If you’re new to video editing, it can be difficult to start figuring out a good workflow. How do you manage and organise all those huge files? How should you arrange them in your editing software? And is there some trick to editing to make things more efficient?
It can be a tricky process if you’re just trying to muddle through it by yourself, and you’ll likely make mistakes along the way. This video series from Ben Gill at Oxenfree Film & Motion is designed to help ease you through the process.
The series so far contains five videos, each dealing with a different part of the video editing workflow. This is just how the folks at Oxenfree Film & Motion like to work, though. These aren’t hard and fast rules, just how they prefer to work and there are as many video workflows out there as there are video editors. But they should give you a good starting point.
- Folder Structure
- Media Ingest and Management
- Premiere Pro Workspaces & Bins
- The Pancake Timeline (David Fincher technique)
- Backing up your footage
While the process shown in the videos does lean heavily towards Premiere Pro, the same sorts of principles can be applied in DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro and other editing applications, too.
There’s no one way to do anything in life, especially when it comes to video production. We all have our own processes and workflows that suit us best. My own workflow is somewhat different from the videos shown above, but my process has changed and evolved over the years to better suit my gear, my needs and the way I work most efficiently.
If you’re just starting to find your feet with video, knowing somebody else’s workflow can be extremely useful in getting you up and running quickly. It answers many of the questions you might have and gives you a good base from which to begin your journey. Over time, as your needs change and abilities evolve, you’ll find ways to tailor it and customise it to make it more efficient for you.
Ben is planning to add more videos to the series, so be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel to keep updated.
What does your video editing workflow look like right now?
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