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Cutting videos involves more than just placing one clip after another in the sequence that you want them to be in. The exact point that you end one clip and the point that you start the next are important, as is the content of the clips, frequency of the cuts, and numerous other factors.
The impact that your cuts can have on business videos is significant. A video that is cut well will appear to transition smoothly and keep the audience focused on your message. On the other hand a video that is not cut well will be jarring to watch, and distract viewers.
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Although cutting videos that appear smooth requires skill and experience, there are three important tips that you can use to get started on the right track.
Use Action Cuts and Match Cuts
Two of the smoothest types of cuts that you can use in your video are action cuts and match cuts.
To use action cuts you will need to transition from a clip that shows a particular action taking place, to a clip that shows that same action continue. Similarly to use match cuts you will need two clips that have significant similarities in terms of the action, subject, or subject matter.
Because these cuts have similar threads connecting the clips across the transition, viewers will tend to focus on them. That will make the cut less obvious, and the overall transition will be smoother.
Never Forget the Audio
While you’re focused on making sure your video is smooth, don’t forget about the audio. As smooth as the transition of your video clips may be it will still be jarring to viewers if the audio is disjointed by the cut.
In some cases you can get around this problem by using L cuts and J cuts that both allow you to cut the audio independently of the video. If you use an L cut the audio from the first clip will keep playing for a short while after the video has transitioned, whereas if you use a J cut the audio from the second clip will start playing before the video transitions.
Hide the Presence of Jump Cuts
Jump cuts are one of the most jarring types of cuts, but are unfortunately all too common when cutting videos that are shot using a single camera setup and recorded from a fixed perspective. Essentially you’ll be cutting to a point later in the same clip, and the subject will seem to ‘jump’ to a different position all of a sudden.
If you have no other option you should try to hide the presence of jump cuts in your video. One option to do that is to insert a cutaway in between both the clips, or the other is to reframe one of the clips so that it looks visually different enough – though that may affect its quality if you crop too much.
Conclusion
Try using these tips the next time you cut a business video and see for yourself the difference that they make. All that you need is a video cutter, and for example you can use Movavi Video Editor if you want to be able to quickly and easily cut your videos.
The more that you cut videos, the more you’ll get a feel for the right point at which you should transition from one clip and join the next. Unfortunately there is no shortcut for that, and it will require that you keep on cutting videos and observing how each cut affects the flow of the video.
