Watch: 3 Mistakes All Beginner Editors Make (and How to Fix Them)

As an editor, you'll be honing your craft for the entire duration of your career. Learning new techniques and adjusting your approach is the name of the game—a process of growth that comes with time and experience—but there are a few things you can learn right here, right now that will make you an overall more mature, more effective editor. Sven Pape of This Guy Edits talks about three common editing mistakes beginners make and how to fix them. Check it out below:

Not knowing your footage

All artists have to know their medium like the back of their hand, and for editors that means watching hours and hours of raw footage and taking copious notes. Not only will this help you in the all-important selection process, but you'll actually work a lot faster once you start adding clips to your timeline.

Not using split edits

This is Editing 101, right here. How should an editor lay out clips on a timeline? If you're new to editing, you might think lining up each clip end to end makes absolute sense, because how the hell else would you do it, but most professionals would say that's a big no-no. Split edits, also called J and L-cuts, help hide transitions from one clip to another due to audio overlap. If the audio from the preceding clip (A) overlaps the following clip (B), that's an L-cut, but if it's the other way around, the audio from clip B overlaps clip A, that's a J-cut.

Troublesome workflow

This is a problem that reaches across every level of experience. (Those who have been in the game for 30 years can have more chaotic workflows than those who are just starting.) Having an organized and efficient workflow is absolutely important for editors, especially if there are clients involved. A messy workflow can cost you a lot of time, which in the end will cost you clients, and clients mean money. (Messy workflow = less money) There are plenty of ways to overhaul your workflow; you can get a few tips here and here.

What are some other mistakes new editors should try to avoid? Let us know down in the comments.

Source: This Guy Edits