How to Create a Supercut Video

What's This?

By Sara Roncero-Menendez2013-09-30 10:07:04 UTC

The supercut is an art form which naturally evolved from YouTube, showcasing the creator's obsession with a particular show, film, game, or trope. Their allure is strange, but they provide endless entertainment and educations. (Bet you never realized just how many movie references were made in The Simpsons.)

Supercuts, a term coined by Andy Baio, are video montages where all the clips share a common thread. It can be the best or funniest clips of a particular actor, a cliché repeated in different media, or even how many times a word or joke is repeated. Supercuts can be of TV shows, movies, music, video games, commercials — just about any type of verbal or visual media.

See also: 20 Funniest YouTube Videos According to Reddit

Despite the amount of time that goes into making one, supercuts do not require much video expertise. If you're interested in making your own supercut, here's a quick how-to guide to get you started.

1. Pick Your Subject

Choosing what kind of supercut to make is the most important aspect of creating a good one. Supercuts only need to have one reoccurring theme that ties all the clips, so pick something simple and something you know well. If you're a huge Supernatural fan, make a supercut of all the times Castiel says "Dean." If Silent Hill is more your thing, make a supercut of the freakiest monsters in the franchise. As long as clips of it exist and there's something those clips have in common, you can make a supercut.

2. Find Your Inspiration

If you've never made a supercut before, the best idea might be to watch a few to get an idea of how you'll want yours to look and how to best put your cut together. Some great places to look are the YouTube channels Slackstory and Screen Junkies and the website Supercut.org. The latter organizes the videos by genre and in alphabetical order if you're looking for something specific.

3. Find and Download Clips

This is both the easiest and most challenging part of the supercut. Once you've settled on an idea, you must go out and find the necessary videos to put the supercut together. Sometimes the clips are readily available to be downloaded off of YouTube or other site. Some are not, and you might have to dig through many episodes or game footage to get exactly what you want.

A good strategy is to first decide which specific clips or scenes you want to include. Having an idea, or even a list, of the specific scenes is a great help, and you probably thought of a few when you first came up with the main idea for the video. You can also look for recommended episodes, or on the aforementioned TV Tropes. The quality of the clips will vary, ranging from crystal clear to grainy and with terrible audio. There are supercuts that have clips of varying quality, but if you want to make a supercut with a more polished quality, you might have to do some digging for better clips. No supercut is going to have all the clips of a particular franchise so if you realize that once you finish that one or two major ones are missing, don't stress about it.

4. Decide on its Length

Having amassed your clips (probably way more than you need) it's time to decide what's going into the video and how long you want it to be. There is no standard rule for how long a supercut should be. Some are under a minute, while others stretch to half an hour. It all depends on how many clips you have that are relevant. Just remember that the ultimate goal is to have people watch your video so try not to go overboard.

5. Put it All Together

Once you've decided how long it will be, it's time to assemble the video. Supercuts don't typically have transitions, so you can just arrange the clips one after the other. That being said, the genre of supercuts is fairly flexible, so feel free to experiment with effects to create something more distinct.

Most computers come with video-editing software already installed like Windows Movie Maker and iMovie. If you're looking for more advanced software, you can try Final Cut Pro or Avid. Any of these programs will allow you to place or drag-and-drop your clips together to form a video. Before finalizing your cut, be sure to watch it to make sure the clips flow well, there are no pauses and that the overall quality is to your liking.

6. Upload and Share

Image: Flickr, Austin Tuan

Now that you have your finished product, it's time to share it with the Internet. Upload it to YouTube, Vimeo or any other video-sharing site of your choosing. You can also submit it to Supercut.org, but the video has to be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo first. Once it's out there in the world, your work is done. Well, except make another one, of course.

Have more tips for those attempting to make their first supercut? Have a personal favorite you'd like to share? Let us know in the comments below.

Image: Flickr, reway2007

Topics: Apps and Software, How To, Social Media, supercuts, YouTube