From Learning to Execution: Video Editing!
Tags: Hinton Alberta, Learning A New Skill, Video Editing, Project Management, 101

From Learning to Execution: Video Editing!

I love learning new skills and challenging myself by taking on new tasks which requires learning new skills. Often, taking an assignment is the best way to learn a new skill in my opinion, because you do not have the option to procrastinate (given a deadline to complete the task) and you are essentially learning to solve a problem in front of you, which provides clear direction regarding what you need to learn.

Although I have never previously scripted, filmed and edited a video in any of my past professional roles, when an opportunity arose this month to do so in my current role working for a municipality, I jumped in! My assignment was to help the Hinton Fire Department, create a short “Holiday Fire Safety” video. Due to Covid-19, the traditional ways people, especially school children visit the Fire Hall was disrupted; hence, video in the digital media will be a new way of engagement for the Fire Department. This is yet another example of how Covid-19 has accelerated the digitization of a lot of government work, including outreach and communication.

The entire video was filmed using by phone camera (Google Pixel 3) and edited using Adobe Premier Rush software. As you will see, the audio isn’t great, given the social distancing and audio capture with just the phone microphones, compounded by the fact that the Fire hall, where the video was mostly filmed, was a large space producing echo. Regardless, I tried to do the best possible noise reduction using the software that I could. Google Pixel 3 phone camera is also great, with automatic stabilizer for videos.

Here is the video that I created within a week:

The learning & execution process

These are the steps I followed in one week to film, edit and publish this video:

Collaborate with key stakeholders (in this case, the Fire Department Officers, Director of the Department and my manager) to create a rough project plan and timeline. My goal was to also establish expectations and understand what the deliverable product aims to achieve according to their vision. These two things are incredibly important: 1. expectation setting (given the time and resources to you), and 2. clearly defining the objective (that will guide everything you do). Instead of coming up with these myself, collaborating made everyone feel included in the process and helped in reaching a clear understanding among all relevant stakeholders.

Delegate the basic script-writing (What will be the important tips for Holiday Fire Safety?) to subject matter experts, in this case the Fire department Lieutenants and volunteers, who will be part of the video. Because I had no knowledge in this subject matter, the initial script with the 12 tips was assigned to the experts. One important thing through the entire process is to always know your own competencies and ask where you can add value. If the process can be faster or smoother by delegating to experts, do so!

While I did not have specific knowledge on Fire safety, I also did not know how Fire safety videos were typically created. Hence, I jumped into YouTube and spent few hours finding and watching Fire safety videos created by Canadian and American Fire departments. Each had unique style and messages. I jotted down the creative ideas or messaging style that I liked from the videos I watched. This was essentially my background research.

When I received the basic script with the 12 tips for holiday fire safety, I added creative messaging and humor in it. I also tried to take an ‘outsider’s perspective’ to make sure that the messaging catered to the general audience. I brainstormed ideas with the Fire department Lieutenants and volunteers on how we can make the video more appealing and informative in an engaging way. Thus, we made adjustments such as- doing the different tips at different parts of the Fire Hall, so the audience can also see those different parts; using humor and demonstration whenever that was possible to engage the audience, etc.

Then, I had an hour to film the video at the Fire hall, due to Covid-19 related restrictions and the work related duties that the Fire department Lieutenants and volunteers had. Given this time constraint, I planned my filming and I knew from the beginning that we wouldn’t be able to take more than 2–3 shots for each tip. Knowing your constraints and working with them is also an important skill.

Once I had all my raw videos in my phone, I knew they needed to be edited. I had to learn a new software, but there are multiple video editing software that can be used. How to decide which to use? I did some research online and then hopped onto YouTube again to see reviews of software by some people. I ultimately decided to download and learn Adobe Premier Rush. I decided on this software because it was a happy medium between advanced editing software such as Adobe Premier Pro and basic editing software like Windows moviemaker. Adobe Premier Rush is an all-in-one video editing app, whose biggest strength is its user friendliness, as it is created for the new generation of YouTube creators who want high-quality videos to be captured and edited on the go.

The next step was to learn how to use this software. After playing around with the software for a while, I again searched and found tutorial videos in YouTube. I watched hours of such Adobe Premier Rush Tutorial videos (there are a lot of them!) and practiced the skills shown on the videos myself. I noted the key lessons down. Real skill building does not just come from passive consumption of tutorial videos, rather by working on a real project.

Before starting my final video editing exercise, I used storyboard technique to plan and visualize how I wanted the video to look like, by writing and sketching the steps and frames that my audience will see. This literally meant sketching the video frames, renaming the video files I downloaded from my phone to make it easier to plan which videos I wanted to put and in what order, etc.

Then, I started editing and creating the video. It took over 12 hours (for a 6 minute video!) with lots of trial and error, as I was editing a video for the first time. For example- one of the key challenges was how to get the best possible audio, and I had to try different levels of noise reduction, test and try different background sounds, etc. Although Adobe Premier Rush doesn’t have as many tools as Premier Pro, it still has a lot of powerful tools, and to try all of them took time. Another example is that it offers a lot of different transitions, which you can further customize. I had to try most of them to find the perfect fit and then customize it for the purposes of this video.

Ultimately, video editing or any sort of editing, is an exercise in judgement. Here, we are using our knowledge and experience to shape a product, by asking ourselves- would I like to see this in the video? If yes, what tweaks can make it better? Which of the transition looks the best for me? Does it fit the entire messaging of the video?

You also have to be mindful that there will always be more areas for improvement. I was trying this for the first time and because of the high standards I hold myself to, I knew I may struggle with the perfectionist trap. Hence, I also reminded myself that I am not aiming to make a ‘perfect’ video, or even a video of similar high quality as other municipalities who had higher budget, better camera and more time to film their videos. Rather, my goal was to get the best product I could, within the time frame and given the resources I had.

Ultimately, video editing or any sort of editing, is an exercise in judgement. Here, we are using our knowledge and experience to shape a product, by asking ourselves- would I like to see this in the video? If yes, what tweaks can make it better? Which of the transition looks the best for me? Does it fit the entire messaging of the video? You also have to be mindful that there will always be more areas for improvement. I was trying this for the first time and because of the high standards I hold myself to, I knew I may struggle with the perfectionist trap. Hence, I also reminded myself that I am not aiming to make a ‘perfect’ video, or even a video of similar high quality as other municipalities who had higher budget, better camera and more time to film their videos. Rather, my goal was to get the best product I could, within the time frame and given the resources I had. Finally, once I had the entire video, I contacted one of my close friends, who is a professional video editor, and asked his help. He then provided me feedback regarding minor adjustments I could make in the video. I also asked for feedback from the stakeholders, especially the Hinton Fire Department participants and Director.

Feedback is an extremely important tool because you may have blind spots that only another pair of eyes may catch. So always ask for feedback!

That’s it! Then I published the video on YouTube!

Throughout the process, although I had to spend several hours outside my typical work hours to learn this new software, ultimately when I had the finished product, I had a sense of accomplishment and learning. When I shared the video with internal leaders and they praised the video and commented that it brought them joy, I felt immense pleasure and satisfaction. Although learning a new skill can be hard and will require time investment, it is worth it! I still consider myself an amateur video editor, but I am confident that I can film, edit and produce a video in a professional setting from now on.

What a blessing to live in this age of software and technological progress!

One of the modern wonders is software; they have enabled people to do incredible things without having technical knowledge, or knowing how to code. Add technological progress in making powerful hardware affordable, like our phone cameras, which has the capability to film high quality videos, equivalent to expensive cameras even a decade back. 20 years back (not so long ago!), in order to edit and produce videos, you most likely needed a lot of training and expensive software. Current software like Adobe Premier Rush are powerful, but built with the intention of being user friendly. Hence, you do not need prior technical knowledge to use this powerful tool. Finally, internet has no boundaries, which has democratized education. Education not just in school-textbook-education sense; but there are ample resources online (most of them free via YouTube) which provides high quality education to learn any new skill or acquire new knowledge. Never in history has been a time, when anyone with computer and an internet connection, sitting anywhere in the world from Canada to Bangladesh, could access such high quality content to learn, from the best teachers in the world. The only thing required is the curiosity and motivation to learn. What a blessing!

What is something that you have learned recently?