My passion for video editing originated from watching YouTube videos in high school. I was amazed by the variety of videos and how creative they were. vlogs were my favourite as they not only gave me a glimpse into others’ daily life but also experienced the charm of video editing. 

Personally, Casey Neistat was my inspiration for learning video editing. Casey’s unique video editing style is manifested in all aspects of his videos, the use of jump cuts enhances the fast-pacing movement which keeps viewers engaged with the video. However, the use of jump cuts is not what I admire most about Casey, but rather his ability to shoot his footage and manage them in post-production as this kind of fast cutting requires a decent amount of footage. In order to get enough footage for post-production, most content creators make shot lists prior to shooting. Casey’s footage looks pretty random, but he uses the tripod for most of his static shots which are all well thought out and planned in advance. To be honest, I have not gotten used to using shot lists in my previous video productions, especially for projects that required less footage. However, sometimes I encountered a  shortage of footage in post-production, and the situation might be even worse when it comes to projects with actors or interviews based on the fact that it is difficult to do a second take, so a comprehensive shot list is essential for the smooth running of the project. 

In addition, Casey’s videos are content-driven rather than focusing on shooting techniques only, so he usually mixes footage taken by different cameras which visually creates a dynamic look. I like how Casey gets various shots based on different scenes, and those shots play their roles in the video. For example, in the embedded video, Casey used the drone to capture establishing shots of the cityscape of New York, which served as a great segue to his A rolls through the streets of New York in the video, whereas his shots of himself vacuuming the studio involved a series of POV footage as well as static side shots, the use of jump cuts also made the entire action smooth and consistent. Personally, I think “The Power of the Cut” can be illustrated by this diverse mix of shots. However,  when I try to mix different shots in post-production, I always put too much emphasis on the correlation between footage and neglect the importance of the pace. I always feel like the pace can be manipulated, but sometimes it is just a bit difficult for me to find the sweet spot between footage and pace. That is why I am so obsessed with Casey’s videos because he not only has really good taste in music but also cleverly utilises music to integrate the pace into the footage, which elevates the viewers’ engagement in terms of highlighting the emotional impact.