If you think about the process of video editing, it probably seems like something only fit for adults. Indeed, once upon a time this craft was one that was limited to experts. But simplified programs are now bringing the world of video creation to people of all ages.
This can be critical later in life: Studies show that children who harness their creative capacities by age 7 have significantly more sophisticated jobs and higher career earnings in their adulthood.
In the sections below, we will explore how you can get your kids involved in the video editing process and provide tips on which techniques are most important for them to learn.
The importance of teaching kids video editing
As mentioned above, many software programs are now available that even kids can learn. This is very important for child development. If a child learns to put together a video in a coherent, logical way, it helps develop numerous faculties:
- Kids learn how to put together storylines
- They can express their creativity by incorporating music, transitions, blurring screens, and adding special effects
- They learn how to review productions, look through videos carefully to identify good parts and bad parts, and replace things that they might not want to include.
These are all valuable skills that kids can later transfer into many different areas of life.
Video editing techniques to teach kids
Now let’s take a closer look at specific video editing techniques that you can teach kids to help them put together their own productions.
Trimming and splitting
When you take video footage, you will likely want to extract the parts that are most interesting and get rid of the rest. You can do this by trimming and splitting. If you teach kids to use a timeline, they can learn how to mark in and out points and try out putting different cuts together.
Transitions and special effects
Learning how to use transitions and special effects can be fun for kids. There are many different kinds of transitions, and kids can choose ones they like to express their personalities. Kids can learn effects such as adding filters and on-screen images like emojis and images to spiff up their videos. They can add image to video to vary still and moving images.
Adding audio and music
Audio is just as important to good videos as visual components are, so kids can learn how to import audio files into their videos and work with music and sound effects. They can learn how to adjust volume levels and vary sounds according to the flow of a video.
Changing color
A slightly more advanced technique that kids can learn is working with color. You can teach them about things like brightness, contrast, and saturation (how bold colors appear on the screen). Let them experiment with these features so that they can learn how to adjust them for different video themes.
Adding on-screen text
Adding on-screen text and titles can help kids provide extra information or introduce scenes within their videos. They can experiment with different fonts, text sizes, and colors that they like.
Using green screens
If you use a green screen in creating videos, you will have the option of replacing it with any background that you want later on. Kids can learn this technique if it is illustrated to them. This can be a great way to learn storytelling and for them to express their creativity with different kinds of backgrounds.
Get started early, and kids will be masters later on
If kids learn these techniques at an early age, they will be able to produce much more sophisticated videos by the time they are older. Furthermore, they will learn valuable life skills such as production, storytelling, and the importance of reviewing finished pieces that they can also use in many other areas.
