WHAT TO DO TO EDIT FASTER?

LEARN KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

It saves so much time to just click a specific key combination instead of searching menus every single time. Each editing software has slight differences, so choose your editing environment and learn keyboard shortcut for your most commonly used functions. In case you can’t find a shortcut for what you need, in most softwares you have an option to add your own shortcuts. So dive in! The more you use keyboard, the faster you edit.

ORGANIZATION

IS A KEY

Organize your files on your hard drive and inside your project file. Separate different filming days, different cameras (if multiple). Put audio and video in different folders (bins in your project). Create separate folders for music, sound effects, graphics and other media. The bigger the project is, the more folders you create. Trust me, it will save you hours when looking for “this one file”.

Do the same with your file names. Come up with a convention and stick to it. For example: 2022-02-TRAVELVIDEO-H.264-1920x1080-24fps.mp4

Avoid naming files by adding words such as final, eg. TravelVideo-Final-Final-ReallyFinal.mp4

USE SSD DRIVES

You wanna keep your footage on external hard drives. Make sure it is a fast drive. Always edit of SSD drive. HDD drives are much slower and will significantly slow down your playback speed and extend your export time. With SSD drives you can edit in real time with no frustrations.

GET LOADS OF RAM

The more RAM you have, the better. My computer has 64Gb and operates smoothly even with 6K footage. Getting more RAM will also enable you to skip transcoding and edit directly 4K. It is a huge time saver!

CLOSE OTHER APPLICATIONS

Having enough RAM is not enough, if you not allocate it properly. Most editing softwares also give you an option to choose how much RAM memory you want to dedicate to the application. Make sure you optimize this setting for your needs. Closing other programs also ensures that you make the most out of your hardware.