We’ve chosen our camera, weighed up the differences between GoPros and DSLRs, noted down common cock-ups made by filmers, and captured some cracking shots. Now in Part Four of our ‘Improve Your Edits’ series, Sam McMahon, a Morzine-based filmer, takes us through the process of stringing everything together in the editing suite. 

You’ve mastered your equipment and have a season’s worth of banger shots stored on your hard drive, but all that amounts to nothing if you don’t know what to do with it next. Welcome to the world of video editing! It’s laborious and time consuming, often enragingly frustrating but equally addictive once you get going – the devil is in the details. Knowing what you’re doing in the editing stage is just as important as being handy with a camera – probably more so as a good editor can even rescue the odd bit of footage from your buddy’s shoddy GoPro skills. Some of the skills you’ll learn in the next few digital pages will show you that you really can polish a turd.