Video Editing: The Basics

August 12, 2017

Several months ago back when my friend Ed was wanting to start to make his accordion videos, I kind of pointed him towards using Pinnacle Studio Pro.  Though he did look at other options and was kind enough to run them by me, I was pleased when he decided to stick with the same video editing program that I use and am most familiar with.  I initially chose this application because it was fairly easy to use (to be honest for someone completely new, all video editing apps are a bit daunting), but it does offer a ton of very advanced features that really can add to your videos once you get over the initial hump of the learning curve, and YouTube has a ton of excellent tutorial videos that can take you through the learning process from easy to advanced.

As my form of a thank-you to Ed, I created a series of short educational videos in response to his specific questions in areas he wanted some fill-in info on and I tossed in a few hints to aide him in making his videos a little better.  So, this is my way of taking that info/work and making it public.  Ed has graciously let me use his video for this blog article, and I want to publicly thank him for it.  Without him and his consent, I would not have been able to make this article available (well, I could have been a jerk about it, but that’s not how I roll… lol).  Thanks Ed!

A quick note, these videos were not originally designed for the web or anything more serious than Ed’s screen and to help get through the initial break-in period of using a new video editor, so I made them small and easy to send in an 800X600 pixel video size.

Getting Ready

Just a few hints on getting ready, some things to plan for before making your video and other things to not forget while making your video:

Cutting-Trimming

How to cut and trim out all the parts of the video that you made that you do not need or want to see:

Titles and Endings

How to introduce yourself, your video and how to end it, just an introduction to some ideas:

File Production

How to choose file format and create the file in preparation to uploading to your chosen delivery medium like YouTube, Vimeo, etc…:

Bonus: A Special Effect

How to create a simple and basic “fake multi-angle” view just to spice up your video a little: