A clever edit of your footage can really improve it's impact.

Get rid of the unnecessary bits and spend time thinking about what scenes you put next to each other.

Most schools have either MovieMaker or iMovie you can use.

Here are our five tips:

1. Choose your soundtrack: the music has a huge impact on the feel of a clip. Compare this film and this film which both use footage of Japan but create different moods.  Increase the effect by having the most dramatic sounds at the most dramatic moments and make sure the sound is quiet enough when people are speaking.*

3. Get the right pace: If you're cutting different scenes together, think about how long you want each one to be. A quick pace, with lots of short scenes together will build dramatic tension, but might be difficult to follow.

2. Add a voice-over: Does the speech that you filmed say everything you need it to say? Or would a voice-over be helpful to tell the story, or add more information? Think how much more interesting Big Brother is when it has the voice over.

4. Think about your cuts. You might like to put in a fade effect between two shots, to show a change of location. You could put in a fade to black between shots to show that time has passed.

5. Give yourself some credit: Do you want to add any on-screen text - like end credits? Or text to indicate who people are? Or highlight key messages? Or to act as subtitles or translations?

* Remember to be really careful about copyright! If your school is part of a Regional Broadband consortium you can find music you can use here. If you want to broadcast your clip on the internet (including our site) you have to use music that has no copyright issues - YouTube has some you can try here,  or even better - compose your own!