Every trip ends the same way. Three hours of footage, a group chat asking for the video, and a camera roll you can’t face. The answer isn’t a longer evening in an editor. It’s a shorter video.
Decide the length first
Pick the length before you look at a single clip. Thirty seconds for the group chat, sixty for a reel, three minutes if it’s for your parents. A fixed length makes every other choice easier, because now each clip has to earn its place.
In Shots, say the length up front: “a 30-second edit of the Tasmania trip”. The first cut comes back at that length, and you trim from there.
Keep one moment per place
You don’t need the whole walk up the hill. You need the view at the top, or the moment someone slipped on the way. One moment per place, and the video starts to move.
Let the music set the pace
Choose the song before you cut. A slow track gives each clip three or four seconds; a fast one wants a cut every beat. Shots lines the cuts up to the beat for you, and you can nudge any of them on the timeline.
The best trip video is the one people watch to the end.
Then send it. A finished thirty seconds beats a perfect forty minutes that never leaves your phone.
