How I Learned To Edit Video…Cheap & Fast

Learning to edit video isn’t that difficult. Just start by…starting!

I’ve worked my entire “adult life” as a graphic designer; helping my clients with branding and logo design, identity and collateral design, brochures, signage and wayfinding, etc. (Here’s the proof) That’s what I’ve been doing for over 15 years, so it wasn’t until recently that I started editing videos for The Nomad Experiment. My first edits were absolute garbage, but once the basics are covered, they quickly improve. Just getting started editing video might be the hardest part!

Actually, this one is only my 8th edit ever:

Am I gonna win a Emmy? No. But that was my 8th edit, and below was my first…

PLEASE…save yourself! Only view the following video for a few seconds just for comparison’s sake!

And hopefully I’ve improved considerably in the dozens of video edits since then! I want to make sure you were in the loop on how I got to this level in such a short time, and for pretty darn cheap; like around $10 a month cheap.

Skillshare is the not so secret…secret to learning to edit video fast

The not so secret…secret is that I owe a lot of my recent video editing and design improvements to Skillshare. I stumbled upon the streaming online education platform about a year and a half ago and have milked the shit out of my subscription ever since, soaking up hours and hours of knowledge bombs weekly. Stick around to the end of this article and I’ll list some of my favorite courses and instructors.

How Skillshare works

Essentially, you get a subscription to thousands of streaming or downloadable “lessons” throughout their ever-changing library. Just go in and search for a topic you’re interested in, and there are likely dozens of different instructors that offer courses.

Literally hundreds of categories to choose from

Pickles anyone? The original tutorial categories Skillshare seemed to mostly hover around the creative fields; photography, design, illustration, etc. But since the initial launch, you can find pretty much anything on Skillshare. Among my current library of courses I’m watching: Premiere Pro (editing video), learning the ukulele, Instagram tricks, DSLR tutorials, American Sign Language, and even how to pickle.

Yes, pickles. Like cucumbers turned tangy and delicious…pickles. There truly is a huge library of categories and tutorial options.

I learn offline…a lot

So for the past 3 nights, I’ve been hanging out at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, barely getting a cell signal to check text messages when I’m lucky. It’s been quite nice, let me tell you. But that doesn’t stop me from getting my learning on. I made sure that before I left I downloaded hours of skillshare courses to my iPad. I’ve watched about 5 hours of tuts on video editing and an hour or so on typography and logo design.

I even have my ukulele course on there for the evenings when I relax. Very handy to be able to do that.

Cheaper yearly subscription than monthly

Skillshare still offers a monthly rate, but after I tried it out, I found it much easier and cheaper to just bite of a year at a time. Different strokes for different folks, but that’s the route I went.

From professional to “up-and-coming” instructors

It runs the gamut, but the creme rises to the top. Skillshare has definitely done a great job of exploiting (in a good way of course) their big name talent to entice folks to get on board.

Anyone from newer design icons like Aaron Draplin to sage advisors like Seth Godin represent the best of the best available, and their courses are usually documented by Skillshare film crews themselves, so the quality of video/audio is just at high as the instruction.

Even you could be an instructor on Skillshare

The other side of the instructor spectrum is that you, yes you, could actually be an instructor on Skillshare and profit by doing so.

Now, you better know your shit and be good at what you do, since it’s really a community based on reputation.

Their searches return the highest rated presenters in a category first, and the bottom of the barrel drop off (and likely get purged from the available choices) pretty quickly. You’ll also likely need to record, edit, and finish your presentations yourself as well, since only the best of the best seem to get help from the Skillshare crews.

Give it a try, you can always cancel

I’m pretty sure there’s still a trial period that you can take advantage of to try out the community. Again, I did that, and quickly signed up for the long haul over a year ago. If you can’t find something good to learn (or find the time to learn it) from the Skillshare library to make your less than $10/month investment worth it, then you probably have bigger problems!

Here are some of my favorites, so look them up on Skillshare if you’re jonesin’ to learn any of these specific things: Aaron Draplin (graphic design & typography), Jordy Vandeput (DSLR & Premiere Pro video editing), Phil Ebiner (DSLR & Premiere Pro video editing), Diego Gualda (Ukulele for beginners), Seth Godin (Modern Marketing)…

Good Luck!