Stories

Take 2 – Video Editors

I installed several open-source and free video editing programs to see which one had the best features, and had an easy learning curve. The two runner ups that had the most promise were OpenShot Video Editor, and Shotcut, but they were missing a few features I was looking for like color correction, and audio editing. Both seem be a great free open-source option for anyone looking to start editing family video clips, but they lacked many professional features.

I finally went with the free version of DaVinci Resolve 15. DaVinci Resolve is a professional video editing software. The free version has limits of some of the features you can use, and the number of video tracks that can be added, but the free option had everything I was looking for. There are separate modulus for editing, color correction, and audio mixing along with a few audio and visual effects/transitions. It did take some time to get the hang of everything, and watching a few tutorial videos on YouTube, but after a few hours making edits,color corrections and transitions DaVinci Resolve is less frightening than when I loaded it for the first time.

In the future I will be trying my hand at a few screen capture videos as well for some tutorials on the video editing process, using Chief Architect Pro, and other tech related resources we are using at Road to Homesteading to expand our content and channel. So that left me wondering what software was a good choice for screen capture recording. The one solution I found that was open-source, free, and easy to operate was OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Studio. This program is used by many professional streamer online. Not only is it a good resource for live streaming to channels like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and other top platforms it is also a top quality free screen recorder.

Take 1 – The Struggle of Content Creation

The past two days have been a struggle. The kiddo and I set-up to shoot the first video for Road to Homesteading. With my background in graphic design and web development, I thought this would come easy, but I am a complete noob when it comes to video editing software. After what felt like 100 takes, I started to wonder if I am cut out to be in front of the camera or edit videos.

I do not yet come across as confident in myself or words on film, and confidence is key in video creation. I know exactly what I want to convey, then forget an important step or stumble 10 seconds in. Yes – to err is human, but this human would like to keep the mistakes to a minimum. I was somewhat happy with the first take today, but noticed my kitchen looked cluttered. I watched the footage again and noticed the lighting was not nearly as good on this rainy day as it had been in test-runs, was rainy, and none of the lighting in the house looked nearly as good as a few of my dry test runs. I decided to rearrange everything and try again.

A few dozen takes in – it started to feel a little more natural. We made it through the whole video, and I was somewhat happy with the content (and my newly decluttered kitchen!), but less than happy with the lighting. I guess with practice makes perfect, but the struggle is real! I will no longer take content creators on YouTube for granted now that I see how much work is put into creating a 10-minute video.