Editing Guidelines

Not all great videos need editing. Some do. Below are three examples of how you can edit your footage depending your goals.

Shoot and Share (Simplest)

The basic footage is great, but you might want to trim a bit off the beginning or end of a clip and share it.

Plug your camera in and, using the FlipShare software that comes with your camcorder, find the clip you want to share on your camcorder.
Click the little scissors icon in the lower right corner and you can use the sliders to set the beginning and end points of the clip.
Click “save as” and title your new clip. It’s perfect and ready to share.
Highlight the clip you just made and click the “online” icon in the “share” box at the bottom of the page and share directly to YouTube, MySpace and others.

Create a Movie (Some Editing)

Tell a story — You have several clips that together capture the essence of a story. You can combine a series of clips, add titles, and perhaps add music to make a single video.

Using the FlipShare software, highlight the clip/s you want to use and click the “Movie” icon in the “Create” box at the bottom of the page. The software walks you through adding titles, credits, and music (if you want) and will insert dissolve transitions between clips.
The software does its magic and your new product pops out in the “My Movies” folder.
Then follow the steps from “shoot and share” to post your new movie online or email it to colleagues.

Professional Video Piece (Advanced Editing)

Create a media piece for DVD, broadcast or other distribution — Flip Video clips will be a part of a more complex video that includes footage from other sources, still photos, and/or voice-over narration.

You will want to use a full-featured editing package to support your more sophisticated use of media. We suggest starting with freely available software: either Windows Movie Maker or Video Spin (free download but $15 for the important upgrade) for Windows, or iMovie for Mac (pick the version that is compatible with your system. There are Vimeo basic tutorials for iMovie here and Windows Movie Maker here. Final Cut Pro users can also follow the steps below.

Organize all of your material. Put all still photos, music files, storyboards and narration files into a folder on your computer and label it Project X.
Download the footage from your Flip Camcorder onto your computer. It is easiest to open it up like an external drive, open the DCIM folder, and then the 100VIDEO folder. Your clips will be there. Copy and paste them to your Project X folder. Alternatively, from within the FlipShare software you can select a clip and right click (PC) or cntrl click (Mac) it and select export. This will keep that video organized within your FlipShare software but also allow you to export an exact replica to the location of your choice.
Import your files into your editing system. Each of the programs is a little different but generally you can either drag and drop or click File –> Import.
Start putting the pieces together. Record a quick narration, lay down a music track and try some simple transitions. FYI, effects often take away more than they add so keep it simple - let your subjects tell your compelling story.

Learn More

Editing is not easy, but you can improve if you know what you want to make and you are willing to put in a little time. Watch lots of videos and see which ones you like, then model yours after theirs. Here are a few resources to learn more about video production:

The folks at freevlog have put together an excellent piece about how to create a video blog, soup to nuts.

Current.TV has put together this resource for training. This section focuses on editing but there is a lot of useful stuff in there. . . so dig around.

Blip.tv encourages everyday folks to start making their own episodes, and this is what they have put out for support.

Finally, this video by our partner Witness, does not outline specific tips for editing but talks about the importance of storytelling and is valuable to watch for the editing techniques utililzed for the piece.