Free and good video editor I can download using my laptop and use

IdleRich

IdleRich
Does anyone know a good one I can get? I used one years ago that was clunky but pretty good so I'm sure there are plenty available now but has anyone got a recommendation? Just something to mess around with really (cut bits out of videos, loop em, run them backwards, join them together with other clips, change the speed, that's about it)... easy to get hold of and figure out would be preferable to something more complex with loads of amazing functions that I will never use.
 

Woebot

Well-known member
lightworks is supposed to be good - but also fiddly
hitfilm express simpler

both free (via here https://www.techradar.com/uk/best/free-video-editing-software)

BUT

my suggestion would be to try and learn premiere pro. adobe does education packages etc. and some deals here:
https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/s...cid=AL!3085!3!385303406129!e!!g!!premiere pro

the thing is if you've got the drive/impetus to get into this then don't waste time learning something which is niche - once you've got a skill like premiere it's very bankable

my 5cents
 

catalog

Well-known member
are you on PC or Mac laptop rich? Cos if mac, you might wana go final cut pro. but like matthew has said, you'll have to buy it or run a bent version, which throws up issues (you'll need to make sure you never accept updates related to it). I use a really old version of final cut pro, cos i know how to work it and didn'tlike the newest version, X. But a mate who i asked did suggest Premiere Pro. I get it free via work but have never used it, don't do a lot of editing these days. I've not been able to find anything decent that's free - i've used imovie occasionally, which comes free as standard on most new macs, but it's kinda clunky.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Thanks chaps, I'm on a PC... I really don't want anything complicated at all. I just want to download something and be messing around in half an hour's time. Just to kill time during lockdown, it's very much not to gain any kind of bankable skill. The MOST I'll use it for is background for a mix or in a club perhaps.
So, given that, what do you think is best?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
In fact there is a video editor on Windows which I somehow didn't know... it seems with that I can import downloaded videos, cut them as long as I want them to be and then put them together as required. At the moment I'm not sure what else I need... and it certainly seems more intuitive than the ones I looked at following the above links.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
So it looks like on there you can take clips, cut them how you want, change their speed and place them on to a story board as you like. There is also a crude zoom and pan and some filters and stuff you can add. Seems to be no way to run a clip backwards though which seems like an obvious thing. Also, unless I'm doing it wrong, the zoom seems to be very crude. Plus it would be nice if you could crop the files you were editing to cut out bits of the background etc unless I'm being stupid you can't do that.
 

catalog

Well-known member
Cropping is usually available, but all the free ones tend to have limits. There's also this programme... https://shotcut.org/
To run things backwards, you might need to do something with frame speed, look for clock option .assume you've already googled?
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
It (google) is suggesting that with Windows Movie Maker (which I think is probably a slightly better thing that they removed and replaced with Video Editor - that's why I didn't realise I had one at first, I was looking for MM which wasn't there) there is a way to get round the lack of the reverse function... basically you get the section that you want and clip it into its component frames and then put those frames on to your storyboard thing in reverse order. Makes sense but obviously it will be extremely time-consuming. I guess that would also be possible with Video Editor as long as the clipping is fine enough to get down to a single frame. I mean, the thing is, I have no massive desire to reverse things but I just assumed it was a basic function. Cropping the image (which I suppose is equivalent to a zoomed in image) also seems crucial if you want to do anything good.
Luckily I don't really want to do anything good... I was just thinking that next time I make some music or something I might steal some things from online and edit them vaguely in time with it. I dunno. I reckon I'll mess around with this one for a bit until I really butt my head against its limitations.
I will check that link anyhow, thanks.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
In fact that basically the same to use but with the extra features that I was asking about, thanks very much.
 

catalog

Well-known member
If you don't have any luck with these free ones, you'll wanna dl a crack of Adobe pp, but theres obvs issues there as well
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
No, that one looks perfect for the extremely basic stuff I'll do IF I ever get round to it... thanks.
 
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