Jump Cut Editing

So what is it that makes videos fun to watch? What’s the secret trick? They’re SNAPPY!. What I’m talking about here are jump cuts and jump cut editing. Fun to watch videos move quickly. They keep your attention because your brain doesn’t want to miss something. Let’s take a look!

Today’s video tutorial is all about jump cut editing. This is video #2 of my Kick-Ass Edits Tutorial Series, where we’re breaking down some of the editing styles and tricks of some popular YouTubers so we can achieve similar results with our own footage. The goal here is to create really fun to watch videos… I mean… you put all the work into capturing your footage and editing it so you can share it, now you want people to actually enjoy watching your videos, right?!

Jump Cut Examples

Here are a couple of great jump cut editing examples used by some popular YouTubers

Sara Dietchy: https://youtu.be/w-fVo5Izurk?t=1m9s
Jon Olsson: https://youtu.be/5ejkpGT71MI
Jon Olsson again: https://youtu.be/CUbF9AkL5hI?t=1m6s
and again, Jon Olsson… https://youtu.be/U2w5s9LPth4?t=35s

Sara Dietchy’s channel: http://youtube.com/saradietschy
Jon Olsson’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/JonOlssonVideoBlog

Jump Cut Tutorial

It’s best if you watch my tutorial on jump cuts, but the basic jump cut editing trick is this:

Instead of having long shots in your video, break that footage up so you’re only showing the really interesting/fun parts. It’s more than just editing out the “bad” or boring parts of your video. It’s simply condensing your awesome footage into bit-sized clips that tell (or re-tell) the story that you are creating with your video.

Here’s an example. When you go on vacation, and you’re having a blast, you might send a postcard home to a friend or family member. You wouldn’t write them a long letter telling every single experience, would you? You want to edit your video like a postcard, not a long letter. It’s more fun to watch that way, and you want people to enjoy watching your videos (remember?!).

Now you know how to jump cut the heck out of your already-amazing footage, but I have one more editing tip for you: one thing to keep in mind while you’re editing, is to make sure your video is telling some kind of story – it doesn’t have to be oscar-worthy. Here’s how I like to think about it: you went somewhere, you did something, it was awesome, the end.