How to edit a video step by step

How do you edit a video step by step?

These steps work in any editor, on a phone or a computer. Each one builds on the one before, so leave colour and captions until the story is in place.

1. Sort the files into folders for video, audio, music and graphics, and make a backup copy before you start.
2. Create a project at the resolution and frame rate of the footage, then import the files.
3. Make a rough cut: lay the best takes on the timeline in story order, without worrying about the details yet.
4. Trim: cut pauses, false starts and repeated sentences. Let the sound start a moment before the picture or carry on after it (J and L cuts), so the cuts feel natural.
5. Cover jump cuts with cutaways (B-roll), close-ups or screen recordings.
6. Work on the sound: level the speech so it is clear and never clips, and use noise reduction lightly. The guide to improving audio quality goes into the detail.
7. Add music on its own track, under the voice, with a fade in and out.
8. Add titles and captions.
9. Correct the colour first (white balance and exposure), then add a look if you want one.
10. Export in the format the platform asks for.

If you filmed on a green screen, remove the green background (keying) before you work on the colour. The guide to filming on a green screen explains how.

Which free video editor should you choose: CapCut, DaVinci Resolve, iMovie or Shotcut?

Each of these can take a beginner from raw footage to export. Choose by the device you have and the kind of video you plan to make. The table describes each editor the way its maker's website does.

There are paid editors too, such as Adobe Premiere Pro and Apple's Final Cut Pro. The steps in this guide are the same in them.

How do you edit a video on a phone?

1. Start a new project in 9:16 for Reels, TikTok and Shorts.
2. Trim the start and end of each clip on the timeline.
3. Split the clips and delete the bad parts.
4. Add text and auto captions, then correct them by hand.
5. Add music.
6. Export at 1080p.

If you need captions in Latvian, check in the app first whether its auto captions support the language. Keep the original files until the final export is done and checked. To cut Shorts and Reels out of a long video, follow the guide to podcast clips.

How do you add music to a video without copyright problems?

Use music you have the right to use. These sources are safe:

• the YouTube Audio Library in YouTube Studio, with royalty-free music and sound effects that will not be claimed through Content ID; a track with a Creative Commons licence needs a credit to the artist in the video description;
• your editor's own music library, if its terms allow the use you have in mind, commercial use included;
• paid stock music libraries, with a licence for each track.

YouTube cannot grant you the rights to use someone else's content, so getting the licence is up to you. A popular song without one can get the video claimed: the rights owner may block it, or put ads on it and earn from them. To clear the claim you can mute the song, cut out the claimed part or replace the song with a track from the YouTube Audio Library, as YouTube's page on copyright claims explains. Keep the licence or the download record for every track, and remember that an advert for a client needs a commercial licence.

In the edit:

1. Put the music on its own track.
2. Lower it under speech, by hand or with your editor's automatic ducking if it has one, so the voice stays on top.
3. Fade it in at the start and out at the end.
4. Cut on the beat, so the picture changes with the music.

How do you add captions to a video?

Many editors, and YouTube itself, can create captions automatically. Proofread them by hand, because automatic captions get words wrong, names and terms most of all. YouTube's automatic captions list Latvian among the supported languages. YouTube warns that they may misrepresent what was said, and you can correct them in YouTube Studio under Subtitles.

You can deliver captions in two ways:

• burned in: part of the picture and always visible, which suits social feeds;
• a separate SRT file: viewers switch it on or off, which suits YouTube.

Keep the style readable:

• at most two lines at a time;
• a size you can read on a phone;
• inside the safe area, clear of the buttons and text the platform lays over the video.

To get a full transcript to build the captions from, see the guide to turning audio into text. Captions in another language are covered in the guide to video translation and dubbing.

Which export settings suit YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, and how do you shrink the file?

YouTube publishes its recommended upload encoding settings: an MP4 file with H.264 video and AAC-LC audio at 48 kHz. The table gives the export settings for YouTube and for vertical video.

Keep the frame rate you filmed in on every platform: YouTube asks for uploads in the same frame rate they were recorded in. Mains power in Latvia, as across Europe, runs at 50 Hz, so video here is usually shot at 25 or 50 fps to keep the light in the frame from flickering.

To shrink a file that is too big to upload or send:

1. Export it again at a lower bitrate and the same resolution.
2. If that is not enough, lower the resolution, for example from 2160p (4K) to 1080p.
3. Or re-encode the file in HandBrake, a free, open-source video transcoder for Windows, Mac and Linux.
4. Keep the original file in case you need another version later.

How long does editing take, and when should an editor take over?

There is no fixed number of hours per minute of video. The length of the footage, the number of cameras, the graphics and the rounds of revisions all change it. Your first videos will take far longer than their running time suggests. A template project with your titles, caption style and export settings saved makes the next ones faster.

Hand the edit over when:

• footage from several cameras needs syncing, as in a multicam podcast;
• it is client work, or a series in which every episode must look the same;
• the deadline is tight.

The studio's podcast and video editing costs €40/h and takes 2 weeks to 1 month. The first 2 rounds of revisions are free, and footage shot elsewhere is edited at the same rate. If you record a video podcast in our studio in Riga, you can book the editing together with the recording.