Source
r/Filmmakers•
Awman36

Recommended editing software?

Question

I’m sure this has been asked plenty of times (sorry…) but not by me so….

I’m an actor/artist/person who has always been obsessed with all things film so I finally got bold with some friends and my iPhone and made a (pretty terrible & far too long) short film. I’m proud of it regardless and I learned a lot. I even surprised myself with enjoying the editing aspect even though it was all done on iMovie….

Long story short….as a brand new filmmaker with a 250 gift card (thank you father) who is eager to make a bunch more short films to get started and keep learning, what editing software would you upgrade to? Keep in mind I am a MacBook Pro person!

Thanks for bearing with this rookie and any help is much appreciated!

Posted Feb 14, 2023, 7:47 PM UTC

612
justjanne•

If you want a good editing software, try out davinci resolve. It has a free edition. It's the industry standard for color grading, so you'll need it anyway, and its editing capabilities are good enough for most of what you'll want to do.

24
some_grad_student•

Huge +1 to Davinci Resolve! Its free edition is simply the best free edition of any video editor I've tried. If you find that you like it enough to purchase the paid version, it has a very simple, single-time price tag of ~$250 (vs Adobe Premier Pro with its monthly subscription fee).

I went with DVR Free for a few months, loved working in it, then switched to Studio (paid) and still love it.

You can get surprisingly far with just the Free version though, especially if you're starting out and learning the video editing/post-proc/compositing/color-grading process.

9
some_grad_student•

Also, the concepts/skills that you learn in DVR are pretty standard and will apply to any other video editing software (like Premiere Pro, etc).

4
PlusSizeRussianModel•

If you're attempting to get into film editing long term, I'd recommend Premiere. It has a great feature set for a reasonable price. However, if you plan to keep your production fairly low tech, I'd go with Final Cut Pro. It's also very powerful and much easier to use. If you're shooting on Apple cameras and editing on Apple machines, it's a great workflow to also edit on Apple software.

9
Naughty_faridabad•

Just edited a short film on Davinci resolve (free version) I can tell you it's the best (yet a Lil complicated but you'll be fine) free editor out there

4
Zardozerr•

If you're familiar with iMovie, the transition to Final Cut Pro will be easier than going to any other program. All the major NLEs are good, but FCP is very well optimized and probably the easiest for a beginner to learn.

4
LarryMPerkins•

Well, the obvious answer is to use iMovie. You've already got it, and you already know how to use it. It will do the job just fine, and anything else is going to involve a learning curve to get where you already are now.

That two fifty will go a long way toward some basic lighting and sound gear. Having those, and knowing how to use them, will take you much farther than any editing software.

So go out and shoot like heck, cut like crazy, and when you run into something you need to do that iMovie can't (or can't easily) do, then come back and ask again. After all, the available choices may have changed by then.

3
ElianaGhen•

I love premiere to edit DaVinci to color

3
ExZachlew•

Learn premiere. It’s halfway to being the industry standard and you can do a lot with it. If you learn the program you can always pick up side editing gigs as well. There is a plethora of free editing courses on YouTube and premiere comes with a free week or so editing trial. You’d be doing yourself a favor in the long run.

3
Filmmagician•

I cut a feature and now edit for work all on DaVinci Resolve. No complaints really.

3
mister_zozobra•

Hitfilm Express is a solid free video editor. Very entry level but it does the job.

2
Mostly_Slow•

https://youtu.be/ZGIl5lGFBxY

1