Editing Software

Good afternoon. Let's get straight to it. I've received a lot of questions about editing software so I decided I'd do a little post to guide you guys on where to start. Obviously I'm not an expert, but these recommendations will definitely be useful regardless of your skill level. And of course, these are my personal preferences so no need to throw away your love over software that you despise :) (Also these are listed in no particular order and all the mentioned software includes a free version)

1. Windows Movie Maker

Now many of you are probably wondering why this is even on the list, but for very simple editing this does the job. You can do simple cuts, splits and trimming and even add voiceover. I used this software to edit my stop motion film a few years back and although it is a simple editor, it can produce quality results. Also this editor is no longer supported by Microsoft so you may have to download it off a 3rd party website. So make sure you get it off a reputable site to prevent against viruses or malware. 

2. Filmora

Filmora is a more advanced video editor which offers a lot of presets for titles, filters, and transitions. Personally, this is what I've been using for my cutting, trimming, etc. because of the convenient keyboard shortcuts it offers. It's a good step up from windows movie maker but requires a payment to remove the watermark during export.

3. Davinci Resolve

Ideally, I'd be using this software a lot: it has a free version which has more than enough features to care about upgrading, offers color and vector scopes for color grading, and used my many blockbuster productions. However, given the capabilities of this software, it requires higher specs to run smoothly. So due to the constant lag I get from running it on my computer, I've only been using it for color grading.

4. Kdenlive

Kdenlive is an open source editor which offers versions for both Linux and Windows. Its installation process is slightly unusual compared to the other editors listed above but it offers many features as the softwares mentioned above. In the past I've used this software mainly for its chroma-key feature (green screen) since Filmora doesn't offer it and Davinci Resolve lags too much on my computer for it to be a practical option. Kdenlive is relatively lightweight in terms of specs but for some reason it crashed a lot on my computer, perhaps since its opensource which usually means a lot of bugs. But it's been a few years since I've used this software and there have been many updates and bug fixes so chances are you'll find this software to your tasting.