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How to Edit Videos Like the Pros: Beyond the Basics.

Okay, if I didn't scare you away from the idea of professional editing last month, let's move on to some of the more advanced stuff. Like what makes the difference between basic editing and actual professional editing. In my opinion, at least, the difference is pretty simple. Beginning editors concentrate on how to do the tasks of editing well. They're concerned with how well they accomplish the process of editing, the cuts, the transitions, marrying the audio and video on the timeline so that nothing's wrong with their work.

The professionals change their perspective. They stop worrying about what might be "wrong" because they're confident in their skills to handle that. So they shift their perspective from simply "how to do things" to how things should be done.

At the earliest meeting with a new client, the beginners will be thinking about how much to charge, how much time the video will take to make, whether their cameras are good enough, what extra help they will need. The professionals will know all that in advance. They'll spend the same meeting listening to what the client needs.

I've been writing this column for more than ten years now, and the next sentence could be the most valuable single piece of advice I've ever given in this magazine.

"In a meeting about new business, the one who's listening is the one who's winning."

Listening means you're focused on what your client needs. And once you understand that, you can make them a video that actually helps them succeed. And people who can do that successfully are the people who are hired again and again. That, in a nutshell, is the major difference between amateurs and professionals.

As you master your post-production software, you get to turn your attention away from how to push the buttons and toward which techniques will be the most effective in telling your client's story. That presumes that you're well versed in editing workflows and can tell what techniques will work best for this particular project. The way to learn what works best is trial and error. So the path to superior editing is always going to be... (insert drumroll here...) practice, practice, practice.

The best editing trick you can know is any trick that helps you solve a customer's problem right now. So the more tricks you can learn, the more different situations you can solve. Early in my career I learned about typesetting -- so I can solve titling problems. I learned about audio recording, so I can solve audio problems, I learned about all kinds of music so when a client is selling cowboy boots, I know what sub-genre of country might appeal to their target audience. The point is that for superior results in editing, the editor needs to be superiorly curious about a lot of things.

At its core, video editing is fundamentally about communicating with people. So the more you know about different kinds of people, the better off you'll be.

Okay, that's the theoretical stuff, but what about practical tips for readers who are thinking about making the transition from hobbyist to pro? Consider the old warhorse saying that's warmed the hearts of faceless functionaries and bureaucrats for generations: "The job's not done until the paperwork is complete and filed." It's exciting when you're editing video and audio and making your video. It's heartwarming to deliver a master and have the client congratulate you for a job well done.

Of course, it's undeniably much less exciting to have to turn your attention to all the mundane tasks like labeling and filing your tapes, backing up your project files, sorting all of your project notes and backing up all the no long-er necessary files off your hard drive. But it's vitally important when each job is complete to have a system for wrapping your current project up and properly preparing for the next.

Remember that it doesn't matter what that system is. You can file six different project elements in six separate places, all under a common job name/number, or you can shove everything, including all the paperwork, data discs, tapes, etc., in a bankers box and shove it on a shelf. The key thing is to have a system, and to make use of it. You should have a way to mark every script, file, tape, tape case, hard drive volume, and virtual file -- so that when you next need to get your mitts on them, you can rest assured that all files and media are in one place. Trust me on this.

In the two parts of this article we've looked at what it means to "Edit like the Pros." We've learned that "pros" covers a lot of territory. The skills necessary to do a good corporate video might not be everything you need to do a good dramatic style film. And vice versa.