Best video editing software for complete idiots.

[trailboss99]

I'm sure we have some skilled AV people here so . . .
When I was younger I could learn any damn thing by teaching myself, it's harder now. What is the simplest to learn and use video editing software? if I master that, I can go from there. PS: Bonus points if you have a copy or a source.

 

[Yellowsubmarine]

Depending on your platform, I’d say iMovie for Mac is easy to learn and very intuitive with its controls etc. plus it’s free. You can get going very quickly with ease.

If you’re Pc based there are a few free options which are really quite good too.

DaVinci Resolve is very popular these days, I think a lot of the pros use it and it’s free. However is quite power hungry so you need quite a workhorse to use it.

Shotcut is another good option, also free.

Openshot is another, easy to use interface, lots of features and also free.

I guess it depends on what you’re looking to do, and if you’ll be editing intensive 4k footage. If you just want to quickly drop in some clips, cut them/mix them, stick on a soundtrack and export then we can maybe narrow down something suitable for your workflow.

 

[ballack13]

If you're okay to sail the high seas, I'd jump straight to Adobe Premier

 

[Mjh2k4]

Capcut is really good. We tend to use that a lot.

 

[Karbon74]

I use OpenShot and ShotCut. But one must say that the interface is clunky at best.

Having used Premiere in the past, it remains immensely superior in UX but I despise the subscription pricing they now have.

I have tried Resolve but again, I feel that the UX is counterintuitive especially if you have used Premiere in the past.

AfterEffects is also an awesome tool but the learning curve is brutal.

 

[Dasak]

If you're just starting out, I’d go with something super easy like Movavi Video Editor, I used it a while back to put together a slideshow for a friend's birthday, and I figured it out within an hour. The timeline editing and transitions are pretty intuitive, especially if you have zero editing background. It doesn’t throw a million options at you like Premiere does, so you're not totally overwhelmed.

 

[Yuvalti]

I use Movavi Video Editor too and I really like it. You can also use it when you need to extract and convert some background music from a clip. I found this DTS audio converter really handy, https://www.movavi.com/audio-converter/dts-converter.html. It made the whole audio part of editing a lot smoother to deal with.