3 Basic Editing Tips To Make Your Club’s Videos Amazing

Editing videos can be a real pain and a lot of fun. It's a task that most people put off for ages, but once they get started, they enjoy themselves and end up with a video they're really proud of. 

Between my previous job at a large TV station and my time at uni, I have spent more time than I'd care to remember in a dark room, hunched over a video editing program, drinking dangerous amounts of caffeine. 

Today, I’m going to put all those hours to good use by sharing with you some tips and tricks to help you make your next club video the best one yet. I will also give you a few little tips to take with you next time you are filming something for your club. 

So, without further ado, let’s jump in. 

1. Using B-Roll In Your Club Videos

In video production, you have two kinds of video footage: A-roll and B-roll. A-roll is your primary footage, the most important video; B-roll is related filler footage usually spliced over certain sections of the A-roll. 

To give you an example that you will definitely know, picture a TV news reporter. He is standing in a busy shopping centre food court, holding a microphone, looking right at the camera, talking about the growing obesity problem. This footage is A-roll; it is the primary focus of the video. 

After the reporter talks down the camera for about ten seconds, the video cuts away to waist-down footage of overweight people walking around. The reporter's voice is still going over the footage (this technique is called an L-cut). The footage of the overweight people is B-roll.  

 

 

B-roll is used for a few crucial reasons. One, people have short attention spans, and cutting away from the A-roll of the reporter to the B-roll helps keep the audience’s attention as there is something new to look at. 

Two, if the reporter flubs a line and has to re-record that line, the editors can cut the footage and put the correct line read in instead of the bad one. However, while it is easy to stitch two pieces of audio together and make it sound seamless, it is nearly impossible with video, as no one is ever standing entirely still. Resulting in a noticeable jump cut in the footage. The editors can completely hide this edit by cutting away to the B-roll before the reporter’s flubbed line. 

Long story short, you need to film or create B-roll footage for your videos. Even if it’s just a screen recording of your club’s website, having that extra footage will allow you to cut out mistakes and edit your footage more freely without worrying about how jumpy the result will be. 

2. Fade Your Video In & Out Of Your Club Videos

Have you ever clicked play on a video only for it to start so suddenly with the speaker practically in mid-sentence that it almost jumpscares you? It's not a pleasant way for videos to start, and it often means that the viewer has to restart the video to actually catch the first few words.

Instead of doing this, you need to start all the videos for your club with a fade-in. Fade-ins are super simple to do, and pretty much any video editing software can do them. All you have to do is start your video with two seconds of completely black footage and then have your actual footage start. This is a straightforward way to make the intros to your videos less jarring and more enjoyable to your audience. 

You can also fade out your videos similarly by putting a few seconds of black at the end of your video. The rule is two seconds of black at the start of the video and five seconds of black at the end of the video. Though, as long as there is some black at the end of your video, I wouldn't worry too much about the exact length. 

More Advanced Fade Ins & Outs

I’m really not going to go into it here, but if you have good video editing software and are feeling adventurous, consider trying some more advanced editing techniques to make your intros and outros buttery smooth. 

More advanced intro techniques include: 

• Using effects to fade your footage up from black 
• Using effects to fade your audio in
• J-cuts to start your audio before your video to make the transition seamless

3. Cutting Your Club Videos

Cutting from one clip to another, or from one clip to another part of the same clip, is something you will have to do when editing a video. There are more techniques for doing this than stars in the sky or microplastics in the ocean. 

To keep it simple, I’d suggest using simple cuts/jump cuts (cutting directly from one clip to another) or using very, very basic transitions. Whatever you do, do not use big dramatic screen wipes. You’re not making the original Star Wars trilogy, and it was even weird when they did it.

 

 

One of the simplest ways to make your jump cuts flow better and to be less startling is to cut on the beat of the backing music in your video. This can improve your video's flow and give it a satisfying rhythmic quality. 

A Video Demonstration Of Editing Tips 

The below video contains examples of some of the editing techniques we have already discussed. 

The first technique shown is using B-roll to cover cuts in A-roll footage. The video I used for this is from Member Jungle’s case study of the Newcastle Chapter of the Harley Owners Group.  

The second technique shown is fading into your video rather than jumping into it. It uses the same footage of the Newcastle Harley Owners Group. 

The final technique shown is cutting your video on the beat to make it flow better. As a special treat, I used assorted B-roll footage of cute animals, just to make sure this article ends on a happy note. 
 

 

Tips For Filming Your Club Videos

As promised, I will quickly cover a few things you can do when filming videos for your club to make your job editing the footage easier. 

• Use a tripod or camera stabiliser - The tiniest movements when holding the camera can result in massive amounts of shake in the final footage.
   
• Use a separate microphone - Do not rely on the camera’s mic if you are interviewing someone. It won’t be good enough. 
   
• Use a windshield or pop filter for your Microphone - Even a gentle breeze can significantly reduce the quality of your final audio.  
   
• Film for longer than you think you need to - Don’t stop filming or start waving the camera around the second you’ve got the shot or the person stops speaking. Extending the shot by several seconds will make editing much easier. 
   
• Don’t talk immediately before or after your shot - Do your best to have a few seconds of silence on either side of your shot. It will make editing much easier. 
   
• Shoot more B-roll than you think you’ll need - Honestly, shoot B-roll like you’re shooting for a full-length film. 

 

Those are just some little tips that will make a big difference when you have to edit your footage. They will make your job easier and result in a much better final product. 

How Else Can I Improve My Club Videos? 

Those were some quick and helpful tips to really up your game when it comes to creating videos for your club. I really hope you found them useful and that your next club video is a lot easier to make. 

If you’re interested in finding out how you can use AI to help create videos for your club, check out How AI Can Help Your Club or Association - AI-Assisted Videos.