Greetings, cinematic sinners. I am JigSock, your harbinger of editing enlightenment.
Last Halloween, I seized Lightworks to illuminate the dark path your editing sins have set you upon. Your editing sins are so grave, that you could take the raw footage of Jaws and edit it into Jaws IV: The Revenge!
Though my reign has concluded and the shadows of discount have retreated, the sinister wisdom within the 'Book of JigSock' endures.
In this post specifically, my spectral touch has crafted a path of redemption veiled in the guise of seven deadly editing sins awaiting your atonement.
Will you dare to confront the sins that bind you? Venture forth into the dark arts of editing, for our reels may intertwine again in a ghostly dance... Read on if you dare, and may the haunting hymn of editing enlightenment guide your blade.
Sin No. 1: Story Disarray
The Sin
You thought you could just dive into editing without a plan? Instead of a masterpiece, you've crafted a twisted maze, leaving your viewers wandering in the dark abyss of your disordered creation. You defy the sacred lore of storytelling and serve a riddle instead of a tale!
The Consequences
Humans crave stories like vampires thirst for blood. Your failure to provide a coherent storyline is nothing short of betrayal. Your audience will cast you out like a demonic entity — never to return, forever haunting the purgatory of a low average 'Watch Time' on YouTube.
Your Redemption
- Summon a Storyboard: Before your sinister fingers graze the 'Import' button, summon a storyboard. Visualise the scenes, cuts, and transitions as if you were conjuring a spell. Know every step of your dark ritual!
- Inscribe an Outline: Words are potent, too. Pen down an outline that serves as a Necronomicon for your creation. Capture the essence of your dark narrative in bullet point form.
- The Unholy Three-Act Structure: Even chaos thrives on order. The beginning beckons, the middle twists, and the end reveals. So ensure your tale isn’t just a pit of eternal despair but has a start, a climax, and an unsettling resolution.
- Convene with Your Coven: Share your morbid storyboard or outline with a few unfortunate souls. Gauge their dread, measure their excitement, and alter your sinister plans as needed.
- The Final Reckoning: After the first pass, ensure your nightmarish creation aligns with your plans. Tweak, refine, and perfect it until your audience is spellbound, unable to look away.
Sin No. 2: The Jump Cut Jumble
The Sin
You wield your editing software like an axe-wielding maniac. Slice here, chop there, and what do you get? It's a horror of jump cuts, that’s what. You leave your viewers in a dizzying vortex, yearning for the sweet escape of the 'Close Tab' button.
The Consequences
Your audience feels disconcerted, jolted, and utterly upset. And not in the fun way your old pal JigSock enjoys! Before you know it, they vanish, leaving your video to die a slow, agonising death.
Your Redemption
- The Art of the Unseen: Instead of hacking your footage like a deranged lumberjack, caress it. Switch angles like the shifting of a shadow, all while keeping the energy flowing.
- B-Roll to the Rescue: Frankenstein's monster was a mish-mash of parts that ultimately turned out to be good. The same can be true of your video. Integrate B-roll to add another layer of intrigue to your concoction.
- Smooth Transitions: Make your transitions as smooth as a phantom gliding through the walls. It's about guiding viewers from one scene to another, like leading lambs to the proverbial slaughter.
- Avoid the Dreaded 'Match Cut': If you're switching between similar shots, ensure there's enough variance to justify the change. Or else you risk boring your audience to death!
- The Final Spell: After all your sinister manipulations, go back to ensure the entire abomination flows as intended. A disjointed video is as useless as a zombie dancing the Cha-Cha; it must have life, rhythm, and pulse!
Sin No. 3: Transition Trauma
The Sin
What's this? Your video is a confounding playground of flashes, fades, and whirls, like one of my traps! You've turned the elegant tools of Lightworks into a gaudy spectacle, summoning every transition under the sun until your video resembles a carnival funhouse mirror!
The Consequences
You've over-seasoned your cauldron, and now your brew tastes more like Eau de Frog’s Breath than an elixir of wonder. Your audience's eyes glaze over, like a vampire facing a garlic bread buffet — too much of anything kills the appeal, and your viewers are running for the hills.
Your Redemption
Simplicity, My Ghastly Friends: Often, the scariest entities lurk in the shadows, subtle but ever-present. Apply this arcane wisdom to your transitions. Use them sparsely.
- Purposeful Passages: Like a herald of doom, transitions should only appear when a significant change in time, mood, or dimension is upon us.
- A Little Goes a Long Way: Stick to a handful of transitions that elevate your story, not bury it under a mountain of special effects.
- Timing is Everything: A well-timed transition is like the perfect horror jump-scare — it leaves an impact but doesn't distract from the unfolding narrative.
- The Final Gaze: Look over your cursed creation one final time. Does each transition serve your malevolent purpose, or is it just there for the spectacle? Make your choices and live (or perish) by them.
Sin No. 4: The Raw Footage Fiasco
The Sin
You've captured enough raw footage to fill the catacombs, yet try to edit it all in a devil-may-care, cluttered heap! Do you honestly expect to craft a masterpiece with no organisation? My, aren't we audacious!
The Consequences
An editing suite in disarray leads to a muddled, aimless video. Like a haunted house with no ghosts, your creation will lack spirit. Your audience will lose faith, question your skill, and vanish.
Your Redemption
- The Folder Fortress: Abandon your old wicked ways of tossing everything into one unholy folder. Treat each shoot day or camera angle like a chamber in Dracula's Castle, each clearly labelled to keep your files in line. You know, the master "Project" folder surrounded by its hellspawn: "Assets," "Collateral," "Projects," and "Final Renders." And in the crypts of each, sub-folders like "Source Footage," "Images," "Audio," and "Graphics."
- Names Hold Power: "SA567x.mp4" sounds more like a curse than a clip. Standardise your naming rituals. Code the project and follow up with numbers to represent scenes and takes. Throw in descriptive charms like "Crane" and complete the spell with a date.
- Meta-Magic and In-Software Sorting: Don't underestimate the dark arts of metadata. Yes, it's one more thing on the to-do list, but adding tags like "frame rate," "camera," and "subject" will sort your clips into themed alcoves as if by magic.
- Save Your Soul (and Your Files): The scariest notion of all? Losing your project! Then double, triple, quadruple-back them up like there's no tomorrow. Your file structure and naming rituals make sending data into the ethereal realms of backup drives a breeze.
Sin No. 5: Auditory Anarchy
The Sin
You've thrown in mismatched tunes and cranked up the decibels like a banshee in heat. The result? It's a jarring symphony of doom that may accidentally summon a lower-tier demon when played backwards.
The Consequences
Sound is the heartbeat of your narrative, the breath in your ghostly whisper. Get it wrong, and you've crafted the ultimate spellbreaker. Your viewers will be catapulted out of the experience faster than you can say "boo!"
Your Redemption
- Channel Your Inner Maestro: Choose tunes that harmonise with your visuals. A chase scene doesn't need a lullaby; a romantic moment shouldn't sound like a werewolf convention.
- Dial Down the Devilry: Don't let your soundtrack overpower the tale you're telling. Keep an eye — uh, I mean ear — on those volume levels.
- Soundcheck with the Spirits: Before summoning your video into the mortal world, do an audio test in your editing lair. You're on the right haunted path if the sound enhances the mood rather than hexing it.
- Rest Your Weary Ears: Take regular breaks and come back. You’ll be shocked at how well your ears adjust while editing, causing a horrific medley of noise to sound perfectly pleasant. Regular breaks reset your auditory settings and allow you to listen more objectively.
Sin No. 666: Export Exasperation
The Sin
So you’ve conjured your little video tale and are so eager to unleash it upon the world that you hit 'Export' without triple-checking your settings. Lo and behold, your final render is a pixelated abomination — cropped, compressed, and catastrophic.
The Consequences
How much blood, sweat, and special effects you've spilt into your masterpiece doesn't matter. If your export settings are cursed, you have nothing but a digital disaster that sends your viewers scrambling faster than a bat out of hell.
Your Redemption
- Become a Format Fiend: Different platforms worship different settings — HD, 4K, MP4, MOV. Study and learn them from your Book of Shadows and/or Google it.
- Aspect Ratio Alchemy: Whether square for social or widescreen for the big show, get your ratios right or prepare for an eternal stretch in the editing underworld.
- Check Twice, Export Once: Always, and I mean ALWAYS, preview your video in its exported form. If you can’t even be bothered to watch it back, why should your audience?
Sin No 7: Graphic Gaffes
The Sin
You've got graphics popping in like a ghost at a séance — no rhyme or reason, just floating disembodied nonsense! One minute, it's Comic Sans, next it’s Papyrus — what are you, a time-traveller lost between a '90s PowerPoint and an Egyptian scroll?
The Consequences
Your graphics aren’t serving your storytelling; they’re a sideshow, an eyesore, a three-ring circus of confusion. Your audience doesn’t know where to look, and they’re dying of second-hand embarrassment.
Your Redemption
- Graphic Grimoire: Stick to a style guide like your protective talisman. Choose fonts, colours, and styles that align with your video's tone and mood.
- The Rule of Resonance: If your graphic doesn't heighten the mood or clarify a point, it’s dead weight. Off with its head!
- The Final Check: Give the graphics one last sweep before you render. Are they all aligned? Do they fade in and out at appropriate moments? Fix the phantoms before they haunt you!
Bonus Sin: Ignoring Lightworks
The Sin
You navigate the treacherous waters of video editing without the compass of Lightworks, ending up with a ghost ship of a project. Ahoy, amateur hour ahead!
The Consequences
Lightworks is Jason Vorhees vs. the helpless campers that are your other editing systems. Ignore it, and you're stuck fumbling in the dark with a butter knife while the rest of us cut cinematic masterpieces with our machetes.
Your Redemption
- Embrace the Light(works): Enough with your unholy editing rituals! Download Lightworks NOW and join the covenant of pro editors.
- Master the Arcane: Uncover the secrets and unleash the full might of our intuitive interface and powerful tools.
- Ascend to Editing Valhalla: Create, cut, and render with divine skill that even the editing gods will weep.
Will Your Next Edit Be a Trick or a Treat?
So, my little wayward editors of the world, the choice is before you. Will you continue committing these video sins, or are you ready to repent and elevate your editing game? The choice is enticing, isn't it? Your next cut could either be your best or, quite tragically, your last: the tension's mounting, the clock's ticking.
The dance of dread awaits you on the editing canvas of Lightworks. Get started now, for free!
Remember, my takeover may be over, but The 'Book of JigSock' endures, awaiting the day my sinister strings may dance again. Until then, enjoy this black parade of spooky content:
A full short film!
3 x Video Tutorials
5 x Blog Posts