Video Editing - It's not really that easy

 I was editing one of my videos--which usually aren't part of a let's play series--and I got a bit tired of it, so I decided to come here for my break. 

If you're here, then you probably watch a good amount of YouTube. Each one of those high quality videos you watch (which is the majority of what most watch) takes a good amount of time and effort to edit. Unless you make videos yourself, you probably don't think about how annoying it is to edit the video for optimal viewer pleasure. Every aspect of the video must be considered, so it gets extremely technical to ensure the most frictionless experience to your viewers. Good quality audio, engaging video footage, minimal eye movement, silences, sound effects, and interesting content are all things that you have to think about when making and editing the video.

It's honestly annoying whenever I record a long video. I have a good time during the recording process, then realize I have to edit the shit out of it to make it somewhat interesting. I suck at editing and have nowhere near the amount of experience as professional YouTubers, but even my edited videos take a long time. I try to cut out every silence or breath, since it's not really necessary for the video and is boring to listen to after a while. We like constant stimulation, so any amount of silence or lack of that makes us instantly bored (trust me, even I'm guilty). I also try to add some effects here and there to add some humor, and maybe even some visual effects to spice up the screen recording. Just that alone, minus all the extra technical stuff that makes videos really shine, takes forever to edit. It takes like 10 minutes to get through only a minute and a half of the video.

Once you get more comfortable with it, it goes a bit faster, but it's still not a quick process after recording. If you're wondering why I never edit my Yoshi's Island or Oracle videos, it's because those are old games. It would sorta take away from the game if I were to hyper-edit it and use too many jump cuts (Yes, even over-editing videos is bad. Nobody wants 4000 obnoxious sound effects in their video). Most YouTubers who play retro games don't edit the video a ton, and it makes perfect sense. 

I haven't quite learned the full repertoire of techniques to really captivate an audience to gain a large viewership, but at least I'm making some cool videos for the small number of people who do watch.