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The post-production workflow is where the magic happens, but it can be a long, laborious process. Converting raw footage into an entertaining video quickly goes from exciting to exhausting if your workflow isn’t up to scratch.
Don’t keep your audience waiting! Check out our most effective workflow tips to speed up your video-editing.
Are you a video looking to work on a brand new project? We’ve got you covered.
Add Visual and Sound Effects to Tell Your Story
In the post-production workflow, editing visual and sound effects is important for telling a story. Usually, editors work frame-by-frame to make sure that what the audience is watching goes with what they hear. For this reason, this workflow video production stage can take a lot of time to complete. However, you need to be patient if you want to get great results.
Visual effects are a common feature of videos. Regardless of their nature, they are important for the success of a video. This will not be a problem if you finalise your visual effects in the first stage of your video editing workflow. If you have, you know exactly where to place everything. In your post production workflow, your storyboard should tell where and what kinds of visual effects would be used to improve the story.
Once you have completed visual effects, you will need to think about all the different sound elements you need to include such as dialogue, voice over, background score, sound effects, and musical cues. You will have to identify the best way to mix the separate sound files with the original sound input of the video. If you don’t have access to royalty-free sound for your video, you can subscribe to Epidemic Sound to get access to over 35,000 songs and 90,000 sound effects.
Organize Your Video Files and Raw Footage
First, organize your footage! Precious seconds if not hours can be saved if you take the time to organize your files during the shooting process. No matter how tired you are after a busy day of filming, taking the time to store and record your files correctly will be worth it in the long run.
Here’s how to do it:
- Use different folders for every scene containing both audio and video files for each.
- Use sub-folders to organize different shoots/times/locations. Whatever suits your project best.
- Always check to see if your footage has the correct name. Give them detailed names that include the location and date.
Create the Rough Cut with User-friendly Software
Creating your rough cut is one of the most time-consuming tasks in your post-production workflow. You need to select and catalog all the footage that you want to use in the final cut in the correct order. Organizing material, as mentioned above, is crucial to locating the footage you’ll use to build your plot and story arc. But, using the best video-editing software also comes in handy.
You can choose from a variety of editing applications including Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro. They’re straightforward to use and will definitely speed up your workflow processes once you’ve mastered the basics. Piece together your footage in the time line by dragging and dropping and picture lock it there. Now it’s ready for VFX and SFX magic to happen.
Use a Pancake Timeline
A video editing method known as pancake timeline focuses on working on multiple frames at the same time. In this type of video editing workflow, there are two timelines:
- One is to establish a timeline where you may play with the footage, and
- The other timeline is for editing your footage
This is important for editors since it allows them to quickly go through the footage and decide which shot fits great with another. It helps you save time as you don’t need to create a new master edit. It’s easy to keep track of your progress as you can go back and see your edited clips at any moment.
Make Audio Selection Effortless with restriction free music
The easiest way to speed up your audio-editing process is to choose a music and sound effects provider with high-quality tracks and sound effects. In order to avoid copyright claims on your content, you need to make sure you either own the rights, or have a license, to use the music you’ve chosen. There are several music and sound effects providers to choose from, but we would recommend choosing a provider with direct licensing, like Epidemic Sound. This way, you bypass all the complicated licensing agreements you might come across when dealing with several different rights holders, labels, and legal teams.
Carry out Color Correction before Grading
Color correct before you color grade, it’s as simple as that! Color correction enables you to create, natural-looking balanced shots, and by making it the next step in your post production workflow, you’ll save yourself all kinds of headaches. To perfect this stage of the video-production process, color correct all your shots before you start grading and creating the cinematic vibe you’re looking for.
Making sure all of your shots are corrected before you color grade streamlines your workflow by giving you an even canvas to work from when you start the grading process. Do this and you’re well on your way to producing a professional looking video with time to spare.
Use Video Project Templates
To make your post-production workflow more efficient, you can use project templates. These can be a great help for your workflow video production processes and come included in software like Premiere Pro. Templates are premade videos with sound effects, animations, voiceovers etc. built-in. You can drag and drop into your timeline and add your own footage in seconds.
Looking to express your creativity? Once you’ve developed a style you like, you can build your own templates and have them as a go-to resource should you be pushed for time.
Don’t forget! To speed up your video-editing workflow, it also helps to have a world-class music and sound effects provider just a click away. Check out Epidemic Sound’s easy-to-search catalog of more than 35,000 songs and 90,000 sound effects that can make your videos more professional and engaging.
Learn Shortcuts
The best tip at a video-editors disposal when it comes to speeding up your video-editing processes is learning keyboard shortcuts. If you want to bring your video editing workflow to the next level, learning a few shortcuts for commands and features that you use a lot can turbocharge your video production workflow. Just start with the basics, like undo, cut, copy, redo, paste, etc., to supercharge piecing together your footage in your timeline. The more shortcuts you learn, the faster your editing process will be.
Final Word
Making sure that your video-editing remains enjoyable is crucial. Fortunately, with these 7 tips, you can overcome a lot of challenges and speedbumps just waiting to hold you back in the post-production workflow. It’s time to streamline your video-editing process, focus on your creativity, and keep sharing your content with the world!
Don’t forget to check out Epidemic Sound for the simplest and safest way to license music for your videos. Try the 30-day free trial now to see how much time you could save!
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Svitlana Popovska
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