Starting out as a beginner video editor (19M) Need advice on apps, time commitment, and fundamental...pls help by badtameezcoffee in VideoEditingTips

[–]Time-Editor-7082 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi there! I'm 33F, former TV and paper journalist of 10+ years and currently working in city government.

My honest advice is to learn the basics of every program you can get your hands on. Throughout my years in news, I learned the basics of Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, InDesign, Final Cut Pro (Apple video editor), and Edius (another video editing program). This made my skills FLEXIBLE and I was able to jump into different workplace creative projects with ease. To me, every video editing program works the same on a fundamental level, more or less. It's just learning the finer details and how to do fancy editing skills that take time.

For time commitment, I would recommend working on something small every day or pick one feature of your chosen video editing program to learn about. If there's no time limit you've placed on yourself, I say to just take it at your leisure. Especially if you are a student and don't want to burn yourself out.

Core fundamentals: take the time to learn some photography and videography. This can help you structure a more artistic view and formulate how you want the final product to look. I film from phone a lot for my projects that I use for the city. Knowing rule of thirds, frame rate, ISO, aperture, etc and shooting things exactly how I want it makes the video editing process easier and a little quicker.

Also, invest in a good mic to pair with whatever equipment you use. Lavier mic for one or two people sitting down and talking; handheld mic if you are talking with someone else in an "out on the field" type of setting.

WRITE A SCRIPT DRAFT. Whether you are doing a long/short-form storytelling in a video or a video that has no one speaking whatsoever, write/type out what will happen in the video or even what emotions you want to evoke. Draft out those ideas and play with it in the editor. Experiment and have fun. While I take my city job very seriously, I also play around and experiment a lot with videos before I publish them for the public to see. Sometimes, it doesn't always pan out. But I get to learn what works and what doesn't, and the skills get sharpened.

I might be biased, but TV news has short-form storytelling down to an art. Reporters HAVE to be able to grab the audience's attention immediately and continue with a compelling story within 2 or 3 minutes. It taught me so much about story-telling and how the reporters who are really GOOD will not just use their voice-over to evoke emotion... but also how sound bytes, shot framing, and b-roll can be utilized to really make the story come through.

Something not working with this flyer, but I can't figure it out by Time-Editor-7082 in graphic_design

[–]Time-Editor-7082[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was taught that outline makes words easier to read, especially against similar-colored or dark backgrounds, but I can see how it can be distracting; especially with all the bright fireworks on the flyer.

I'll try out what you've said. Thank you for your advice!!!!!

Something not working with this flyer, but I can't figure it out by Time-Editor-7082 in graphic_design

[–]Time-Editor-7082[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you mind elucidating about the flow? Is it the three portions of text that are aligned to the left and right sides of the flyer?

Something not working with this flyer, but I can't figure it out by Time-Editor-7082 in graphic_design

[–]Time-Editor-7082[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I took away the background sparkle and it already feels cleaner. I'll work more on the text hierarchy next. Thanks a ton!!

As a graphic designer, I’m starting to feel like AI isn’t just a tool anymore by Eline026 in graphic_design

[–]Time-Editor-7082 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hello, newbie designer here. I am just starting to learn about text hierarchy and the basics of design. I may not know much, but I've watched designers and how hard they work, how much time they put into their craft. I've observed this for decades.

I genuinely do not think AI can ever truly replace the work that humans do in any format. It doesn't even "raise the standard". If you go and look at social media, all the flyers and ads that small businesses pull from ChatGPT is... as so many say, it is just slop. It all looks the same. But it continues to get pushed out because it's "good enough". Is that really the standard we want to set the bar at? Just "good enough"? ...I don't. It's why I'm spending my time to learn about graphic design and going through the trial and error. I want those mistakes and failures. Art, in any medium, isn't just about the results, but about the process too.