OpenShot Video Editor

OpenShot Video Editor does what its name suggests: it lets you create your own movies from different sources, such as video footage, photographs and audio recordings.

The app may look quite intimidating at first mainly for beginners, but, luckily, there is a tutorial that teaches you the basics. However, the tutorial may not be enough, so you will probably need a little more exploring and practising before you can exploit the app’s features to the fullest.

One of the best assets of this product is definitely its interface. It is nicely crafted with elegant dark colors, which gives it the professional look you might be looking for. It is good that there are two views: Simple and Advanced. The interface is composed of various panels and you have total freedom to dock them wherever you want or even use them in separate windows.

A description of the usual workflow of the app should give you an idea of what you can do with it. So, here I go. A good way to start is by choosing the desired video profile. Luckily, there are many available, including HD, DVD, SVCD and QVGA. As you see, it supports high definition video. Next, it is time to add your project files, which you can do at the start, but also at any other time as you need them. These files can even be imported by drag-and-drop operations. Good news is that most popular media formats are supported.

Now, it is time to compose your video. Luckily, there is a timeline supporting multiple tracks. Just drag and drop a previously imported file onto the timeline and place it in the desired track and at the required time. You would probably want to create transitions between one clip and the next, so it is good that the program can automatically create them if you overlap the contents of the tracks.

As you create your video, you can preview what it will look like after the final rendering. There is also the Properties panel in which you can change the properties of the selected clips and effects.

If you right-click on a clip, you will see that various operations, like rotating and separating audio are allowed. It is also great that it allows transforming the items by dragging the handles or changing the parameters on the Properties panel. Likewise, you can add adjust such video parameters as color, saturation and contrast as well as add special effects. I really appreciate the program lets me use the Chroma Key effect to remove a green background. Finally, the tool lets you use titles, including those with animation.

Finally, when you are done editing your video and the preview looks as expected, you can proceed to export your movie. At this point, you can choose one of the multiple video formats available, select a video profile and set the desired quality. However, if you want more control over the results, you can click on the advanced tab to pick, for example, the desired audio codec or enter an exact sample rate.

It was a shame that the app repeatedly crashed when I tried to import certain video files. I would have preferred it told me that the format or the size was not supported; instead, it just disappeared without notice.

All in all, I am sure OpenShot Video Editor would be an excellent choice for anyone needing to create a movie. However, I am afraid that its developers would need to solve whatever bug is causing it to crash. I will not discourage you from giving it a try, perhaps, you get luckier than me.