Thread: video editor suggestions (freeware preferred)?

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Okay, here's the deal: I've got a scene from hell for my front window. I have Hallowindow's Fire HD video for the background plus a demon manequin and glowing embers I'm making for the foreground. All is going well, except for when I have the Fire video looped it "goes out" as part of its normal run for a second or two. Having the fire go out doesn't seem quite hellish enough . I contacted Mark Gervais (creator of Hallowindow) for suggestions, and he recommended I get a video editor to trim a little off the beginning and end of the Fire HD clip. Trouble is he's not familiar with PC software (he's a Mac user).

Can anyone recommend some free or inexpensive software to do this kind of editing?

If a purchase is required, then I'd also like to be able to manipulate a video for our Pepper's ghost illusion to make it fade in and out, give it a glow, or possibly even an aura as shown in this Pepper's ghost illusion.


Suggestions are welcome - this is new territory for me. I want to avoid software from hell. Thanks!

Not sure what file format you're dealing with, but Windows Movie Maker is free - included in XP and (I think) Vista and a free download for 7 - and is quite capable. It's not the most feature laden or user friendly, but for simple editing it works well.

dvdshrink. You can edit sections of any dvd you rip (you'll need a ripper like dvddecrypter) and add and add until you compile a dvd sized file. Then you'll need nero to burn it onto a dvd. If its sounds confusing, let me know.

Did I mention that with the exception of nero, dvdshrink and dvddecrypter are both free.

Victor

Thanks hedg12 and victor-eyd, and sorry to be slow to respond.

My computer has Windows 7 OS. The first file type I'm going to modify is an .m4v (?) format from Hallowindow (http://hallowindow.com/products?downloadable=1). My preference would be to use the HD 4:3 version of the file, and just trim some of the first and last of the video off so that the "fires of Hell" don't go out every 2 minutes. Since fire is so random, I don't think it needs to be a seemless match for the video loop, but I'm sure I'll need to play with it a bit.

The second file type will be whatever digital format the company that I end up using for transferring my 8mm video of a ghost we're about to film. I haven't done that transfer before, so not sure what options they're going to give me (any suggestions?). For that one, I'm mostly interested in fading the video to black occassionally (actor will be wearing white under blacklight with black surroundings, so fading to black will make them appear to disappear). If we can also give the videoed person an aura, that would be great, but not a must have feature.

The last type of file would probably be a singing bust video: Didn't think I'd be interested in doing this prop, but it would be good in the graveyard and now I'm hooked on the idea. First I need to figure out how to download this from YouTube so it can be saved as a file on my computer and then burned onto a DVD, so the DVD can feed the video to the projector on Halloween. On this video I may need to space out the heads slightly, as they seem a little bunched in the video to project onto busts. Hopefully I'm wrong, but that's how it appears.

For DVD creation software, I've already got CDburnerXP and Windows DVD Maker (but haven't used either).

I'll search on the freeware you both mentioned and try them out. Yes, it is confusing for me, but I'll dive in and give it a shot. I got a projector not long ago, and could kick myself for not getting one earlier. The potential with them is great. I've seen several things you've posted before on projectors, victor-eyd, and was impressed.

Thanks again to you both! I'm sure I'll have more questions after I get into it deeper.

I purchased (relatively inexpensive as I remember - $40?) Ulead Video Studio. It is very easy to use and pretty feature rich.

Ulead products are easy to use and so are Boilsoft. The Boilsoft products are all free for thirty days, so you can experiment with them.

I have never tried and of these. but Snap Files has a few products listed that sound interesting.

http://www.snapfiles.com/downloadfin...h.y=0&st=video

Second MovieMaker. As far as "transitions" are concerned, there are only a handful of transitions you'll ever seriously want to use anyway (fade, crossfade, and hard cuts) so don't fall victim to the "you need 10,000 features". As long as you can export to the size you want, and burn to DVD, you should be fine.

My suggestion would be go to youtube and look up free video editing.
There you'll find info. on how to get Sony Vegas for free. It's an excellent program I use for my video production business all of the time.