Fancy yourself as the next Sally Menke? Or Walter Murch? Editing is often an under-appreciated art form, but for any amateurs, it can be a wonderful creative outlet. There are several editing software packages available, some costly, some free, some good, some not so good. This week, we’re looking at Filmora, a new video editor downloadable for Windows and Mac, with free options for those whose editing needs are not so advanced!

For those completely new to video editing, Filmora’s interface is akin to many other packages, such as Avid Media Composer, or Final Cut Pro. But before you’re in there, you need to know your project’s parameters, i.e. its aspect ratio and the tools required for it. So you will need to have your thinking cap on from the off, but this is typical of all editing packages. Once you start a new project, you will notice that Filmora offers a plethora of sample media to choose from, which is a great feature we haven’t seen in any other software packages ourselves. Filmora is free to use, but all exported videos will contain the FIlmora watermark, which can become cloying if you intend on using this for more than just practise. The paid packages of Filmora range from $51.99 - $111.99 a year, with a 30-day free trial. Which is considerably cheaper than Adobe Premiere Pro ($251 a year) - although Adobe has many more features, Filmora’s target audience appears to be those who require more basic editing.

Filmora’s interface is very straightforward and uses drag and drop technology to manage your media into your editing timeline. There are tutorials on Youtube for those who are inexperienced in editing, but all can be easily found out in the service just by playing around. Everything you need can be found in the top left of the window, which your timeline sits nicely underneath, pretty standard. Filmora does give an in-depth description of their best features, aside from simple timeline assembly - which should gauge whether this service is the one for you. Filmora specialises in Green screen, audio mixing, pan and zoom, advanced text editing, colour tuning, screen recording, audio equalizing, video stabilisation, split-screen and 3D Lut. This impressive selection would likely stand any non-broadcast editors in good stead, as you can then export your videos (bear in mind there will be a watermark if you’re on the free version), audio and images in all key standard HD formats inc. MP4, MKV, MP3, WAV, JPG, PNG etc. We used Filmora to make some test videos and we found the features to be a little formulaic at times, with not quite as much customisation as we have seen from more deluxe services, so there is definitely a qualitative incentive to spend more on a Premiere Pro/Final Cut, but Filmora is very easy to use, and quite aesthetically pleasing as well as user-friendly. Which is the shortfall for many editing services. We won’t mention any names.

All in all, Filmora is a decent editing service, with its icon-based features giving the user a straightforward, if not restricted editing experience. That being said, you can use it for free, and its paid packages are cheaper than the major players. It is a great service for practising your skills, and for anyone starting a career in video, it might just be ideal, however, you may find as your skills develop, Filmora will be quickly outgrown.

Filmora, decent effort. You’re middle of the road and that’s certainly not a bad thing 👍🏼 👍🏼 👍🏼 /5!

Filmora review