The Camp Video Journalism workshops I produce for Visual Editors will be serving a new class at the end of September at the Chicago Sun-Times and one of the questions that always comes up is “what software should I edit with?”
A lot of video journalists I know like Avid, Adobe Premiere, and Final Cut Studio, but those are complicated and expensive programs. Nice, but often too complex for people who are first and foremost trying to learn the techniques of video storytelling.
I always encourage people to bring whatever gear they are comfortable with. On the Mac - iMovie wins hands down. It is dead simple to use and is a video instructor’s best classroom friend.
On the PC side, you can certainly use Windows Media maker but here are some other free video editing tools to try out.
- Sony Vegas Movie Studio
– http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudio
This is a free trial version of their $54.95 video editing application. - Videospin by Pinnacle
– http://www.videospin.com/
This is a free program and is more limited in terms of editing.
If you have time to experiment (always a good idea!) I would suggest that you start with Video Spin and then graduate to Sony’s Movie Studio. Having software that supports multiple video timelines really simplifies editing sequences. (In the picture at the top you see my video editor (Final Cut) with multiple video timelines - it is a very handy editing feature! )
If you are on the Mac and ready to graduate from iMovie - first try Final Cut Express - the $199 version of Final Cut Studio. It is a huge upgrade in terms of editing flexibility and the projects you create in Express will prepare you for almost any pro editing app.
After you download these free versions, test them with footage from your camera. Make sure it works with your gear. If it does, I hope to see you at Camp VJ Chicago, or, perhaps, at Camp VJ San Francisco or CampVJ Orlando in the future.
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