Video editing for idiots...that'll be me then.

Cool! Video editing is a lot of fun. After becoming familiar with whatever program you end up with, it doesn't take that long to bang out something that is fun to watch. For us, we use a program that is widely popular and has movie grade effects, sounds, titles and all sorts of cool things we rarely use like green screen and picture in picture.

The main thing about an editing program is #1, make sure your computer is compatible with it, there's system requirements usually printed on the box or in the specs somewhere.

Also, the exporting format sort of matters too, say for example you want to export at a minimum of 720p or 1080i HD, most programs will take whatever format your camera spits out and import & export those files seamlessly. Windows movie maker has trouble with many of the modern cameras so don't use that.

Todays cameras are capable of 4k resolution and I can't wait to upgrade to one of those. Our program will handle it, when we're ready. Mostly we use iphone footage, which is very good and a fairly cheap JVC handheld mini cam. Our GoPro was awesome for years, but it's the first version of it and is starting to record like junk.

We use Pinnacle Studio 20 Ultimate:
www.amazon.com/Pinnacle-Systems-PNST20ULEFAM-Studio-Ultimate/dp/B01HAP47PQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481714189&sr=8-1&keywords=pinnacle+studio+20+ultimate

It's fairly simple to use and has a ton of features. It's worth the money because it's better than my son and I are, leaving us room to learn and get better at using it.

Also, Final Cut pro, Sony Vegas and a few others will do the same things as Pinnacle studio ultimate but cost more money. For top level results with low cost, we've been using Avid/Pinnacle stuff for probably 5 years and it gives us what we want and more.

Have fun!

What type of phone, we'll find you an app

Have you tried windows movie maker? I'm no expert and it's probably curse word in the grand scheme of things but I have used it to make a few short clips without issue. You import your clips, split them into sections, delete what you don't want etc.

Thanks, I'll check it out.


Basic is good.

I looked at some a while ago but as you say, they all seem to take a bit (lot) of understanding and for some reason, my mind just won't work the right way.

I'll see what WMM does for me.

Thanks again.

Hi George, I'm a bit late joining the party here..
Movie maker is a good one to get started with, I did use it for quite a while along with a video camera that had a small magnetic tape thingy rather than today's memory cards! Those were the days, having to "play" everything I had recorded that day into Movie maker before I could do any editing

These days I use Sony Vegas Pro 13 for most of my basic editing.. If you can get your head around Movie Maker then Vegas is only a small stretch more..

For more er.. complicated stuff I use HitFilm Pro 3 which I'm still getting my head around but is a fantastic bit of software, almost the only limit is your imagination
Be warned though, HitFilm Pro is a very steep learning curve (the sheer amount of settings you can change in the particle simulator for example is mind blowing), also the Pro version does require quite a high spec pc for it to run smoothly.

I don't know if Hitfilm Express 4 is as resource hungry as the Pro version, (maybe Colonelk can comment on this) but it's free, so you might as well give it a whirl

Nice first edited video by the way