What is Video Editing?

Video editing is the art of manipulating and combining video files to create a completed video project. Video Editors will cut together film clips, alter and correct sound mixing, add digital effects, and make other essential technical changes to video files. Video Editors use software like Adobe Premiere Pro to seamlessly blend video files, aiming to maintain continuity and dictate pacing without being obtrusive. In this overview, you’ll learn more about what Video Editing is, what it can do, who uses it, and how to learn it to determine how to add this skill to your professional toolbox.

What Can You Do with Video Editing?

Video editing lets creatives make both subtle and significant alterations to video files. They can make minor but meaningful edits to combine multiple clips, alter audio volume, speed up and slow down footage, or correct color and lighting. They can also make significant changes, such as altering backgrounds using a green screen and chroma key software, adding in special effects or music, or removing background obstructions. These kinds of edits will come together to help creatives produce professional quality videos, and learning these skills will open the door to a high-paying and in-demand career field.

Learning video editing skills is also useful for creatives hoping to break into the world of content creation themselves. Rather than editing videos for other people, you’ll be able to create and edit your own content, giving your online presence a professional quality that can set your work apart from the competition. Whether you are making YouTube tutorials, scripted content, Lets Plays, or you want to stream on Twitch or YouTube, learning the basics of video editing can help take your content to the next level.

How Do You Get Video Editing Tools? How Much Does it Cost?

Video editing requires specialized software to assist editors in combining and manipulating film clips. Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro are the most commonly used video editing applications. Other editing tools such as Adobe After Effects and Audition are recommended by not necessary.

Adobe Premiere Pro is available as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. While a free trial of the software is available, users will need to pay a monthly fee to access the application once it expires. The cost of a Creative Cloud subscription will vary depending on a user’s choice of payment plan and how many applications a user wishes to license. Still, they can expect to pay approximately 21 dollars a month for a single program or about 55 dollars a month to license all of the programs.

Final Cut Pro is available only for macOS devices and directly through Apple’s website. There is no monthly subscription fee, but users can expect to pay upwards of a few hundred dollars to purchase the software. Apple offers users a lengthy free trial of the software.

There are free alternatives to these programs, such as Lightworks and Shotcut, but these programs will be much lighter in terms of features and functionality. In addition, students may find fewer training resources available for these programs.

What Are the Benefits of Learning Video Editing?

Students interested in the behind-the-scenes aspects of film and video production may wish to learn video editing skills. Video editing is an incredibly important aspect of filmmaking. Anyone who wants to work in the film, television, or online content creation industry should consider learning how to edit videos. Video Editors are in high demand as the marketplace for digitally produced content continues to grow, with trained and experienced video editors commanding an average salary of $80,000.

For students with creative aspirations, learning video editing skills is a great way to break into online video production, whether creatively or professionally. As the marketplace for amateur video production continues to expand, it is also getting more and more crowded, meaning that new creators need to set themselves apart. Learning video editing skills can help your up-and-coming content channel produce professional quality videos without needing to bring on an editor full-time. These skills will be relevant as long as you are making video content, so up-and-coming content creators, small business owners looking to produce their video advertisements, and Social Media Marketers looking to produce content for their clients all benefit from learning video editing techniques.

Video Editing Careers

Video editing skills are utilized across every industry that produces or utilizes videos to communicate and persuade. Beyond the television and film industries, internet content creation companies, traditional and digital advertising agencies, government agencies and political campaigns, activist organizations and nonprofits, and even training firms and other large corporations regularly employ individuals with video editing training. Just a few jobs available to trained video editors include:

Video Editors: Video Editors are professionals who are tasked with ensuring that all of the video content that directors, artists, and other creatives produce is compiled and assembled into a finished product. Video Editors will work closely with storyboard artists, writers, and producers to ensure that the final edited video project is in-line with the goals and objectives of their team. Video editors will be responsible for maintaining continuity and creating meaning through how the film is cut. They will also be responsible for adding in special effects, mixing sound, and other technical aspects of the editing process.

Video Managers: On larger video projects, teams of creatives will collaborate to bring a project to fruition, including editors, directors, storyboard artists, and producers. Video Managers will oversee these teams and work closely with them to ensure that a finished video project meets the team's goals and specifications. In addition to video editing skills, Video Managers will need to learn other creative skills, such as motion graphics and digital storytelling, and soft people skills to ensure that the human element of the project works as well as the design elements.

Motion Graphics Designer: Some Video Editors may also work in the field of motion graphics design since the two fields use many of the same tools. Motion Graphics Designers will build the animated digital assets that Video Editors insert into film, television, or other video content. Motion Graphics Designers work with the kinds of computer-assisted editing work that is more clearly visible to audiences, building the imposing digital images that populate modern entertainment. They will need to be familiar with tools like Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro. Still, they will not need to pay as much attention to things like philosophies of editing and cinematography.

How to Learn Video Editing

Students looking to learn video editing have several different options available to them. Courses are available both in-person and online, and students learning online can enroll in live or asynchronous training sessions. Students should consider their desires and needs before enrolling in a video editing course to make an informed decision about which one is best for them. To learn more about the video editing course options available to them, students should consider consulting Noble’s Classes Near Me tool. 

The most immersive option available to students is in-person video editing instruction. These courses give students direct access to trained instructors and a cohort of like-minded students to network with. In addition, since they are taken at training facilities, students will have access to the computer labs of their service provider. However, these courses require students to attend a physical site for training, meaning that some students may be very limited in terms of their options for in-person instruction.

Students who can’t attend the in-person training course of their choice may wish to look towards live online video editing training options as an alternative. These courses maintain many of the advantages of in-person courses, particularly access to a live instructor who can provide students with feedback and assistance. Plus, since these courses are taken from a student’s home, they can choose from a much larger pool of online courses. The downside is that students won’t be provided with the hardware or software they need, so they will have to be sure they can provide their own technology.

Some students, particularly those with work or family commitments, may want to consider more flexible on-demand video editing courses for video editing training. These courses come in a wide variety of forms and costs, giving students additional flexibility over how they learn to use programs like Premiere Pro and After Effects. The drawback to these courses is that they lack a live instructor to help students overcome obstacles that arise for them.

Finally, students looking to experiment with video editing but aren’t ready to enroll in a professional training course can consider taking advantage of free tutorials and resources. Noble offers several free tutorials on the Video Editing and Motion Graphics playlist on its official YouTube page. Students can also turn to Noble’s Learn Video Editing page to see a collection of videos, articles, and other resources to help them learn the basics of video editing.

Read the full guide on how to learn video editing.

Comparable Applications/Programming Fields

Video editing is most comparable to the field that it is most often paired with in training courses, motion graphics. Both of these programs use the same set of tools, though video editing will make more use of video editors like Premiere Pro. In contrast, motion graphics will use animation programs like After Effects. They are often taught together in professional training courses, as these skills complement one another.

Video editing primarily focuses on the finished product and deals with a great deal more minor technical aspects of video construction. Video editors will be tasked with adding flashy effects and building them into their edits. Still, they will also be tasked with more mundane tasks, such as ensuring continuity between shots and mixing sound to eliminate ambient noise. Motion Graphics Designers, by contrast, are more concerned with building individual animated assets for editors to include in their finished edits. When working on smaller projects, both tasks may be accomplished by the same person.

Motion graphics training is ideal for creative students interested in the more visually apparent aspects of film editing, such as special effects or green screen work. Video editing training is ideal for students interested in the more subtle aspects of how disparate elements of a video are brought together to tell a story and invoke feelings in an audience.

To learn more about motion graphics and how it compares to video editing, check out Noble’s Learn Motion Graphics page.

Learn Video Editing with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Students interested in the behind-the-scenes aspects of film and video production may wish to learn video editing skills. Video editing is an incredibly important aspect of filmmaking. Anyone who wants to work in the film, television, or online content creation industry should consider learning how to edit videos. Video Editors are in high demand as the marketplace for digitally produced content continues to grow, with trained and experienced video editors commanding an average salary of $80,000.

For students with creative aspirations, learning video editing skills is a great way to break into online video production, whether creatively or professionally. As the marketplace for amateur video production continues to expand, it is also getting more and more crowded, meaning that new creators need to set themselves apart. Learning video editing skills can help your up-and-coming content channel produce professional quality videos without needing to bring on an editor full-time. These skills will be relevant as long as you are making video content, so up-and-coming content creators, small business owners looking to produce their video advertisements, and Social Media Marketers looking to produce content for their clients all benefit from learning video editing techniques.

Read more about why you should learn video editing.

Key Insights

• Video editing is the technical art of cutting and combining video files to create new meaning from disparate clips. Video editing ensures continuity between shots, creates pacing through cuts and creates meaning by juxtaposing images.
• Video Editors will use digital editing applications such as Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro to add and remove elements of a video file, add sound, speed up or slow down footage, and add digital effects.
• Video editing skills are in high demand across a wide variety of industries. Any industry that regularly uses video productions will want to hire competent Video Editors.
• Video editing training is often paired with motion graphics training, which focuses on creating animated digital assets that will later be edited into a video file.
• Comprehensive video editing training courses are available both in-person and live online through Noble Desktop.