Cut 'n' paste

The range of video-editing tools available today can make a filmmaker
of you, says Sanjiv Valsan

Using her DV camera, laptop and Pinnacle Studio editing software, 33-year-old Lalita Ratani, who confesses to being a "closet filmmaker", began making fun holiday videos, and graduated to making short promos for NGOs that her friends run. "I'm never getting to be a fulltime filmmaker, so this is the next best thing," says Ratani.

Thanks to easily available, and easier to use editing software, Ratani has developed a passion for making short films and home videos. Digital video's biggest advantage to the amateur is that it allows you to download, edit and share videos on a PC using editing programs.
"My software lets me get creative with transitions," says Ratani, "It's easier to be your own editor today. I do the storyboarding scene by scene, add sound and make them fun, instead of just leaving them plain and boring."

Video editing software can be used for everything from downloading video, weeding out the junk, arranging scenes and transitions and audio mixing to outputting on a variety of media, including DVD, email, MMS, video blogs and Podcasts.

Most camcorders come with some basic editing software, but it helps to get a more advanced one. This will give you more options to play around with once you get the hang of things.

The choices are many, the differences being pricing, advanced features, ease of use and speed, but the deciding factor could be system requirements. Video editing programs, especially the high-end varieties, guzzle RAM and hard disk space and demand faster processors.

If your computer doesn't meet a particular software's system demands, you could either upgrade your machine or choose another program.
One alternative is moving to a Linux operating system (OS), where a professional-level, opensource software such as Cinelerra can be downloaded for free, and used on older machines. To try it before you make that leap, you can run Linux and Cinelerra from a 'Live CD', the contents of which can be downloaded from www.cinelerra.org.

The 'Live CD' lets you try the Linux OS and software without actually storing it on your hard disk or having to trash Windows.

Other options in the freebie world include LiVES at http://lives.sourceforge.net, a relatively easy video editing software for Linux and Max OS; Windows Movie Maker (free with Windows XP and Vista), iMovie (free with Mac OS) and Avid Free, a downloadable and stripped down version of the Avid professional programs.

Movie Maker and iMovie are basic, easy on the system and expandable through downloadable extensions. Avid Free is complicated to learn as it shares the pro Avid interface, but could be useful for those planning to graduate to the pro versions later on.

Many users find that basic software is all they need, like 27-year-old actor and website host Vishal Patel, who owns neither a camcorder nor a high-end computer, but still used Magix, an audio and video editing program to make a fun, five-minute video of his friends with footage shot with his webcam. "I already had footage from over a month, so I started playing around and decided to cut a video set to a soundtrack of 60's songs," he says.

But if basic sounds boring, an advanced 'prosumer' offering could be the answer. Such programs offer more than three sound tracks, a good set of colour and contrast correction tools, a variety of transitions, DVD authoring and quality tech support.

Rated highly in this category are Adobe Premiere Elements, Ulead VideoStudio10 Plus, Pinnacle Studio, PowerDirector, Showbiz DVD and Roxio VideoWave.

Test-drive the trial versions. Your final choice will depend on what you want to do with it. Online reviews and discussion forums are a great place to start comparing products to decide which one suits your needs.