You’ve got your music done, and you are ready to create the next big viral video for your soon-be-a-hit single. Who’s going to edit the video you shot? Are you hiring a professional to do this, or are you stuck with a limited budget and have to do this yourself? Well if you are going the DIY route, fear not! There are a multitude of free, and some not free, video editing apps out there. More that I can cover in this article, so for the moment let’s just focus on some of the highest rated software.
Avidemux – Mac/Windows/Linux – Free
Avidemux is an open-source video editor with quite a good selection of capabilities. It is available for Mac, Windows, and Linux though some Linux users will have to put in some extra work to install it. For most basic functions it shouldn’t take long for anyone to learn how to use it, and the interface is designed to be easy to use. However, Avidemux is more of a simple video editor and lacks some of the more advanced and crucial features necessary for more involved video editing work. One major drawback is the lack of editing for multiple video streams. You can cut, copy, slice, etc… for a single stream but don’t have the option of switching between or working within multiple streams. So if you intend to do more than just cutting and encoding, Avidemux will not be sufficient.
CineFX Jahshaka – Mac/Windows/Linux – Free
Jahshaka is another good free open-source cross-platform video editor. In contrast to Avidemux, Jahshaka offers more professional-level capabilities but is not the easiest to use software out there. You can use it to manipulate animations, add visual effects, edit video, etc…. The best professional editor it can be compared to is Adobe After Effects.
Kdenlive – Mac/Linux – Free
Kdenlive is an open-source video editor built around the KDE interface on Linux systems. For Linux users, it is a decent all-in-one option for video editing. Since it is built for Linux, Kdenlive is a bit less resource-intensive than a lot of the other editors, but still sports a lot of the same pro features and video format options. You get multitrack support, HD support, and more.
Lightworks – Windows – Free & Pro ($60/yr)
Lightworks is one of the best free Windows video editors in regards to capabilities. It has strong multicam support, a feature-filled timeline, realtime, effects, smart trimming tools, and more. So much that it has been used on a few top Hollywood movies like Mission Impossible. While there is the free version, you can also choose to upgrade to the pro version for a small yearly licensing cost. Also this software has a steep learning curve so it’s not a good choice for the beginner unless you have a lot of time to spend just learning to use it.
Apple iMovie – Mac – Free w/ new Mac (OS X) $14.99 on App Store
iMovie comes with any new Mac so you don’t have to pay any money for it unless you have an older Mac that doesn’t have it. Even then it is only $14.99 on the Mac App store. Overall, iMovie is a great video editor for the price but can be hard to get a handle on. iMovie is also a bit more limited in the video formats it can work with, but does a great job in making sure your videos work their best on Youtube or iOS devices. It also lacks some of the more “professional” level features some of the other apps offer.
Adobe Premiere Elements 11 – Mac/Windows – $72.99 (as of this writing)
Adobe Premiere Elements is the entry-level version of Adobe’s professional video editor. Premiere Elements offers many of the professional features that other software offers for free, but you also get features not found in the free apps. Premiere Elements has a very nicely designed interface and offers more video manipulations and effects than you’ll need. It also includes some audio editing tools, though beyond some basic editing I would say stick with a separate audio editor. You also have built-in sharing options for Facebook, Youtube, and Vimeo.
Conclusion
Once you move past the less expensive options like iMovie and Adobe Premiere Elements, you start getting into the truly “professional” level software that will cost a lot more. So unless you have plenty of money to toss around or are going to make some side income doing this work for others, I suggest sticking with the free or low cost options. Otherwise you could be shelling out $1000.00 or more for just the software. Add this to the cost of a good video camera or hiring someone with a good camera, and it becomes even more financially daunting for us independents.