The rise of the internet has deeply benefited the video editing industry. There is a growing demand in every digital workplace nowadays. The use of advertising through video has increased day by day because it has the capacity to attract a large amount of audience. Not only does the advertising industry rely on video editors to create content but today other industries like the tv industry, film industry, social media, events also heavily depend upon video editors to make a professional video. Is video editing a good career choice for you? Well, in this article I will try to break it for you.
What qualifications do you need to be a video editor?
Do you need any kind of degree to be a video editor? Generally, to become a video editor you don’t need any qualifications. However, if you wish to work under any organization or company they might ask for any kind of degree or diploma related to video editing jobs.
But other than that you don’t need any qualifications. Your practical knowledge, skill, imagination, and unique ideas are some of the factors that are needed most here, these factors will determine how your video is going to be.
Tips for video editors –
Make a plan before jumping into editing a video – Having a goal or a plan is necessary before editing a video. It is important to know beforehand why you are making this video, what do you want to achieve from this, and what will be the reaction of the audience after watching this video. These are some of the things to keep in mind before doing editing, it will help in editing to be more targeted and efficient.
File organization – This seems less important but believe me this is also an important part of your video editing timeline. File organizing will help you reduce the time to make a video. You should move all the necessary clips, audio, sound effects into a folder, make a subfolder within the main folder according to the categories, and also place the folder where you can easily access them.
Focus on the content first – Don’t just drop your clips into your video editing application timeline and play with color or audio, you should focus on the content first. Make sure that you have all the footage to tell the story, check the footage if it is useful to add or not, compile them together according to scenes then proceed to color grading or audio section.
Practice over just learning – It is ok to enroll in an editing course or learn editing skills via watching YouTube videos, it will help you learn new tips and tricks, but only watching videos will not going to help in your practical knowledge, you need to practice extensively over just learning. Remember practice is the only key through which you can master anything.
Learn keyboard shortcuts – Keyboard shortcuts help a video editor to shorten the time and speed up you to make a video. Learn some keyboard shortcuts of your video editing application or google them if you can’t find them in your application, it will save your time from multiple mouse clicks.
Video editing tools for beginners –
Well if you are just thinking of starting then you need some tools and applications. Such as –
Laptop – A laptop is much needed for video editing. Though many mobile video editing apps are available nowadays, for smooth video editing you need a laptop or PC. If you have a limited budget go for a low-end PC that has a minimum of 4 GB RAM. Because video editing needs some resources to perform.
Video Editing Software – There are many video editing software available for both windows and mac. For starting you can use Videopad, filmora, premier pro, final cut pro software for editing a video.
Royalty-free music sites – Music is an essential part of your video editing. You need to pay attention when selecting music for your videos. It should be copyright-free and also go along with your video. But where do you find this music? Well, there are several Royalty free music sites available on the internet. Some have a high price and also some sites have affordable prices to buy.
If you are looking for cheap royalty-free music sites then I have already written the highlighted article.
Is video editing a good career path?
Are video editors in demand? What are the options a video editor has to make a career? Well, below I have mentioned some of the industries where you can make a career as a video career.
Youtube: Right now this is one of the best choices for video editors. Because YouTube video editors have a tremendous opportunity to showcase their skills and earn money from this. You can start a channel by teaching a tutorial on the topic ‘how to edit a video’. Because this has lots of viewers and if you teach them well then you will have lots of subscribers.
Or you can start on any niche and start uploading videos because you need to edit the video before uploading it. If you know how to edit a video then you don’t have to hire video editors or depend on video editors to edit your videos.
Editing for others: Suppose your friend wants to start a YouTube channel and he doesn’t know anything about video editing, so if you know video editing then you can edit his videos. For that, he may give you some money or something you need.
Freelance: Freelance is related to a self-employed job where someone does jobs for different organizations rather than for a single organization. You can work offline or online. There are many online sites available on the internet where you can apply for a job. Sites like Upwork, Fiverr, PeoplePerHour are some of the freelancing sites where you can register yourself and apply for video editor jobs. This is an example where you can do video editing jobs from home, you need just some tools to do these editing jobs.
Animation: You can work as an animator if you have knowledge about animation. This is a high pay job industry. To work as a video editor in animation you should have vast knowledge about multiple animation software because animation is not an easy task to do. There are lots of animation styles you can choose like 2D animation, 3D animation, Stop motion animation, Claymation, etc.
Web video editor: You can sell your editing videos online also and income money. Sites like Uscreen, Videohive, Amazon Video Direct are some of the best places where you can sell your videos.
Feature film: To work in a feature film you need to have some experience first in the video editing field, then you will get hired. Because you have to handle a large amount of footage, sound effects, and apart from handling you need to focus on multiple things such as understanding the screenplay, understanding what the director or producer wants, etc.
TV Studio: Every TV studio needs video editors for editing its videos. If you want to work under a TV studio you can apply if they have a job opening. Here they might ask for the experience before they hire you.
How much do professional video editors make?
Now the question is how much a professional video editor makes money by video editing. Well, first of all, it varies country-wise, some countries’ video editors make lots of money than some other countries and along with it the company profile also matters.
The average salary of a film editor with some experience can expect to earn $70000 per year. It will grow when the film editor builds his experience.
Now let’s look at the below image, they are top-rated freelance video editors who work on the Upwork site. They almost charge $100 per hour from clients.
Conclusion:
I hope I have clarified your query i.e ‘is video editing a good career’ through this post. If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment below.
