How to Edit Efficiently

Man, what a great way to start the new year.

There’s a lot to catch you up on but for now, I thought I’d just do a quick blog post since it’s been a couple of days and I just wanted to get something out there.

I finished my 2023 recap video and I think it might be one of my best ones if not the best video I’ve ever made. I learned a lot from doing that project, not just in terms of getting better with Final Cut Pro and the technology, but also with the logistics of how to manage such a big project like that.

When you’re pulling clips from over a year, and you shoot as much footage as I do (literally Terabytes of data) you need to have a few things:

• Proxy media is super key to being able to edit quickly. It takes a while to generate during the import, but it’s worth it during the edit itself. What I did was generate the media while I went to the gym and when I came back it was done.
• A good organizational structure for your footage in different folders. One big challenge I was facing was just finding the right clips. Big, messy folders with ambiguous names make it very difficult to find the right clip you’re looking for. It also makes importing the footage onto the timeline very difficult
• The ability to get into a good flow to your actual editing process. This is related to having proxy media for me, because when I was constantly waiting for my clips to render and load on the timeline it killed my thought process for whatever I was trying to do. Usually when I’m finessing the final pieces of my edits I need to try a few variations in quick succession and if I’m waiting 10+ seconds for each iteration the time adds up and ruins my concentration. The flow also makes the process more enjoyable.
• A good backup system so you don’t run the risk of losing all your videos. I use Carbon Copy Cloner and two external hard drives. The first contains all my footage and the second is an exact copy of that one in case there's a disk failure. I have also used Disk Drill to recover lost data in the past, and I helped a friend with that recommendation recently.
• A good system for planning out videos and being able to upload them consistently and get feedback on them is super key. This is what I’m currently working on building out.

My system has evolved a lot over time and continues to evolve as I experiment with things. It’s difficult to ever say I have the perfect way of doing things because reality constantly pushes the limits of what you can do within the confines of whatever rules you’ve set up for yourself.

I will say though having worked on such a big project, while daunting at the time, makes me feel far less intimidated about all the footage and I feel better able to go back through and organize it all now that it’s still pretty fresh in my mind.

And I feel like I’ve gotten some awesome feedback on my video too, most of it incredibly positive. 2024 feels like it’s off to a great start in terms of just getting my reps in with projects, and I don't see any reason for that momentum to go anywhere.

If that’s the case, ya’ll are in for a wild ride!