How to Practice Video Editing for Emotion Using One Simple Exercise

How do you practice editing for emotion in video editing?

Use the same six shots to create two completely different emotional experiences. Target specific emotions like "playful" or "inspired" rather than broad feelings like "happy" or "sad," then adjust story order, rhythm, sound, and action to support that targeted emotion.

Why Emotion Matters More Than Technical Skills

The best editors will tell you that the single most important criteria for successful video editing is emotion, but none of them are telling you how to practice it.

In his book "In the Blink of an Eye," legendary editor Walter Murch states his six criteria for successful editing, and at the top of the list is emotion. Not only is it first on the list, but he gives it a weighting of 51%. We're not talking about the emotion of the characters in the scene, but rather the emotion of the audience.

The Problem With Most Editors' Emotional Vocabulary

So, how do we practice something so elusive? Well, I think we need to learn to edit like therapists.

If you're like me when I started editing, I personally 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.

That's a good place to start, but I think 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, lonely, or empty? 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.

The Six-Shot Emotion Exercise

Now for the exercise. I'll be using six shots I downloaded from Artlist. If you want to use the same shots as me, you can go to Artlist, search their stories, and this one is called "Architect at Work."

I'm going to use the same six shots to create two different scenes that target two different emotions. In one scene, I'm going to target playfulness, and in the other scene, I'm going to target inspiration.

You might be asking: how do I target different emotions if I'm using the same shots? Well, it's by making different decisions on the other editing criteria.

The other criteria I like to use are:

• Story (shot order)
• Rhythm (shot length)
• Sound (which are the music and sound effects for each shot)
• 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.

Scene 1: Targeting Inspiration

In this version of the scene, I wanted to tell the story of an architect building a really impressive model. So, I started on a shot of the architect and then I slowly revealed his handiwork.

I feel like the music choice did add some nice gravity to the scene, and the few sound effects I cut in were really to give a sense of the space.

This approach to professional video editor emotion — thinking about the feeling first, then making technical decisions to support it — is what separates amateur from professional work.

Scene 2: Targeting Playfulness

For this version of the scene, I wanted to focus on the model as if it's coming to life. So, I started on the main character in the model and then I revealed the architect at the very end. That's a pretty different story just by changing the shot order.

In terms of overall rhythm, these have a pretty similar feel. They're both about the same length, though I did allow each individual music track to guide my edits.

The sound and music is quite different, which we already touched on, and the action or the in-and-out points of each shot are also very different. I think all these small changes have a cumulative effect.

If you want to improve how you approach emotions in your editing work, grab my free editing guide that breaks down the workflow professional editors use to think through emotional choices before they even touch the timeline.

Why This Exercise Works for Any Skill Level

Whether you're just starting out or you're a seasoned pro, I think this exercise will help you get better at targeting specific emotions, and as you get better at that, your edits will improve greatly.

The beauty of this exercise is its simplicity. You're not learning new software features or memorizing keyboard shortcuts. You're training your brain to think like a professional editor thinks — emotion first, technical execution second.

I actually really enjoyed this challenge myself. The constraint of using identical footage forces you to focus entirely on the creative decisions that actually matter. When you can't rely on different shots to tell your story, you have to rely on the craft of editing itself.

Whether you're building a demo reel or working on client projects, this fundamental skill of emotional targeting will set your work apart. If you're ready to take your editing career to the professional level with systematic training in emotional storytelling and commercial workflows, check out my comprehensive editing course designed specifically for editors who want to work on high-end projects.