One of my many skills part of my jack of trades repertoire is video editing. Mainly, I use this skill for my day job as an Instructional Designer when I am creating content for lessons. However, with my own stream videos and now with Macabre Mondays with the Lovelies, I’ve been able to take my mediocre talents outside the 9-to-5 sphere.
I think editing is a very important skill and eye to have, especially when it comes to things that don’t entirely have a proper story being told and you sort of need to develop one from the content provided. Think of reality shows and how a lot of plots are formed on the editing floor. By taking the right cuts and adding the right sound effect, suddenly you have a villain for your story.
(I am however, a not-so-great-editor of writing as I’m sure these blog posts reveal.)
I’ve been enjoying the challenge of taking long streaming content and cutting it down into more digestible sizes for YouTube. And to make it even more, “Like New”, I’ve tried to add in little Easter eggs and silly edits.
So why edit something someone can already watch on Twitch?
I hate long videos on the internet. Unless I’m trying to learn a new skill if I see a video that is more than 30 minutes on youtube, I’m more than likely going to skip it. I know a lot of people are fans of long video essays but to be honest, unless I really love the creator I am not going to watch it.
I also don’t enjoy watching stream recordings unless it is live and on twitch. Then the little things like technical difficulties or unrelated chat make sense in that moment and in real time. So I cut those things out unless they are relevant to what’s happening in the “story” for the YouTube edits. This to me, makes it feel less like the viewer missed out on the live and instead they get to enjoy it without the FOMO or having to fast forward through the timeline to find out where we fixed the sound issue when we were live.
What the inspiration for the silly edits?
I really love drag queens and I’m a bit fan of Trixie Mattel and Katya, I frequently watch their YouTube series, “UNHhhh” I enjoy that the edits are the third character of that show. It takes Trixie’s and Katya’s personalities and illustrates to the audience silly unspoken details. And the funniest thing about it is that the edits are always very surprising and this heightens the two already hilarious artists.
So, inspired by this and other similar styles of editing (see, Real Housewives of SLC Season Four editing), I try to take this approach with my editing. I don’t want the edits to take away from the content but to enhance it. Sometimes when things are live, hundreds of things can be flying at a viewer so its nice to edit and emphasize jokes or moments that might have been missed.
Also, the Lovelys are very funny (I’d set myself at passable funny) and they are always cracking me up so I don’t want any of their jokes missed.
Why do you use so many sound effects?
First of all, sound effects is an art all of its own. I love in reality TV when they can emphasize or help the audience interpret a situation with just a few seconds of audio. I think it can add to comedic or silly moments.
I like this about cartoons and anime. Looney Tunes sound effects are hilarious and without them the jokes lose so much of their shine, especially the physical comedy. I think they can add depth to a video where its just a person talking to the screen and I’ve seen a lot of YouTubers use this really well (especially those epic essay vloggers.)
Also, farts are always funny.
Sound Captions, why are those added?
I added them in spots where I think it isn’t clear what the sound is or what we are reacting to. A lot of what sets the tone for scary games is sound but sound doesn’t always get picked up in captions. While, I’m not sure if it is helpful, I’ve been adding it in where auto captions might be lacking. So maybe after any feedback I’ll continue with it or lessen their usage.
Anyway, that has been my method to the madness, if you were curious or not! Probably not, but I hate just posting something that is more than just, “HI, I EDITED THESE VIDEOS PLEASE WATCH”.
Anyway…
