Make a first cut from drone footage
Turn a folder of drone footage into a first cut. Find clean movement, remove setup sections, choose varied shots and give the film a clear ending.
Read the guideDrone video editing
Drone editing notes
Work from the flight you actually captured: long passes, repeated angles, setup movement and a few moments worth keeping.
What these guides help you decide
Drone editing usually begins before transitions or colour work. First remove take-off, landing, abrupt yaw corrections and repeated views that do not add new information. Then decide whether the sequence is about a place, a movement or one reveal.
The guides in this section focus on shot choice, motion continuity, crop safety and practical capture planning. They do not promise that a setting or template will make every flight cinematic. Use the examples as a review method, then judge the result against your own footage.
Before opening the editor
- Play the source clip through once and mark the clean movement before polishing colour or transitions.
- Compare repeated aerial views by what new information they add, not only by technical sharpness.
- Keep the original recording available when testing a crop, trim or replacement in the draft.
Plan a timelapse that fits your edit
Plan a timelapse from the length you want to show. Work out the frame count and interval, then check power, storage and exposure before the shoot.
Read the guideShutter speed and motion blur: a starting point
Choose a shutter speed from your frame rate. Work through an ND filter example and learn which capture choices an edit cannot fix later.
Read the guideContinue with the footage, not a generic preset
Open one guide that matches the decision in front of you. When a calculation can reduce guesswork, use a related free planning tool. When you are ready to move from planning to an edit, review how Stitch works and the limits of the current release.