How to edit like a pro in this free intermediate course
How to edit videos like professional video editors in 90 minutes?
This comprehensive training covers the five essential criteria professional editors use to create emotionally-impactful edits: emotion, story, rhythm, sound, and action. You'll learn through real commercial examples and hands-on exercises.
Do you ever feel like you're stuck at "good enough" and can't quite break into pro-level editing? After 20 years editing broadcast TV commercials, I know exactly what makes the difference.
In this complete course, you'll master comedy editing, documentary editing, crosscutting, contrast, emotion, and more. You'll get hands-on with real exercises that transform how you approach every edit.
Cross-cutting: Building tension with intercut scenes
Imagine a forest fire spreading rapidly while you're stuck in a traffic jam. Suddenly, the tension isn't just doubled — it increases exponentially.
This technique is called crosscutting. Two sequences, each building tension on their own, are intercut to make the overall scene feel far more intense than either part alone.
The three ingredients that make crosscutting work
First, you need two scenes that you can intercut. The key here is that each scene should have tension or stakes on its own. If the two scenes are flat to begin with individually, the combined impact still will be pretty flat.
Second is visual contrast between the two scenes. One has handheld footage and the other has static footage? One is dark, one could have light imagery. It could be the pace at which you cut the two different scenes — maybe you use a slow rhythm for one and a more dynamic, fast rhythm for the other.
Third is audio contrast. Give each scene a different feel. Maybe one has quiet, realistic sound effects and the other has more subjective sounds. Maybe one has music or score and the other one doesn't. Maybe one is really loud and one is really quiet.
It's a bit counterintuitive, but the visual and audio contrast can actually make the cuts work better. It's sort of embracing the jarring nature of crosscutting.
Professional video editing workflow: The five criteria system
Every commercial I edit gets analyzed through five different angles: emotion, story, rhythm, sound, and action. These aren't just techniques — they're the foundation on which I make all of my editing decisions.
Emotion: Your North Star for every edit
To me, emotion should be the North Star of every project. It's not an editing technique in and of itself, but rather it's the foundation on which I make all of my other editing decisions.
When a comedy script comes across my desk, I decide from the outset I would do whatever I could to highlight the juxtaposition. My emotional North Star is to get a laugh out of the audience or at least a smile.
Link to Think Like A Broadcast Editor guide to discover the exact framework professional editors use to craft emotionally-impactful edits that win serious clients.
Story structure in commercials
I like to look at story from two different perspectives. Whenever you have two shots cut together, they tell a story, but you also have the underlying structure of the entire commercial.
We don't have all of the pieces of three-act story structure, but we do have some key elements. You could say that the opening shot is setting up our ordinary world, and then we have a complication. We have rising tension and then finally, we have a climax.
Rhythmic contrast for emotional impact
One tip I give editors who are working on their rhythm is to try single-track editing. You can see all of my video clips are on one track, and I've even color-coded them to make it even more clear.
When I look at my timeline, I can see this has a nice rhythm to it. I can even see a point of rhythmic contrast where I go from one rhythm to a faster rhythm. This was intentional. I wanted to add intensity to the specific moment.
Sometimes I'll use rhythmic contrast to make a point. And other times, I want rhythm to be invisible, sort of like a great bass player in a band. You might not be able to notice the bass playing in the mix, but if you took it out, the song would fall apart.
Advanced commercial editing workflow
After importing the raw footage and audio and syncing it together, I like to organize it in one long sequence I call a string-out. I organize it in story order. And by utilizing screenshots, labels, and markers, I'm able to easily navigate to the shot and take I need.
One tip I'd like to share is that I organize my takes last to first. If you think about the process of shooting, that makes sense because as the director gives direction, as the camera gets more comfortable, as the actors get more comfortable, things are getting better. So, in general, the last takes are usually the best takes.
Another tip when prepping your string-out is to be on the lookout for usable frames before the director calls action and after the director calls cut. Every piece of recorded media is fair game for use in your final edit, and you never know when those extra frames are going to save you.
Once your string-out is complete, grab some popcorn, sit back, and watch through it two to three times while taking notes. I find that if I'm well-organized and very familiar with all the raw footage, I'm already 70% of the way to a great edit.
One editing trick I use all the time is to cut with the visuals turned off, as if you're editing a radio spot. If the pacing and performance of the audio is working by itself, you know you're on the right track. Conversely, in other situations, I will edit with the audio turned off, so I can check the rhythm, pacing, and in-and-out points of my visuals without being affected by what the audio is doing.
Comedy editing: Three rules that land jokes every time
Cut it tight
If you're cutting a dialogue scene, you should cut it faster than reality. The actors might not have time to breathe, for instance. Is it a visual punchline? Cut away quickly. Don't linger. That abrupt cut is often what triggers the laugh.
Those six frames were the difference between the joke falling flat and the joke landing. That's a quarter of a second.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, especially jokes that are built on lingering too long, creating an awkward pause or moment. The key here is that these longer edits are deliberate.
Focus on reaction shots
More often than not, it's the reaction shots that get the laugh. Maybe it's cutting to a character's stunned face, or a double take, or it's a slow blink that gets the laugh. And if you have lots of options, try them all because you never know what's going to be the funniest.
I think one reason reaction shots are so effective in comedy is because the person reacting in the scene can almost be an avatar for the audience and it almost gives us permission to laugh ourselves.
Get the sound right
Comedy isn't just about what you see, it's about what you hear. A well-placed sound effect can save a joke that's not working, and it can make a good joke become a great joke.
Don't just play with sound effects. Experiment with music, too. That could be just finding music that has the right vibe that elevates the humor. But I would also urge you to experiment with music dropping out suddenly so you have a contrast between music and silence or music starting suddenly, maybe after a punchline.
Documentary editing: Four lessons from 300 hours of footage
Always create a plan first
What's the best way to waste days, weeks, months, even years of your life? Dive into a documentary editing project without a plan.
As editors, you can make your own plan. And what this might look like is not quite a script or a screenplay, which would be too rigid for a documentary piece, but more like a story structure. The biggest benefit of having a story structure is that you can largely set aside content or storylines that don't fit within that structure.
Audio is the story
In documentary or interview-based filmmaking, the audio is the story. In a scripted narrative, you're really trying to build a visual story. In documentary, you're trying to find the story, and that comes from what people say.
I like to create an entire cut of the movie where I'm really focused on audio. Yes, of course, my visuals are synced up. But if things are flowing and working from an audio standpoint, odds are you're on to something in terms of your story and your content.
Manipulate dialogue for impact
One thing I notice a lot with beginner editors is you kind of take the audio at face value. You try to find the best lines. You put them in a good order and you sort of stop there.
You would probably be shocked at how much dialogue is manipulated in narrative, in commercials, but especially documentary. What this looks like in my editing is I'm carefully listening to all the audio because a lot of times I end up taking a clip from over here and a clip from over here, and when you put it together, it creates that emotional impact you're looking for.
Don't rely on transcripts for short projects
A transcript is a wonderful way to put a book together, but we're making a film, not a book. The audio and visual performance are key. By relying too much on a transcript and not watching your footage, you're missing out on the material that could take your edit to the next level.
One of the best traits of an editor is someone who becomes intimate with their footage because you never know what you're going to need to make an impactful story.
Adding contrast to create emotional impact
Editing is not just about seamlessly connecting shots — it's about adding contrast between them. Here are five different ways to add contrast to your edits.
Sound contrast
A common problem I see is an editor finishing a visual edit and then only adding a couple of sounds for the whole piece. A more effective way to work on sound design is to find a different sound for each shot. When you hard cut between visuals, also hard cut between the sounds. New shot, new sound — contrast.
One of the biggest uses of sound contrast is loudness. When we go to the dynamic shot, I have a rally car sound come on right at that hard cut. Later, there is a major contrast where we go from a revving bike to a quiet moment.
Music contrast
One of the most powerful ways to use music is to go from music to no music, or vice versa. That dropout in the music creates such a big contrast that it evokes a quiet versus loud emotion. When the music comes back on, it adds energy.
To make the biggest emotional impact, try going from music to no music in a matter of frames.
Rhythmic contrast
This involves changing how quickly you are cutting or how long you are staying on shots — the tempo. We can measure tempo in cuts per minute. Changing the rhythm or tempo you have established is a great tool to elicit emotion.
Visual contrast
One way to add contrast to your edit is to skip the middle shot. Go from a really wide shot to a close-up or go from a close-up to a really wide shot. That's a subtle way to add some contrast.
Some other powerful contrasts: slow-motion footage cut with normal speed footage, and going from a static shot to a handheld shot.
Simple VFX techniques for professional results
When working with VFX shots, one editing trick I use all the time is to cut with the visuals turned off, as if you're editing a radio spot. If the pacing and performance of the audio is working by itself, you know you're on the right track.
Don't be afraid to dive into details at the VFX stage. I used the motion panel and keyframes to move the facial captures around in order to simulate the blocking of the final scene. This really helps everybody involved get a visual sense of how the final VFX are going to look and play out.
Professional music editing within scenes
Have you ever struggled with changing music tracks within the same scene of your edit? Here's a bold way to change music tracks within a scene that pros use all the time.
You obviously need a first music track that can be playing at the start of your scene. Then you interrupt that music with a sound effect. For this to work, you need a shot in your scene that warrants a sound. If it warrants a pretty aggressive sound, that can be enough to interrupt even a pretty aggressive music track.
Once we've interrupted the music track, which basically allows us just to turn it off, now we have the opportunity to bring in a completely new music track when our sound effect is done.
This also works with really subtle scenes, even dialogue scenes where you have kind of an orchestral score playing. You can even interrupt that with a specific sound effect that comes from a shot in the scene.
Changing rhythm like a Formula 1 driver
Do you ever get the feeling that your edit sort of feels flat, but you can't quite put your finger on why? You should be editing like a Formula 1 driver instead of a driver on their morning commute.
The Formula 1 driver knows they need to change the speed based on what's happening on the track. They might go 200 mph on the straightaways and then it looks like they're coming to almost a complete stop on the hairpin turns.
The three ingredients for rhythmic changes
First, you need a series of shots, ideally edited in a steady tempo. Editors can use cuts per minute to judge our tempo. You could even calculate the cuts per minute by simply taking a 1 minute sample of your shots and counting the number of cuts.
Second, identify a point of change in your story. Formula 1 drivers don't just change their speed randomly. They change their speed as a reaction to what's happening in front of them. And we should do the same.
Third, go to that point of change you identified and change the tempo or cuts per minute to match the story. If the story change requires more energy, increase the cuts per minute. If it requires more of a moment of introspection or less energy, decrease the cuts per minute.
These five ideas — emotion, story, rhythm, sound, and action — changed my editing forever. I don't care what you're editing. It could be a corporate video, a home movie, or just some stock footage you're cutting together for practice. As editors, we can and should always fight to have target emotions and a story where things happen and people change. Then use all of your other editing skills to support those two things.
Do that and you'll be in the top 1% of editors. Start applying these techniques to create emotionally-impactful edits that win serious clients with real budgets through professional broadcast training.
