Instagram Video Editor:
How to Edit Instagram Videos Effectively

• Start Movie Studio Platinum.

The startup screen will load after the program is launched.

• In the start dialog, open the drop-down menu "Movie settings" and select "Social media".
• In the menu that opens, pick a template (e.g. "Square (1080 x 1080) 1:1" or "Vertical (1080 x 1350) Instagram").
• Click "Create project".

This creates a new project with the settings you have chosen.

If you want to edit Facebook video or create a clip for another social media platform, you can create a project with more customized image dimensions.

• Activate the option "Open movie settings"in the start dialog.
• Click "Create project".

This will open the "Movie settings "dialog.

• In the dialog, enter the desired values for aspect ratio, i.e. the width and of the video, in pixels.

Note: The following steps apply to all social media videos. We'll demonstrate them here by showing you how to trim video for Instagram.

• Copy your videos from your smartphone or video camera memory card to your PC's hard drive.

You can work with video files in a huge range of formats including MTS, MPEG, MP4 and AVI.

• In the Media Pool above right, locate the video file and then drag and drop it into the first track in the project window.

A dialog should now appear where you have the option to adjust the film and video monitor settings to work with the video file dimensions.

• Respond to the dialog query with "Do not adjust".

Your footage will be loaded into the project and appear as a long video object on the top track.

• To play back the video, press the spacebar.
• To stop playback, press the spacebar again.
• To set the playback marker, click in the timeline. You can also jump to any position during playback.

On your preview monitor, a video usually appears small and contains the entire image, with black bars visible above and below. These bars occur when video footage filmed in horizontal or portrait mode is displayed in square or vertical format.

To achieve a better look, it's usually best to to remove black bars completely. To do this select a part of the picture that will work better with Instagram video format dimensions.

• Click the video object in the track to select it.
• Open the Effects tab in the Media Pool and select the effect Size/Position.

The preview monitor now shows a frame with a dashed line and several orange-colored handles.

• Place your mouse over one of the corner handles. The mouse pointer will turn into a double arrow.
• Click and drag out the picture.

Making the image bigger reduces the black bars above and below, and it also create sections to the left and right that can be cut to make the new photo fit Instagram dimensions. These sections can be identified from the dashed border in the preview monitor.

• To edit the visible part of the picture, position the mouse in the center of the image. The mouse pointer will turn into a move icon.
• Click and move the image section to another position.
• Use the corner handles to enlarge or reduce the size of the image section.

Using these methods, you can create a picture in which you have eliminated the black bars without losing any important features at the image borders.

In many cases, you need to trim the video for Instagram. Instagram Stories can't be more than 15 seconds in length, for instance.

To set the right length for your video, there are two options:

Option 1: Cut video: Place the playback marker at the position where you want the story to begin and press "T" on your keyboard to cut the video material. You can then delete the range to the left of the story from the project. The range to the right of the story can also be deleted if necessary. You can then trim the remaining video to work with Instagram dimensions by using the object handles below. To fade the video out at the end, use the object handle above to move the right object edge.

Option 2: Create range: You can also define the length of the video first and then decide which part of the original video to include. To do this, click in the marker bar above the first track to set a marker for the beginning of a range and right-click further right after the object to set a marker for the end of the range. Then click on either of the markers you have set and drag out the range to the length you want (e.g. 15 seconds for Instagram Stories). Holding down the Ctrl key, move this range over the passage of the video that you want to share on Instagram.

Before uploading the video, play it back and check it works with Instagram dimensions and aspect ratio. Maybe it could do with some optimization, or other effects?

• Play around with the video effects in the Media Pool, to adjust the video in terms of brightness, contrast, gamma or color. Many of the effect dialog boxes contain options for automatic 1-click optimization, which makes video editing even faster.
• Think about the audio track of your video too. Do you want to use the original recording? The Media pool also includes effects for customizing the audio track. For instance, you can remove noise, crackling or other interference, or improve the clarity of speech.
• If you require background music, go to the "Audio" tab to find a selection of royalty free music that you can use at no extra cost. You can use your own audio files too, of course. Drag the additional audio material onto a free track, e.g. Track 2. Since most Instagram videos are short, you will probably need to cut the length of the music track too. To do this, use the object handles below the track. The object handles above can be used to fade the audio in and out.
• To record a voice-over, or to dub the video, you need an audio recording function. Click on the red recording button underneath the preview monitor and select "Record audio...".
• Add a title to make your Instagram video stand out – see the Title Templates area in the Media Pool. To use a title template, drag it into the track and then add some title text.

Once you've played your Instagram video in Movie Studio and are happy with how everything looks, you can export a video file in MP4 format or upload it directly to your Instagram profile.

• Under "File" > "Export movie", you'll see the full list of formats for file export supported by Movie Studio. The option "Video as MPEG-4..." is the best choice for Instagram and for export in general.
• If you just want to export a single section of a video, make sure to activate the option "Only export selected range" in the export dialog.
• Select a location to export the file to, and start export. You can then upload the file to your Instagram profile.