Video Editing Ideas

Video editing is a medium that is relatively unknown and unexplored for students, but it is one that offers a lot of creative freedom and the opportunity to develop a distinctive style.

Video editing is also easy to do, since all you truly need is a camera and whatever editing software you choose. There are a lot of video editing softwares out there that have different specialties and levels of difficulty. On this blog I’ll be talking about Adobe Premiere Pro and iMovie simply because I have experience with those sites, but there are lots of options out there.

In terms of ideas on which direction to go with your videos, you truly can do whatever you wish. The main things to think about are the images and sounds you want to feature and the point of the video. Is there a certain emotion you want to provoke? Is there a narrative you are trying to tell? Are you trying to draw attention to a social issue?

I mentioned that the sounds are important to your videos, and I want to add an aside about sound editing. It is important to remember that even when we experience silence in our daily lives, there is always white noise in the background. Similarly, be aware of this in videos. If you have noise that cuts to a silent scene, add underlying white noise as to not create a jarring shift. However, if you want this jarring effect silence causes, you can definitely use that to create interesting emphasis or emotion.

Just like the images you use, it is better to record your own sound rather than rely on audio created by others or generic music. IB again places an important emphasis on using your own footage, and this includes sound. Sound can be recorded separate from the image and edited in later, which is a good tactic for more abstract work especially.

One last tip on sound: when editing sounds together, make sure they are all the same level. Some sound files are naturally quieter than others, but when the audience watches the video, they shouldn’t have to adjust the volume at all. To accomplish an even volume throughout, you may have to edit the level of sound of the different files.

Now we return to video editing ideas. I have included below the different prompts my teacher gave me for our video editing projects. These are just a few ideas and a starting point for thinking about your own work.

The first was called “Digital Gleaning,” and the idea was to capture the emotions of a place and your connection to it. My focus was on my college campus and the juxtaposition between the stress school brings and the peacefulness of the beautiful architecture.

Our next assignment was based on the artistic movement of Fluxus, which emphasized experimental art performances called scores. The important part of the work was the process, not the result. We used this handbook of scores and turned two of them into videos.

The first score I adapted was “Nivea Cream Piece” by Alison Knowles.

First performer comes on stage with a bottle of Nivea Cream or (if none is available) with a bottle of hand cream labeled ‘Nivea Cream.’ He pours the cream onto his hands and massages them in front of the microphone. Other performers enter, one by one, and do the same thing. Then they join together in front of the microphone to make a mass of massaging hands. They leave in the reverse of the order in which they entered, on a signal from the first performer.

The second score I adapted was “A Performance Calendar (for El Djerrida)” by Don Boyd.

For whom? Anyone.
When? Anytime. 

JANUARY – Obey all laws 30 days. One day disobey one law.
FEBRUARY – Make a work with the fewest elements possible. One item? 

MARCH – Watch the clouds on a sunny day for 10 minutes.
APRIL – Watch some kind of insect for 10 minutes. 

MAY – Take a book and a pen. (An old-fashioned ink pen). Sit in the woods for 30 minutes watching and listening. Write of what you see and feel and hear. 

JUNE – Find a sheep. Watch it 30 minutes.
JULY – Find a wolf. Watch it 30 minutes.
AUGUST – Write a letter to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service or the equivalent income tax authority where you live), explaining how difficult it is to achieve lofty dryness.
SEPTEMBER – Make a list of your four favorite books. Send it to me.
OCTOBER – Make your favorite dish of food. Send me the recipe.
NOVEMBER – Go somewhere and watch it snow. Sit with a friend. Drink hot tea.
DECEMBER – Give something you treasure to another person.

Just a note: this video was purposefully done with no sound because it is designed to be shown on loop in a gallery setting

The third assignment we did was a montage style video, which combines clips from different sources into one cohesive video. This cohesion doesn’t mean it has to look like it all came from the same source, it could be cohesive in tone, emotion, or subject matter instead. And while our assignment was to use video clips from other sources, montage can still be successful with your own footage.

Unfortunately I can’t embed my full montage video because it got copyright claimed on YouTube, but I added in my small experimentation piece instead:

(If you really want to see my full montage video, I have it on google drive here)

Our other video assignment I discuss under the “Video Compositing” tab, since it deals with different software and techniques than these examples.

Again, I include these examples not to claim my work is a perfect example of what you should do or to tell you that video editing has to look like this. I wanted to give a little taste of the wide spectrum of video editing styles that are out there. Personal style, too, impacts the appearance of your videos. Even though we had the same assignment, every person in my class turned in something completely different because we all had different artistic visions.

Working with video is fun for that exact reason: you can go in whatever direction you wish. Just remember to still maintain a clear vision and focus for your video, you still want it to speak to the main themes running through your body of work.

If you are interested in investigating any video artists, Pipilotti Rist and John Warren are a good start.