Video Editing with OpenShot

Getting Started

  • Create a new folder on your desktop called “assets”
  • Place all your clips and music inside the asset folder
  • Open OpenShot and your asset folder
  • Drag and drop your asset collection (excluding the script) into OpenShot in the Project Files window
  • Save the project inside the asset folder, by going to top menu, under file, and selecting “Save Project As”, a window will appear, find the asset folder and select it, name the project file, then click save NOTE: OpenShot will create its own “assets” folder inside the one you’ve saved to, simply just ignore that one

Editing Individual Clips

  • Not all of your clips are going to be perfect. If you want to remove a portion of the clip, drag it onto your top track (default is Track 5)
  • Right click on the clip and copy it
  • By dragging the back of the original clip remove the unwanted portion
  • By dragging the front of the copied clip have it start at the part you want to keep
  • Overlap the two clips slightly to create a crossfade
  • When you have the clip how you want it, use the red record button in the top menu to save the clip
  • Make sure to save it in your asset folder
  • Drag it back into the Project Files window
  • Delete the unwanted original clip from your Project Files

Creating Titles

  • The top menu contains a tab called Titles
  • Select it and then select Title underneath it
  • A Title window will pop up
  • Use the window to select what kind of title you want, what text you want it to display, background colour, font, etc.
  • When you’re happy with it, save it
  • It will appear in your Project Files as an Image

Creating Subtitles

  • Create a new text file inside your asset folder
  • In this text file write all of the text for the subtitles you want in the video
  • Select the title tab in the top menu, and select title, a window will appear
  • Scroll down on the left and use one of the footer templates
  • Name the file on the right
  • In the text section, enter part of the text from the file you created before, ideally you will want to create the subtitles one sentence at a time
  • Change the font and text colour to whatever you like, but try to keep the font size reasonable, and do not change the background colour once you’re happy with it, hit save
  • Repeat the last two steps for all of the remaining subtitles

Smashing it all Together

  • Highlight all your assets under Project Files (outside of your Music and Subtitles)
  • Right click and select Add to Timeline
  • An Add to Timeline window will pop up
  • Make sure “Start Time” is set to 0:00
  • Beside “Image Length”, enter 7 seconds
  • Change Transition from “None” to “Fade”
  • Reposition your assets (on the left hand side) chronologically (top being the first, bottom the last) by highlighting a single asset and moving it up and down using the arrows at the bottom
  • Press OK when you’re happy and the assets will be added to Track 5
  • Drag the subtitle files one at a time from the assets window on the left onto the main timeline (track 5)
  • Move the subtitles around to the correct position within the video by dragging them on the timeline
  • Remove the fade transition that was added by right-clicking it, and selecting “remove transition”
  • Adjust the length by dragging the end of the tile to the left or right
  • Repeat the last two steps for the rest of the subtitles, make sure there is a slight gap between the subtitles on the timeline, to do this, disable the snapping tool (magnet icon under the word “timeline”)
  • Drag and drop your music asset to track 4
  • Adjust the volume by right clicking on the track and resetting the level
  • Give it a listen by pressing play and tweak things as needed

Exporting the Video

  • When you have the Tracks set up how you like them use the red record button in the top menu to export the movie
  • In the pop up window choose a File Name
  • Leave the folder path as is
  • Under Profile select Web
  • Under Target select YouTube HD
  • Use the default video profile, then click export video

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