Best tips to create a home video in a few hours and share

Today I was at a Mud Run event. I got home with many awesome videos and photos of my friends and I jumping, climbing obstacles and crawling in the mud. I had tons of raw video on my phone and camera. When time permits, I love to create a video out of the raw video footage and share with my friends and family.

If I don’t do that I will have many hours of un-edited videos that I doubtfully ever watch again. To make sure that I finish editing I make sure I actually really care to create this video at the first place. As a result I create a video every two month for family or extreme sport events.

Before the event starts I decide if I will be focused on video or photo. This way the result will be more consistent.

I start editing as soon as possible so that the minor details and the emotions are still fresh in my mind and I remember the best moments to include in the video.

Once I get going it's super important to keep moving. Do not get stuck on that little scene that is bugging right now. I know I will get back to it later. And if I don’t, it means that it is not important enough and I did the right thing not to wasting time.

Get in the flow by grouping the same tasks and perform the same actions on multiple items. When I am cutting out the best parts of the video, I do this for all the video before I move on to adding photos or anything else. If I am sorting the photos, I make sure to finish that before moving on to music selection.

Start with the music selection. The music is what will set the vibe of the video and the speed of the scene changes and transitions.

When I don’t have something specific in mind, I fire up Spotify and search for something like “beach playlist” or “sky jumping” and find the best tune.

It is much simpler to edit when you have a good beat. I try not to use a song that is not too trendy today and try to find something that I did not hear lately. I will be hearing this song a lot in the next hour so I want to keep it fresh.

Once I choose the video I use an online youtube downloader to get the mp3 files.

I used to work with Adobe Premier but found Apple iMovie to be super useful for family videos and gets the job done MUCH faster.

I import the videos, place them on the timeline and cut out all the parts that I do not need. Keep only the best and the juiciest stuff. Do not get stuck on details, place and cut. I usually separate the audio from the video right away and delete the leftover audio. I do not want to hear all the chit chat while editing.

Next place all the photos in the relevant location between the videos.

Place the music on the timeline below the first video and hit play. As the music goes, start cutting and moving the video clips and the photos so it sounds right with the music. It is a simple drag and drop. Pause, right click and select “cut”. Stay focused on the beats.

Keep only what must be seen. I want an awesome three min video of the best parts and not a twelve min documentary with lots of boring scenes.

I prefer not to have scenes longer than 4–7 seconds however sometimes it works perfectly well with the slow tempo music. Sometime I will cut video to 2 seconds and change them quickly if the beats are right.

I can guarantee that when you view the final result it will look and sound great.

Once you finish adjusting the first video to fit the music move to the next one. And the next one. Every thirty seconds of edited video, play the resulting video and make sure that it sounds right to you.

Fix only the things that you must. If you make it too complicated or time-consuming you might not finish it today and it will be postponed to … never.

I prefer not to add video effects throughout most of the video. Transitions work best with photos and at the beginning or an end of the resulting video. I also prefer to use the most simple ones: cross dissolve, cross fade and fade to black.

The last thing I do is throw in a title at the beginning and the end with the name of the event.

It might not be perfect but now I have a great video to remember this day by. Also, there is actually a chance that I will show it to someone or Facebook it. The raw video I took will probably be lost in time and never be watched again.

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