Make a video essay

A narrated essay in seven steps: voice-over, B-roll, captions, a title, music under the voice, loudness and export.

1. Record the voice-over#

1. Choose your microphone in Settings > "Audio": "Microphone", "Test input", "Count-in", "Pre-roll", "Post-roll" and "Monitor input".
2. Arm a track with the microphone button in its track header (or R in the "Audio Track Mixer").
3. Put the playhead where the narration starts and click the Program Monitor's microphone button ("Record Voice-over").
4. Space stops; Esc cancels.

Recording again over the same place makes a new take; pick one in the "Takes" panel. See Record voice-over and mix music.

2. Transcribe and edit by text#

1. Open the "Transcript" panel. In "Transcribe with", choose "On this computer" or a cloud provider you added, then choose "Transcribe sequence" (or "Selected clips").
2. Select words, then "Delete" or "Keep only". The timeline is cut to match, in one undo step.
3. "Clean up" finds fillers (um, uh; Thai อืม, เอ่อ…) and long silences. Review, then "Remove".

See Edit by text.

3. Find B-roll#

In the "Library", turn on "Smart" next to "Search clips" and describe the shot you need. Smart search looks through your footage by what is in the picture and what is said, on your own computer, so you can find B-roll without logging it first.

4. Add captions#

In the "Captions" workspace, choose "Generate captions" (later, "Update from transcript"). Pick a "Caption Style" preset ("Clean", "Bold Box", "Podcast", "Shorts", "Thai-friendly"), and use "Translate…" or "SRT" / "VTT" files if you need them. See Make captions.

5. Add a title and a lower third#

• The Library's "Text" tab has "New Title".
• For an animated lower third, open "Callouts" and add "Lower third": a name and a handle, in a box that grows with the name. Change the text in the "Edit" tab. "Intro" makes an opening title.

See Titles, callouts and motion graphics.

6. Put the music under the voice and set loudness#

1. Put the music on its own track.
2. In "Audio Tools", use "Auto-duck music under dialogue". "Preview ducking" shows the keyframes first.
3. Still in "Audio Tools", choose "Analyze loudness", then "Normalize to target": "YouTube" (-14 LUFS), "Podcast" (-16), "Broadcast (EBU R128)" (-23) or "Custom".

See Record voice-over and mix music.

7. Export#

In the "Export" tab, choose "YouTube 1080p", or "ProRes 422 HQ" for a master. Both are under "General". See Export a video.