Short video editing skills and solutions

With the rapid rise of the short video industry, more and more short video traffic has occupied our daily lives. They may be funny and humorous, they may be knowledge popularization, they may be sharing life, or they may be promotional marketing. Their quality may vary, but they all help us kill time to a certain extent. "Shoot and share at any time" has also become an essential factor in the rapid development of short videos. You can edit on your mobile phone without a high threshold, or directly apply popular templates, upload a few carefully selected videos and a few proud selfies, and then choose a piece of your favorite music, then you can naturally make a short video. However, if you want your short video to stand out in the current huge video torrent, you must break away from these ideas and make fine production in terms of creativity, editing techniques, music and sound effects, etc.

I believe that many of my friends are working towards this goal, and have encountered some problems that have always troubled them in the process. So the editor will help you solve your problems.

1. The picture transition is unnatural

Since it is a short video editing creation, it is to edit together several clips of the shot video from beginning to end, taking the strengths and making up for the weaknesses, retaining the essence and removing the dross. However, many friends are troubled by the unnatural transition of video editing. They rack their brains to figure out what the problem is and whether there is any corresponding solution.

Regarding the reasons why video transitions are unnatural, the editor summarizes and analyzes the three main reasons:

(1) The logic of the two videos is not coherent enough. For example, the upper shot is two people talking about a topic, and the lower shot is an unrelated shot of a rocket launching. There is no logical connection between the two shots, which makes people feel very jumpy. Even if you add any transitions, the picture will be inconsistent. If there is a strong logical relationship between the two connected videos, such as the cooking shot in a food short video, it is not okay to go directly from the ingredient preparation shot to the ingredient tasting shot. The continuity and narrative of the picture are stronger after the cooking shot is connected to the plating shot. This is the so-called video logic. When you see these two shots, you will naturally connect them together.

(2) The axis relationship is confusing and disorderly. The so-called axis relationship simply refers to the spatial relationship between the subject and the camera. Especially in short feature film editing, two shots with confusing relationships randomly spliced ​​together will make the audience confused about the relationship of the film, that is, in which direction the story is developing.

(3) Background music and sound effects are missing. Many short videos feel jumpy just by looking at the pictures. Although many pictures are set off by music, there is still an unexpected sense of discontinuity at the breaks. At this time, if we add some coordinated transition sound effects, we can perfectly use the sound effects to distract the attention of some viewers. Another example is some flash videos. Many videos with very different contents are edited with fast-paced music, which will appear smoother and have a better visual atmosphere.

Now that the problem has been discovered, it must be solved in a timely manner. The editor has also compiled a few tips to solve the problem of unnatural video transitions:

(1) Make a colorful flash at the transition position, and adjust the last two frames of the first video and the first three frames of the next video to different colors. This will make the transition between the upper and lower videos smooth.

(2) Leave a blank frame during several accents or climaxes of the music to create a flickering effect, so that the video does not appear too stiff.

(3) Add directional blur to the last two frames of the previous shot, and add directional blur to the first three frames of the next shot. Then set the key frames so that the next shot appears clear immediately after the shot is blurred.

(4) To create a bouncing effect on the video screen, enlarge the last two frames of the first shot by 200% and 250% respectively, and enlarge the first two frames of the second shot by 250% and 200% respectively, and then restore the original video size. This will create a simple bouncing effect.

In general, there are many ways to solve the unnatural video transition problem, but the principle is mostly to add some transition effects through the five frames where the front and back shots connect. You can learn from them and create more effects yourself.

2. The video rhythm is not well grasped

Although short videos are "short", they also need to have a sense of rhythm, just like the rhythm of a song with a climax and a prelude, or like the ups and downs of the plot in a novel or a drama, there must be ups and downs, so as to mobilize the audience's emotions and bring the audience in.

To control the overall rhythm of the picture, it is usually achieved by editing in combination with the background music. In short, the picture is cut when the background music is accented, and the opening, prelude, foreshadowing, and climax are clearly divided to make it soothing and orderly. However, when cutting with the rhythm of the music, you must pay attention to the degree of editing, because it takes a while for the human eye to recognize the content of the picture. If you frequently cut the picture according to the accent of the background music, it will be nitpicking. The brain and eyes have to constantly re-identify the new picture content. Such a cliff-like cut will only interrupt the continuity of thinking and make the audience very uncomfortable.

Solution: When looking for background music, you must choose the one that best matches the rhythm of the short video. Generally, music will not always maintain a fast rhythm. Similarly, short videos cannot always be edited with fast cuts. When the music rhythm is slow, you can match it with some long shots or some soft and slow empty scenes. This can reflect a sense of narrative. When the music rhythm speeds up and becomes stronger, the cutting speed must be accelerated, and some short shots with a strong sense of movement must be included, such as some quick push and pull shots. And every time the video reaches a climax, the camera must have a certain tension. Generally speaking, the closer it gets to the climax, the stronger the camera tension will be. So what is camera tension? The so-called tension is the conflict between the picture and emotion, and the conflict between contradictions. When the editing moves towards the climax, the rhythm of the music, the overall rhythm, and the tension of the camera are constantly increasing step by step. We edit short videos to ultimately achieve this goal.

3. The picture integrity is not strong

When making short videos, you often need to use some elements for decoration, such as subtitles, logos, etc. Often, their placement is ignored during editing, resulting in blocking of the main image and affecting the overall display. Be sure to plan in advance when adding decorative elements so as not to block the display of the protagonist of the camera.

Solution: When editing, do not use shots with messy backgrounds or other unnecessary lines, symbols, debris, etc. that may distract the audience's attention. If the depth of field of the shot you choose is very shallow and the background is severely out of focus, it is best to use quick editing to let the picture flash by. Also, pay attention to the picture display position of different platforms. For example, the main display range of Douyin's pictures has some standards. Some important information of the picture should be placed in this range, so that the video can be broadcast to the audience to the maximum extent.

Up to here, the editor has basically summarized the three major issues in editing short videos. Editing is a vital part of a high-quality video product. It is a process of selecting, decomposing and combining the materials prepared in the early stage with special technical means. We must not only carefully select the materials, but also edit the materials scientifically and reasonably. An excellent editor must learn more about the editing skills of the masters and watch more films. The most important thing is to develop editing thinking. We must define how to edit the video based on the overall style. We must express the theme of the video completely and smoothly, determine the video style in advance, coordinate the overall editing rhythm of the video, innovate editing methods and techniques, and reasonably select the video background music to ensure the integrity and fluency of the video. Only in this way can a short video work achieve the original expected effect.