editing your egghead lesson video
Editing is your lesson’s critical last stop between you and your audience. It’s your quality filter. Editing is a super power that you can use to bring clarity to your thoughts and presentation.
Editing is also a skill. It can be tedious, particularly if you are just learning how to do it.
We've got a few tips to help you out.
Ripple delete
⚡️Ripple delete is your greatest ally. ⚡️ It’s basically deleting the bad parts, a chunk of seconds at a time—like that tangent you go on, that five-second period where you stammer over a word, and those dozens of “umm”s and “like”s you had no idea you said so often. Ripple delete couldn’t be easier or more essential, and it’s available in both Camtasia and Screenflow. 🙌
In the egghead lesson shown below, John Lindquist shows how he uses ripple delete to trim a video from 7:28 to 2:17. Yes, really.
⚡️ speed up/slow down video
Sometimes you want to speed over some unimportant parts or slow down important parts. You can do this in a controlled percentage wide format in Screenflow (instructions here).
Alternatively, you can do it interactively by holding down Option while dragging the edges of a clip to do the same thing. Sped up clips will show a :rabbit2: and slowed clips will have a :turtle:. This is handy for stretching or shrinking a clip to be a specific size, and you can do it with multiple clips at once.
⚡️ annotate video
You can annotate your videos with arrows and boxes by using the Annotations tool in the top right in the inspector pane.
They act like regular video clips so you can fade them in and out, apply animations, etc.
The easiest way to edit is to capture it well
In traditional videography, “in-camera editing” refers to the idea of capturing content so well, it doesn’t need to be edited much at all.
Your first few lessons will feel like a major effort to produce because you have to consider so many different things. You’re teaching complex concepts (web development) and learning complex concepts (screencasting) at the same time.
Believe us: You’ll get better. And better. And better. Just keep practicing and keep recording.
Need help or advice? Please, #ask! You aren’t the first person to do this or struggle at it. Your coach and the other friendly folks on Slack were all in your shoes once, and now we’re here to help you succeed.