Conventional advice tells you that your video editing style should be based on the platform you’re posting it to. But with so many creators now cross-posting the same content on multiple platforms, that’s becoming less and less true every day.
Think of your favorite content creators. Most likely, they all have certain ways they edit their content that stays consistent for every platform they post on. And that’s intentional.
So if you’re trying to create your own video editing style but feeling lost on where to start, you’re in the right place. In this article, I’ll walk you through the five steps you can take to find your own style and incorporate it into your videos.
Five steps for finding your editing style
1. Get to know the foundational types of video editing styles
While there’s a wide range of editing styles out there, there are about five different ones that serve as a good baseline to work from. We cover these editing styles more in-depth with examples from a wide range of different content niches in the video below.
Short-form or social media
You might be thinking, “Wait, didn’t you say in the intro that editing styles aren’t defined by the platform you post to anymore?” And you’d be right – but we can’t deny that short-form video absolutely ushered in a new, unique style of video editing.
TikTok was the original place where this kind of video editing was born, but it’s continued to evolve on Shorts and Reels. Some key characteristics of the short-form editing style include:
- Rapid cuts and jump zooms
- Bold, animated text
- Punchy music
- Dynamic framing
- Vertical video format
The goal of this style is to hook the viewer quickly and keep short attention spans engaged through fast-paced editing. Shots tend to change every few seconds and can be punctuated by sound effects or flashy transitions for emphasis.
This style spans nearly every content niche. The video below from @littleremyfood on YouTube is a perfect example of this editing style.
Cinematic or narrative
Next up, we have what’s probably the prettiest editing style, which is cinematic. This style is often very narratively-driven, with voiceovers or music over top of beautifully shot scenes that are color graded to perfection.
These videos take a lot of inspiration from movies new and old, incorporating things like:
- Seamless transitions
- Bold color grading
- Epic sound
- Professional cinematography and film techniques
The cinematic editing style is very immersive, where you feel like you’re being brought into the world of the video with intentional storytelling. Since it tends to require more time-intensive editing, filming, and a bigger budget for top of the line gear, it’s not as common as other styles. But you can often find it in travel, product review, and even some vlog videos.
Talking head
This is a popular editing style because it’s simple to film and produce. Talking head videos are mostly made up of A-roll (clips of the person talking) but also incorporates B-roll to add context and add visual interest.
Videos editing with this style usually include:
- Subtle jump cuts
- Zoom-ins
- Subtle background music
- B-roll footage
- Explanatory graphics
Personal stories or lifestyle content are two places where you’ll see this style, along with tutorial and corporate/brand videos. The editing is usually more straightforward, especially with brands, but you’ll occasionally see moments of silly or funny editing. We use this style a lot over on the Storyblocks YouTube channel.
Streaming or gaming
Like the name suggests, this video editing style was popularized by video game, streamer, and Twitch content. It almost always has picture-in-picture, where the creator or host is shown in a minimized box on top of other content, like a video game or screenshare.
This popular style includes elements like:
- Webcam video
- Cuts to highlights
- Meme inserts
- Live chat and other overlays
- On-screen callouts
You’ll see a ton of this editing with Twitch streamers, reaction videos, and video game Let’s Plays. These types of videos revolve around the personality of the creator and the engagement of the audience.
Montage
Our final editing style is the montage, where sequences of shots are edited together to show progression, travel, or time passing. It’s a great way to tell a story without much dialogue (if any) while still allowing unique perspectives to shine through.
For montages, you’ll usually use:
- Mood-setting music
- Clean cuts
- Limited dialogue
Travel vlogs, workout videos, and day in the life content are common places you’ll see montages, along with movies.
2. Understand your creative goals and audience
Now that you’re familiar with the foundational editing styles and have a sense of what’s out there, the next thing to consider is your goals and who you’re making your videos for.
Regardless of what niche of content your videos fit into, your goals should be centered around the answers to these questions:
- What is the purpose of your videos and content? Are you educating, informing, inspiring, or entertaining?
- What do you want to say and who are you saying it to?
- How often are you trying to make videos? Are you prioritizing speed or aesthetics?
- What platforms do you plan to post to?
We cover this topic more in-depth in Episode 2 and 3 of our original series, The Beginner’s Guide to Creating Video. In Episode 2, we dive into understanding your audience and how to create videos they want to watch. Then in Episode 3, we go over setting distribution goals and how to measure success for your videos.
Once you have the answers to all of these questions, consider how those factors will play into your editing style. For example, let’s say you’re someone who wants to make weekly entertaining fashion content for women in their mid-20s on Instagram. Since you’ll be posting to Reels, you might decide to opt for more of a short-form editing style with some montages sprinkled in.
But if you’re an outdoor enthusiast and hobbyist photographer who wants to create monthly videos about the beautiful places you hike to inspire others to visit them? A cinematic style would work well, since you likely have the knowledge, equipment, and time to put towards the content you’re making.
3. Build a swipe file of information
Like any form of art, part of finding your style starts with exploring other work. You can pull inspiration from literally anywhere – you don’t just have to limit yourself to other videos.
Pay attention to movies, paintings, music, games, and other types of art that you’re drawn to. When something speaks to you, take a moment to sit with it and notice what exactly you like most about it.
It could be that you find yourself drawn to more abstract kinds of art, or maybe you really love work with specific colors, themes, or subjects. Whatever inspiration you find, start saving them in a document or moodboard. Pinterest, Notion, or YouTube playlists are a good way to save these too. That way, you have all of them in one place.
How you incorporate these things into your videos is up to you – you can get as creative with it as you want. Maybe you watch a movie that has a scene with one long, interrupted shot and you decide to incorporate more of that into your day-in-the-life vlogs. Or you find that you really love the way a color palette sets a specific mood/tone, so you decide to start using a signature color grading look.
What inspires you and the things you love are a great way to make your editing style more unique and help your content stand out. I recently started following @birdingwithcob, who creates videos centered around his goal of seeing every bird in the world. His videos are travel vlogs mixed with nature, but his entire editing style is inspired by Pokémon, from the fonts he uses to the music and sound effects.
4. Experiment, experiment, experiment
After the first three steps, you should have a good idea of how you want to approach your editing style for your videos. So now, it’s time to go out and start creating. Much like any other kind of artist who’s trying to find their style or voice, the most important thing to remember is that nothing is set in stone. You don’t have to stick to one thing forever.
In fact, experimenting is a natural part of creating videos in the first place. Especially if you’re just starting out. If you go look at your favorite creator’s channel, I can promise you that if you scroll all the way back to their very first video, it’s not going to look anything like their most recent one.
On top of that, experimentation is how you find what you like and don’t like. Think of editing techniques like a closet full of clothes you can mix and match. Just because you try something out for one video doesn’t mean you’re committed to it forever. You can put it back and pick out something else, or maybe try it again with a different combination of clothes.
Exercise: One video, three edits
One great exercise you can do is editing the same video in a couple different ways. Explore what techniques you can use to make the same footage turn into three videos that have completely different styles and vibes. This will help you get creative with how you can approach your edits and think outside of your usual box.
Note: this advice is mostly about helping you find your own unique editing style. If you want to learn more about how to experiment to see better results from your videos, you can check out our article on using audience testing to improve your videos.
5. Build your signature toolkit
Now, we’ve reached our final step. And that’s creating a toolkit that brings all of the elements of your style together in one place to help you improve your editing workflow.
This is like your own personal style guide for your videos. It should include things like:
- Color palette (with HEX codes for easy reference)
- Fonts
- Transition types
- LUTs or presets for color grading
- Music tracks
- Sound effects
- Lighting setup information
- Favorite lenses
- Reusable templates
Basically, anything that you use on a regular basis with your videos that you want to have quick and easy access to. This will not only help you speed up your editing, but also be a great resource if you ever decide to work with a freelance video editor.
Templates especially are an incredible time-saving resource for creators. If you consistently use a particular layout, transition + audio combo, or anything that involves a few different elements, finding a way to templatize it for easy re-use will be so much faster than building it from scratch every time.
You can find over 23,000+ different video editing templates in the Storyblocks library for top editors like Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, After Effects, and Apple Motion. All of them are designed by professionals and are completely customizable, so you can easily make them your own.
Embrace evolution and never stop experimenting
As long as you’re creating, evolution is guaranteed. Your style will develop and change – and that’s the best part! Your video editing style isn’t a destination. It’s a journey that you’ll be on for as long as you’re a creator.
One of the best ways to help you easily find ways to experiment and try new things while saving you valuable time is an unlimited stock media subscription. With over 7 million high-quality, human-made assets to choose from, you’ll have endless creative options to help you find your style and level up your videos. Plus, everything is royalty free and covered by our industry-leading license, so you never have to worry about copyright strikes.
Explore our plan options and sign up today to start downloading!
