ITEMS How to make a good edit on Filmora 11: Instructions for use

 Knowing how to use video editing software is one of the most important skills for content creators today. 

Good editing will make your video more qualitative and engage your audience more. In this article, we will talk about Filmora 11 editing software which is compatible on PC and Mac.

We will see the  main  features of the software and how you can use them to efficiently edit a video without any hassle. 

At the end of this article, you will be able to edit your own video and even add effects to it that will significantly increase its quality.

Presentation of Filmora 11 editing software?

Filmora 11 is a perfect video editing software to get started and start video editing easily . This is ideal especially for beginners who want to learn how to edit their videos.

Filmora aims to be easy to use, yet rich in features.   Even if you've never touched editing software before, you'll be able to edit a video by the end of this article.

If your end goal is to publish videos to YouTube, there are some great features that are built directly into the software and are simple to use unlike software like Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve which are more complex. 

A first advantage that distinguishes the software is the directly integrated search bar to find videos and images of royalty-free illustrations or even ready-made animations to invite your viewers to subscribe.

Filmora 11 also has a cloud and a '' Speech to Text' ' feature which allows you to automatically subtitle your videos. This is very practical if you want to broadcast the videos on your social networks. The '' Text to speech '' functionality allows you to give a written text to the software and it automatically creates a voice-over to read it.

We see that when you purchase the software, whether in one go or as an annual payment, you are entitled to 30 minutes of “Speech to Text” and 5000 characters of “Text to speech”.

In the rest of this article, we will discover the other features of Filmora 11.

Download Wondershare Filmora 11 Software

Filmora 11 is software that you can download for free, but it is not free to use. As soon as you finish editing your video, you must have the paid version to be able to remove the bigFilmora watermark on the video.

The software costs €44.99 per year or €79.99 for a lifetime license . If you want, you can have additional services, i.e. a plugin for €18.99 per month. However, it should be remembered that these services are not necessary for video editing.

I advise you to first download the software, see if you like it, then buy one of the two licenses. In fact, there is a difference between the annual version and the perpetual version. 

If you purchase the annual version , you will have access to all future updates, but with the perpetual version , you will only have access to Filmora 11 updates. When one day a new version of the software is released on the market , you will be required to purchase a new license. 

Furthermore, if you are limited in your budget, you can buy the small subscription of €19 per month to benefit from additional effects and have access to ''Standard stock film''. The latter allows you to download royalty-free images, videos and animations to add directly to your montage. 

After downloading the software, you can now begin your actual editing.

On the software startup window, we see that there is a big blue button to create a new project while choosing the project format. The format can be 16:9 which is the classic format for YouTube, 1:1 for Instagram or 9:16 which is for stories and other formats which are specific to given platforms.

We also find on the window, automatic cropping features which allow you to switch from a horizontal to vertical format , an automatic editing system, a screen recording tool and an AI portrait function.

You will also find an '' Instant mode '' tab which allows you to create montages from templates and another '' The creators' academy '' tab in which you will find editing tutorials.

By clicking on the '' Create a new project '' tab, you land on the main editing interface of the software.

This interface is subdivided into 3 large windows: 

• the preview window which is located at the top right;
• the timeline which is located at the bottom;
• the media window which is located at the top left;

The preview interface allows you to see your edit as you progress.

The media window allows you to store all your materials. You will be able to import all the resources you need to create your montage. These can be photos, videos, animations or music.

Editing on Filmora 11: step by step

To begin with an edit in Filmora 11, the first step is to import the material.

Import your material

The material to import is all clips, sound effects, images, etc. In fact, you can import the material directly into the timeline or you store them in the media tab at the top left in the interface in order to find them more easily.

To do this, click on '' Import media '' then select the rush to import. Once imported, the file is found in the preview window. So you can unroll it and read it.

I advise you to create small folders in which you can put files to find your way easily. For example, you can create a folder specifically for music, another for sound effects and another for images. 

If your software glitches while reading the rush, you can create proxies.

Create proxies

Proxies are less heavy media to process by your computer during editing. And once your editing is complete, when exporting your video, it will use the original media. This allows the computer to consume fewer resources and be faster. 

To make this setting, simply right-click on your rush, then click on '' Create proxy file ''.

If, despite the proxies, you still have playback problems in your software, you can reduce the display quality under the viewing window to set a lower quality to ½, ¼ or ⅛. But the quality decreases only when the video is playing.

Do the derush

Derush is a technique that involves removing silence or unwanted parts in a clip. To do this on Filmora 11, simply move the playhead to the end of the part you want to delete. 

Then, by clicking on the small scissors on the playhead, you will be able to cut the entire part to the left of the playhead. All you have to do is delete it by placing the cursor there and clicking on the delete button on your keyboard.

Filmora 11 also has a feature that allows you to automatically remove all silence from a video. To do this, simply click on the silence detection button located just at the top of the timeline. 

You are free to make settings and adjust the silence detection settings according to your preferences, but I advise you to leave them as default.

Don't forget to create your first recording when you start editing so you don't lose all your progress.

Copy effects

With Filmora 11 , you can copy the effects you apply to one clip to reapply them to another clip. This prevents you from repeating the same effects and saves time. 

When you make changes to the scale or orientation of the image in the settings, you will see the small “ Transform ” box at the top right which is automatically checked. The trick here is to check the same box every time you want to reapply the same changes to another clip. 

You can also copy an effect by pressing Ctrl + Alt + C and using Ctrl + Alt + V to paste the effect.

Add illustration images

You can energize your montage by adding illustrative images. To do this, you must first import the images you want to use in your montage. You can also go to “Mediastock” which is directly integrated into Filmora 11 to take royalty-free images.

Once you have the image you want to add to your video, all you have to do is drag and drop it into the timeline. Be sure to put it on another track above your video track so that your image appears on the video.

You can also modify the image by cropping it, playing with the opacity or moving it around the video.

Add a transition

Transitions also allow you to energize your editing and make it more qualitative. For example, you can add a transition between two clips.

To do this, go to the “ Transitions ” tab. You will see several predefined templates that you can directly apply in your video. You just drag the transition and put it in the two clips. 

Don't hesitate to test the different models that exist to find what works best for you.

Add titrations

It's not uncommon to find titles in YouTube videos. This could be the name of the YouTube channel or the name of the presenter. Headings are also used for emphasis on a word or to draw the viewer's attention to a particular topic. 

To add a title, simply go to the “ Titles ” tab. Filmora 11 offers you a range of templates that you can use. I recommend that you always test starting with the basic models in order to get a feel for how it works. 

You can modify the text, typology, colors, size or even add animation according to your preferences.

Add music and sound effects

To add music or a sound effect to your video, you must first import the material and then move it to a track other than your audio. 

Check to see if the music volume is louder than your main audio. I recommend setting the volume of your background music to -30 dB.

Also, don’t hesitate to add little sound effects to your montage. You just have to follow the same procedure for adding music.  

To help you, we've created a sound effects pack that brings together all the effects we use in our montages. You can download this sound effects pack for free here . 

Now that you've finished your video, all you have to do is export it. Click the “ Export ” button. I remind you that the software is paid and therefore if you do not have the paid version, you will be forced to download your video with a large watermark which will appear throughout the video, which makes it completely unusable.

Conclusion

In this article, we discussed video editing on Filmora software. For beginner software, Filmora 11 has several features that even some software doesn't have yet.  

For example, the Speech to Text functionality, which is a functionality allowing you to automatically subtitle videos, or the opposite, Text to speech which is not yet found in professional software. We don't forget the silence detection which saves a lot of time.

Overall, I highly recommend this software. However, if you really want to go very far in your edits and produce professional-level edits, you will encounter some difficulties. But if it's for relatively simple editing for your website or your YouTube channel, you can go for it with your eyes closed. 

To help you go even faster with your edits, we have produced a guide of 9 tips that will allow you to radically speed up your video edits! You will discover in particular the trick of claps during filming to be able to instantly identify the good takes during editing and not waste time listening to them, comparing them, finding them. You can download the guide clicking here .

Resources

► Quick YouTube Video Editing: Easy Hacks for Beginners

► Best free editing software on PC and Mac

► Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve: which one to choose?

► Free sound effects for video montages (sound effects for YouTube videos)

► Free sound effects pack

► http://Filmora 11 

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