Free and easy (not unlike myself ...)

January 19, 2012 9:53 AM

Which free video editor will let me create a music video most easily?

I am making a video for one of my songs. I have identified a bunch of clips from a couple of public domain films. I have AVS Video Converter, which has output options for what appears to be all the common file types.

I am looking for a free and simple video editor where I can splice up the films, order the cuts the way I want them, and lay my mp3 in underneath. I'm really not looking for any fancy effects; the only feature that would interest me would be a kind of film 'compressor,' since the two films themselves (Hunchback and Nosferatu) aren't really tonally identical.

I'll be working on an HP laptop bought 15 months ago, with Windows 7.

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

posted by troywestfield to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

VirtualDub is a nice solid little video editor.
posted by XMLicious at 10:13 AM on January 19, 2012

Best answer: I haven't used it, but I know someone who swears by Windows Live Movie Maker.
posted by Magnakai at 10:48 AM on January 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

There's also Lightworks, a highly capable editor used on many feature films. The Windows version is available for free.
posted by Magnakai at 10:51 AM on January 19, 2012

Response by poster: I see a few people are monitoring this question. Wanted to report that Windows Live Movie Maker was exactly what I was looking for, thankMagnakaiverymuch. I tried Lightworks first, but it was too complicated for this novice, and every time I Googled an issue, I ended up at a forum where someone was telling someone else that this was in beta, and they shouldn't expect it to actually work if they wanted to actually use it. I appreciate all the suggestions.
posted by troywestfield at 6:27 AM on January 24, 2012