EditMentor: The Hands-On Way to Teach Video Editing
Have you ever looked around the room and thought, “Am I the worst part of my program?” Or have you ever realized that sometimes you are so locked in on a problem you throw the solution away? What about beating yourself up after your students don’t perform as well as you thought they would and you know that the reason is…. You? I do this often. I say it out loud sometimes. It freaks my students out when I admit that I messed up or failed to prepare them for what I expected them to do.
Recently, I had a group of students sit for the Adobe Certified Associate in Premiere Pro. One student passed the test. Some students were within a couple of questions, and several had a long way to go. I did not let the kids know, but I beat myself up about it. What had I missed in preparing them? What did I not teach them? Over the next couple of days, as we worked, they asked me questions that I know were a reflection of the things that confused them on the test.
My program has always been more news-focused. I like that the kids get a dopamine hit from completing a task as often as possible and I like to knock things out and move on. So once again, the worst part of my program is me. I have taught very little about film production. My students know nothing about a slate, a rolling edit...honestly anything about film production beyond a boom pole and off-camera audio capture.
I heard about EditMentor a couple of months ago as I was preparing for a professional development conference but honestly, I didn’t think any more about it. Then it hit me, I am teaching the "how" of editing but not the "why." I overlooked tools such as shot coverage, continuity, rolling trim, and all the other film-specific editing tools.
I threw out an S.O.S. and the folks at EditMentor jumped right in.
EditMentor is a web-based program that allows you to walk your students through the production process via an interface that is simple to use and editing software agnostic. Please notice that I didn’t say just the editing process. The "Basics of Storytelling" course covers everything to help your students better learn how to shoot and edit to tell a good story efficiently. As someone who teaches news production, I have no reason for my students to learn about proper slating techniques. With EditMentor.com, they can now get some information about how and why slating is done.
The best part of EditMentor.com is that it’s not just "sit and get." It’s not a YouTube video (or worse, me on camera stumbling my way through a lesson). The EditMentor.com lessons are interactive. The students don’t even think about the fact that they are learning. They think they are completing challenges. The lessons are the perfect length for high school classes. Most lessons run between 30 and 45 minutes. That’s plenty of time for those who have a shorter class period. This allows me to give the students the lessons and then reinforce that lesson with practical applications the next day. In my case, they completed a lesson and we reinforced the same day because I have 90 minute periods.
Getting started with EditMentor.com was a breeze. There is a .CSV file that you can download from the site, enter the student information, then upload it back to the site and all of the students will receive an email or link from you. It’s that simple - they create a password then they are good to go. EditMentor.com is also close to integrating with most learning management systems and single sign-on interfaces. This means you could assign a lesson in EditMentor.com to your students via Google Classroom or most other systems that you are already using.
When I used EditMentor.com the first time, the students got a little frustrated because they weren’t sure what to do but as soon as they figured out that it was more interactive than they are used to, they loved it! They asked to do more lessons and wanted to dig deeper. The most interesting thing about the students using EditMentor.com, and applying what they learned to their projects, is that the students are using tools I would have never taught. For example, the rolling trim tool, I would never teach that in a broadcast setting. There is no need but thanks to EditMentor.com several of my students used it in a non-broadcast project.
For me, EditMentor.com served two roles. The first was it gave the students experience in a world that I haven’t given them so far. It also took some pressure off me. I was able to build a lesson that wasn’t a part of EditMentor and assign it to my students for a day that I wasn’t going to be there. EditMentor.com gave me peace of mind in that I could give the students a real, relevant lesson while I was away and had a way to show that they understood the content and could hold them accountable.
As for the students who sat for the Adobe Premiere Pro certification, all of the scores went up after working with EditMentor.com. They were more familiar with an interactive interface to be scored against but also they got more experience with tools that I have no reason to teach.
No software will ever replace your experience and relationships with your students but EditMentor.com goes a long way to help you make the best opportunities for your students and allows you to teach very complex techniques and concepts in a way that isn’t cumbersome and is almost a game for the students. I highly recommend you adding EditMentor.com to your tool kit for teaching.
You can learn more about EditMentor and sign up here: https://editmentor.com/
Meet the Author, Tom White
Tom White is the digital media instructor at Morgan County High School in Madison, GA. Currently teaching TV production and animation pathways, Tom's programs have received state and national honors including the 2016 NFHS Network School Broadcast Program Of The Year. Prior to teaching, Tom was a marketing, promotions, and online content director for a major radio corporation in Atlanta. Tom studied exercise science at High Point University prior to his radio career. Despite his winding career path, his mother still thinks he is special.
