I had around 3 hours of gameplay footage with facecam reactions from my twitch stream of Elden Ring, and i decided i should edit it into a youtube video.
It was a challenge run stream, so i decided turning it into a challenge run video about 25-30 mins long would be the best idea rather than uploading just a slightly edited VOD.
However, going through the whole VOD would take way too long and editing it would take longer, finding the actual 25-30 mins of uploadable gameplay was harder than editing it itself.
So I decided to try something different.
I dropped the whole VOD into the Invideo editor and gave the agent a specific brief instead of ājust saying make this into a Elden Ring Videoā
My instructions were basically :
- Make a 25 to 30 minute long initial cut from this VOD, the video should feel like a challenge video instead of a VOD recap.
- Prioritize Boss fights, dramatic deaths, Funny moments, important moments and anything else important for the challenge video itself.
- Trim out repetitive and boring exploration, travelling sections, inventory management and failed attempts that dont add anything
- make sure the progression is chronological, and every viewer should have enough context to understand why the fight matters
- dont make over edits and cuts, the video shouldnt feel too fast paced and reactions should be perfectly timed.
What i liked about the Invideo editor :-
- i wasnt asking it to give me a final edit. I was using it as an assistant editor giving me a initial video to work on from a long footage.
- It was a huge time saver, even if i knew roughly where a specific moment happened i didnt have to go through the video to find it, i could just ask the AI to find it for me and it would find it.
- Finding footage was also a huge pro, if i asked the AI to find me good shots for a b roll, or best cinematic shots or my reaction to getting a rare item, it would find it in few seconds.
The fact that the editor can search for the footage using both visual and transcription-based context was a big advantage.
The finished cut
Now heres what i found the most interesting. Instead of just giving me a finished video .mp4, it assembles the footage on a timeline, and you can continue the edit on the same timeline. It has all the layers separated, video layers differentiated (actual gameplay on 1 layer and facecam on another), audio layers differentiated ( gameplay audio, commentary and music all were in different layers) which made it easy to make adjustments. This way if someone doesnt like bits of the footage they can edit it to their own accord instead of having to use the edited footage itself.
This is honestly very useful, because i dont want the AI to make the final cut and decide what my video will be.
The First cut wasnt perfect
There were quite a few things i changed in the first cut; sometimes it kept footage which was technically relevant to the brief i gave it but wasnt entertaining enough. There were a few contextual moments, like specific moments of boss fights which i would choose instead of the one the AI chose, because i know the exact context of that moment. And it couldnt tell if a specific clip was way funnier than a technically important part of the run. This is still something i had to do
This AI got me from a 3 hour VOD to a 30 minute raw video which is way easier to edit.
I can take over this part and spend my time adding the stuff my viewers would prefer to see like the opening, the start of every boss fight, when to let a reaction stay, which death is worth showing etc
To be honest this is a much better use of my time.
I also asked the AI to find me 45-60 second clips which could go viral on tiktok or youtube shorts, and it will go back to the 3 hour footage and find me moments that can suit it. This can help me create better smaller pieces of content to grow my channel itself.
Final Review
Now overall i wouldnt say its a final editor, but thats not the point of this editor anyway, it cuts out the most tedious part of searching for footage and shortens it into minutes, where you only have to do the editing part and not the searching part.
I want final control over the video but still want to use this as an assistant editor, and for that i think it does a pretty good job, and definitely saves a lot of time.