Top 5 Tools to Help You Excel in Video Creation and Editing
Human beings love video. We’re hard-wired to.
Our brains are wired to take in and process incredible quantities of visual information. Our eyes can register 36,000 visual messages per hour. In fact, 80% of all the information your brain absorbs is visual! As a result, videos are one of the most important ways there are to communicate a message or concept.
Whether you’re looking to produce videos as an individual creator, as a marketer or as a company, your focus should always be on delivering high-quality content. Having high-quality video content not only helps you get your message across better but tells your story better as well. Ask anyone in marketing about the importance of a story and they’ll tell you that it’s second to none in terms of making an audience emote, react and remember your content.
At a more basic level, nobody wants to waste their time watching a bad, cringe-worthy video. Good videos that tell great stories leave lasting impressions and that translates to views. It’s not an easy thing to get right but with the right tools, it becomes a lot easier.
These five tools we’ve picked out will help ensure that your video stands out from the crowd and make a lasting impression.
5 Tools to Help You Excel in Video Creation and Editing
While there’s always more in-depth you can go when it comes to producing quality video, with these 5 tools, you’ll have everything you need to put the quality in your high-quality video content.
1. An auto subtitle generator
The simplest to implement and yet the most commonly ignored tool is subtitles or captions. Adding subtitles can make a huge difference when it comes to increasing the reach and accessibility of your content.
In the US alone, 41% of Americans speak English as a second language. For them, subtitles are a great way to familiarize themselves with the language as well as enjoy the content they’re watching. Whether it’s foreign-language speakers, the hard of hearing or those watching from an environment where they can’t enable sound, subtitles are more important than they’re given credit for.
Videos with subtitles have longer viewing times, which indicates increased watch time.
Subtitles also have the added bonus of increasing your social reach by up to 16%, enhancing your SEO and also making it easy for people in noise-sensitive environments to keep watching your videos.
While it may sound time-consuming to try and add in your own subtitles, using Happy Scribe’s auto subtitle generator service makes it so that it only takes a few clicks to add subtitles to your video. From there, it’s down to you and your content to achieve its true potential.
2. A high-quality portable camera
There’s no disputing that in order to deliver high-quality video content, you need a quality camera.
What camera though, will depend on the type of video you want to make. While high quality, Marvel Studio level cameras are the dream, they’re not exactly necessary or practical for filming your latest vlog. Likewise, if you’re doing a product shoot, your old iPhone won’t necessarily cut it. A good videographer should have a variety of tools to make sure they can make the most out of their latest project.
According to Digital Camera World, these are some of the top DSLR cameras for video:
- Canon Rebel EOS SL3 / EOS 250D
- Nikon D7500
- NikonD500
While it’s always great to have a dedicated DSLR camera, in today’s world, a lot of phones have stunning rear end and front-facing cameras that may be perfect for certain types of video. Apple’s iPhone series generally takes the cake when it comes to mobile cameras with the 13 Pro Max and 13 Pro currently seen as the top of the range. For those less Apple inclined, Google’s Pixel 6 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra are close competitors.
For videographers looking to make videos specifically for social media, a good mobile phone combined with a great idea and some skill is often more important than the latest and greatest shiny camera.
3. External microphone
While most DSLR cameras and even phones have great audio pickups, they still don’t quite compare to an external piece. There’s a reason why podcast hosts, musicians and YouTubers use the microphones they do.
External microphones significantly improve the quality of your audio. This is especially important when you’re filming a video. Automatic gain control, increased freedom of movement during filming and being able to separate vocal and ambient sounds are all benefits of having an external microphone.
Studies have shown that poor audio can not only be off-putting but can actively affect your viewer’s trust in your video. No matter how crisp your visuals are, or good the story you’re trying to tell is, scratchy audio will have viewers clicking elsewhere. Audio distortion, buzz or environmental noise are all enemies of good audio.
While it may not replace a Grammy-winning sound production team, a good quality external microphone can help your video much more than you’d think. A few things an external microphone can help with are:
- Balanced audio: If you’ve ever had to pump up the volume to hear dialogue only to be deafened by the next action scene, you’ll know what we mean when we say balanced audio is key
- Clear dialogue: External mics can help focus the source of your sound so it’s easier to pick up the sound without interference or distortion
- Getting rid of background noise: Wind, traffic, clicks, and even appliance hum can distract viewers from your video. We’ve all had that feeling of not being able to focus because of a weird sound in the background. Using an external mic will help you make sure your audience is only hearing the sounds you want them to.
- Keeping your sound headphone friendly: When you make sure the audio you record is high quality (keep the master volume below 6db) it’s a lot easier to make your audio more suited for listening through headphones.
4. Professional-level video editing software
There are dozens of awesome editing software on the market these days. Great editing can help fix a lot of shortcomings when it comes to your videos but instead of acting as digital duct tape, editing should rather help accentuate and improve your already great video.
If you’re still in the beginning phase of learning how to make and edit videos, there are a lot of great free editing software programmes out there. Blender, Lightworks, DaVinci Resolve and the ever-popular iMovie are all good options when it comes to free editing software. While they may not have some of the finer details paid for programmes do, they’re perfect for the beginner content creator.
For those who are more in the know, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro and CyberLink PowerDirector 365 are all great professional-level programmes. There are enough free tutorials and youtube “how to’s” to have you become an expert in no time.
5. Social Media
Social media is incredibly important for marketing today.
If you’re being hired to create a promotional video or create your own, social media is incredibly important. Whether that’s because you need to use it to advertise yourself or to inform you about trends on each platform.
For example, if you’re planning to shoot a landscape video for Tik Tok, you’re simply not setting yourself up for success. If you don’t know how to go live on Tik Tok or Instagram and want to enter that space, you may struggle to gain any sort of traction, no matter how well shot, lit or scripted your video is.
There’s a reason digital marketing strategies are so heavily reliant on both social media and video. They’re a natural fit and knowing how to make the most of this connection can go a long way toward making your videos a success.
Final Thoughts
People retain 95% of a message when they see it in a video, as opposed to a mere 10% when reading it in text. That alone should tell you everything about why video is important, not just from a marketing perspective, but from a human one. From a numbers perspective only, it’s even more interesting. For example, according to a Cisco report, almost one million minutes of video travel the internet every second.
Video is an increasingly important part of everyday life, especially in marketing. While there are a dozen more tools that can help you tweak various factors in your video creation process, these tools are everything you need to take your videos from good to great.
Great videos are as much about ideas and talent as they are about equipment. Despite that, making videos that are high-quality lets your audience know that you’re capable of creating content to persuade, inform and inspire.
All that being said, no amount of tools, tips and tricks will ever replace talent and hard work. The most important tools you possess are your mind and your imagination. Hopefully, these tools will just help you fine-tune your already amazing video idea.
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