#1: Poor Soundtrack – One of the first mistakes beginning editors make has nothing to do with the image. The soundtrack often makes or breaks a video production. No amount of excellent video can overcome a poor soundtrack.

Even the most basic video editing programs provide at least some means of audio editing, volume control, and equalization. Use them. For videotaped interviews where the person is heard but not seen, edit out distracting “uhs,” “ums,” and other audio “fluff,” including awkward pauses. This technique applies when supporting images or footage (called “B” roll material) is displayed while the person talks. This helps the person interviewed appear to be a better communicator than they actually are, and will improve your video and shorten your program (a good thing). A sure sign of a beginning editor is an ignored soundtrack.

#2: Wrong Music Selection- Music moves people. The wrong music (or no music at all) can move people to tears—of boredom. Take the time to seek out or create the music which will literally underscore your program. When mixing music with narration or interviews, be sure the music complements the spoken words in style, tempo, and volume.

#3 Poor Organization – Every video editing software program offers some means of organizing the elements of your video: titles, audio, video clips, pictures, sound effects, etc. The organizing tools include digital folders, sub-folders, clip bin icon display options, and file naming/renaming features. Master their use. Decide not to allow yourself onto the timeline until all your raw material is well organized and easy to locate. If you know you have the perfect shot or picture somewhere but can’t find it, then you really don’t have it. And don’t even think of leaving unlabeled videotapes lying around. An unlabeled videotape is crying out, “Erase me, please!”

#4 Too Long – Everyone, without exception, during the early stages of their video editing journey creates scenes and video programs that could be improved—sometimes dramatically—by simply making them shorter, tighter, and more concise. Keep only the essentials. Shorten, shorten again, then shorten some more. “When it doubt, cut it out” is the video editor’s eternal chant. The over-used phrase “less is more” is never truer than when editing video. Edit mercilessly (but remain merciful).

#5: Weak Start and Weak Finish Spend three to five times as much time on your opening and closing 60 seconds as you do on any other portion of your video. Like every good book, movie, or message, the importance of your video’s opening and conclusion is impossible to overstate. Pull out all the stops for your start. That doesn’t mean going on “visual overload” with all manner of purposeless digital transitions, over-the-top soundtrack, in-your-face computer graphics, and 70s-music-video special effects. It means you have thought long and hard about how you are going to grab your viewer’s attention for what’s coming next. Simplicity can be very dramatic.

#6: Overused Special Effects Only the few, the brave, the strong, and the wise avoid the trap of sprinkling all manner of special effects throughout their videos. Sure, your editing software (not to mention your video camera) has dozens, even hundreds, of ways to manipulate your titles, pictures, and video clips. Flips, spins, tumbles, squeezes, zips, zooms, and fly-a-ways are only a few of the usual suspects. Then there are the video fillers such as strobe, monochrome, motion blur, old movie, sepia, etc. Arrest them. Ignore them 95 percent of the time. They can be appropriate and downright fun in a few (a very few) youth ministry videos, but you would do well to avoid them for the vast majority of your ministry video productions. Don’t be seduced!

#7: Overused Fonts- You can smell this miscue coming. Like the aforementioned overuse of special effects, beginning editors too often fall into “fontmania.” Not only does misuse of onscreen text distract viewers from your message and your story, it is a sure sign of a production without a purpose, or at least an editor without a purpose. Use one or two different, easy-to-read fonts for your well-designed, onscreen text. Maintain consistency in color, size, screen placement, drop shadows, and motion. Sans serif fonts such as Eras Bold, Impact, and Franklin Gothic are much easier to read on-screen than serif fonts such as Times Roman, FreeStyle Script, and Bodini MT.

#8: Wrong Tempo- The pacing of a video must fit the purpose. A memorial tribute video is going to have a very different pace than a youth ministry summer camp highlight video. The wise video editor determines then controls the pace of the video from start to finish. This doesn’t mean the pace never changes. Changing pace throughout a video program serves to renew the viewers attention, refreshing their interest. The video editor has several primary tools for controlling the pace of any video production, including:

• Music tempo, style, and volume, and also it’s absence.
• Duration of scenes and individual shots.
• Transitions from scene to scene.

Faster-paced programs may have little or no visual transition between different scenes. Slower-paced productions often incorporate a slow fade-to-black or cross-dissolve between scenes and segments with accompanying change in music.

The pause is the editors “invisible tool.” A pause is nothing. No thing. Yet it can prove to be a powerful tool for communicating when properly used. There is no way to teach the “magic of the pause” in an article such as this. Not unlike most of life, the learning arrives through the doing. You might want to pause and think about that.

#9: No Speed Changes Overlooking the power of changing the speed of a clip is a common Misstep among beginning editors. Just because our raw footage is all real time doesn’t mean it has to stay that way. We’ve all been powerfully moved by a video editor’s artful combination of music, close-up imagery, and slow motion. On the flip side we’ve all laughed out lout at the comedic effect of high-speed video. Granted, the editor may not have control over how close-up an image appears (although the ability to zoom-in on high definition footage without noticeable loss of quality has overcome even this limitation), but the speed at which a video clip is played is under the editor’s control.

#10: Unnecessary Commentary- Video is a powerful medium because of its ability to combine images, music, and sound. Although text and the spoken word can be part of a video, those elements do not play to video’s strengths. Good editors assume viewers are smart—they honor the audience’s ability to interpret scenes, expressions, and sounds without spoon feeding information through the unnecessary use of titles and commentary (“Here we are at the swimming pool!”). Honor your viewers and give them the satisfaction of discovering the nuances of your program. But make sure the nuances are present.