Video editing on the cheap

July 1, 2014 4:43 PM

I'm looking for a cheap video editing program that can help with a couple of simple tasks. I'm on a Mac and need some recommendations.

I've tried searching for iMovie tutorials and maybe I just haven't had the right keywords. The tasks I need to do are:

* I need to be able to overlay text and graphics (like arrows pointing to part of the video) - these can be unanimated and fixed position

* I need to be able to dim the video except for a small area in order to create a callout effect

* I need to be able to splice together a couple of clips with simple transitions (fade, wipe across the screen)

* I need to be able to adjust audio volume across the spliced clips

Is there a free or cheap program that will do this?

posted by philosophygeek to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

You can do all of this in iMovie. It might be time to just spend an afternoon playing around with it, or springing for an actual guidebook/online lesson.
posted by destructive cactus at 5:15 PM on July 1, 2014

iMovie does all of those things except it does not have native tools to create graphics like arrows. However, you can do kludgy tricks like overlay images of arrows with transparency as a workaround.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 5:22 PM on July 1, 2014

Camtasia for Mac can do everything you listed, and it's very easy to learn. There's a 30-day free trial available, and it's $99 after that.
posted by neushoorn at 12:09 AM on July 2, 2014