How to Edit a YouTube Video in 2026 (Start to Finish) — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00If you've never edited a YouTube video
- 0:01before, it can feel pretty overwhelming
- 0:03at the beginning, but the good news is
- 0:05this, it's actually a lot easier than
- 0:07you think if you follow the right
- 0:09process. So, in this video, I'm going to
- 0:11teach you how to edit your first ever
- 0:13YouTube video so you can start making
- 0:15your own videos. So, step one is to
- 0:17choose which software you're going to
- 0:18use to do your video editing, and for
- 0:20beginners, we highly recommend starting
- 0:22with the software CapCut. It's really
- 0:25user-friendly, it's completely free to
- 0:26get started, and there's a lot of really
- 0:28great tools for beginners who are
- 0:30wanting to make videos faster. If you do
- 0:32want an editing program that's a little
- 0:33bit more professional, there is a
- 0:34software called DaVinci Resolve that
- 0:37pros use to edit all the time. Some of
- 0:39the editors on our team use DaVinci
- 0:41Resolve, and it's a world-class editing
- 0:43software, and they have a free version
- 0:44that is very capable. But, for today's
- 0:46video, you can go ahead and download
- 0:48CapCut, and make sure to grab the
- 0:49desktop version for whatever computer
- 0:51you have, either Mac or Windows. Now,
- 0:54the next step is to organize all of our
- 0:56content before we bring it into our
- 0:58editing software, so we just make sure
- 0:59we set up our project files correctly.
- 1:02So, whether you recorded your video on
- 1:03your computer or a smartphone or even a
- 1:06dedicated camera, you want to make sure
- 1:08that you pull those files onto your
- 1:09computer and organize them in distinct
- 1:12categories. So, I've made a folder for
- 1:13this video called how to edit a YouTube
- 1:15video as a beginner, and there's three
- 1:17main folders that you want to create.
- 1:18You want to create one folder called
- 1:20A-roll, and this is for your talking
- 1:22head video. So, if you're talking to the
- 1:24camera, this file would go into this
- 1:26folder called A-roll. If you have
- 1:28supplemental footage that you recorded
- 1:30to reinforce whatever you're talking
- 1:32about, we call this B-roll. And these
- 1:34are like shorter clips that we use to
- 1:36just reinforce if I'm talking about this
- 1:38microphone for today's tutorial, we shot
- 1:40a bunch of footage of the microphone
- 1:41that we can use as overlays to help
- 1:44better explain what we're talking about.
- 1:46So, content like this would go in your
- 1:48B-roll folder, and then project files
- 1:50would be any other things like graphics
- 1:52or logos, animations, stock footage, or
- 1:55music that we would want to bring into
- 1:57our project as well. So, be sure to
- 1:59organize your files before you bring
- 2:00them into your software. It's going to
- 2:02make things a whole lot easier once you
- 2:04get editing. Our next step is to get our
- 2:05project set up and import our footage
- 2:07into CapCut. So, once you open up
- 2:09CapCut, you can sign in if you would
- 2:11like, but I'll show you what this is
- 2:13like completely with the free version
- 2:14without even being signed in. So, the
- 2:16first thing we need to do is select this
- 2:18really big button up top called create a
- 2:20project, and immediately the CapCut
- 2:22interface will open up, and this is what
- 2:24you'll see. Now, the first thing we'll
- 2:26want to do right now is just import our
- 2:28media, so I'm going to go open my finder
- 2:29window and bring in the A-roll and the
- 2:32B-roll for this video. So, I'm going to
- 2:33click and drag, and drag those both of
- 2:36those folders actually directly into
- 2:38this import button, and they import as
- 2:40folders, which is really nice for
- 2:42organization. If I click and open this
- 2:44tutorial folder, we can see what's
- 2:46inside of there, which is these two
- 2:48clips. We have audio that I recorded as
- 2:50well as the talking head A-roll, and if
- 2:52I click this video, it'll automatically
- 2:55start playing this clip, so we can see
- 2:57how my A-roll's looking. So, these are
- 2:58the four main windows that you'll be
- 3:00using inside of CapCut. This top left
- 3:02one is how you ingest all of your media,
- 3:05you import footage, you also can add
- 3:07different audio and text effects with
- 3:09this left panel. The middle panel right
- 3:11here is for viewing your actual video,
- 3:14either previewing content that's not yet
- 3:16on your timeline or actually viewing
- 3:19your edit that you've already started
- 3:20editing. This top right panel is more
- 3:22details and information about the clips
- 3:24on your timeline, and you can do some
- 3:25editing to those clips with this right
- 3:27panel. And this very bottom window right
- 3:29here is your editing timeline. So, as
- 3:31you drag in media that you actually want
- 3:33to edit, we'll start building our
- 3:34timeline right here. So, now that our
- 3:36project is all set up, it's now time to
- 3:38start editing our A-roll or the main
- 3:40story and the talking head portion of
- 3:42our video. So, if I go up to this clip
- 3:44right here, this is the video that we're
- 3:46editing today, and I can actually just
- 3:47click and drag that directly onto this
- 3:49timeline, and I can start editing.
- 3:52Alternatively, if I delete this, I could
- 3:54go up to the clip, right-click, and then
- 3:56hit new timeline with selected item, and
- 3:59that's another really easy way to create
- 4:01a new timeline. If you want to zoom in
- 4:03on your clip, you can use this zoom
- 4:05slider right here or hit the command
- 4:07minus and plus buttons to see your clips
- 4:10just a little bit bigger if you'd like.
- 4:12You could also grab this video layer to
- 4:14expand it a little bit if you want to
- 4:15see the audio a little bit better. Now,
- 4:17if you recorded audio separately, you
- 4:19can drag your audio directly into the
- 4:21timeline, and then you can sync up those
- 4:23clips manually by just aligning the
- 4:26audio layers to make sure your audio is
- 4:28all in sync. Now, because I actually
- 4:30recorded audio separately, I'm going to
- 4:32mute this track by grabbing this audio
- 4:34little levels right here and drag it
- 4:36completely to the bottom. So, now I've
- 4:37just muted my A-roll clip because I want
- 4:39to use this high-quality podcast audio
- 4:42for this video. And because these are
- 4:44treated as separate clips right now, I'd
- 4:46like to actually merge them together.
- 4:48So, what I'm going to do is highlight
- 4:50both of them, right-click, and then
- 4:52create a compound clip. And all this
- 4:54does is treat these almost like one
- 4:56video file, and it just makes life a lot
- 4:58easier for me. So, it's something you
- 5:00could try out if you ever want to create
- 5:01compound clips. So, now I need to go in
- 5:03and start editing this introduction
- 5:05because I actually did the intro three
- 5:06different times, and the third take was
- 5:08actually the best one. Let's watch that.
- 5:10This is my favorite budget wireless
- 5:12microphone for beginners. It's the
- 5:14Hollyland Lark A1. So, at this point,
- 5:16everything to the left of that clip
- 5:18needs to be deleted, so I'll hit B on my
- 5:20keyboard to open up the blade tool, and
- 5:22this is how I make a bunch of edits. So,
- 5:24I can clip, clip, clip all in here, and
- 5:26then if I want to, I can click A to
- 5:28highlight and drag and delete all those
- 5:31clips. We don't need any of those
- 5:32things. And now there's this big gap
- 5:34right here, and what I can do is
- 5:36actually move this over if I would like,
- 5:38or I can turn on automatic snapping
- 5:41right here. So, if I click this button,
- 5:42everything's going to snap automatically
- 5:44anytime I make an edit. So, same thing
- 5:46over here, everything on the left side
- 5:48of this hook needs to be deleted, so
- 5:49I'll click, hit A on my keyboard to
- 5:51remove this video clip, and then hit
- 5:53delete, and everything snaps over to
- 5:55place. Let's watch the hook now. This is
- 5:57my favorite budget wireless microphone
- 5:59for beginners. It's the Hollyland Lark
- 6:02A1. So, at this point, I need to go
- 6:03through the entire timeline and just get
- 6:05my story solidified. So, I'm going to go
- 6:07through and cut out all of the different
- 6:09mistakes, and if I kind of rambled on, I
- 6:11want to delete that as well, and just
- 6:12get the story as tight as I can. So, I
- 6:14just went through and edited all of the
- 6:16A-roll for my video, and this is
- 6:18probably what your timeline would look
- 6:20like. You have a bunch of different
- 6:21clips and different lines and cuts in
- 6:23the video because you removed several
- 6:25mistakes. And what we need to do at this
- 6:27point is actually add what's called
- 6:29B-roll. So, this is supplemental footage
- 6:31that will help reinforce whatever we're
- 6:33talking about in our video, but it also
- 6:35helps cover cuts or mistakes that we
- 6:37made in our video to make the video feel
- 6:39more seamless. So, if I go back up to
- 6:41this media pool, I can click all to view
- 6:43all of my media sources, and I want to
- 6:45click in this folder and look at Lark A1
- 6:48B-roll. If I stretch this out, I can see
- 6:50more of the clips, or I'll make it maybe
- 6:52just like right here so I can view three
- 6:54rows, and I can scroll through and look
- 6:56at all of this high-quality B-roll that
- 6:58we shot for this video. So, let's listen
- 7:00to what I say right here in this portion
- 7:02of the video. All of it fits right
- 7:03inside this really tiny carrying case.
- 7:05So, as I talk about that tiny carrying
- 7:07case, it'd be great to visually show the
- 7:09case that I'm talking about, and I shot
- 7:11a bunch of B-roll that I can overlay
- 7:13over the top of that portion to even
- 7:15cover this cut that exists right here.
- 7:17So, as I scroll through my media pool, I
- 7:19can see this clip right here where I'm
- 7:20highlighting the case. And actually,
- 7:23instead of dragging the entire clip onto
- 7:25the timeline, I don't need the whole
- 7:26clip. And instead of having to like drag
- 7:28out these handles here, I can actually
- 7:30go up to this window, and then as the
- 7:32video plays, I can hit I on my keyboard
- 7:34to set an in-point, and then hit O to
- 7:37set an out-point. So, now I'm just
- 7:39dragging this tiny little portion of
- 7:41this video by selecting I and O to tell
- 7:45the software don't drag the entire clip,
- 7:47just drag this little portion that I
- 7:48actually want to use. So, I'll pull that
- 7:50down into the video right here, and we
- 7:52can see that it's actually a little bit
- 7:54shorter than we need it to be, and I
- 7:56need the clip to actually be extended
- 7:58all the way to the end of this frame to
- 7:59cover this cut right here. Now, what I
- 8:01could do is just drag out the handle a
- 8:04little bit more, but maybe the footage
- 8:05gets a little shaky at the end, and
- 8:07that's not preferable. Now, I actually
- 8:09recorded this B-roll in a higher frame
- 8:11rate so I could slow that footage down
- 8:13later, and I'll show you how to do this
- 8:14here inside of CapCut. So, if I click on
- 8:16this clip, we can just go up to this top
- 8:18right corner and click on speed, and I'm
- 8:20able to adjust the speed all the way
- 8:22down to 40% because I shot this clip in
- 8:2560 frames per second. And because of the
- 8:27timeline setting that I'm working on
- 8:29with my A-roll being 24 frames per
- 8:31second, this clip can be slowed down all
- 8:33the way to 40% and still play back
- 8:35buttery smooth. Now, all I need to do is
- 8:38adjust my handles to the proper
- 8:40position. So, maybe I want the clip to
- 8:41start right here. I'll drag this over,
- 8:45and then re-align the clip to make sure
- 8:47it actually is over the cut point right
- 8:50here, and then I'll drag this handle so
- 8:52that it covers that clip so that as I'm
- 8:54talking about the charging case, this
- 8:56B-roll plays in slow motion. Let's watch
- 8:58that clip. and computers. All of it fits
- 9:00right inside this really tiny carrying
- 9:02case. Perfect, it's looking really good.
- 9:04So, I just added a little bit more
- 9:05B-roll to the timeline. Let's check out
- 9:07how this is looking. The kit comes with
- 9:09two kinds of receivers. You can use the
- 9:11lightning receiver for older iPhones,
- 9:13and then the USB-C receiver for newer
- 9:15iPhones, Android devices, or even
- 9:17tablets and computers. All of it fits
- 9:20right inside this really tiny carrying
- 9:22case. So, that additional B-roll footage
- 9:24really helps cover some of those cuts
- 9:26and mistakes that I made in the video,
- 9:27but also just reinforces exactly what
- 9:29I'm talking about in the video. That
- 9:31viewer is now able to see visually
- 9:33everything I'm speaking about. Now,
- 9:35maybe you don't have time to go out and
- 9:36film all of your own B-roll, or it's
- 9:38just sort of impractical for the kind of
- 9:40content that you create. Well, that's
- 9:42okay because there's services out there
- 9:44like Storyblocks, which is the sponsor
- 9:46of today's video. Storyblocks gives you
- 9:48unlimited access to a massive library of
- 9:51high-quality stock assets all for one
- 9:53predictable subscription cost. They have
- 9:56amazing 4K and 1080p footage and also
- 9:59have motion graphics and music, sound
- 10:02effects, and more. I've personally been
- 10:04using Storyblocks for about 8 years to
- 10:06fill in all of those missing pieces of
- 10:08my video projects here at Think Media or
- 10:10even in my professional freelancing
- 10:12business that I just don't have time to
- 10:13go out and shoot myself. It's honestly
- 10:15such a game-changer and has saved me
- 10:17hours on different projects. Storyblocks
- 10:19is also making a point to highlight real
- 10:21creators' work and creators are adding
- 10:24new content to the platform all the time
- 10:26that's high quality and looks fantastic.
- 10:28And there's also a ton of overlays and
- 10:30texture packs and transition animations,
- 10:33all of these different things that as
- 10:35you grow as an editor, you will love
- 10:36leveraging. So, I use Storyblocks all of
- 10:39the time. If you want to give it a try,
- 10:40you can click the link down in the
- 10:42description below or head to
- 10:43storyblocks.com/thinkmedia
- 10:46to sign up today. Now, after our B-roll
- 10:48is complete, it's time to add some music
- 10:50and sound effects to just make the sound
- 10:52experience of our video a little bit
- 10:54better. What's great about CapCut is
- 10:55they have a bunch of built-in audio and
- 10:58different music and sound effects that
- 10:59you can leverage right away or you can
- 11:00drag in your own content that you have
- 11:02to work with. Like right here, I have an
- 11:04entire folder of music from Storyblocks
- 11:06that I downloaded. If we click into this
- 11:08folder, we can see all of these
- 11:09different audio tracks that I could drag
- 11:11right into my timeline. Let's listen to
- 11:13one of these.
- 11:16Hey, I think this one fits the vibe of
- 11:18this video. So, I'll drag this audio
- 11:19right onto the timeline and place it
- 11:21below my A-roll's audio and it can just
- 11:24live right there on audio layer two. I
- 11:27will click the blade tool and clip off
- 11:28the end so we're not getting any of this
- 11:30additional audio in our export. If we
- 11:33listen to the audio right now and just
- 11:34leave it as is, it's going to be way too
- 11:36loud and overpower our mix. Let's listen
- 11:38to it right now. This is my favorite
- 11:39[music] budget Like you can't actually
- 11:41even hear my voice. So, we need to lower
- 11:43the audio volume of the music to let my
- 11:46voice come through a little bit more. If
- 11:48I expand this audio layer, it'll be
- 11:50easier to see this little lever right
- 11:52here that I can pull up or down to
- 11:54increase or decrease my audio volume.
- 11:56And typically a great place for your
- 11:58audio to live is right around like -32
- 12:02dB to 36 dB
- 12:04is where we typically keep it. So, let's
- 12:06listen to what it sounds like right
- 12:07around -33. This is my favorite budget
- 12:10wireless microphone for Now, that adds a
- 12:12really subtle ambiance. It's not too
- 12:14loud where it's overpowering the mix,
- 12:16but just enough to add a nice little
- 12:17vibe for the video. The next step would
- 12:19be to add any titles or graphics that
- 12:21you might want to have in your scene and
- 12:23I'll show you just how to do a really
- 12:24simple one inside of CapCut. So, if we
- 12:26go up here to this top left window, we
- 12:28can click the text button right here and
- 12:30you can add a default text or look at
- 12:32some of these presets. Now, some of
- 12:34these are actually for the premium plan,
- 12:36so you got to make sure you're not
- 12:37grabbing like the purple diamond unless
- 12:39you pay for CapCut. Instead, you can
- 12:42actually just start with a default text
- 12:44and drag that right onto the timeline.
- 12:46And now it's visible on our timeline and
- 12:48I'm going to change this to the title or
- 12:50the name of the microphone. So, this is
- 12:52the Hollyland Lark A1. I'm going to
- 12:55highlight it all by hitting command A
- 12:57and I do want to change the font here.
- 12:58So, let's cycle through some of these
- 13:00different options, ones that are not a
- 13:01part of the paid plan to find one that
- 13:04we're liking. I like this Arial here and
- 13:06we need to make sure we scale it up or
- 13:07down to be the right size. There's
- 13:09different preset styles you can select
- 13:11if you would like and just make this
- 13:13based on your preferences. So, I'm just
- 13:15messing with this title screen a little
- 13:16bit to get it just right and that's part
- 13:18of this process of editing is just
- 13:19messing with things for a while until
- 13:21you get the style you like. But what I
- 13:22want to do is add an animation to the in
- 13:25point of this text so that as the text
- 13:27comes on screen, it adds a little
- 13:29animation and movement to the text.
- 13:30Here's a simple effect called fade
- 13:32reveal. So, let's add this to the clip.
- 13:34It's the Hollyland So, as the Hollyland
- 13:37Lark A1 is announced, it actually slowly
- 13:39fades in and reveals the text and let's
- 13:41watch that back together. beginners,
- 13:43it's the Hollyland Lark A1. So, as we
- 13:45look at our timeline right now, what
- 13:47you'll notice is we're almost building
- 13:48distinct layers for every step of our
- 13:51editing process. So, our first video
- 13:53layer is all of my talking head footage.
- 13:55So, it's me looking at the camera
- 13:56speaking. Our second video layer is all
- 13:59of our B-roll. So, that's supplemental
- 14:01footage we can add to layer on top of
- 14:03our B-roll. And then our third video
- 14:04layer are all of our text animations
- 14:06that we can add and you could add
- 14:08subsequent video layers as your edits
- 14:10get more complex. But a helpful tip is
- 14:12try to keep all of the same type of
- 14:14content on its own video layer. So, all
- 14:16of my A-roll is always going to go on
- 14:18layer one. Layer two might be all of my
- 14:20B-roll and layer three could be all of
- 14:22your graphics as to not make your
- 14:23timeline too confusing. Now, one of the
- 14:26last things you could do before you
- 14:27export your video is make sure you color
- 14:29correct any clips that maybe just don't
- 14:31look the best. And so, all you have to
- 14:33do is click on a clip and then go to
- 14:34your very top right window up here and
- 14:37then there's all these different ones,
- 14:38speed, animation, but you want to go to
- 14:40adjust. And this is where you can adjust
- 14:43some of the colors of your clip. You
- 14:45could add a LUT, which stands for lookup
- 14:47table and that's kind of a color
- 14:49overlay, like a color preset you could
- 14:51add to your footage if you've ever
- 14:52downloaded those. That's where you would
- 14:54add your LUTs. But you can also just
- 14:55manually do this. If I wanted my footage
- 14:57to be a little bit warmer, I could do
- 14:59that, add some more contrast
- 15:01potentially, bring down my highlights if
- 15:03it was like a little bit too bright. All
- 15:04of these different things you can do. I
- 15:06could sharpen it up if it was too soft.
- 15:08I can add some clarity as well. If your
- 15:11camera lens had some vignetting, you can
- 15:12correct for that by adding white to the
- 15:14edges of the frame or you could increase
- 15:16your vignetting if you want to kind of
- 15:18hone in on the center of the frame, you
- 15:19could do that as well. And if you want
- 15:21to see what those color adjustments look
- 15:23like, you can turn on and off your
- 15:24adjustment layer really quickly to see
- 15:26that color correction. At this point, if
- 15:28you're feeling good about your edit, the
- 15:29next step is to actually review the
- 15:31entire edit to make sure everything is
- 15:33looking proper and this is where you
- 15:35honestly can catch a lot of mistakes and
- 15:36save you time and headache before you
- 15:38export your video and have a mistake in
- 15:41the video. You want to spend time
- 15:42watching your video. But a little hack
- 15:44for this is if you want to save yourself
- 15:45time, you can watch the video in two
- 15:47times speed. All you have to do is hit
- 15:49your space bar to hit play and then hit
- 15:51L to fast forward. And now this video is
- 15:53playing in two times speed and I do this
- 15:55all of the time. You can even edit in
- 15:57two times speed if you really want to
- 15:58save time editing. But reviewing your
- 16:00video in two times speed is a little
- 16:01hack that us editors use. Once you
- 16:03finalize and reviewed your video, it's
- 16:05time to export your video, which is our
- 16:07final step. So, all you have to do is go
- 16:08up to the very top right corner and you
- 16:10do want to adjust some specific export
- 16:12settings here. The first thing is you
- 16:14want to change the name of your export
- 16:15setting if you didn't change the name of
- 16:17your project to begin with. We can just
- 16:19call this like Lark A1 mini review. You
- 16:22also want to export this to a specific
- 16:24destination. Maybe your downloads or
- 16:26into your documents, wherever you would
- 16:27prefer this to live, you can select a
- 16:29manual destination for it. Now, when it
- 16:31comes to resolution, you do want to
- 16:32export in a minimum of 1080p quality or
- 16:35if you shot your video in 4K, you can
- 16:37export in 4K quality. Just know that
- 16:40CapCut's free version does have
- 16:41different limits based on the credits
- 16:43that you've used for your different
- 16:45export settings. For bitrate, you do
- 16:47always want to select higher if
- 16:49possible. Don't choose recommended or
- 16:50lower, you want the highest bitrate
- 16:52possible because this will just give
- 16:53your video the most amount of
- 16:54information and quality once you've
- 16:56exported. For codec, we like the H.264
- 16:59codec or ProRes 422. H.264 is usually
- 17:03fine for most people, so go ahead and
- 17:05select that. For format, go ahead and
- 17:07select MP4 instead of MOV. It's just
- 17:09more universally compatible. For frame
- 17:11rate, just export in whatever frame rate
- 17:13you shot your A-roll in. So, if you shot
- 17:15in 30 frames per second for your A-roll,
- 17:17export in 30 frames. If you shot in 24,
- 17:20you'll want to export in 24 frames per
- 17:21second. If you also wanted to export the
- 17:23audio, you could do that right here as
- 17:25an MP3 or wave file. I would actually
- 17:27choose wave if I was just exporting the
- 17:29audio. Once you're finished with all
- 17:30this, you can go ahead and hit export
- 17:32and your video will export in honestly
- 17:34just a few minutes. CapCut is honestly
- 17:36pretty fast with their export times. And
- 17:38once your export finishes, you can open
- 17:39it up on your computer and just make
- 17:41sure that everything exported properly
- 17:43and you're good to go. And what's great
- 17:44about these 10 easy steps is that all of
- 17:46these steps are repeatable for literally
- 17:48every single video. Every video I make
- 17:50at Think Media, I've made like over 120
- 17:52videos for Think Media. I follow all of
- 17:54these 10 steps for every single piece of
- 17:56content. If you want to try out CapCut,
- 17:58we'll link it down in the description
- 17:59below as well as Storyblocks if you want
- 18:01to enhance your videos with high-quality
- 18:03stock media assets. So, I'll link that
- 18:05in the description below as well. Now,
- 18:06if you're struggling at all with the
- 18:08recording phase of your videos, you can
- 18:10click or tap the screen right here to
- 18:11watch this video where I walk you
- 18:13through some of the easiest ways to
- 18:15start making better videos faster. So,
- 18:17go ahead and click the screen right
- 18:18there and I'll see you in the next one.
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