How I Edit My Videos.

Hello, it is me, it is Beka...

When I first started out on YouTube with the intentions of being an actual "YouTuber"I wanted to do it the same as everyone else I watched. I thought it was so important to have the catch phrase, the fabulous outfit, and animations. You can see from my videos in 2014 that I was just trying way too hard to be the same as everyone else.

Now I have found out the way 'I' want to do it and I feel so much better, I don't even have to think about it. Nowadays my videos from The Beka Show series (cause I don't have a main channel and a secondary vlogging channel; I use just the one) are all put together with the same easy process that has simply developed into a series of habits. And now I am going to share those secrets with you ;)


I edit with iMovie. It does the trick, I don't think I need Final Cut Pro to make sufficient videos. Plus with the limitations of functions I am forced to be a creative thinker when I want something more than what iMovie can offer. Ultimately I use a MacBook Pro to edit my videos because I utilize Keynote to make graphic titles and moving overlays.

If you're entirely new to editing; fancy words in blod are ones you might want to google or watch the video I've linked for you.

Step 1 is always to create a new movie project and import the footage to a new event. I suggest doing this immediately after filming so you know you have it off your SD card. It can also take a while to process, depending on how much footage you have, so you don't have to be committed to sitting down and editing just yet.

It all then goes into the timeline, and I frame it with blur transitions. I find that working with all of the footage I will know there is nothing I miss out. I know for instance Zoe "Zoella" Sugg, does it the opposite way round. Adding the footage clip by clip from the Event, I find is a too fiddly to select and cut right to the 10th of a second. And I know you can trim your clips later in the timeline, but why do it all twice?

I place in my opening label overlay at the beginning which was made in Filmora. I think the program was $85 NZD and I love the sketch animations and titles and music it comes with.

It needs to be changed to a green screen effect because by default iMovie overlays are cutaways.



The same goes for my social media tags which play during the introduction of the video.



 I used KeyNote and its animations, to make this green screen overlay.

My Endcard which was made with PicMonkey.com goes at the end, and because it's a static image the settings need to be changed from Ken Burns, which is a zoom, to Fit, to get the whole thing in screen. I let this run for 10ish seconds at the end to give people a good chance to click on the annotations to a playlist or my associated website.

Then comes the daunting task of taking out all the bits I don't want. I use the key command ⌘+B (This stands for 'blade'), to cut a clip where the vertical line is sitting. This continues until there is nothing totally embarrassing to see, and the length is down to at least less than 15 min. The shorter the better when you are starting out because people tend to like being able to watch more videos in the same amount of time.

I don't leave my projects in my library once I've exported a video successfully; I move a selection of the footage into an archive collection and delete the rest. The file in saved but I can't keep the rest because my computer's drive isn't big enough to hold everything. Imported footage seems to take up more space and in my opinion, I won't need it all for the future, hence why I save only a little.

And that's pretty much my whole editing process. I don't like to use colour correction over starting with a well-lit set. I don't like to use the stabilize function, rather than filming with a tripod. And worst of all background noise reduction is never necessary for a good YouTuber; that's why I'm not a good YouTuber, I have a very noisy family that can't learn that being in the same room really helps you want to communicate with a person. Instead, there's often a bit of shouting going on. I suggest trying to get your housemates to understand you want quiet to film. Or I'm looking into getting an external microphone.

Please leave any questions you may have in the comments, I'm here to help.
xxoBeka