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How do professional video editors master 21 years of knowledge in 2 hours?

Professional video editors master decades of knowledge by focusing on five core fundamentals: emotion-first editing, story structure, rhythm, sound design, and music selection. This systematic approach transforms amateur editors into professionals by teaching the "why" behind every editing decision rather than just technical software skills.

The biggest difference between amateur and professional editors

Most editors hit a wall after learning their software. The difference between amateurs and top professional editors comes down to understanding Walter Murch's six criteria for successful editing. At the top of his list is emotion with a weighting of 51%. We're not talking about the emotion of the characters in the scene, but rather the emotion of the audience.

I think we need to learn to edit like therapists. When I started editing, I had a very limited vocabulary when it came to emotions. Even though I had read Murch's book and was trying to target specific emotions, it was pretty much limited to making the audience feel sad, happy, excited, or maybe anxious. Progressing in your edits means being able to name and even feel more nuanced emotions.

Target specific emotions, not general feelings

What if instead of trying to make your audience feel happy, you aimed to make them feel calm, peaceful, satisfied, or safe? Instead of trying to make them feel sad, you tried to make them feel heartbroken or lonely or edgy. Instead of excited, you aimed for confident, energized, or playful. Instead of anxious, you aimed for irritated, agitated, or overwhelmed. Zeroing in on specific emotions will lead to a better result in your edits.

You might be asking: how do I target different emotions if I'm using the same shots? It's by making different decisions on the other editing criteria: story, shot order, rhythm, shot length, sound (which are the music and sound effects), and action (the in and out points for each shot).

For each edit, I'll have the target emotion in mind, and I'll make all those other decisions to try to support that emotion. When I'm directing, you're sitting there feeling the emotions of the actors. When I go into the editing room, it's about how I recapture what I was feeling on set while I was experiencing those emotions watching the raw media get recorded.

Whether you want to edit videos for emotion using professional techniques or just improve your overall workflow, start by picking a target emotion before you start editing. It might take time to see direct results in your edits, but like any good habit, start it now.

Need to understand emotion-first editing better? Download the Think Like A Broadcast Editor guide to discover the 5 criteria top editors use to craft emotionally-impactful edits.

Story editing isn't just for screenwriters

Story editing should be one of the most important tools you have in your editing tool belt. When I started out as an editor, I thought story structure was all theoretical and wasn't something useful that I could apply to my editing projects.

I like to think of story editing as a recipe. Imagine you're baking a loaf of bread. If you have all the right ingredients in the right amounts and you follow the right timing, you'll end up with a delicious loaf of bread—or in our case, a compelling story. Skip an ingredient or mistime a step and your bread will be inedible, or your story will fall flat.

The ten ingredients of three-act story structure

Three-act story structure breaks down into specific ingredients. The first act should take up about 25%, the second act about 50%, and the third act the final 25%. Here are the key ingredients:

• Ingredient 1: Show the normal world
• Ingredient 2: The inciting incident that disrupts normal life
• Ingredient 3: Plot point one where the protagonist commits to the central conflict
• Ingredient 4: Rising action with obstacles and raised stakes
• Ingredient 5: The midpoint where stakes are raised significantly
• Ingredient 6: The "big gloom" or protagonist's lowest point
• Ingredient 7: Plot point two that takes the story in a new direction
• Ingredient 8: Act three rising action
• Ingredient 9: The climax
• Ingredient 10: The resolution back to normal world, but protagonist is changed

The simple truth is that audiences respond to conflict, rising tension, character arcs, climaxes, and resolution. I've used these techniques in corporate videos, talking head interviews, montages, trailers, and even 30-second commercials. You probably have some of these ingredients in your footage. You can use these techniques to make sure the story beats fall in the right places to make the most impactful story possible.

Master rhythm and rhythmic contrast

If you can create a steady rhythm in your edits, then you're only one step away from being able to execute one of the most impactful editing techniques. Rhythm is defined as a strong, regular, repeated pattern of movement or sound. In editing, this simply means manipulating the length of shots to create a consistent tempo.

Once you've created a consistent rhythm in your edit, you now have the opportunity to make a big impact by changing that rhythm, either a little or a lot. This is called rhythmic contrast. The concept of rhythmic contrast is well known in music. For instance, the verse of a song might use all short note values, and then in the chorus, it might shift to using all long note values.

How to execute rhythmic contrast

This has a couple of major benefits. First, the listener won't get bored from listening to the same rhythm over and over. But perhaps more importantly, it adds emphasis at the point of change. Rhythmic contrast in editing can accomplish the same.

One tip that really helps when you're working on your rhythm or rhythmic contrast is to try single-track editing. You see all your video clips lined up on video track one, so you can really see the rhythm and length of the shots and when there's rhythmic contrast happening.

Don't overuse rhythmic contrast. Only use it when you have a point of emphasis to make. Otherwise, it might feel gratuitous and it'll fall flat. The bigger the contrast, the bigger the emphasis. So, when you have a big point to make, use a big rhythmic contrast. When you have a small point to make, use a small rhythmic contrast.

The five-step sound design system

After 20 years of editing broadcast TV commercials, the key to cinematic sound boils down to five simple steps. Here's what you need to stop doing: editors make a big mistake by diving right into a scene and start using various techniques, but without a clear goal in mind.

Instead, decide on a target emotion for your scene first. Then, use all of your editing skills and technique to reinforce that emotion. Stop diving in without a plan.

The five steps to professional sound design

Step 1: Pick a target emotion. This shapes all your sound choices.

Step 2: Start with background ambiances. I always start with background ambiances because it provides a nice bed for the dialogue to sit in and it sets an emotional tone. Don't settle for what's already in your timeline. Try a few different background sounds and pick the one that pushes your scene toward the emotional target.

Step 3: Shape your dialogue. Feel free to push and pull the placement of the dialogue, especially if it's not shown on screen. Need more energy? Tighten it up. Need more introspection? Add space.

Step 4: Add music strategically. Since music is so powerful when it comes to emotion, I find that if I start with it in my timeline, it can sometimes trick me into thinking I've hit all my emotional targets when really I haven't done everything I can yet.

Step 5: Layer in specific sound effects. Ask yourself: what specific sounds can I add to amplify the emotional target? Go through clip by clip and ask yourself: is there a sound I could add or swap out to elevate my target emotion?

Pick perfect music every time

I've developed a five-step system that saves me hours of searching and ensures every track packs an emotional punch. The best editors start by getting clear on the emotion they want the music to evoke in the audience. So, before you start your music search, take five minutes to decide what emotion you want your audience to feel in the scene you're working on and write it down.

The five-step music selection system

Step 1: Pick a target emotion. Write it down before you start searching.

Step 2: Select a musical style or genre. Ask yourself: what style of music best fits the emotion of this scene?

Step 3: Choose instrumentation. Each instrument brings its own flavor and emotion. A French horn might feel heroic, while a solo piano can feel more intimate or reflective.

Step 4: Consider tempo. The tempo or speed of the track needs to match the rhythm of your edit. A slow track might be around 60 beats per minute, a medium track around 100, and a fast track could be 120 BPM or higher.

Step 5: Decide on the number of instruments. Fewer instruments usually means a more subdued feel, and more instruments can make things feel bigger and more energetic.

When you complete this system, not only will searches go way faster, but the tracks will fit so much better in your edits.

Three essential music editing techniques

Much of editing is this sort of sleight of hand where you change the visual language while the soundtrack remains the same, or you change the soundtrack while the visual language remains the same. I want to show you how to look at music structure via the audio waveform so you can find the right section of a track for your edits.

Look at three parts: intros or beginnings, outros or endings, and variations where there's a shift in the music. Musicians craft intros to get the listener into a song in a pleasing way, and we have a great use for that. A good ending brings the song to a natural conclusion. Variations are dynamic changes in the middle of a track where the song goes to a new section.

Three music edits for scene transitions

Edit 1: Use a musical outro to transition scenes. Place the beginning of the musical outro on the first shot of scene two. It's like gently picking up the viewer in one scene and gently dropping them off in the next scene.

Edit 2: Use musical variations for emotional shifts. Place the frame where the music shifts right on the frame where the scene changes. Instead of a song ending and dropping you into the next scene, the musical variation will take you into the next scene with a slight shift in emotion.

Edit 3: Use hard cuts with strong intros. Have no music in scene one, and start your music on the first frame of scene two. Line up that first beat with the first frame of scene two. This edit is punchy, powerful, and energetic.

These techniques work because they understand that video and audio tracks are separate elements that move independently of one another, occasionally meeting together for sync sound moments.

Ready to take your editing to the professional level? The Edit Like A Broadcast Pro course teaches you how to create emotionally-impactful edits that win serious clients with real budgets.