Best Video Editing Certificates San Diego, CA: Find Courses & Onsite Training

Learn More About San Diego Video Editing Certificates

Video editing is the arranging of a series of images to tell a story. It’s the central activity of a film’s post-production phase. (Production denotes the shooting of the film, while pre-production involves such activities as writing, casting, and location scouting.) The editing process is perhaps best explained by looking back to how it was done in the distant analog days, when the editor received a print of all the production footage and had to make a movie out of it. That process involved physically cutting the film up and taping it together in some kind of coherent order. The editor then viewed the emerging product on a small-screened but hefty device called a Moviola. (Before its introduction in 1924, editors had to hold their film up to the light and squint to see what they were doing.) The result was called a rough cut, which the editor passed on to the director to transform into a director’s cut. Except for rare instances in which the director got final approval of the film, the director’s cut was turned over to the money people (the producers), and their input yielded the final cut for public release. This was all done by handling the same work print, which ended its journey in the hands of the white-gloved negative cutter, whose job was to sit at a table-like apparatus called a Steenbeck and meticulously hot-glue the film’s precious negative together to match the final cut.

In the digital era, all this is still done, but now it’s done using a computer. There is no longer any physical contact between editor and film, no more scissors or guillotine film cutters, no more tape, and no more mole-like editors inhabiting warrens of dark, windowless cutting rooms. All the bins of raw footage with which the editor had to work are now digital files, and the cutting and splicing tool is video editing software that can do a whole lot more than connect images. Programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro can add special effects, adjust audio tracks, and correct color, all with just a laptop. Modern video editing software can even retouch the filmed images themselves, something that required a trip to a specialized developing lab in the days of film. Recent innovations have even brought AI into an editing process that a 20th-century film editor would have trouble recognizing.

Why Become Certified in Video Editing?

People watch videos today the way they used to read. They also never leave home without bringing along a camera capable of shooting video. The result is that enormous quantities of video are being consumed, and, aside from that start-to-finish record you made of three-year-old little Becky’s balletic interpretive dance to the Waltz of the Flowers, all that footage can benefit from editing before you share it with friends, family, or that army of strangers out there on the internet. A good editing job makes the difference between visual gobbledygook and a professional-looking opus that will sustain your viewers’ interest. That applies to everything from an overlong superhero movie to a TikTok spot.

As a result, anyone responsible for creating video content of any sort can benefit from learning how to use a video editing program. Among those, pride of place is held by Adobe Premiere Pro, which can turn even random phone footage into professional-looking short films, albeit only once you’ve gained some degree of mastery over what is not the most user-friendly or intuitive software ever created. Using good video editing software, you can create sparkling TikTok videos or make a video of yourself whipping up a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies that will look tremendously more polished than Julia Child’s early days on The French Chef.

Premiere Pro takes time, effort, and patience to learn. It also probably needs a teacher to show you how to use the program correctly. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t instructional tutorials and books out there, but their immediate drawback is that the good people at Adobe are endlessly tweaking the software and increasing its capabilities, and pre-recorded lessons and books are doomed to pass their expiration dates unless they are constantly updated. Live classes with live teachers (today, these are usually online) do exist, some of which purport to teach you how to use the software in a day. If you want to learn more than just the absolute basics, however, you’re going to need a certificate program or a bootcamp. You’ll not only emerge from one of these with a firm grounding in how to use the software, but also with a certificate to testify to what you’ve learned.

What You’ll Learn While Becoming Video Editing Certified

Nearly every video editing certificate program will teach you to edit video using Adobe Premiere Pro. You’re likely to garner further skills along the way, however, including learning to use further Adobe programs such as After Effects (motion graphics and special effects) and Audition (audio editing and mixing). You’ll also learn something of film theory, not the kind you get from back issues of Bianco & Nero or Film Quarterly, but the kind that explains the practical concepts that are essential to editing video. If that sounds like a bit much for you at this point, you can always give Premiere Pro a test drive by taking a shorter video editing class. There are lots of those on offer, and they’re a good way to find out whether video editing is for you.

Adobe Premiere Pro

When you sign up for a video editing certificate program, you’re mostly signing up for an extended course in Adobe Premiere Pro, the software that more professional editors use than any other. Premiere Pro is responsible for such movies as Deadpool, Hail Caesar, Netflix’s Mind Hunter, and the winner of the 2024 Best Editing Oscar, Everything Everywhere All at Once. So, if your goal is to win an Oscar, you should learn Premiere Pro. If your ambitions lie more in the direction of garnering millions of YouTube subscribers, Premiere Pro will also serve you well for such ambitions.

As opposed to the linear editing technique from the days of analog filmmaking, Premiere Pro is a non-linear editor (NLE) that enables you to work on any part of your movie that you like without having to go in order. A timeline towards the bottom of the screen represents your entire movie, and you can play with the shots on the timeline at the click of a mouse. The editing process begins with importing all the raw footage; each take as its own digital file. Then, thanks to recent AI enhancements, you can assemble your movie by cutting and pasting, precisely as if you were working with text. But you can do more than just get your shots into a logical order: you can tinker with color balances, actually edit the images themselves, and create a ripple dissolve with a couple of clicks and a drag. New features are being added all the time, somewhat justifying Adobe’s costly subscription-only sales model, which, with a bit of help from the cloud, ensures that the version of the software with which you’re working is always the latest one.

Adobe After Effects

Premiere Pro comes with a library of ready-to-use visual effects. If you want to go beyond those, you can create your own world of unique effects and animations using Adobe After Effects. That program will put everything from draw and paint functions to stereoscopic 3-D effects at your literal fingertips. After Effects can do things that Premiere Pro can’t, so that, if you team them up, you’ve got an optical effects studio at your disposal. Opticals and special film processes used to be expensive and limited by the technology available (think of how Ub Iwerks harnessed the new Xerox machine to fix the spots on the dogs in 101 Dalmatians); now you have basically limitless possibilities in your computer that you can play with ad infinitum at no additional cost to the production.

Adobe Audition

Premiere Pro is capable of editing the audio portion of your project. There’s even a simple-to-use library of stock music tracks that you can access from inside the software. But, just as After Effects adds enormous functionality to Premiere Pro, so does Audition, Adobe’s sound-studio-in-a-cloud. You can repair, restore, mix, and add effects to your audio tracks in Audition, which you can then drop back into Premiere Pro and watch them magically sync up. The final mix of a movie’s soundtrack used to be a huge production that required a specially tricked-out screening room and a lot of people. Now, once again, it’s all on your computer. That means that the editor now has the power to construct a project’s entire audio track, something that used to be someone else’s job once upon a time.

Cinema 4D Lite

As though the Adobe Creative Cloud weren’t amazing enough in its abilities, there is a vast array of third-party plug-ins that make even more things possible. Those include stock media libraries, advanced color correction, and even the ability to de-nasalize someone’s irritating voice on your audio track. Cinema 4D Lite is one such plug-in and is included with After Effects when it comes down from the cloud. It allows you to create 3D animation and save it in After Effects. If you’re an Animator who’s never worked in 3D, or if your 3D needs are relatively simple, Cinema 4D Lite should be a most helpful adjunct to After Effects. If, on the other hand, you have deeper 3D requirements, you may need to turn to Cinema 4D Studio, which can do a great deal more than the free version, but comes with an extended learning curve and a hefty price tag.

Film Theory

The primary goal of a video editing certificate program is to teach participants how to use Premiere Pro. Part of that process is learning some basic principles of how motion pictures are assembled, since you can’t just dive into the software, splice things together willy-nilly, and expect to produce something that’s cinematically cohesive. You’re going to have to learn things like the ever-valid “never make a cut without a reason” adage and the 180° rule that keeps scenes between two people visually intelligible. Fear not, you won’t get a whole education in pretentious filmmaking jargon, and you won’t be able to spout forth on the duality of Paul in Pasolini’s unrealized script for San Paolo, but you will possess the practical knowledge to edit film professionally.

Video Editing Industries in San Diego

No matter how you slice it, San Diego isn’t a major film capital. The reason isn’t that hard to discern, as it lies three hours’ drive to the north: Hollywood and Greater Los Angeles are ground zero for film and television production. The City of Angels has acted like a magnet to attract all aspects of film production to itself, and that leaves precious little to happen down the coast in San Diego. That said, San Diego has proven itself a valuable location for Hollywood-based movies. Both Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick filmed extensively in America’s Finest City, although perhaps the most memorable use of a San Diego-area landmark is the Hotel Del Coronado. At present, there is one large movie studio in San Diego (Stu Segall Studios) that offers sound stages and the equipment necessary for producing a movie. Despite that, the studio’s post-production and editing facilities are located in North Hollywood.

As you can’t commute on a regular basis from America’s Finest City to the City of Angels, the best advice anyone can give a San Diegan interested in breaking into the film business is: go north, young man. There, you’ll find major studios, small production companies, and all the infrastructure that goes with them. You’ll also find film schools where you can take classes live and in-person. Los Angeles is also where post-production facilities abound and where most editors ply their craft. There are plenty of reasons for not wanting to live in Los Angeles, but, if you’re really serious about a film career, you’re going to have to see your way past them.

All that harsh reality notwithstanding, there are companies that produce video in San Diego. They specialize in advertising videos (some are practically complete advertising agencies), videos for web content, videos for companies to use internally, and, yes, even the occasional wedding video. Commercial production companies produce video that requires editing, which, in turn, requires editors. There are also several companies in San Diego that specialize in video editing and edit projects that were filmed or recorded by other people. A steady trade exists in this kind of video work, and, if nothing else, it represents a great chance to practice and develop your editing craft.

Video Editing Careers in San Diego

An education in video editing methods and techniques prepares you for, obviously, a career as a Video Editor. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (which is administered by the U.S. Department of Labor) gathers figures on Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics by category of employment and by area. These OEWS figures combine San Diego and Carlsbad into one statistical region, in which a scant 280 Film and Video Editors work. (There are more starving professional dancers in the area than there are Video Editors.) The nanoscopic figure for Video Editors is accompanied by a location quotient of 0.87, which means that Video Editors are employed in the area at a rate lower than the national average. There is a bright side to these discouraging figures, however. The Video Editors who are working in the San Diego area are well paid: most of their salaries fall between $80,000 and $85,000, which is above the annual mean wage for all San Diegans in all occupations of $71,000. It’s also more than the median yearly wage for all Video Editors in the country, which is slightly less than $64,000 per annum.

As far as these annual salaries are concerned, don’t forget that most Video Editors freelance. That’s as true in San Diego as it is in the major film capitals. Indeed, there are Editors who have worked the same job for an extended period of time, but Zippia figures show that only 20% of all Video Editors have worked in one place for over ten years. On top of that, another 20% of all working Video Editors have been at their jobs for less than a year, and 36% of them have had the same employer for fewer than two years. Production companies generally hire Editors by the project rather than keeping them on staff year-round. If that sounds like a tempting alternative to punching a clock every morning at nine for forty years, then you understand why people choose the freedom of freelancing, even though one of the prices you pay is long-term job security. It’s not for everyone, but it comes as part and parcel of working as a Film or Video Editor. You should ask yourself whether you’re cut out for it before you commit to a video editing career.

Should You Pursue a Certificate or Certification?

When is a certificate not a certificate? When it’s a certification. Even then, there are situations in which the terms can be used interchangeably. Video editing isn’t one of those, however. For the purposes of credentialing video editors, certificates and certifications have different functions. A certificate is in all but name the diploma you get for completing a certificate program. It comes to you from the school at which you studied and is, therefore, a somewhat subjective assessment of your abilities with video editing software. For a more objective evaluation, Adobe came up with a series of exams that test your knowledge of the leading Creative Cloud programs. That includes both Premiere Pro and After Effects. Pass the exams, and you get to call yourself an Adobe Certified Professional, and, if you pass both the Premiere Pro and After Effects exams, you can append a Specialist Credential in Video Design to your list of achievements. You also get a digital badge for your LinkedIn profile as a result of passing the exam. The tests take 50 minutes each and are divided between multiple-choice questions and practical tasks. There’s a fee for taking the tests, and certifications have to be renewed every three years.

Adobe advises that you have 150 hours of professional experience using the software before standing for the Adobe Certified Professional exam, so certification is something you probably shouldn’t pursue fresh out of school. Indeed, HR team members are generally more concerned with certifications when they’re looking for people who are more advanced in their careers. For entry-level positions, a certificate generally suffices, although, once you’ve garnered sufficient experience for the Certified Professional exam, you lose nothing by taking it. Note that Adobe also has certifications at the Expert and Master levels.

Top Video Editing Certificate Programs in San Diego

A certificate program is the best and most time-efficient way to learn to become a Video Editor, not least of all if you lack the inclination or funds for a multi-year film school. Once you’ve decided that a video editing certificate is your goal, you’ll be faced by three very distinct options for how you’ll actually do your learning. The first is a traditional in-person class in an actual classroom where you can share the same airspace as your teacher. Option two, a live online class, brings most of that experience to you, minus the airspace thing and without having to go to a cinder block and drywall building to go to class. You get to choose a comfortable and quiet location, all the while being able to participate in the class just as though you were in the classroom. The third option, a self-paced class, gives you even more convenience, as you can view the class, not only where, but also when you want. The trade-off is that you have no direct contact with the teacher, and have no one to ask questions of when you get your timeline in a twist. And, of course, a bootcamp is not the only way to learn the basics of video editing. You can always consider a shorter-term Premiere Pro class that will give you a foretaste of what video editing is like and help you decide whether it’s something you want to pursue.

American Media Training: Premiere Training Class

American Media Training is based out of Los Angeles and is one of the few schools that teach live Adobe classes in cities other than New York and Los Angeles. Although the school doesn’t offer a certificate program per se, its individual class offerings can be assembled into something that will give you something akin to the education you’d receive in a regular bootcamp. The school’s video editing offerings consist of an introductory and an advanced class in Premiere Pro and another pair of classes in After Effects. Except for the introductory class in After Effects, which runs for three weekdays, the other classes will take two days of your time. The school also offers two-day classes in Apple’s video editing program, Final Cut Pro. All the two-day classes are priced at $895. The three-day After Effects class goes for $1,295.

Although individual students are welcome, American Media Training is primarily a corporate training provider. The school therefore caters mostly to the employed and offers no career services. You do receive a certificate for each course you complete, however. The school provides refreshments as well, which may come in handy as most of the school’s classes take place in a somewhat isolated Mission Valley location. Although not all these circumstances can be called ideal, if you wish to take a live, in-person video class in San Diego, American Media Training is pretty much the only game in town.

University of California at San Diego Extended Studies: Video & Editing Program

Although not a certificate program, UCSD’s Extended Studies offers a full range of classes in video editing. Students are free to choose from any of the quarter-long classes and to take them in any order and combination they choose, schedule permitting (do note that not every class is offered every quarter). Introductory and advanced classes are available in both Premiere Pro and After Effects, each one priced at $495. All classes are offered only online, despite the fact that they originate from the San Diego area. That does have the advantage of sparing you the commute to class and gives you the opportunity to study in whatever peaceful spot you may choose. Be advised that the introductory Premiere Pro course will require you to create your own HD footage to complete one of the three projects. Other projects may be done with your own footage or provided content.

The advanced Premiere Pro course includes an introduction to After Effects and Audition. Should your interests include scoring and sound design, there is a course that also covers this, though without specific software instruction. Rara avis, a class in Adobe’s Final Cut Pro is also available through the program, as is one in Apple’s answer to After Effects, Motion. No career services are provided.

Noble Desktop: Video Editing Certificate

Noble Desktop has been in the business of teaching students job-oriented IT and design skills since 1990. The school is based out of New York City, where it offers its classes live and in-person. To the rest of the world, the same courses are available online, including a Video Editing Certificate program. It comprises 78 hours of hands-on instruction in the troika of Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Audition, and you’ll emerge from the program with sufficient knowledge to assume an entry-level role in video editing. If the program is taken full-time, you should be able to complete it in six weeks. Studying part-time, you can complete the course in six months. Instruction, although online, is fully live: you’ll always be working with an instructor. No passive self-paced lectures are involved. The price tag for either version of the class is $2,995, although extended payment plans are available. Noble also teaches a somewhat longer version of the program. The Video Editing and Motion Graphics Certificate includes double the number of classroom days (six) in After Effects as the Video Editing Certificate. The longer version of the class also comes with a complementary (and complimentary) elective in the form of a three-day Photoshop bootcamp. The price of the longer program is $4,995, again with payment plans on offer.

Your Noble Desktop tuition includes several valuable extras. You’ll receive five 1-to-1 mentoring sessions with a mentor who is an established Video Editor with ample experience in the field. Your mentor can help you with any questions you might have about what you’ve learned in class and lend a hand with the demo reel you put together with your instructor during the second half of the class. Even more valuable is the assistance you’ll receive with your resume, cover letters, and LinkedIn profile. A free retake option (good for a year) is included. You’ll also get to keep Noble’s proprietary workbooks and class materials, as they make for an excellent on-the-job reference.

Videoboost: Video Editing Bootcamp

Headquartered in Paris but teaching in English, Videoboost’s raison d’être is a bootcamp designed to make video editors out of its participants in 30 days. True, they’re not going to teach you how to win a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Festival, but they do teach the skills you’ll need to edit TikTok, YouTube, and other social media videos. Most of the instruction at Videoboost is self-paced: you have 120 (brief) video lessons to complete on your own but you also get daily contact with a sentient teacher. Premiere Pro is the main focus of the curriculum, but it also includes lessons in using After Effects to create motion graphics. The price of the program is £1,950 (approximately $2,500); students may avail themselves of a six-month installment plan to defray the cost of their tuition.

Week four of the bootcamp is primarily devoted to job market preparedness and the creation of a demo reel. Students receive 1-to-1 counseling and access to Videoboost’s private international job boards. The school includes a guarantee that you’ll find employment within six months or get your money back, but the terms and conditions attached are byzantine, to say the least.

Featured Classes from Noble Desktop

Top Certificate Programs

Top Courses

Featured Classes from Noble Desktop

Top Certificate Programs

Featured Classes from Noble Desktop

Top Certificate Programs

Top Courses

Featured Classes from Noble Desktop

Top Certificate Programs

Top Courses

Video Editing Certificates San Diego, CA

Video Editing & Motion Graphics Certificate Learn The Skills Guarantee™

Noble Desktop Video Editing Certificate

Noble Desktop Premiere Pro Certification Program

Noble Desktop Premiere Pro Bootcamp

Key Insights

Learn More About San Diego Video Editing Certificates

Why Become Certified in Video Editing?

What You’ll Learn While Becoming Video Editing Certified

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe After Effects

Adobe Audition

Cinema 4D Lite

Film Theory

Video Editing Industries in San Diego

Video Editing Careers in San Diego

Should You Pursue a Certificate or Certification?

Top Video Editing Certificate Programs in San Diego

American Media Training: Premiere Training Class

University of California at San Diego Extended Studies: Video & Editing Program

Noble Desktop: Video Editing Certificate

Videoboost: Video Editing Bootcamp

San Diego Video Editing
Corporate & Onsite Training

Top Certificate Programs

Top Courses

Top Certificate Programs

Top Certificate Programs

Top Courses

Top Certificate Programs

Top Courses

Video Editing & Motion Graphics Certificate Learn The Skills Guarantee™

Noble Desktop Video Editing Certificate

Noble Desktop Premiere Pro Certification Program

Noble Desktop Premiere Pro Bootcamp

Key Insights

Learn More About San Diego Video Editing Certificates

Why Become Certified in Video Editing?

What You’ll Learn While Becoming Video Editing Certified

Adobe Premiere Pro

Adobe After Effects

Adobe Audition

Cinema 4D Lite

Film Theory

Video Editing Industries in San Diego

Video Editing Careers in San Diego

Should You Pursue a Certificate or Certification?

Top Video Editing Certificate Programs in San Diego

American Media Training: Premiere Training Class

University of California at San Diego Extended Studies: Video & Editing Program

Noble Desktop: Video Editing Certificate

Videoboost: Video Editing Bootcamp

San Diego Video Editing Corporate & Onsite Training Noble Desktop

San Diego Video Editing
Corporate & Onsite Training