How to Make an AMAZING Web Edit

Someday, we’re going to look back on this period in history and have no trouble remembering it because there is so very little that happens that is not captured on video. Barring a complete melt down of the Internet, we will have plenty of stuff to show to our kids and grand kids to go along with our “when I was your age” stories. It’s going to be great.

In the meantime, however, society is suffering from a web video overload. And most of those videos, especially the ones featuring snowboarding, are really bad. However, that should be qualified a bit: to you and your friends they are amazing, but to the general public who doesn’t know you and your friends, well, they’re bad.

We get a lot of edits at YoBeat, and these days, there’s too much coming in to post everything separately — even some of the decent stuff. That was the inspiration behind rejected edits: give kids their 15 minutes and and show the actual snowboarding going on around the world, without pushing down the content we spent time and money creating on the site. And hopefully make it funny. Most people seem to get it and enjoy it, but there are a few who are deeply offended that we would “hate” on these edits. For those, I set out to create the ultimate rejected edit (above) so that I could include it in the post. It seemed to work, as multiple people said they shut it off after a little bit because it was so bad (before they realized it was Jared and I, of course.) So what does it take to make a truly hard to watch web edit? Here’s my checklist.

1. Overly long intro. Nothing is worse than a 1 minute long intro on a 3 minute video. I think the need to craft an intro is a hold over from the TV show format, or sometimes it’s just an attempt to get to the first verse of the song. There are all sorts of reasons why it seems like a good idea. But in short, it’s not. When it comes to the web, less is more.

2. Bad song. If a song had already been used in a bunch of videos, or is just plain bad, don’t use it. Simple. The song has so much to do with the vibe of the video, so pick one that fits what you’re trying to accomplish. And the less it’s been used, the more better it is.

3. Too much footage. It’s great to use all of your friends’ footage. They’ll be stoked. However, no one wants to watch your friend who just learned to 50-50 boxes. Maybe his mom. So show them the footage, but leave it in the folder on your desktop. Same goes for half landed tricks or falls that don’t look gnarly. NO ONE ELSE CARES. And if your snowboard stunt edit is over 3 minutes (meaning, it doesn’t have a story line) it’s too long. A good rule it to edit it and then go back through and cut it in half. Again, less is more.

4. Cheesy effects. Just because Final Cut does it, doesn’t mean you need it in your edit. Vignetting is an obvious attempt to make a bad edit good, and most of those high tech effects and transitions make things worse, not better. What’s the saying? Oh yeah, less is more.

5. Ugly titles. Comic sans=bad. But in general, less is more.