With a 4k camera loaded on most of our smartphones, everyone is a filmmaker or content creator. At least, they think they are or want to be.
Some get cynical about this watering-down and democratization of the “art” of cinema. Not Filmora Video Editor.
With Filmora and the Filmstocks library of supplemental content, the team makes a bold statement—anyone who can operate a camera can become a world-class content creator … or at least a better one. Or a faster one.
It starts with affordable software that doesn’t require a Ph.D. to learn, with the right features to customize content quickly and easily.
It is a good choice to use Filmora
Filmora was designed to go head-to-head with big boys of the video editing space. It carves out its niche by being affordable and user-friendly.
Start with affordable—at a hard-to-beat one-time fee of $59.99 (or $39.99 annually), Filmora9 puts powerful video-editing capability within any budget.
Compare this to $200 for FinalCut Pro or $250 for Adobe Premiere Pro.
Filmora’s target audience is the YouTube content creator or Instagram influencer, now, maybe with TikTok creators —someone with a lot of ideas that they want to get out into the world quickly.
Content marketers can’t afford to spend weeks or months editing their productions to get it just right. They need something presentable that they can throw together quickly.
They also don’t have time for software that takes forever to learn. Filmora9 benefits from an intuitive interface, reminiscent of platforms like Adobe Premiere Pro. From clip editing to audio processing to titles to transitions to effects, everything is easy to find.
It lacks some of the more advanced features that make Oscar-winning films. For example:
- It doesn’t have node-based effect editors for customized effects.
- It doesn’t feature a full suite of audio processors, including compressors, limitors, normalizers, and full-range equalizers.
- If only offers basic color-grading, like white balance, temperature, and hue. It also doesn’t offer adjustment layers, meaning color correction results in “destructive editing” — changes to the underlying image.
These features tend to be found on more professional and advanced video editors like FinalCut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, or DaVinci Resolve.
However, let’s say you don’t even know what any of these things are—you just want to make Vlogs!
Filmora9 excels in this regard. You can quickly apply presets, basic adjustments, and drag-and-drop combined effects, titles, and transitions to get something that looks and sounds quite good, fast. It even features one-click smart features to optimize audio and video, with presets for Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and more.
Less bulky features also make the program lightweight, easier to run without crashing on less powerful machines.
Once your video is done, you can export the final product directly to YouTube and other platforms, an extremely convenient feature.
Filmstocks is the supplement for Filmora
Want to really bring your content to life? Your Filmora9 license includes access to Filmstocks, an ever-growing marketplace of content to enhance your videos. Search the Filmstocks database and discover:
- Stock images.
- Stock footage.
- Visual effects packages.
- Sound effects.
- Music.
In addition to reasonably-priced packages of licensed content, Filmstocks offers a library of license-free content that you can use to punch up your videos for no extra price.
Filmstocks content downloads directly into your Filmora9 archive, where you can then insert them into your project via an intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
How to Edit A Video with Filmora
- Open a new project in Filmora9.
- Import files (video, audio, images) into the project library, either by clicking and dragging the file icons into the upper-left Project Library pane, right-clicking on the Project Library pane and selecting “Import,” or clicking on the “Folder-with-a-Plus-Sign” icon in the empty Project Library pane.
- Add items from your Project Library to the Editing pane by clicking and dragging them into place, or by clicking the “Plus” sign on the icon in the Project Library to insert the media onto the end of the project. Click and drag elements wherever you want them—before, after, or on top of each other in separate tracks.
- Trim the elements down to size by clicking and dragging the ends in the Editor pane, or place the play head over the element and hit the scissor-shaped “Clip” icon to split the track at the play head.
- Click and drag on the audio up and down to increase or decrease the volume, or right-click and select “Detach Audio” to delete the audio track or adjust it separately.
- Play with the “Cropping,” “Speed,” “Color,” “Aspect Ratio,” and “Sound” adjustor icons on top of the Editor pane.
- Play with the “Audio,” “Titles,” “Transitions,” “Effects,” and “Elements” tabs, clicking and dragging the items you find there into your project to customize it.
- “File”>“Render” the project and hit “Play” on the Playback Monitor pane to preview what you have created.
- “File”>“Export” the video to a file or directly to the linked platform of your choice!
Tips and Tricks for Video Editing
- Standardize your File Names. Rename all your files so they identify the project and line up sequentially. For example, start the titles of each shot with the shot number so when you sort them by name, they line up. Make sure video titles align with any separate audio or image titles.
- Get Organized. Sort your project files into easy-to-find folders so that every asset for each project is right where you need it.
- Use Keyboard Shortcuts. Filmora9 allows you to set custom keyboard shortcuts. Instead of hunting through tabs and panes, you can perform common tasks with one or two strokes of a key. If you are transitioning to Filmora9 from other software, you can copy the keyboard shortcuts from the other software to create an interface you are used to.
- Correct your Color and Audio. Don’t just settle for what comes out of the camera or microphone. Filmora offers several presets to get you started with quick color and audio editing.
- Export to the Correct Format. Filmora9 offers export presets you can use to produce the perfect file for the platform, whether it’s the highest-quality MP4 or files optimized for YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Summary
While it lacks some of the deep features of professional film-editing software, Filmora9 is lightweight, inexpensive, and easy to learn. It’s the perfect tool to quickly produce engaging, entertaining vlogs for YouTube, Instagram, landing pages.
For video editors ready for their Oscar, Filmora Video Editor offers a more feature-rich product, Filmora Pro, still reasonably-priced and outfitted to compete with FinalCut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro.