Decent yet easy video editing software?

[anonymous-user]

Hi all,

I've never been into video much, but since I bought a Drift HD action cam, and discovered how good my other cameras were for pro looking video, I have been dabbling in a spot of video recording.

I have iMovie on my 2011 MacBook Pro, but it seems a bit clunky to use, and doesn't offer easy switching between multiple camera angles, which is what I'm after.

It seems ok for cutting and stitching bits together, adding music etc, but I really want something that allows me to start 2 or 3 cameras recording at the same time, and afterwards drop the 3 recordings into an editor side by side, which allows you to flick between them like you would see in a 'proper' video.

Any suggestions on something that will be easy to use and not destroy my wallet or laptop?

[Craikeybaby]

I'm on my work PC, so can't double check, but I thought you could stack multiple clips in iMovie, then fade/trim them to cover the different angles.

[TheRainMaker]

Premiere Pro CS6, but your 2011 MacBook will struggle with using multi cameras and it will be even worse if they are using different codecs.

You can pay for it per month if you wish.

[IvanSTi]

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector-ul...

Not tried it but sounds like what you're after, will probably try this one myself.

Or this free software

http://www.techradar.com/downloads/lightworks

Rated as the best here.

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/application...

Edited by IvanSTi on Wednesday 4th June 13:42

[TheRainMaker]

Oh and get yourself one of these

[anonymous-user]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I will have a look into them

To answer the point about iMovie above, yes, you can do 'Cutaways' to different camera angles, but it's a bit fiddley as you have the main camera clip running full length, but you have to then paste in all the seperate cutaways to the other cameras, and then line them up manually so that they are in sync with the main camera which is time consuming.

Some other software packages seem to let you line all camera angles up in the first instance, leave them all full length, then just hit play and click between the angles like a live tv producer would do. These 'clicks' are then saved and when you play it back, all your selections of camera angles are kept.

[anonymous-user]

And I'm really not sure that a 'clapperboard' is needed!!

[TheRainMaker]

Why not?

Use one and it will take seconds to line up all your cameras.

[anonymous-user]

TheRainMaker said:

Why not?

Use one and it will take seconds to line up all your cameras.

Because... With non multi-cam editing software like iMovie, you have to line up each cutaway or camera change manually in the time line because each cutaway is treat as physically seperate clip, so you would have to plan your camera angles ahead of recording, and 'clap' each time the camera changed... Which is clearly no good.

And... With the proper multi-cam editing stuff like Final Cut Pro, the software auto aligns your 3 or 4 cameras using ordinary noise and sound within the recordings, so no Clap required there either.

In fact, even if you recorded the main audio totally seperate using an audio recorder and dropped it in, as long as the cameras were all recording some audio as well, Final Cut or similar would line them up automatically using the background noise.. No clap required.

Why haven't I got Final Cut? Because it's £200!

[TheRainMaker]

NinjaPower said:

TheRainMaker said:

Why not?

Use one and it will take seconds to line up all your cameras.

Because... With non multi-cam editing software like iMovie, you have to line up each cutaway or camera change manually in the time line because each cutaway is treat as physically seperate clip, so you would have to plan your camera angles ahead of recording, and 'clap' each time the camera changed... Which is clearly no good.

And... With the proper multi-cam editing stuff like Final Cut Pro, the software auto aligns your 3 or 4 cameras using ordinary noise and sound within the recordings, so no Clap required there either.

In fact, even if you recorded the main audio totally seperate using an audio recorder and dropped it in, as long as the cameras were all recording some audio as well, Final Cut or similar would line them up automatically using the background noise.. No clap required.

Why haven't I got Final Cut? Because it's £200!

You don't want to spend £200 on new software... But you could get an old version of final cut or premiere, use the clap it's cheap and works every time.

Or you can use a clap to sync a two camera set up on iMovie.