Aspect ratio Aspect ratio - Before you start your movie editing, you should think about the screen size / aspect ratio. Most video editors will choose between a full (4:3) or HD (16:9) aspect ratio.

Brightness Brightness - Adjust the brightness of your video.

Effects Effects - Visual effects can enhance the look of your movie to give it a professional look and feel.

Green screen Green screen - If you shoot your own video on a plain background, you can use green screen technology to place the action on a different background.

Lighting Lighting - Adjust the lighting of your video.

Rotoscoping Rotoscoping - Allows you to add animation on top of live action sequences.

Split scenes Split scenes - Split your video into two separate clips.

Speed changes Speed changes - Speed up or slow down video sequences for more dramatic effects.

Storyboard Storyboard - Arrange your video clips in the order you want them to appear.

Stabilizer Stabilizer - If you've taken a video clip using a hand held camera, it's possible the video clip will appear shaky. A video stabilizer will analyze the intensity of the movement, take each frame of the clip and then align it correctly to make it appear smooth again.

Timeline Timeline - The central component of the movie editing process. This is where you will layer your video clips, audio, titles, effects, filters and more. If a clip is placed higher in the timeline than another it will obscure the layers below.

Trim scenes Trim scenes - Remove the beginning and/or end parts of a video clip that you don't want to be seen.

Transitions Transitions - Allows you to move creatively from one video clip to another. Dissolves, wipes and fades are the most common transition effects used in movie making.

Zoom Zoom - Zooming can be very useful tool, but you should always make sure the quality and resolution of the video is not compromised. Zooming works best on HD quality video.

Frames Frames - Place a frame around your video clip.

Titles Titles - Add titles to the start of your video.

Add text Add text - Add text on top of your video sequences. Adding text can give your video a more professional look & feel.

Add scrolling credits Add scrolling credits - Add scrolling credits at the end of your video.

Add subtitles Add subtitles - Add subtitles to video scenes.

Included audio files Included audio files - Software comes with music and sound effects that you can add to your movie.

Import audio Import audio - Allows you to import video into your movie from either your computer or removable media such as CDs, USB flash drives, zip disks and external hard-drives.

Crossfade audio Crossfade audio - As one audio track fades out, crossfade in another.

Trim audio Trim audio - Cut audio tracks to neatly fit the length of your scenes.

Mix audio Mix audio - Mix together two audio tracks.

Included images Included images - Software comes with stock library images that you can add to your movie.

Import images Import images - Allows you to import your own images into your movie.

Crop, resize, rotate images Crop, resize, rotate images - Allows you to crop, rotate, resize and change the brightness and contrast of your images from within the software.

Change brightness & contrast Change brightness & contrast - Change the brightness & contrast of your images. Some video editing software will allow you to edit the hue and saturation settings.

Pan images Pan images - Allows you to create the effect of a camera moving slowly horizontally across a scene.

Size limit Size limit - Set a size limit on the amount of video you want to capture (usually in megabytes). When the limit is reached it will automatically stop capturing video content.

Time limit Time limit - Set a time limit on the amount of video you want to capture.

Analog Analog - If you have VHS or 8mm tapes you may want to convert your them to a digital format. The software will automatically do this for you if you have capture device installed on your computer.

AVCHD AVCHD - Capture video directly from a AVCHD camcorder.

DVD / HDV / MiniDV DVD / HDV / MiniDV - Capture video directly from a digital video camcorder.

Batch capture Batch capture - Allows you to select a group of videos that you want to capture.

SD video SD video - Allows you to import standard definition video.

HD video HD video - Allows you to import high definition video.

AVCHD AVCHD - Renders your video to AVCHD format. This will allow you to watch your video on camcorders and DVDs.

DivX DivX - Video format developed by DivX, Inc.

DV DV - Export videos to video camcorders that support the DV codec.

iPod iPod - Export videos to the Apple iPod.

MPEG MPEG - Export videos to devices that support MPEG.

MPEG-4 MPEG-4 - Export videos to devices that support MPEG-4.

PSP PSP - Export videos to the PlayStation Portable.

Quicktime Quicktime - Video format developed by Apple, Inc.

RealVideo RealVideo - Video format developed by RealNetworks

WMVHD WMVHD - Windows Media High Definition Video. Developed by Microsoft.

Windows media Windows media - Video format developed by Microsoft.

YouTube YouTube - Exports your video clips as an Adobe Flash file .flv - You can then easily upload your videos onto YouTube.

Menus Menus - Add menus to your DVD.

Multi-layer menus Multi-layer menus - Create a multi-layed DVD menu. So under the main menu, you can have sub menus.

Menu templates Menu templates - Professionally designed menu templates come with the video editing software for you to freely use with your projects.

Menu music Menu music - Add audio to your menus.

Chapters Chapters - Divide your DVD into a number of different chapters making it easy for viewers to move quickly and easily through the video.

Widescreen Widescreen - Publish your DVD in the widescreen (16:9) format.

DVD

Blu-ray

AVCHD

VCD

SVCD

Telephone support

Email support

Live chat

Manual

Knowledge base

Forums

Tutorials

FAQs

Windows 7

Windows Vista

Windows XP

Mac OS X

Video editing software explained

Video editing software is now cheaper than ever. Coupled with the easy availability of cameras that can shoot good quality video, this means it’s now practical to create films at home – without requiring any elaborate or expensive equipment.

Many of the features and tools used to edit movies and TV shows have trickled down into video editing packages. This means video editing software enables you to access similar technology to that which has been used commercially for years. You can:

• Create slick home movies. Give a professional sheen to your home movies. Cut out the dull bits, add titles and sounds – and then save to a DVD so you can play it back easily.
• Produce online video. Many websites include video clips - video editing software lets you create your own and save as a file that’s small enough to upload to your own site or a service like YouTube.
• Remix existing videos. If you don’t have your own camera, you can use video clips from other sources such as the internet (with permission). Like a DJ remixing songs, it allows you to create something new.

Editing video yourself is also great alternative to using a professional bureau or employing a freelance video editor.

Getting started with video editing

If you’ve not used video editing software before, choose a package which includes tutorials and guides to help you get to grips with the options available. Carrying out simple edits – like shortening clips or adding titles – should be straightforward, but it might take a little longer for you to master the full range of editing tools.

Editing video requires a lot of computer power. Most modern computers are adequate, but use the fastest, most powerful computer you can – and make sure you have a large hard drive to save big video files.

Effects & transitions

Playback

The playback of your video should be as smooth. Proxy files.

Capturing

Effective video editing software should allow the capturing of video from multiple sources such as DV / AVCHD / mini DV camcorders, analog camcorders, VCR and TV.

Importing & exporting

If you want to upload your video to YouTube, it makes sense to choose video editing software that allows you to export FLV file formats.

FireWire

Most digital camcorders will connect to your computer using a FireWire port.

Stabilizer

Proxify files

Proxify files are lower resolution working copies of video files. They help to speed up video editing. The full resolution files are then used again for the final render.

Transitions

Simply cutting from one scene directly to another is often fine for video editing, but there will be some occassions where you'll want to add in transitional effects.

Aspect ratio

Video clips usually come in one of two aspect ratios 4:3 or 16:9. 4:3 is full video quality, while 16:9 is widescreen quality.