The closest video editing class is not always the right one. Before you pay any class near you in Kathmandu, ask to see the week-by-week syllabus, which app you will learn, and who will check your edits. A good class answers all three in writing, before you pay.

Here are seven questions that work for any class, and what a good answer sounds like. We answer each one for our own course too, so you can compare.

Can I see the full syllabus, week by week?

Ask for it before you pay, not after the first class. A one-page list of software names tells you very little. You want to see what happens in each week.

Then look for the two things beginners skip: colour and sound. It is easy to spend a whole course on cuts, transitions and effects. But a client notices a weak voice or a blue face long before a fancy transition. Junior editor posts from Kathmandu firms ask for a strong understanding of storytelling, not a list of effects.

At Saarathi Academy in Old Baneshwor, Kathmandu, the video editing syllabus is public. Week 3 is colour correction and grading. Week 4 is sound on Resolve's Fairlight page, with dialogue repair, noise reduction and mixing to a loudness target of -14 LUFS.

Which app will I learn, and do I have to pay for it?

This question decides whether you can practise at home. Adobe sells Premiere Pro only as a membership, with a monthly or yearly plan. Its free trial lasts seven days, and a five-week course lasts much longer than that. A class built only on Premiere can leave you with a monthly bill, or with nothing to practise on at home.

DaVinci Resolve has a free version. Blackmagic Design, the company that makes it, says the free version works with almost all 8-bit video formats up to Ultra HD at 60 frames per second. In our view, that covers phone footage and most beginner client work.

Most Kathmandu job posts still name Premiere Pro and After Effects, and that is a fair worry. But read them closely. Two junior editor posts this year from Kathmandu firms list Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, After Effects and DaVinci Resolve side by side. They want someone who can edit. The app is the smaller part.

We take a side: learn on free Resolve first. Our course teaches free DaVinci Resolve 21 and the free plan of CapCut. We do not teach Premiere Pro or After Effects, because they need a paid plan and a stronger laptop. We cover them at awareness level, so you know what each is for and can learn their buttons later.

Will my laptop run it, and will you show me how?

Ask this with your own laptop in your bag. A good class tells you the RAM and free disk space you need before you pay. It also teaches proxies in the first week. A proxy is a lighter copy of a heavy video file. You edit the light copy, so phone and 4K clips play smoothly on a modest laptop.

Our course needs your own laptop. Free Resolve runs on 8GB of RAM if you edit with proxies. Blackmagic recommends 16GB, and 32GB for 4K and Fusion work. You also need about 100GB of free space, ideally on an SSD or an external SSD. Proxies are taught in Week 1.

Will I edit messy footage, and who checks my cuts?

Clean sample clips teach you buttons. Real work comes with wind noise, mixed light and a client who wants it tomorrow. Ask whether you practise on footage with real problems. Then ask who reviews your edits, and how many people sit in the room. One mentor cannot review every timeline in a crowded class.

In our course, the project footage has real problems in it, like bad audio and mixed light. You may bring a real client's footage instead. Up to 10 students sit in the classroom per batch, plus a few online, and mentors still do the job they teach. AI tools are allowed, but you explain your own cuts to your mentor live. At the end, your mentor reviews your demo reel one to one against a written marking guide.

Will I leave with a demo reel I can send?

In our view, a short reel of your best edits matters more than a certificate. An employer can judge your cutting from it in under a minute. Ask what you will have at the end of the class, and how long it runs.

Our course builds a 30 to 60 second demo reel by Week 5, from your project and your weekly edits. One reel is a strong start, not years of experience. We do not promise a job or a salary.

Where will I get music that does not get my video blocked?

This sounds like a small question. It is not. If the answer is "any no-copyright playlist", be careful.

YouTube says only music and sound effects from its own Audio Library are known to it as copyright-safe. Those tracks will not be claimed through Content ID, the system YouTube uses to match uploads against copyrighted work. Some tracks use a Creative Commons licence, and then you must credit the artist in your video description.

We teach music licensing in Week 4, with the YouTube Audio Library as the free place to start.

How much does "near me" really matter?

Distance matters less than whether you can attend every class. Ours runs Monday to Friday, two hours a day, for five weeks. A class you cannot reach five days a week is no use, however good it is. Ask whether there is an online option, and whether recordings exist for the days you miss.

Our classes run in person in Old Baneshwor and online. Recordings and extra help hours are online too.

What to try tonight

Download free DaVinci Resolve. Then open Blackmagic's training page and download The Beginner's Guide to DaVinci Resolve 20 as a PDF, with its lesson files. Work through the first lesson tonight. The guide is written for version 20, one behind Resolve 21, which is fine for a start.

Then take these seven questions to every class you visit, ours included. Our answers are on the video editing course page and in the week-by-week syllabus.