What is a good video editing program?

[DoW Lowen]

Hey guys,

I'm putting together a video for my friend's birthday. It will be a mockumentary and I don't have a Mac so there goes that one. I tried to google different video editing programs but all of them claim to be 'simple, user friendly and reliable'm, in my past experiences when I download something say a vocal analog remover, the instructions are either remarkably vague or they assume you know alot of Jargon, and then they slap your hand away and call you a twat for not configuring the GUI properly.

I'm fairly competent with computers, I'll mainly be using videos off a digital camera, putting them together and rearranging them, adjusting audio, adding sound effects, maybe a few filter effects, placing captions and subtitles etc. nothing fancy, I won't be making CGI sequences or anything. But I was wondering if anyone has had experience with a program that is user friendly, easy to use and is reliable, it would really help me out if you could make some recommendations.

 

[allmadeup]

It really depends what you're after. I would recommend FCP, or if you're less proficient iMovie for a small project like this, but as you say that option isn't available for you.

I would normally always recommend Avid if you know what you're doing. It is very expensive (being industry standard and all), but you could ask around to see if anyone has a copy. Otherwise, I would recommend Adobe Premier. It is quite similar to FCP, not massively expensive and has some pretty good audio tools. It is also quite intuitive, so for a small project like this its what I'd recommend. Hope that helps.

 

[Tallim]

Avidemux is rather simple to use but might not be up your street.

Otherwise check out the Lightworks Beta. It's REALLY good and free. http://www.lightworksbeta.com/

Does require a sign up to download however but it's one of the nicest and powerful editors I have used.