You can Avoid Editing Mistakes | Most People Do that

We are creatures of habit. It’s our habits that allow us to develop routines which increase our efficiency and enable us to be more productive. But there’s a flipside to the habitual coin; one where habits drive us into a rut; where our repeated patterns of behavior do more harm than good. Bad editing habits are easy to fix and the easiest way to solve the problem is to identify where it starts.

It’s not surprising that bad habits can become perpetual hang-ups in the edit bay and do damage to an otherwise good video. Many editors develop their habits without knowing they exist. This happens for a number of reasons. It could be that you’re adapting an older way of working to new post-production processes or you never learned a different way of tackling your work. Either way, you can grow by leaps and bounds if you’re able to identify bad habits and change them by practicing new techniques that improve your videos

Holding on Too Long

It’s easy to fall in love with beautiful cinematography. A good-looking shot is mesmerizing, but it doesn’t always make an edit better; sometimes it breaks it. Editing is about storytelling, it’s about pace and rhythm. A good-looking shot, when used incorrectly, breaks the pace of an edit and interrupts the story. It’s not uncommon for an editor to see the craftsmanship it took for a cinematographer to produce a well-composed and well-shot clip of video, especially when editing your own work.

It’s a novice mistake to hold onto a shot simply because the shot is there. It’s the editor's job to cut, to reduce all of the gathered footage into a coherent story.

The danger lies in placing the value of the clip above the value of the edit. It’s a novice mistake to hold onto a shot simply because the shot is there. It’s the editor's job to cut, to reduce all of the gathered footage into a coherent story. Break the bad habit of holding on a shot by being objective and only using the footage that’s needed to best tell the story.

Talking It Up

In a similar vein to holding onto a shot, some editors have a bad habit of letting the dialogue roll and not cutting away from the person who’s talking. There are two problems with this. One, not everything that is being said needs to be included. You should know when dialogue has gone on too long and needs to be cut short. The second problem is that sometimes the best way to understand what someone is saying is to hear them but to see something else. A reaction shot of another character or b-roll footage of what the speaker is talking about is more informative to the audience. An editor who embraces the use of L cuts and b-roll can quickly eschew the bad habit of allowing dialogue to run on.

DIY Graphics

Not all motion graphics are created equal. There’s a reason why some post-production professionals are motion graphics designers and not editors, and vise versa. Some editors like the challenge of handling every aspect of post-production by themselves. Motion graphic creation can be time consuming, especially for an individual who doesn’t specialize in making them. Every minute spent trying to learn a new technique while finessing an animation is a minute away from fine tuning an edit that needs attention. It’s a trade off in efficiency and poor time management.
Motion graphics created by someone without the skills of a motion graphics designer stick out like a blinking neon beacon. DIY can be fun, but it’s not always in your best interest. Instead, as an editor, you should look to partnering with a motion graphics designer or take advantage of the many customizable stock motion graphics packages that are available for purchase.