Shadowing Practice: how to edit vlogs - Learn English Speaking with Video

I'm just gonna say it, editing vlogs can be quite overwhelming.

When you've shot so many things and you're trying to figure out what can the storyline be and maybe, you know what, I'm just gonna trash it.

No, you're not gonna trash it.

You're going to watch this video because after this video, you will know how to edit not just a good vlog, but a great vlog.

First things first, yes, we will have to go through the footage to get an idea of what we shot

and what the storyline could potentially be.

The storyline could honestly be as simple as a day in your life.

But even with those kind of videos, there are still a lot of creative decisions that need to be made regarding what goes in the video and what doesn't.

Now if we take a look at my LA vlog, the overall story is me exploring LA for the first time with my friend Sam.

We did a lot of things that day, but only these sections made sense for the story that I'm trying to tell in this vlog.

As you can see, there are a lot of shots that didn't even make it into the video.

My advice is to just throw it onto a timeline, just skip through it, and start cutting all of the clips that don't make sense, that don't add to the story, until it all starts to make sense.

And this actually brings me to one principle that every vlogger should live by, and that is show, don't tell.

We all make the mistake where we talk way too much to the camera and we over-explain everything.

We're talking about what we're doing and where we're at.

If you did this, it's not the end of the world because we're currently editing and we can cut it out.

And that's the first thing that I need you to do here.

Go through all of your footage

and cut out all of the clips where you're talking about where you're at

and what you're doing and replace it with one clip or multiple clips showing the thing that you're doing.

For example, if we take a look at my vlog, in this part of the vlog we were going to pick up my iPhone that I had lost in an Uber.

So in the car what I did is I recorded this clip.

I'm currently in the car.

Sam is gonna get the phone.

Instead what I did is I left that clip out and I just showed that Sam was getting my iPhone.

If you watch the vlog you will understand what is happening without all of this extra information of me explaining

that Sam is now getting my iPhone because of everything that has happened before in this vlog.

The storyline was already set up.

As you're piecing together your story, if we're gonna talk about editing techniques really quickly, one of the best pieces of advice that I could give you is to use J and L cuts.

These cuts will make your edit flow a lot better

and this way you'll get rid of a lot of hard audio cuts and just a lot of hard cuts in general.

Basically what this means is you're overlapping two layers of audio and essentially making them fade in and fade out.

If we take a look at my timeline, you can see that this is something that I do a lot because it makes the edit flow better.

Like I said before, it just sounds better, it feels better, it looks better.

I highly recommend it.

In most vlogs, we're moving from one location to the other location, or maybe we're filming during the day, but we're also filming at night.

And this is where transitions come in.

This doesn't exactly mean the transitions between individual clips, like adding crazy zooms or dips to white.

I mean transitions more in the sense of story.

So how are you going to get from one place to another

and it's a ghost it's how you get from one place to another

and keep it interesting there are a few different ways you

can do this one way is through a montage of clips

you can use some really nice smooth 120 frames per second

b-roll with some cool music something really like cinematic you could use some jump cuts really quickly just like two

or three different clips to go from one place to the next.

Just some way that you can signify like a change of time.

So a great way to do this is through time lapses.

So whether it's up like a sun rising, a sun setting, or just traffic going by, your viewer will get the sense that time is passing and we've moved forward.

The best part is that you don't actually have to film these transitions

because there are so much high quality footage out there in the online world

that you can just use for your own videos.

Artless Max, for example, is a really great resource

when it comes to this kind of stuff because they offer a big catalog of high quality cinematic looking footage.

So instead of having to fly back to New York or waking up really early in the morning, which, you know, we don't want to do, we can just grab really high quality footage from Artlist.io.

Two more ways that you can also incorporate these transitions are with titles

and that's kind of if you don't have any footage

and you're backed into a corner titles are a great way to do this

or music obviously you're going to need some great music

that supports the story of your video

but you can use music in really creative ways not just

to kind of enhance these jump cuts like they do like in seinfeld

or in this clip right here

or you can also use it to to support the tone of the scene that's happening

and move you into the next section of a video as well depending on the arc of

that music track when there's you know a bit of a climax

and then a bit of a resolution you could be moving into a different area there.

Music is not just great for transitions but it also really helps set the mood in the video and to convey emotion.

Now what I always do is I filter the music by mood and sometimes even by video theme and genre.

Now it is even easier to find the right music on Artlist because they have a similar songs feature.

What makes Artlist different is that they're offering a complete online creative toolkit all in one place.

They offer hundreds of thousands of songs, sound effects, footage, templates, plugins, and even an editing software that you can use for your own stuff,

but also for client work and all in one subscription.

They actually offer different monthly subscriptions that you can pick

and choose from depending on your creative needs and what your budget is.

So if you want to check it out, there will be a link in the description.

You can actually try it out for free, so I really recommend to just go click on that link.

And thank you Artlist for sponsoring this part of the video.

Before we get to the arguably most important part of editing a vlog or a video in general, let's first talk about time management.

If you want to save some time editing vlogs, what I would really recommend you to do is to not go over and over and over and over your edit.

Instead, edit one section, be done with edit the next one, be done with that.

Don't go back and rewatch the entire thing.

Just focus on specific sections.

And then later, of course, you can rewatch the whole thing and see if it all makes sense.

And that brings me to what might as well be the most important part of editing, pacing.

Pacing is something that a lot of people seem to struggle with when it comes to editing vlogs or editing in general.

And I'm just going to say it, especially in this Mr. Beast era, everything needs to be high paced, fast cut.

No, because it's about story.

It's about conveying emotion.

And in this case, what we want to do when it comes to editing is kind of dance with our viewer.

You want to keep the viewer's attention, but you don't want to put their mind in overdrive.

So you want to give them moments to breathe and then recapture their attention.

I'm going to say something that you're not going to like, but I need you to stick with me, okay?

Because there's still a few nuggets of gold in here for you.

When it comes to editing in general and pacing, it comes down to your gut.

When it comes to editing, intuition and just feeling is so important because editing is also just a feeling.

You can know all of the film theory, you can know all of the editing techniques, but what makes a great edit and a great editor, it's that gut.

Now what the heck are you going to do with that information?

I really want to recommend you three things before we leave this video.

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One, go check out my friend Hayden Hillier-Smith.

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On his channel he talks about the why of editing, which is really important to understand.

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Then two, something that you could do right now, no matter where you are in your editing journey, something you can do right now is when you finish your vlog,

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go watch it and see where you get distracted.

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If you get distracted, ask yourself why.

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Even better, get an outsider, someone who isn't emotionally invested in your vlog and your story, go get them to watch the video and where they get distracted,

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ask why and then fix it.

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And then number three, when it comes to pacing, again music can really really help you with this.

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So make sure that you check out Artlist Max's link in the description

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and then also watch this video where I go into depth about views of music

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and videos and sound design in general and don't forget to subscribe ah there we go it's just like a little

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “how to edit vlogs”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: editing, vlog, clip, cut, edit. This video has 111 sentences and 1757 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:01. The speaker talks fast, about 219 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
vlog noun	/ˈvlɑɡ/	A weblog using video as its primary presentation format.
storyline noun		The plot of a story; one of several within a story, usually interwoven.
distract verb	/dɪˈstɹækt/	To divert the attention of.
kinematic adjective	/kɪn.əˈmæt.ɪk/	Of or relating to motion or to kinematics.
rewatch verb	/ɹiːˈwɒtʃ/	To watch again.
viewer noun	/ˈvju.ɚ/	Someone who views a spectacle; an onlooker or spectator.
convey verb	/kənˈveɪ/	To move (something) from one place to another.
fade verb	/feɪd/	To hit the ball with the shot called a fade.
subscription noun	/səbˈskɹɪpʃən/	Access to a resource for a period of time, generally for payment.
timeline noun	/ˈtaɪmˌlaɪn/	A graphical representation of a chronological sequence of events (past or future).
emotion noun	/ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/	A person's internal state of being and involuntary physiological response to an object or a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data.
depend verb	/dɪˈpɛnd/	To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition
artless adjective	/ˈɑɹt.lɪs/	Having or displaying no guile, cunning, or deceit.
montage noun	/mɑnˈtɑʒ/	A composite work, particularly an artwork, created by assembling or putting together other elements such as pieces of music, pictures, texts, videos, etc.
nuggets		Synonym of rats (“expressing annoyance”).

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
check out verb	To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
come down to verb	To reach by moving down or reducing.
cut out verb	To refrain from (doing something, using something etc.), to stop or cease (doing something).
figure out verb	To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
go back verb	To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go over verb	To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze.
move forward verb	To cause to make progress.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	If you watch the vlog you will understand
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've shot · has happened · we've moved
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	be made · was already set · be done
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	editing, which is · someone who isn

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 48 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: subscription /səbˈskɹɪpʃən/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, montage /mɑnˈtɑʒ/, intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/
Long words — get the stress right: kinematic /kɪn.əˈmæt.ɪk/, intuition /ˌɪn.tjuːˈɪʃ.ən/, incorporate /ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/, emotionally /ɪˈməʊʃənəli/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like vlog, storyline, distract.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?