My Take On Video Editing

I’m starting to tinker a bit with video editing. You may have noticed the 21 videos I’ve post to YouTube. I have quietly shared a few of them here.

In my tinkering, I’ve been on the hunt for a video editor that does what I can and want it to do. Movie Maker was a good start. However, there is definitely a loss in quality. It also doesn’t do all that I want it to. So I’ve been looking for something better.

I used Microsoft Expressions. It was okay. Bonus is that it was free. But you also get what you pay for. There wasn’t much quality reduction with it. It mostly did what I wanted it to do. But it doesn’t do time lapse. Bummer. I enjoy making time lapse videos.

I used GoPro Studio. It was free. For a while it was doing everything I needed it to do. It ran a bit slow and would crash from time to time, but I could make videos with it relatively easy. It would have to convert videos to GoPro Studio format which took some time before I could even start editing. Then, a couple weeks ago, it started malfunctioning. I’ve tooled around with it trying to get it to work properly again, but it just won’t. I’m not sure if it’s my computer or if it’s just GoPro Studio.

I have used Openshot. Again, it was free. There didn’t seem to be a loss in quality. Like GoPro Studio it ran a bit slow, but it would get the job done. It was okay, but I’m looking for something a little more powerful, a little more professional, a little bit better. Besides, like Microsoft Expressions and Movie Maker, it doesn’t do time lapse.

Update 1 (10/28/2016)
I have now tested Corel’s VideoStudio X9. While it was okay for editing, it wasn’t the greatest. There were some bugs in trying to make a time lapse. There was also a bug when it came time to export it. I kept getting an error that a frame was unreadable. I was not about to go through the whole video to locate each frame that Corel couldn’t read and delete it. After looking up a solution it seemed this problem occurs frequently. I abandoned VideoStudio like rats on a sinking ship after that.

Update 2 (11/6/2016)
I have now tested EzVid, Lightworks, and DiVinci Resolve. Both of them are free. EzVid seemed to be similar to Movie Maker. It was simple, but didn’t provide many features that I’d like use in my videos. I didn’t spend long with this one. Lightworks looked amazing. It was capable of doing everything I wanted it to. However, the learning curve for this program is extremely steep. Just learning how to do the simplest of things took me a while. I used this to edit my latest YouTube video. Quality wasn’t lost. But it was difficult to use. It’s a powerhouse of a free program. DiVinci looked promising. I looked easier to use than Lightworks yet is still a powerhouse of an editor. It was definitely capable of doing everything I want to do with it. However, my computer couldn’t handle it. I have no OpenCL acceleration hardware. Essentially, my graphics card isn’t good enough. If it were good enough it would definitely be my choice of editors. Since it’s not, I’m still looking…

So I tested Adobe’s Premiere Pro through their seven day trial version. It’s like the Lamborghini of video editors. It does WAY more than I need it to. It definitely does have all the features I like. However, with the amount I’m doing, I can’t justify the subscription of $20 a month. That’s $240 a year. I’d rather a one time payment and be done with it.

So I’m currently trying Adobe Premiere Elements. Like it’s big sibling, Pro, the trial version has all the enmities of the full version. However, it sticks a big old banner across your edited videos. That sucks. I guess I’ll keep toying with it to get a better feel for it before I decided what to do. It will cost 1/2 that of a one year subscription for Pro. And it would be a one time payment.

 

That’s my take on movie editors. Do you edit movies? What do you use? Feel free to let me know down in the comments section.

I do have some idea for a YouTube channel. Might as well share them with all y’all because y’all  are awesome!

1. I’m thinking of channel that would be a spinoff of this here blog. I’ve been having a blast writing and sharing and hearing from all of you. What if I took this to YouTube to expand upon, give a voice and face to (or voices and faces if DW will get in on the action with me) and reach more viewers.
2. The other idea I had has to do with books. Children’s books to be exact. I’ve been having a blast reading aloud to the boys. What if read aloud to everyone who wants to listen? Assuming it’s not a breach of copyright, I’d like to show the pictures of the picture books as I narrate them.

If I were to pick one I’d pick the first. It’s more open to creativity. So that’s that…

Now back to our regularly scheduled blogging…

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