I Edited 3,000 videos and learned THIS

I've edited over 3,000 videos for

YouTubers, businesses, and worldwide

brands. But when I first started

editing, I found it really hard to make

anything that actually looked good. And

most of all, it would just take me ages.

So, to help make your life 10 times

easier, I've compressed everything I've

learned in those 3,000 videos into just

20 lessons that I wish I knew when I

first started editing. Lesson one. When

I first started editing, I used this

trackpad. And I remember thinking that I

was editing so insanely fast with it. I

was able to zoom in and out of the

timeline really quickly. And well,

that's about it really. So, as you can

imagine, my mind was blown when I

started using a mouse that has extra

buttons on it. Suddenly, I was no longer

able to just zoom in and out of a

timeline really quickly, but I could

program these extra buttons on my mouse

to do a whole bunch of other stuff. I

now use the two buttons on the top of

the mouse to chop off the start and the

end of clips. I use these side buttons

to copy and paste and also to add text

and colored solids. And if you want to

know how I do this, I'll leave a link in

the description to a previous video

showing exactly how I set this up with

my mouse. So, lesson one is, of course,

to get a mouse with extra buttons on it.

It really has skyrocketed my

productivity. Lesson two. Have you ever

opened up a timeline at the start of an

edit and felt a bit overwhelmed? You've

got this blank canvas staring back at

you that you've got to turn into a whole

video and you're not really sure where

to start. So, you just start doing

everything. You put in some A-roll, you

start grading it, then add a couple of

titles in, then add some music, and then

you basically edit the whole first 15

seconds of a video, and then you move on

to the next 15 seconds and do everything

again. Well, this is what I used to do

and it wasn't just more time consuming,

but it also actually fried my brain a

bit as well. So rather than feeling

overwhelmed and not knowing where to

start, it's better to have a systemized

approach to your editing. So for my

videos, I work one layer at a time. So

I'll start by cutting the entire A-roll.

Next, I'll add all of the music, and

then I'll put in all of the B-roll,

titles, and graphics. And then I'll add

the sound effects. So I'm basically

doing whole passes of the video. one at

a time. So, lesson two is to stay in one

headsp space at a time because by having

a system like this, I'm able to get in a

real flow of cutting all the A-roll, and

then I can go and find all of the music

I'll need, which is a completely

different headsp space to cutting

A-roll. And then adding B-roll and

titles is yet another headsp space,

which is more creative. It's much easier

to get in a flow when you're doing it

this way. And if you've already got your

titles or sound effects tab open, then

it's 10 times quicker to add them all in

one go rather than having to keep

opening up different windows and jumping

between each layer of the video. Lesson

three. This lesson is something that

everyone learns with experience. So,

when starting out, it's very easy to

feel the need to try and impress with

your editing. You end up cramming a

bunch of different effects and titles

into your video just to try and make it

look visually interesting. But this ends

up actually having the opposite effect.

And in fact, it's nearly never in your

videos or your client's best interest.

If the person in your video is making a

key point about something, a lot of the

time, it's better just to keep them on

screen looking at the camera. Because if

you start whacking a bunch of fancy

graphics on top, then it might distract

the viewer from what they're trying to

actually get across. So, lesson three is

to let the edit breathe. It's okay for a

video to have some downtime without

titles and effects. And when you're

about to show off your insane editing

skills, just take a second and think, is

this the best way to illustrate what's

actually being said? And if it is, then

by all means, go for it. Just make sure

you don't overedit. Lesson four. So

after lesson three, you might be

wondering, well, when is the best time

to add titles to a video? Well, it

depends on the video, but for a lot of

the time, the best time to add titles is

when you need to emphasize what's being

said, like I've just done there. It

really helps just hammer home a message

to the viewer when they're hearing it,

but also reading it at the same time.

And another good time to use text is for

separating videos into chapters. So like

with this video you're watching, I've

got a full screen title that says lesson

number so and so at the start of each

new lesson. If I just kept myself on

screen and didn't have these, then the

video would probably feel like it was

one long slog to get through. I mean, it

still might, but hopefully not. But

having these full screen titles, it kind

of separates the video into different

segments, which makes it easier to

watch. Lesson five. If you're regularly

editing videos for the same clients,

then there's absolutely nothing that can

waste more time than dragging in a title

preset, changing the font and the colors

to your clients, and then dragging in

another title, and then changing the

font and the colors again and again.

What you need to do is save branded

titles for each of your clients so that

you can reuse them by just dragging and

dropping them from the effects panel

into the timeline and they're already

branded and ready to go. I now have a

set group of titles for each of my

clients that I reuse for all of their

videos and rarely have to go searching

for anything new unless it really needs

it. I also went one step further with

this by setting up a system with my

iPad. So, I just have to tap which one I

want on there and then it will add it

straight to my mouse on the timeline,

which is the fastest possible way that

this can be done. So, if you want to

know how I set that up, I'll leave a

link in the description to one of my

previous videos where I showed how to do

that. So, lesson five is to have a set

of branded titles for each client you

edit for. It also helps cement a brand

for the videos as well. Lesson six, can

you tell the difference between these

two clips?

My name is Greg. Um, I really like

football and um, I have a cat and um, I

think you should hit subscribe and um,

give my video a thumbs up. My name is

Greg. I really like football and I have

a cat. I think you should hit subscribe

and give my video a thumbs up. The first

video made me look really awkward and

unconfident, whereas the second one

takes that away and is easier to watch

for the viewer. And all I did was remove

themsing it up. Back when I was working

for a video production company, we used

to make videos for businesses. So, we

would come across people all the time

who weren't comfortable with being in

front of a camera. And the number one

rule that we had for these videos was to

remove all of the arms because these

businesses would actually lose

credibility if they looked unsure on

what they were saying. And then to cover

the jumps in the footage, you can either

add B-roll or titles on top or you can

use the smooth cut transition in Da

Vinci to make it less jarring. If you

set this to around 0.2 two or 0.3

seconds, then it should smooth out the

cut point. Or just scale up the second

clip to around 1.4 in size and use the

onscreen guides to make sure that the

eyes are in the same place so it feels

more natural.

>> It hadn't been done before. It it um I

believe it was a world's first video

check-in wall. Um all the components

existed but not all together. It hadn't

been done before. I believe it was a

world's first video check-in wall. All

the components existed but not all

together.

>> So lesson six is to remove the arms.

Obviously, this depends on the video.

Some videos, it might be best to keep

them in if you want to convey some kind

of emotion. But for videos where you

want the speaker to look more confident,

it's probably best to remove them.

Lesson seven. Does my audio sound a bit

off to you right now? Well, if I was

editing this video 10 years ago, this is

exactly how it would have sounded, but

now it sounds like this. Can you hear

the difference? It sounds so much fuller

now, doesn't it? Having good audio is

huge for video. And actually having bad

audio quality is predominantly worse

than having poor video quality. So for

every video that I edit now, I make sure

I get the audio sounding as good as

possible. And rather than making these

adjustments to single clips, I do it to

each track. So normally track one will

be for dialogue. So I come over to the

fairlight page, right click on the

track, and change it to mono. A good

rule of thumb is to set dialogue to mono

and music and sound effects to stereo.

This is so the dialogue stays central

and consistent and then the music will

essentially be spread wider around it,

which makes the dialogue easier to hear.

I'll then select track one and I'll use

the EQ to make my initial adjustments.

This could be a whole video in itself

really. So, I'll just briefly show you

what mine looks like. I've basically

brought down the low and the high-end

frequencies and then I select another

part of the EQ like number three and I

set the Q factor to max and then slide

it up to the top and then drag it left

and right until it makes a really high

pitch noise

>> person for 3 months which is a kind of

typical sort of number that I see and

then as soon as I hear that high pitch

noise I drag it all the way down to the

bottom which is basically a way of

getting rid of an unnatural tone that's

in the audio. If we press compare low

ticket versus membership now we can now

see the person and if we switch to a

membership where they only stay 3 months

you make $147.

I've then got dynamics set up to boost

the voice and lower the parts of the

audio that don't need boosting. I've

then got a multiband compressor which

does a similar thing to the dynamics.

Then I've got a plugin for removing echo

and then voice isolation set to around

50 to remove any background noise. I

know that was quite quick, so let me

know in the comments below if you want a

full walkthrough of how I do the audio

in my edits. So, lesson seven is to pay

attention to your audio because it

really does make a difference to your

video. Lesson eight, staying on the

topic of audio, something that loads of

new editors will do is add tons of sound

effects at unnecessary times. This can

become really distracting for the viewer

and most of all, annoying. Sound effects

are really good for adding to the

visuals. So if something pops onto the

screen like this, that's a perfect time

for a sound effect. But if it starts to

get used too much, then it starts

interfering with the dialogue and it

becomes a bit of a mess. So lesson eight

is to not overdo sound effects. And also

make sure you bring the audio levels of

them down to lower them what you

actually think is necessary. So for

example, once you've sorted out all of

their individual levels, head to the

track settings and lower it by another 5

to 10 dibels. This will put it in about

the range that they need to be. Lesson

nine. If there was one thing that I

could go back and tell myself the first

time I ever opened up a piece of editing

software is to learn keyboard shortcuts

for as many things as I possibly can.

Most things in Da Vinci Resolve can be

done using a keyboard shortcut. So, if

you're not already using them, try to

learn one or two a day and then you'll

quickly find that they'll become second

nature. Some of the basic ones that I

use all the time are shift zed, which is

zoom to fit. This will zoom the timeline

back out to show the full timeline, and

then if you hit it again, it will zoom

back to the zoom level you were at.

Another one is command or controlB to

use the razor tool. This will make a cut

at the playhead position on the selected

clip. And there's also shift space. This

one will open up the search effects bar

if you're on Da Vinci version 20.1 and

above. And then from here, you can

search for anything that's in your

effects panel, select it, and hit enter,

and it will add it straight to your

timeline. So, lesson nine is to drag

your mouse around less and learn as many

keyboard shortcuts as you possibly can.

Lesson 10. Once you've learned how to

use Da Vinci's keyboard shortcuts, you

can go one step further and set up your

own custom keyboard shortcuts to enable

you to do things that you can't actually

normally do inside of Da Vinci Resolve.

I made a whole video about how you can

set this up, so I'll leave a link for

that in the description so that you can

watch that after. But in short, you can

use third-party programs to create

macros on your computer. Macros will

basically do multiple keyboard shortcuts

in a row, all really quickly, one after

the other, and they can actually be

triggered by a keyboard shortcut. So,

for example, if I was to add some text

to my timeline, I would have to open up

the search bar, type in text, hit the

down arrow, and then hit enter, which is

four steps. But with a macro setup, I

can hit a keyboard shortcut that does

those four steps in under a second. So,

here I'll hit CtrlT, for example, and

that's just added the text instantly.

So, lesson 10 is to become a shortcut

pro by setting up your own macros.

Again, make sure you watch my previous

video on this that will teach you

exactly how to set it up. Lesson 11.

When you're working with different

brands, you'll get given a brand guide.

This will tell you what font to use and

which different colors you're allowed to

use. And then you'll normally copy and

paste the hex code into your title or

generator like this to get that exact

color. But copy and pasting these hex

codes can quickly take up a lot of

unnecessary time. So, lesson 11 is to

save brand colors to a quick access

menu. On a Mac, you can click on a color

and then open this tab here. Click on

these three dots and click new. Then hit

rename and name it to the brand you're

working on. Then head back to this tab,

select RGB sliders, and paste in the hex

code here. Then come back over to this

tab and hit the plus icon. This will add

the color here, which you can double

click to rename. Next, just go through

and add all the brand colors for that

brand. And then from this drop-own menu

here, you can see I have all of these

different brand colors all set up and

ready to go. So if I need to change the

color of something now, I just click on

the color, select which one I need, and

hit okay. I'm not sure what the

equivalent for this on Windows is. Mac

has this built-in already, but for

Windows, you might need a third party

app to do this. Lesson 12. This one is

really quick and easy. If you want to

resize or move the position of an image,

instead of using the controls in the

inspector, sometimes it can actually be

quicker to click on this transform

button here. If this isn't showing a

little square like this, then just click

on the arrow and then select transform.

From here, you can use the on-creen

controls to quickly move and resize

images. This is actually something that

I knew about for quite a few years, but

I was still for some reason persisting

with using the controls to move things

left and right. And what's even better

is if you have snapping enabled, you can

come up here to add guides and then when

you drag your image over the guides, it

will automatically snap to them. And you

can also hold down the option or the alt

key to bypass the guides. Also, even if

you don't have the guides enabled, you

can hold down the shift key and drag and

it will move in a straight line

vertically or horizontally. So, lesson

12 is to use the onscreen transform

controls. More lesson 13. After resizing

or moving an image, you might not notice

that it's actually leaving an empty part

of the frame because the default

background in Dainci is black. So, if

you come down to this button here, open

up viewer background, and you've got

these four options. I set mine to

checkerboard because that's the only one

where you're pretty much guaranteed to

not blend in with the background. If you

do accidentally leave the viewer

background exposed, it won't actually be

in the final video that's exported. It's

just there as a guide for you. So lesson

13 is to use the checkerboard viewer

background. Lesson 14, have a look at

these two timelines. This is timeline A

and this is timeline B. Which one do you

think looks easier to edit with? It's

timeline B, isn't it? Because the clips

are color coded. The minute I started

color coding my clips, it made my life

so much easier. I have A-roll set to

blue and images and colors set to green

and title set to orange. So now, just at

a glance, I can see what things are. And

it means I can navigate around the

timeline so much quicker rather than

just a blanket of blue. So lesson 14 is

to color code your clips and use the

same colors for each of your edits so

you get used to it. A quick way of doing

this is to set each track up to be a

certain color. So just right click on a

track here, go to change track color,

and then pick which color you want.

Also, if you open up the keyboard

customization menu and come down to edit

timeline under clip color, you can set

keyboard shortcuts to different colors.

So, I've got my numpad set up to a few

of these so I can quickly change clip

colors if needed. Lesson 15. When I used

to zoom into footage like screen

recordings, I would have to come to the

inspector, set a key frame for the zoom

and the position, move a few frames

along, adjust the zoom and the position

to set another key frame, and then play

it back, realize it's maybe too fast or

too slow, and then have to adjust all of

the key frames to get the timing right,

and then play around with the curves to

try and make the animation look smooth.

And doing this loads of times on an edit

would take up so much time. So that's

why I built a preset for zooming into

footage so I don't ever have to use key

frames again. So if I want to zoom into

a clip, I just add my zoom camera

preset. I choose my starting position

which is A and then I click this button

to move the playhead to the end of the

animation and set the B controls. And

that is it. It will animate from A to B,

all with custom easing applied that I

can adjust if needed with these drop-

down easing menus or a custom curve if I

need it. The timing as well can easily

be adjusted just by setting how long I

want it to take in seconds or by moving

the playhead and hitting set start time

and then set end time to do this

automatically. This now gives me really

smooth zoomins quicker and easier to

edit than ever. And I'm giving away a

free version of this preset called Zoom

Camera Light. I'll leave a link in the

description so that you can try it for

yourself. And if you like it, then it

might be worth having a look at my

essentials preset pack, which includes

the full version of Zoom Camera and also

20 other time-saving presets to save

hours in Da Vinci Resolve. So, lesson 15

is to stop using key frames and start

using presets to get things done quicker

and better. Lesson 16. Sometimes parts

of a video can feel like they're

dragging a bit. Say for example, you're

showing an image on screen like this.

This can feel a bit slow and boring. So,

a simple trick to add some energy to it

is to just add a gradual push in like

this. You can also do this with text as

well or with your A-roll like I'm doing

now. The key to this is to make it

subtle. If it's too fast, then it kind

of kills the effect. One way you can do

this is by using the dynamic zoom

control in the inspector and clicking

the swap so that it zooms in slowly, but

you can't adjust the speed. So, a lot of

the time it's just too fast. You can

also set key frames to the zoom in the

inspector, but this can be a bit of a

pain if you're having to adjust timings,

which is why I added a gradual animation

preset to my presets pack. With this, I

can set the start size and the position

and then set the zoom scale speed, so I

can have it zoom in at the exact speed I

like. And if I adjust the clip's length

in any way, it doesn't affect the timing

of it at all. It'll always stay the same

speed. And you can also use this for the

position and rotation as well to get

effects like this. So lesson 16 is to

add gradual zooms in places that need

it. Lesson 17. I know I talked a lot

about keyboard shortcuts earlier, but I

do actually have one more shortcut to

tell you. This one is honestly so

insanely good and simple that it just

needed a whole lesson for itself. And

it's simply command tab or on Windows

it's alt tab. So, if you hold down

command or alt and then hit the tab

button and then release both keys, it

will switch your window to the window

that you previously had open. And if you

keep the command or the alt key down

when you hit tab, it shows you all of

your windows. So, you can just keep

tapping tab until it selects the window

you want. So, lesson 17 is to use

command or alt tab immediately. It has

sped up the way I use a computer so

much. You might not think that using

your mouse to change windows takes very

long, but it really does add up over

time. Lesson 18. Video editing is one of

those jobs that requires long hours

spent sitting at a desk. And it's

important to make sure you're not sat

down for long periods of time. Not just

for your physical health, but also

mentally as well. I find that when I'm

struggling to come up with an idea or

trying to fix an editing problem, the

best thing for me to do is just to get

up and walk away for about 10 minutes.

There's been countless times where I've

had a short break and then I come back

to my desk and then suddenly I've got an

idea or suddenly I can fix the problem I

was having before. It's actually crazy

how many times this has happened. On top

of this, I make sure to get up once an

hour throughout the day for at least 5

to 10 minutes at a time. It's good for

your eyes to stop looking at a screen

and look at things at different

distances. I'll normally play with a

little football to get my body moving

and then when I sit back down, I'm

refreshed and I'm ready to go. So,

lesson 18 is to keep your mind and your

body refreshed by getting away from your

desk regularly. And I'll also add that

you should make sure that you don't

snack or eat lunch at your desk.

Otherwise, your brain starts associating

your desk with food instead of work, and

then you might start getting hungry.

Lesson 19. A big part of video editing

is learning how to color grade. A good

color grade can be the difference

between bland footage like this and

footage that really pops like this.

There's way too many color related

things for me to mention in just this

video, but one tip I will say is that

when color grading a-roll like this, you

want to try and make the skin pop. So,

if you use your vectors scope and have

your skin on the skin line like this and

your background pointing to the opposite

side like this, you'll instantly see a

contrast between your subject and the

background, which really makes them pop.

Also, adding a vignette to the whole

image brings the viewer's eyes to

exactly where you want it. So here's the

image without the vignette and here's

the image with the vignette. It's subtle

but really makes a difference. So lesson

19 is to learn how to color grade and

always keep in mind to make your subject

pop and draw attention to them with a

vignette. Lesson 20. This last lesson is

for after you finished a video, you've

sent it off to your client and now

they're requesting changes. If you have

a lot of change requests, I found that

it's best to work through the changes

from the end of the video to the start.

So, I use a website called Wistia to

deliver videos to my clients. This is

not a sponsorship or anything. That's

just who I use. And in Wistia, they can

leave comments and use a timestamp to

pin the comment to that part of the

video. So, instead of working on

comments from the start of the video, I

will normally start with this comment at

the end. This is just because if I'm

making changes in the video that are

affecting the timing, it then means that

the comments for the rest of the video

are now all out of time. So lesson 20 is

to make clients changes by starting at

the end of the video and then going

backwards. It took me 10 years to learn

these lessons, but it's only in the last

couple of years that a little thing

called AI has come along to make our

lives so much easier. So, click on this

video to find out the 10 best new AI

tools that are built directly into Da

Vinci Resolve that I use to simplify my

workflow and speed up my editing. Okay.