How to auto edit videos like a pro YouTuber
Sep 27, 2024
Introduction
Making YouTube videos, particularly talking-head videos, that retain viewer attention is a monumental task that shouldn’t be taken lightly. Video creators spend years learning how to come up the perfect hook for a script that will connect with their audience, making the perfect thumbnail that will pull them in instantly, and making the perfect cuts in the video to draw out their interest.
If you’ve ever used ChatGPT to write a script for a video idea; it requires a lot of manual editing to transform it into something usable… so, why are we pretending like an AI-powered video editing app is going to be able to take your raw uncut video file, completely auto edit it, and turn it into the next viral phenomenon?
This notion is simply not realistic. A great video relies on the creator’s unique taste and vision, not the manufactured authenticity of an AI algorithm. That being said, there are processes of the video editing workflow that can be auto edited to save you hours of time without losing creative direction—one of which is making the perfect jump cut.
The Perfect Jump Cut
A jump cut is an editing technique that creates a sudden, noticeable jump in time or position within a single continuous shot. It eliminates time between sentences—jumping forward in time if you may. This technique is used to remove dead air, awkward silences, edit out stutters and filler words like “um” and “ah” resulting in a more fast-paced, clearer video.
The strategic use of jump cuts has become indispensable when it comes to YouTube, considering the ubiquity of talking head videos on the platform. Jump cuts are not just a stylistic choice but a necessity for creating engaging, attention-grabbing content.
The downside? Jump cuts take an ungodly amount of time to make by hand.
Making jump cuts in Premiere Pro, for example, starts by bringing your video clip in timeline sequence and hitting the C key. The C key invokes the Cut tool which lets you split the video (make the cuts) in the timeline. The next step is to look at the waveform of the clip and start splitting it by clicking at the start and end of every sentence. Repeat this ‘clicking’ until you get to the end of the video—however long that might be. As you can clearly see, this is a long and arduous process.
Manually editing jump cuts by cutting the video in the timeline in Premiere Pro
Or it would have been if we didn’t have a faster, less mind-numbing way to get to the same result.
Wait? Did I say same? I actually meant better, way better way — in every conceivable metric.
But before we get to that, let’s briefly go over video editing apps that use AI transcripts to edit videos like a text document and why they might not be the best fit for you.
Transcription-based Video Editing: A Detour
A transcript is a text document containing the written or typed representation of spoken words in a video or audio file. Transcription-based video editing apps use word-level timestamps generated by the AI-powered transcription algorithms to auto cut video. On the surface, this sounds like a brilliant idea, right? Just upload the file to the cloud, let an AI algorithm analyze the spoken words in the video, and send back a transcript that can be used to cut the video up. Well, it might not be all rainbows and sunshine as it may seem.
Firstly, to start this process, you need to upload the video to the cloud. This may or may not be an issue depending on your unique situation. Issues include (and are not limited to) slow internet connectivity, workplace restrictions on content sharing, confidential content that you don’t want transcribed. If you record high quality video, good luck getting that hour-long, high-bitrate 4K video file uploaded to the cloud!
Moreover, transcription algorithms are language-dependent. If you make video in a language that the platform doesn’t support—well, tough luck! In addition to this, the accuracy of the transcript varies from language to language, depending on the input data that was used to train the algorithm.
Finally, as AI transcription algorithms weren’t invented with the purpose of making aesthetic jump cuts in mind, they aren’t exactly very accurate when it comes to generating word-level timestamps. A quick gleaning of this market will uncover many reviews where users complain about how many times they’ve had to go back through the timeline to fix inaccurate cuts.
Timeline cuts made with Word-level Timestamps from Transcriptions
Its not really a win if you’re spending more time fixing errors in the transcript than actually editing the video. On top of that, the inaccuracies throw the whole ‘aesthetic, perfect jump cut’ dream out the window. So, where do we go from here?
Enter TimeBolt
TimeBolt is desktop application that uses a purpose-built silence detection algorithm which runs locally on your computer to auto edit videos and create incredibly accurate jump cuts. TimeBolt is built from the ground-up to meet the unique requirements of reliably creating the perfect jump cut.
Timeline cuts made with TimeBolt's Silence Detection Algorithm
The benefits include (and are not limited to):
No need to upload the video to the cloud.
TimeBolt runs its auto edit algorithm locally on your computer, which means that you don’t have to wait until the video gets uploaded to the cloud. Incase you work in a restricted workplace where content security is of the utmost importance, this singular fact is enough to choose TimeBolt.
Fully auto edited timeline withing seconds.
TimeBolt automatically makes precise cuts by processing the audio in file and figuring out where the sound begins and ends. The only pre-requisite is decent audio quality which is usually available if the final video is going to be uploading to YouTube. The result? Incredibly accurate cuts with super fast turnaround time. Generally speaking, an hour long file with a single audio track will be auto edited by TimeBolt’s silence detection algorithm within 20 seconds.
Real-time video of auto editing a 7m23s video with TimeBolt
Full control over entry and exit padding
When I spoke about ‘aesthetic jump cuts’, I was specifically referring to the entry and exit padding of each cut. This is referred to as Left and Right Padding, respectively, in TimeBolt for easier understanding. The amount of time assigned to the entry and exit padding of a cut has a profound effect on the tone of the final video. If the Left and Right Padding are incredibly tiny, say zero seconds, the final video comes across as incredibly fast paced and high energy as the cuts become too aggressive. Not every video fits this tonality; TimeBolt allows you to set custom values for Left and Right Padding to to fit your style, say a ‘chill twitch stream’ that needs ‘softer jump cuts‘.
Left and right padding in TimeBolt to control jump cut aesthetics
Post-auto-edit UI and keyboard shortcuts.
TimeBolt auto edits jump cuts for you, but that doesn’t mean you have to keep them all. Generally, when you’re recording a video — there are some takes that you want to keep and others that you want to get rid of in post-production. TimeBolt provides an easy-to-use accept / deny interface to quickly keep the cuts you want and get rid the cuts you don’t want. To accelerate this process, adjust preview speed to, say, 1.5x normal speed and fly through the timeline using the keyboard shortcuts. Other features like punch, splitting the timeline, merging consecutive cuts etc. are also available.
Left: Controls available in TimeBolt to get the exact cuts you want.
Right: Keyboard shortcuts that allow you to audit the cuts at light speed!
Versatile, multi-export capabilities.
Once you make the jump cuts in TimeBolt, you can export the final .mp4 directly from TimeBolt (or from Stitch if you want to combine multiple videos) but more interestingly, you can take the cuts to any external editor of your choice. TimeBolt can export the cuts in the form of an EDL, XML and FCPXML files which can then be imported into almost every major editing program like Premier Pro, Final Cut Pro, Davinci Resolve etc. alone with native integrations for both Premiere Pro and Davinci Resolve. The bottom line is, make auto edit cuts in TimeBolt and take them wherever you want.
TimeBolt lets you export the cuts in a many, many ways.
Optional ‘Umcheck’ capability.
If you’re recording unscripted video and need filler word removal, you can use TimeBolt’s Umcheck functionality which transcribes the file and allows you to detect “ums” and “ahs”. The difference between Umcheck and traditional transcription-based video editors is that Umcheck is a second pass over a jump cut timeline via silence detection, which significantly reduces the possibility of inaccuracies. Umcheck allows you add custom words, phrases and also has a false start detector that can incorrect starts of a sentence.
Filler word detection along with custom words and phrase, false start detections with Umcheck
Fixed, predictable pricing.
Unless you’re using Umcheck, you can auto edit jump cuts for any length of video without variable cost. Have a 22-hour twitch stream that you want to auto edit? No problem. You’ve got 100 files, each an hour long? No problem. Just drop them in the Batch Process and come back when it’s done. You’ll be charged a flat rate for whatever plan you’re on (monthly, yearly or lifetime).
All of these features combined make TimeBolt an indispensable part of a pro YouTuber’s toolkit.
Standard workflow for auto editing videos with TimeBolt
TimeBolt automates the process of creating perfect jump cuts and removing filler words from your videos. Naturally, these should the first steps in every video editing workflow.
Let’s talk about general process to auto edit jump cuts in TimeBolt.
- Open the TimeBolt desktop app and drop your video file in.
- TimeBolt will auto edit the jump cuts and present a timeline to audit the cuts.
- It’s generally a good idea to quickly go through all cuts once, feel free to skip this.
- Put the preview speed at 1.5x and hit the Spacebar to start playback.
- With play head inside a cut, click on the bar above (or press the O key) to keep / remove the cut.
- FYI, the removing a cut in TimeBolt turns it red so that it’s just as easy to bring it back.
- Once you’ve verified the cuts, you can export the video from TimeBolt and take the cuts to another editor to finish the process.
And it’s that easy.
TimeBolt is capable of much more but we won’t go into too much detail in this blog as you can find more in-depth information on TimeBolt’s Help & Support Page, YouTube Channel and Blog along with a bunch of tips and tricks to get the best out of TimeBolt.
Conclusion
Jump cuts are essential for creating engaging YouTube content, especially for talking-head videos. Traditional methods of creating jump cuts are time-consuming and labor-intensive. While AI can assist in video editing, the accuracy of the cuts leave much to be desired. TimeBolt offers a fast, accurate, and locally-run solution for auto editing videos to produce standout content in today's fast-paced digital world.
