Introducing Lauren Cotter, VEED’s resident YouTube content creator with a flair for storytelling both on and off screen. When she found herself furloughed from her job as a studio manager in 2020, Lauren didn't let it stop her—instead, she seized the opportunity to learn video editing.
Quickly realizing her passion also lay in being in front of the camera rather than just behind it, Lauren ventured into freelance video creation on platforms like Fiverr. From creating amateur travel vlogs to crafting compelling content for clients worldwide, she has proven that with dedication and a willingness to learn, anything is possible.
The following video, which reflects Lauren’s video editing chops, is what made her land her job at VEED.
Today, she shares her step-by-step video editing workflow anyone can use.
- Organize the Footage
- Rough Cut A-Roll Footage
- Add B-Roll
- Add Subtitles
- Add Transitions
- Add Music and Sound Effects
- Run a Quality Check
- Export
My Very Simple Yet Effective Video Editing Workflow
Everyone’s going to have a slightly different workflow. I’m not, by any means, implying that mine is the holy grail. It is however a nice starting point for those who are feeling stuck and don’t know where to begin.
Here’s the method I use when editing my videos:
[#TOC1]1. Organize the Footage[#TOC1]
Before diving in, my first advice—and this is something that I also follow for my own channel—is to always organize your content. I organize my content into bite-sized pieces, saving it into different folders so it doesn’t seem overwhelming. I start by breaking my content down into days, and breaking those into events. And within those events, I go one step further and split the footage into A-roll and B-roll, which we’ll dive into a bit deeper shortly.
Organizing makes everything a lot easier when I’m editing, and it will do the same for you once you get into the same habit.
[#TOC2]2. Rough Cut A-Roll Footage[#TOC2]
A-roll is your main footage. It’s the part of your video where you’re speaking directly to the camera. For example, if you like to create travel content like me, your A-roll could be a video of yourself standing in your next dream destination, talking about where you are or trying out a local delicacy.
The first step in my editing method is to rough cut the A-roll footage on my video editor. In simple words, it means shortening the clips and removing excess footage, such as awkward pauses, any oohs or ahhs, and bad takes. Once that’s done, I merge them all together.
Here’s how you can rough cut your A-roll on VEED:
[#TOC3]3. Add B-Roll[#TOC3]
Next comes the B-roll, which is basically supplementary footage that fits with your main shot to make your video more engaging.
This B-roll can be stock video or footage that you’ve shot yourself. The goal of B-roll is to give visual aid, keep the audience hooked, and make the viewers follow your story. For instance, if my video is about my next getaway, the B-roll would include footage of the destination in order to provide a more visual description as I spoke in the background.
Here’s how you can add B-roll to your videos on VEED:
[#TOC4]4. Add Subtitles[#TOC4]
If there’s one thing you should take away from this guide, it’s to always add subtitles to your content. It can make or break your video. In fact, over 80% of people on YouTube prefer to watch videos with subtitles on.
I use automatic subtitles to add subtitles with VEED, and it saves me a great deal of time as I don’t have to manually type them out.
Here’s how to conveniently add subtitles to your videos with VEED:
[#TOC5]5. Add Transitions[#TOC5]
A transition is how your video moves from one shot to the next. Once I’ve prepped all the footage and added the subtitles, I add the transitions. This step will help make your video look more polished and make your story flow nicely.
VEED comes built-in with a wide selection of transitions that you can use in your video projects.
[#TOC6]6. Add Music and Sound Effects (SFX)[#TOC6]
The very next thing after applying the transitions is to add music and sound effects.
The main tip when it comes to adding background music is to make sure it matches the mood or the visuals of your video. You want to pick something that’s appropriate for the scene. For instance, if I’ve filmed a concert or a rollercoaster, some rock or rap music would work perfectly. But that wouldn’t match with a video of me walking around a temple or a holy place.
Also, it’s very important to use copyright-free music, especially if you’re going to be uploading your content on YouTube. You cannot monetize content that gets flagged for copyright infringement.
Next, add sound effects. In a video where I’m talking about travel tips, I could include sounds of the airplane or ambient sounds of announcements at the airport. This is a simple step, but it makes a huge impact on your videos. In fact, I think it’s a dead giveaway of whether you’re a beginner-level editor or a pro based on whether you use sound effects, which ones you use, and their timing.
Here’s how to do this on VEED:
[#TOC7]7. Run a Quality Check[#TOC7]
Before I export my video, I watch it back several times. I particularly look for mistakes, such as:
- Any typos or grammatical errors in the subtitles
- Extra or dead air in the clips that can be cut away
- Audio levels that are too low or too high (for example: loud background music)
If I catch anything that seems off, I fix it until the video project turns out exactly how I want it to be.
[#TOC8]8. Export[#TOC8]
Finally, I export my video—which is basically getting it from the video editing software onto the laptop. When you export, you’ll be asked to specify a render setting, which mainly includes the framerate and the quality of your video.
VEED comes with built-in render settings for different platforms, saving you the trouble of configuring them yourself. For instance, if I’m doing an Instagram reel, I’ll just select that from the list of options, and Instagram won’t lower the quality of the video.
Bonus Takeaway: My Editing Hacks
Liked my editing method? I’m leaving you with the following editing hacks that I use to produce more content in less time.
Replace Hours of Editing With Magic Cut
Magic Cut by VEED is a one-click tool that creates a perfect edit with AI. With Magic Cut, you don’t have to worry about doing retakes or cutting out mistakes or awkward silences. Just focus on doing great recordings, and Magic Cut will take care of the rest.
To use, simply import your video on VEED and then click on Magic Cut. Depending on how long your footage is, it will take Magic Cut anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes to remove any umms or ahhhs, as well as awkward pauses and mistakes. It will also choose your best takes, merge it all together, and present you withready-to-use footage in one click.
Adjust Gaze Post-Production with Eye Contact Correction
If you’re doing educational videos or tutorials, I assume you have a script to follow. Memorizing scripts is super time-consuming. That leaves you with a teleprompter, where you still need to type out your script, set it up, and then read off from it as you record.
This is where VEED’s AI-powered eye contact correction tool is very useful. Simply set up your script on the screen and record your footage. When you import it onto VEED, you can just click on eye contact correction to fix your gaze so it appears you’re looking down the barrel of the lens.
This is very important especially in tutorials, as you want to make sure you’re looking at the camera so your audience feels like they’re connected to you.
