10 Years a Filmmaker: Re-editing my first project

My First Film Projects

Fresh out of film school, I felt like I ruled the world. No project was too big for me. Although that thought quickly turned around when I started to work on my first ever commercial film projects.

Making a corporate video or commercial is not only about your creative inputs and ideas. Suddenly you need to keep other things in mind. Such as the commercial message, the values of the client and most importantly; budget.

Your creative ideas don't always fit within these factors. And that's where you need to start making compromises with yourself. When you put 10 hours of editing on the price quote, you cannot spend 20 hours doing so. Be strict to yourself and try to get the most out of the 10 hours you've given yourself.

Video Editing: What have I learned?

In my beginning days I would first look for a song. Then place that song in the timeline and slap some random shots on it. After 10 years of experience, I've learned a lot more on how to make my edits more dynamic.

Here are a few pointers that could help make your edit more dynamic:

• Look for shots that share a point of interest. This is topic is explained in detail in our latest course about compositions in films.
• Create visual elements that keeps the viewer interested. You can use stock elements if you're not familiar with Adobe After Effects
• Music is important, but don't let it overrule your edit. Work with sound design to give more depth to your video.
• Only include shots that make sense or tell story that you want to bring. Leave out the rest.

Drivesavers

Big thanks to Drivesavers for supporting us on this video. If it wasn't for them, I would have never been able to recover one of my first projects. Drivesavers made it possible for me to re-edit an old project and find out what I learned over the years.

Never give up when your SD card or drive fails. Scheduling a reshoot is not good for your reputation (definitely not for a wedding 😛). So always keep Drivesavers in the back of your head as they can restore your videos, photos or other data!