# Movie Editing Software
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 15, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069 "2003-06-15T19:22:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069/1 "2003-06-15T19:22:04Z")
My digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix 990, will record a 40 second QuickTime .mov file. I would like to edit these down some, but I don’t know what software to use. There is no sound involved, and I basically just want to pick out the good sections and make them into stand alone movies.
Any recommendations for shareware or freeware editors? (You can recommend the pricey stuff, but I am not _that_ anxious to do this. :D)
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### Author:  [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2003, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069/2 "2003-06-15T19:59:14Z")
[QuickTime Pro](http://www.apple.com/quicktime) is $30 and can do simple stuff such as trimming the lengths of and splicing segments into movies. I don’t know if that’s in your price range or not, though.
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### Author:  [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2003, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069/3 "2003-06-15T20:01:44Z")
Oh, I forgot to add – there are both Mac and Windows versions of QT Pro, so your platforum shouldn’t matter.
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### Author:  [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2003, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069/4 "2003-06-15T21:31:50Z")
And when you think about it, Manos The Hands Of Fate was recorded in 30 second increments, so… just think what you could do with 40 seconds!
😃
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2003, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069/5 "2003-06-15T21:58:50Z")
Im surprised your camera didnt come with software to do that. You could find some at [download.com](http://download.com) if you search for quicktime.
BTW, lok, doesn’t windows have a media player that lets you edit?
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### Author:  [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069/6 "2003-06-15T22:10:55Z")
If you own a recently (past 4 years or so) purchased Mac…you already have some flavah of iMovie installed on the HD.
If you don’t own a Mac…whatthe hell are you doing digital video editing fer then ya big dummy! 😉
(Thats it on the low end Mac side…QuickTime Pro or iMovie…otherwise you’re moving up to Final Cut Express, Final Cut Pro, Premiere or some Avid type of thing). I’m sure there are plenty of Wintel programs that will accomplish what you want. Maybe start [here](http://desktopvideo.about.com/).
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### Author:  [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069/7 "2003-06-16T05:28:40Z")
Thanks for the responses. **Mockingbird** , I might have 40 seconds, but I don’t have any sound. I needed to wait for the CoolPix 995 to get that. 🙂 **Handy** the software that came with the camera was pretty much only for the still pictures. And it wasn’t very good for that. I don’t have it installed on my system anymore, it was a waste of space. The Windows Media Player doesn’t even recognize the .mov as a type of media file.
**beagledave** , since I only have some small videos to cut up, wasting the money on a Mac just for that would be kind of stupid. 😛 Thanks for the link, it looks like there is a lot of information there.
Lok
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### Author:  [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069/8 "2003-06-16T07:06:15Z")
Hal Warren, who did Manos, didn’t have sound either.
It was looped in later.
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069/9 "2003-06-16T21:19:06Z")
For home/amateur/non-pro movie editing work, iMovie still spanks everything else out there, for both Macs and Windows computers. If you really get into it, you can get additional transitions and special effects from various third-party companies.
And the best part is that it’s **free.** You can download it off Apple’s web site if you’re so inclined, or pay $50 for the entire iLife (iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, iTunes) package.
(What? You don’t have a Mac? Guess you bought the wrong computer… 😉 )
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### Author:  [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2003, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-editing-software/182069/10 "2003-06-17T05:43:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by rjung \*
> \*\*For home/amateur/non-pro movie editing work, iMovie still spanks everything else out there, for both Macs and Windows computers. If you really get into it, you can get additional transitions and special effects from various third-party companies.
>
> And the best part is that it’s **free.** You can download it off Apple’s web site if you’re so inclined, or pay $50 for the entire iLife (iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, iTunes) package.
>
> (What? You don’t have a Mac? Guess you bought the wrong computer… 😉 ) \*\*
If I was going to do a lot of video editing, I would certainly agree with you. OTOH, since I spend most of my time playing games, I have the right system. 😃
Lok