From Edie: Samantha Tschritter shares time-saving CapCut video editing tips for writers, including shortcuts for captions, copying attributes, and turning long videos into short clips.
CapCut for Writers: Time-Saving Video Editing Tips
Today, you will learn three video editing tricks that will save you hours. So if your name is Steve Laube, or anything else, you’ll be able to present a polished-ish video to the world and move on to other details that matter.
I say “other” because videos do matter. Videos enable us to share our testimony worldwide without leaving our homes.
I am not being paid to endorse Capcut, but this is the program that I use, so in this article I am pretending that we’re all using Capcut Pro for video editing. Most of the tips I’m sharing should be translatable for other video editing software.
Capcut Pro costs $180/ year ($15/ month) and is well-worth the investment if you have room in your budget and plan to create a series of videos.
My favorite features of CapCut Pro:
- Automatic Captions for long-form videos—SAVES HOURS!
- An extended B-roll media library
- A cloud to sync between laptop and phone
- Fun text templates
- Additional caption templates
(FIRST) Set up your space and when you’re ready, record a 30-second, HORIZONTAL practice video.
- How does the audio sound?
- Is there too much backlight?
- If the video is grainy, you need more light.
- What clutter did the video show in the background?
- Ok, now drag a cloth across the camera lens and clean that bad boy.
- Do you take up less than 1/3 of the video?
- Can you position yourself on one side, rather than in the middle?
This blog is about video editing, not video recording, so magically, between this sentence and the sentence above, you’ve produced a full, HORIZONTAL, long form video. This is raw footage, ready to be edited.
MAKE CAPTIONS WORK FOR YOU.
1. BEFORE adding special features like overlays, B-roll, transitions, and headings:
Use the captions and the spilt tool to delete text or dead space.
Add captions. Do nothing to them.
DO NOT—waste time editing spelling, playing with templates, or the text position on the video.
These captions are a tool for you to read your own words so you can see where the word breaks are.
INSERT: “CapCut, Deleting Dead Space.”
Use captions to find portions of the video. Navigate quickly to a certain portion of the video. Is there a certain portion of the video you know needs to be edited? Use captions to get there quickly.
2. AFTER all editing is complete, click “Add Captions.” MAKE SURE the “Delete Previous Captions” box is clicked! 🤣 Now, Click on any section of the captions. At the top right of the CapCut program, you’ll see multiple tabs. One of them says “Captions.” When you click on “Captions,” a search bar appears. Here you can,
- Type in “god” and change it to “God.”
- Type in “[space] um [space]” and “[space uh [space]”. If you’re unable, or don’t want to spend the time, deleting the ums and uhs from the video, you can at least delete them from the captions so viewers aren’t both hearing and reading your speech breaks.
- Check for typos all in one place. For my last name, Tschritter, I type in all sorts of variations.
USE COPY AND PASTE ATTRIBUTES
Say, for instance, your kitchen is in the background and you don’t notice the clutter until you are editing the video. Cropping one or two frames would be easy, but you’ve spliced the video into dozens of pieces. Here’s the time-save.
- Adjust one section
- Click on that section (so there’s a white outline)
- Right click on that section
- Choose “copy attributes.”
- Drag your cursor to highlight all sections of the video. Make sure you only highlight the video—not overlays or other media.
- Right click on the highlighted section. Click “Paste Attributes.”
- Email Sam and say “thank you.” You’ve just adjusted your entire video in a fraction of the time.
CHANGE ALL MEDIA LENGTH AT THE SAME TIME.
- Add a “Subscribe” Sticker.
- While the sticker is highlighted, tap Ctrl-C (or Command-C) and Ctrl- V.
- Repeat this several times and spread them out throughout the video.
- Drag your curser along all of them so they are all highlighted.
- Keeping them all highlighted, lengthen one—and all of the stickers get longer at the same time.
LEVEL UP: CREATE A SHORT FORMAT FROM A LONG FORM VIDEO
- On the main menu screen, duplicate the video.
- In the video editor, beneath the video window is the “Ratio” button.
- If it’s an interview and you want to show both people at one, highlight the ENTIRE video. Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. Drag the new video to the beginning so both videos match completely. Mute the bottom track.
- Otherwise, crop the video so that the view you want takes up the entire screen. (This step right here is the reason when you record a horizontal video, it’s important to be sure you don’t take up more than a third of the screen.
- Copy and paste attributes, as described above, to save yourself much time.
DON’T GET DISCOURAGED
When I first started recording and editing videos, I wouldn’t have understood many of these principles. It takes time to navigate a complicated program. Think of it like moving to a brand-new town. At first, you stick to the basics—the major highways—because it’s easier to avoid getting lost. As time progresses, you figure out which side streets go through to others and which turns save time.
Each of the concepts I’ve written about today are tricks that I have figured out for myself. They have been the type of short cuts that I throw my arms up in defeat at and say, “Well, I wish I’d known that eight months ago.” I’m praying that this article saves you time and frustration.
As always, I’ve included a video demonstration to show you what I’m talking about. What I’ve described quite possibly sounds more complicated than it is, so watch this short video and I will walk you through step by step.
Blessings, Sam
TWEETABLE
Multi-award-winning author S. E. Tschritter (pronounced Shredder) specializes in articulating grief and loss, leading grievers toward hope and healing. Whether poetry, fiction, or non-fiction, Tschritter writes content that will stick with readers long after they close the cover. Her 20-plus years of ministry leadership experience and contributions to over 30 books enable her to serve others, speaking truth with transparency, humor, and love.
Tschritter currently resides in Simpsonville, South Carolina with her husband, their three teen and preteen daughters, cats named Pitter and Patter, and their Siberian husky whom she lost the vote to name Onomatopoeia. Nothing refreshes Tschritter’s soul like gardening. She gardens to work through plot holes, writer’s block, character development, and book ideas. Tschritter spends a great deal of time gardening. You can find her on social media at Linktr.ee/LoveSamEvans.
