The Art of Storytelling through Video Editing: Tips and Tricks

What separates a great video from an average video? Well, it’s storytelling.

And when that storytelling is combined with the power of crisp video editing, it leaves a lasting impact on the viewers.

Today’s social media users carry a low attention span, probably between 8-10 seconds.

And therefore, it becomes necessary for brands to present their communication in a compelling manner that helps them connect with their audience instantly.

Since a brand’s narrative is the deciding factor in whether it will make or break its impact in the market, this brings us to the question -

How can video editing play a key role in helping brands communicate their brand story strongly?

Before we dive deep, let’s first understand why video editing is important in helping brands communicate their brand story:

The spectrum of video editing expands beyond the mere arrangement/fixing of clips and normal transitions.

Given how human emotions play an impactful role in helping viewers feel about a particular brand or its product, it becomes quite necessary to come up with a strong visual presentation.

Here’s how crisp video editing seems mandatory in today’s competitive times:

Creates an emotional connection with the audience:

Tapping into the emotions of the target audience is no easy task - especially when storytelling is being done through digital mediums.

Therefore by leveraging the power of actual video editing, brands can get their keyframes carefully edited for maximum impact on the audience. Also, suitable BG music and transitions can be chosen to establish instant relatability with the audience.

Keeps viewers engaged & interested:

Your target audience has tons of content at their disposal, hence grabbing their attention in today’s fast-paced world can seem daunting at times.

However, through effective pacing and sequencing of shots, brands can easily hook the attention of their audience till the video’s completion.

Enhances brand’s message and identity:

It’s essential to create brand recall in the minds of the target audience as it strengthens the brand’s image.

Here, the importance of brand assets, such as font, colors, logos, etc., can be reinforced via their usage during the editing of the video.

Now that you have a fair idea regarding why video editing is important for effective brand communication via storytelling, here are a few effective tips that will help you execute it.

These tips have been curated keeping in mind the audiences’ behavior while watching videos and how it can affect a brand’s communication efforts.

Check out the tips below:

Deploy the right techniques:

If you’re using the right video editing techniques, the result would surely be an effective video that captures the audience’s attention.

Now this involves establishing a decent composition that slowly helps in building an engaging environment. What follows next is the apt sequencing of different frames for a smooth video viewing experience.

A lot of video editors pay extra attention to color grading and indeed, it can make or break the video. This is mainly because a proper setting would help set up a great mood for the viewers, eventually making them more inclined towards completely watching the video.

Another technique can be considered in the usage of graphs. However, adequate care should be taken while the presentation of data as over-presentation may lead to failure in expressing a brand’s story or journey. Clean graphs, slides, or infographics are mostly preferred while presenting data in a video.

Leverage the maximum potential of visuals:

Visuals play a dominant role in any brand’s video. Their importance can be attributed to how valuable they can be in elevating a brand’s storytelling experience.

The best thing would be to pick the most captivating of visuals, place them in strategic positions in a way that aligns with the video’s script, and edit them finely to build a compelling narrative.

The proper usage of visuals will help complement the brand’s vision and the identity that they wish to portray to its target audience.

Keep human emotions in mind:

Emotions can be considered the center point of any compelling storyline.

Here, it’s important to understand the sentiment of your target audience, analyze what are those patterns that encourage actions, and perform suited edits on the video that leave a lasting impact on them.

There can be different emotions such as empathy, curiosity, anger, happiness, etc., which can be utilized for enhanced visual representation through video editing.

Include twists and turns:

People love surprises and including twists in a brand’s storyline can highly boost the chances of user engagement on the video.

But all of it strongly depends on how the video is edited. So for evoking curiosity and fun in the viewing experience of the viewers, editors can sharply make cuts, pauses, etc. to evoke elements of suspense, however, it depends on the tone of the story.

Apply pacing techniques to maintain interest:

Pacing involves proper sequencing and understanding of the impact level of each shot.

Here, the editor needs to make strong decisions in concern with the transitions so that more weight can be added to key situations.

Adjusting the pacing of the video in terms of slow or rapid can largely help brands in maintaining the interest of the viewers till the end of the video, thus leading to effective communication of a brand’s story.

Implementing text & graphics for better comprehension:

Apart from smooth transitions, the presentation of bold headlines and typography in general is equally important for making viewers familiar with a brand’s story.

The use of kinetic typography and infographics can help reinforce a brand’s overall message, key points, and keep the audience engaged.

A lot of videos tend to be text-heavy in their approach to reaching their target audience. Therefore, a good mix of graphics and text can help improve user understanding at large.

Incorporating storytelling techniques from other media:

The world of storytelling is so much happening that numerous references can be drawn to enhance a brand’s communication.

From TV series, and comics to full-fledged films and product videos, video editors have a plethora of editing style options to choose from such as character playing, foreshadowing, parallel story presentation, background narration, etc.

These options serve as an inspiration to editing professionals which they can implement to maximize the impact of the video on the viewers’ minds.

There are numerous video editing software available in the market that can largely help video editors edit their videos seamlessly.

Here are a few recommendations from the many software available:

1. Vmaker AI

Vmaker AI is the world’s first-ever AI video editor to automate the creative part of video editing. Upload raw footage and let AI create a publish-ready video for you in just one click.

AI features that sprink magic over your video

Long to short-form videos

Turn long videos into short and viral YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, and TikTok videos

Video highlights

Create a striking highlight for your video to be used for promos or to be inserted as intro

Make your videos go viral

Select and apply the best editing styles with AI to make your videos go viral

AI Subtitle Generator

Generate striking subtitles in 35+ languages with 10+ cool animations and translate in 100+ languages.

AI Background removal

Select and remove video background from talking head videos and replace with aesthetic backgrounds of your choice.

MAD AI

Use MAD button to apply text, B-rolls, background music, and intro-outro to your edited videos

Vmaker AI has every feature you need to edit your videos to perfection after AI has done its magic, such as video cutter, video merger, video trimmer, video cropper, filters, color correction, noise removal, audio enhancer, adding audio to video, reverse playback, rotate, flip, video resize, playback speed control, adding text to video, and video looper.

2. Camtasia

The best thing about Camtasia is its easy functionality that allows learners to quickly adapt to its editing process.

One of the key features of this tool is how smoothly users can drag and drop their clips and arrange them as per their editing plan.

Camtasia allows users to edit multiple types of videos such as walkthrough videos, sales videos, instructional videos, corporate presentations, tutorial videos, etc., through its ready-to-use templates.

The software allows easy operation on Windows and Mac systems.

3. Movavi Video Editor

Tell your story through video editing with Movavi Video Editor, where its intuitive interface extends a friendly invitation to both newcomers and seasoned editors.

Enhancing your video edits and crafting your brand's narrative is a straightforward process with Movavi Video Editor, thanks to its versatile range of features, filters, transitions, and advanced AI tools. Just a few simple steps are all it takes.

Alongside its powerful editing tools, this tool provides pre-made templates and a rich selection of music, videos, backgrounds, and effects. These resourceful features effectively simplify and broaden your storytelling capabilities. The software works on both Windows and Mac desktop OS and offers a Chrome extension for multi-system convenience.

4. Animaker

As per existing users, you don’t require editing skills to begin editing videos on Animaker - how cool is that?

For years now, video editing software has been doing rounds on the internet for being the go-to editing app choice for content creators, industry professionals, and even students.

Apart from the many features it offers, the one about characterization is loved by many since it’s also a key element of the entire storytelling narrative.

The software is compatible with both Windows & Mac operating systems.

5. Adobe Premiere Pro

The flagship video editing tool by Adobe is no wonder an inclusion in this recommended list of video editing software available in the market.

Although Adobe Premiere Pro’s interface can be quite intimidating for beginners or amateur video editing professionals, it nevertheless provides great stabilization tools and quick rendering of videos.

Another key feature provided by Adobe in their editing software is the unlimited availability of multi-camera angles that can allow editors to elevate their brand story presentation in their video.

The software is compatible with both Windows & Mac operating systems.

6. RenderForest

Another known name in the video editing software industry, RenderForest offers hundreds of ready templates for multi-purpose video editing tasks.

Editors can make use of its animation, typography, music visualization, intro/outro video makers, and many other features for creating and editing exceptional quality videos on the software.

Apart from editing facilities, the tool also offers great product usage for website mockups and graphic design use cases in general, thus helping brands to strengthen their branding efforts.

The software is available for download on both Windows & Mac.

Now that you have a few software to choose from, it’s also important to keep in mind the list of factors that you may consider while selecting the best from the many available.

These factors mainly depend on the complexity of the projects, the amount a brand is willing to invest in a tool, and other reasons such as preferences regarding a particular tool.

Equally, the choice also matters as a few software might be only suited for beginners and may not provide desired results for experienced industry professionals.

On the other hand, a few software’s functionality may only be well-designed for advanced professionals.

There are numerous examples from which DIY video editors can pick points and frames for a more improved version of a brand video.

The below examples cover 3 different category brands and illustrate how they have narrated their story:

1. Benefits of using explainer videos

This video focuses on educating its target audience about the benefits of using explainer videos for their brands via an interesting story that involves grasshoppers.

The video’s story is complemented with crisp editing that involves screen transitions, emphasis on key situations, and engaging sound effects.

Moreover, it throws light on how brands can engagingly convey their message, thus enhancing their brand communication.

2. Coin Operated - Animated Short Film

People say - Never let the kid in you die! And this video is a perfect testimony to the saying.

Created by independent artists, the short 3D animated film involves a character who gets excited seeing a toy space rocket, imagining it to be a true space vehicle.

The video revolves around how the small boy grows up, sells lemonade for a living intending to gather money for his space trip, and ends up skyrocketing his emotions through the same toy he rode once decades ago.

From the video editing and storytelling perspective, this animated piece is one of the best examples you will ever come across as it finely involves the different principles of editing such as emotion, story, rhythm, etc.

3. Siblings - Animated Short Film

Sibling rivalries are known to everyone and at times, they can get worse than expected. However, there’s always room for forgiveness as siblings naturally possess understanding abilities.

In this video, the creator has beautifully captured the bond between siblings by presenting a captivating story which is then edited in a manner that forces viewers to think about the consequences post the happening of heated arguments.

The editing team wonderfully makes use of pauses and emphasis at relevant story milestones and develops a compelling environment thus forcing viewers to stick to their seats till the video ends.

Conclusion:

Indeed, video editing has a dominant role to play in presenting a brand’s story. So much so, that the art of storytelling seems incomplete without crisp editing which is highly required for increasing retention on a brand’s video.

However, effective storytelling requires editing professionals to explore their horizon of research and creativity as it’s the key to creating innovative and memorable video marketing campaigns.

To say the least - The art of storytelling in video editing is a powerful way for brands to connect with their audience and establish ever-lasting relationships with them.

Recommended Readings:

• Best AI Tools for Editing: Insights from Top Creators
• 10 Essential Video Editing Techniques Every Content Creator Should Know
• Beyond Traditional Editing: How AI Video Editors are Shaping the Future of Content Creation
• Beyond the Screen: Vmaker's Leap into AI Video Editing