If you’ve been working as a professional videographer for a while, you are probably familiar with the importance of the post-production process. Post-production is where the entire video comes together and where the story behind the video really shines through.

However, if you’ve done post-production for a while, you might be familiar with how difficult the process can be. Sure, there are times when editing is an absolute breeze and it almost feels like the video is practically editing itself.

But unfortunately, there are also times when trying to get past editing a specific clip feels like pushing a boulder up a very steep hill. When that happens, it might be frustrating and you may feel like giving up, but there are ways to get past this editing slump.

The important thing to remember is that you shouldn’t give up on your edit right then and there, as frustrating as it can be, it is your job as a videographer to soldier on. Here are some ways to get over an editing slump during a post-production slump.

Take a break

Sometimes an editing slump happens when you’ve been working at the editing table for too long, and your brain is a bit drained from the amount of work that you’ve been doing. If you’ve been working at one edit for far too long, it might be a good idea to take yourself away from the work for a little bit.

Take a break, take a walk, eat something. Even taking a few minutes to refresh your mind can really give you a new perspective on something that seemed impossible to tackle just a few minutes prior.

Work backward

If you’re not sure about how to edit a particular scene or clip, it might help to start at the ending of your video and work backward from there.

Doing so can help you figure out exactly how that particular clip that you were stuck on fits into the whole picture. This can also help you see the whole picture and can help you understand how editing that particular clip can tell the video’s story.

Go through your files again

When you’re working on your post-production edits, you might not realize that the reason why the edit doesn’t work as well as you hoped is that it might be the wrong clip for that particular video edit or video section. If you’re stuck on an edit, one thing that can help is going through your clips and seeing if there’s another clip that can work better for the edit that you had in mind.