Video Editors have many different softwares to choose from, but it is said that since they all accomplish more or less the same thing , it doesn’t really matter which one you use, as long so you are skilled in the program of your choice. However some of the standard programs that are respected by high industry professionals are Final Cut pro, Adobe Premiere pro, and DaVinci. At the beginning of their editing process, they must first compile and sift through the footage they either shot, or received. This can take a substantial amount of time seeing that they can sometimes deal with hours of footage at a time. After they have sifted and sorted/labeled their footage in an organized fashion, they can now begin editing.

This process includes: dragging your mouse through the timeline (the window showing you the sequence of clips) to scrub through the sequence, making cuts to clips, adjusting the position/ rearranging of clips, adjusting speeds of clips , assessing footage, adding visual elements (text, effect elements, and other illustrations), placing and synchronizing music and sound effect files to the video, adjusting the overall sound of the video, frequently re-watching sections of edited sequences, and color correcting/color grading the sequence. This process can get very complex as editors work with more and more footage and elements. All these afore-mentioned steps are standard across all softwares and programs.

The editing process uses a heavy combination of the mouse and the keyboard. The mouse is used mainly to drag, navigate, scroll, and make adjustments. Technically speaking, although it would take more time, aside from naming clips the entirety of the editing process could be done with only a mouse. The biggest use of the keyboard is the use of shortcut commands for efficiency, and the input of numbers to attain exact values for certain effects.

Insight
[I have noticed that editors need to frequently move their hand from the keyboard to the mouse and back again. The combined time of this extremely frequent motion must significantly decreasing efficiency.]

Sources

Walbeck, P. (2020, April 28). 8 Steps to Edit a Video in Premiere Pro (Start to Finish). Retrieved 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQDGJn89uNk