, I am Naval,

I am a “Video creator” and I work at “Vidsaga” as a Project Manager where I handle video projects and work with multiple other video creators like me to make awesome videos for our clients.

Video creation and editing is a way of telling a story and if you like storytelling this might just be the best thing you can do.?

Today I’ll share how my journey with different tools for video editing started and how it's going now,

I always was the type of kid who was good in studies scores good and all that, but when I was in 11th class suddenly it didn't made sense anymore! I was friends with two of the best liars in the world and the way they used to tell those lies you will be stunned. Every lie is properly scripted and in sync, if you met them the first time, you don’t stand a chance in catching their lies. They made me think this is more interesting than any movie I have watched, so we thought of starting a “YouTube channel”.?

We started a YouTube channel and we started making funny videos that were at least funny to us but making a video not only include a good story but good editing as well so I took that part upon myself, as I always liked learning new stuff,

"Kinemaster" - I was in 11th and from a pretty middle-class family so I didn’t have the need nor want for a laptop or PC, So I started searching around on google and as everybody else would I searched “Best video editing apps for phone” and there it was “Kinemaster”

“Kinemaster” is the best app that a person can find on a mobile phone. Kinemaster offered a lot of things you can cut split and basically do every basic thing which is required for a YouTube video. There were many effects and simple techniques to do great things. As we didn’t anything about shoot and cinematography, we used to take 10-20 shots and they were not that hard to edit on mobile.

But after 2-3 videos, The shots started increasing and the time I was spending looking so deep in my mobile phone and into that tiny screen that it was too tough for me to handle it anymore.

Even though Kinemaster had many effects templates for the video it still was very restricting as there wasn’t much to explore, you have used these effects provided and two make effects your self it would take hours.

Managing more than 20-30 shots in a phone may sound easy but it is definitely not, so sometimes you skip out on many essential details.

I didn’t learn about storytelling or good editing skills I was just compiling a few videos and putting weird sound effects, Even though it was hard to do all that on Kinemaster it still was a good point to start, and as a beginner definitely, something I would recommend if you don’t have a PC.

So, we started thing more about how can we expand this, and the only thing we three middle-class 11th standard students could think of is “Let’s find a rich friend” who has a laptop and could give it to us for our channel, but there was no luck in it, So we had a friend who used to have a Dell laptop(Good enough for us) we asked him he wants to act in our video and will lend us his laptop and he agreed.

"Filmora Go" - We were so happy that we got a laptop I spent an entire night on YouTube finding which software I can use for free on it and when you search for anything related to video editing on YouTube you will get a few similar logos every time like “Kinemaster” “Da Vinci resolve” and “Filmora Go” - and I found it, Filmora was what I was looking for, best software to use on a low specs PC, and not even that hard.

Filmora is most video editors' first software, the two things I already mentioned and,

– Its crack is easy to find. (It's not that expensive also)

– It's simple and has all the features you need for a basic YouTube video.

– It takes about a week to learn it all and you can be fast on it and flaunt your skills.

I was in love with Filmora I used to shoot and make the videos in the morning and wake up at night to edit the video. It was fun and I spent about a year on it and I can say I learned how to tell a story how to make the cut transition not overdoing it all in Filmora.

Filmora offers a wide range of features from simple splits and Cuts to trendy new transitions. If you are skilled enough you can make a pretty decent video out of it. Everything you need or you might need is easy to find, like “New Texts” “stylish fonts” and “New filters”.

Some Videos with Filmora - Chandu ki report - Filmora School Time - Filmora

As everything does, Filmora has its flaws and had to go. When you use Filmora there is a constant lag when you try to put multiple clips and make small cuts or try to do something a little heavy for Filmora.

It works great on its basic effect but you can’t rely on the effects it has you have to make your effects which are too hard to do in Filmora.

Filmora is a great way to bump up your game from a phone because, it is convenient and user-friendly, but when you want to aim higher and think about getting into the real Video editing space you have to learn and get into new software which I eventually did. But to slow down my pretty fast face which I was going on,

My final exams came and like most creators, I stopped making content for some time, In this time I bought my laptop and college started.

I chose “Journalism and Mass Communication” for my college degree so I was back in the field of content creation I was having fun now, When I used to tell people that I too am a video editor nobody took it seriously as I didn’t know how to use their software everybody was using the same software, “Adobe Premiere Pro”. So I took this upon myself to learn this software,

"Adobe Premiere Pro' - When you start working on Premiere pro It gives you industry-level experience because it is a professional software and you need it to make money from your skills which I didn’t know before that even if it was possible. But now that I know I had everything I could dream of?????

–? A good software?

–? And people who are in the same field can tell me if I am any good or not.

–? Amazing Cameras to shoot?

I started spending day night on YouTube making silly 10-12 sec videos from the YouTube channels like, “Cinecom ” “Peter Mckinnon ” and many others.?

The features which Premier has, are “Masking” “Continuous Render” and “Basic Animation” Which makes open all the creative doors for you. You can make text move without using any effect. You can create your animations, and transition. Every problem that Filmora has Premier solves it and makes it a little better.?

Premier takes a few weeks to get the hang of but when you do, you can never stop learning new things. Every effect in the effect panel can do tricks that look great.?

When I started learning all this, I started taking trick videos, like “making someone disappear” . “Making a phone that could see through things” “Harry potters going in the wall technique” and many others and I used to upload them on Instagram and from this, “I got my first client.”

The project was from my seniors and I had to edit their project It was a 6 Mins video and I would get 500 bucks in return for it which was like my week’s lunch in college. So I said “Hey! Why not? I am a professional editor!” which I was not but I edited the video, the video turned out to be okay but I had so much fun in all this that I forgot what else I could do in the field.

I started making more and more videos like my trip to “Kasauli” , and “Jaipur ” I learned masking for the first time, and for every video I made after that I used to add one new item in it. So that people would ask me How did you do That.?

Premier Pro got me my first client and many after that and taught me storytelling and the features it has are enough for any video editor as you can make a movie on it. If you want, but as they say there is always a step up so now after making getting some experience from premier working with many clients making about 100+ videos. I am starting on learning new software which is a step up,

Even though premier can do all the first-level editing, there are things it can’t do, “Animation”, can animate basic texts and shots but it can’t create a video from scratch. But other software can.

"Adobe After Effect": Adobe after effect is like a beauty filter on top of an already beautiful product. Adobe after effect lets you animate make things better. Starting with it was tough as was jumping from Filmora to Premier. But working on after effects makes you think of what all you can do with the same footage.

After every new software that I learn every new trick technique or editing way, I think about the tens of videos I made before it and what I could have done to make it look better. But this is the part that makes it fun, what I know now and what I had then are too completely different things, and making my way from there to here is the part which a storyteller a video creator is good at.?

I worked with good shots great shots and some crappy shots but I spent hours on finding that one good second from that 10 min long footage that I can use.?

After a video, movie, a documentary is made everybody asks about the multiple aspects of it, but as someone said, “A good edit (cut) is when someone doesn’t even realize it’s there” everybody knows that video editing goes into making the video but the clean cuts the super thought out music every inch and second of that video which is watched a 100 times by the editor, the million small shot the editor had to find that one shot to fit that one sec. Is what it takes to make a good video.

Some of my Favorite videos throughout the journey,

Filmora GO , Filmora Go - VLog , Premiere Pro Documentary , Premiere Pro - Branding , Biography Video - Premiere , After Effect - Graphical video , After Effect Graphical 2?