About Video Editing Programs

Advancements in computers have dramatically enhanced home video editing systems, and now the average person can edit her own movie at home. Original editing forced film creators to cut and splice footage together, but now users can complete this process in a matter of seconds using programs for both Windows and Apple computers.

Types

There are 4 main video editing programs that are mainly used, 2 for Apple and 2 for Windows. On Apple computers, the default iMovie is installed with every system. Advanced users rely on Final Cut Pro to create professional video productions. Windows features the default Windows Movie Maker, and advanced users usually use Adobe Premiere Pro for their editing needs.
Lesser-known video editing programs include Nero Start Smart, Movie Star 5, and programs that come packaged with digital video recorders and camcorders.

Features

Program layouts are commonly the same for every video editing program. The "Project" window stores all of the media content that is used within a project. The "Timeline" window is where all of the editing and ordering of clips takes place. The "Preview" window is a small section that gives delayed or real-time footage of the project so far. More advanced programs feature "Effect" windows, "Audio" windows, and "History" tools to fix a mistake you may have made.
Advanced video editing programs like Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro feature multi-layered timelines. This means that you can overlay multiple sections of audio and video on top of one another. This is great for transitions, split-screens, and multiple uses of audio like sound effects and background music. The programs can also create titles featuring multiple gradients, shadows, and motion.

Time Frame

Editing a video can be a quick and easy process if you are simply trimming and adding clips in, but more sophisticated projects can take days to finish. Once all the editing is complete, projects also have to be rendered into a final video and this could take hours to do depending how fast your computer is and how long the final project will be. You can render a preview of the video before rendering the final project to watch the clips and correct any mistakes.

Size

Video clips can take up a good portion of your hard drive through rendering and editing. The best quality clips are either AVI or MPEG2 videos. A one hour AVI clip could take up as much as 10 gigabytes on a hard drive while an MPEG2 video may take up about half as that. MOV video clips are high quality, but render in a smaller size, making them optimal for internet posting. For websites like Youtube.com, WMV is the best format because it will create small file sizes.

Considerations

The best way to edit your own footage is by either using a video camera featuring DVD discs or Firewire cables. Both of these links offer a direct connection to your computer and are compatible with most video editing programs. Optimizing your memory is important when using video editing programs, because they can easily freeze when trying to run real time video. You should run the programs on at least 1 gigabyte of RAM.
Adobe Premiere is compatible with any other software in the Adobe library, so you can import Adobe Photo and After Effects files easily for your project.

Resources

• Final Cut Pro
• Adobe Premiere