Editing Software To Use At Home

Worried about editing your film for the Austin Youth Film Festival because you don’t have access to post-production software? Well, worry no more! We have collected a handful of FREE options for you to make use of at home.

*Listed alphabetically.

Adobe Premiere (Mac, Windows)

While the 60-day free trial offer has only been extended to current Adobe users, the Adobe team has extended a few options for students looking to use software from home. If your school already has an account, they can extend the license to work “at-home” for students and educators. This is a feature that a school admin would have to unlock, but the instructions can be found here if you’d like to share that with them. This feature is open through May 31, 2020. So, maybe don’t get used to having that access.

If you’re an iOS or Android user and need a mobile solution, Adobe Premiere Rush might also be a good solution for your mobile editing needs. It will allow you to edit, add transitions, etc. and the first 3 exports are free before you would need to upgrade to a paid version.

Otherwise, even professional filmmakers often will take advantage of the free trial that Adobe extends to everyone. That 7-day free trial (that often can be extended a second week) can be checked out here. Just remember to cancel or you will be charged!

Avid Media Composer First (Mac, Windows)

Avid has a completely free (but does offer in-app purchases) version of their infamous Media Composer software. While you are limited to four video tracks, six audio tracks, and 5 bins, this is plenty for many editing projects. The main down-side we can see is that while you can import up to 4K footage, your exports are limited to HD (1080p). For many of us in 2021, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but as consumer cameras continue to add the 4K option for shooting, more and more of us are going to want to see our projects in all of their glory. All that being said, this is a GREAT program if you are thinking that you’d like to become a professional editor as it has long been thought of as an industry standard. So, the fact that you can begin getting acclimated to its interface for free makes it worth trying out.

DaVinci Resolve (Mac, Windows)

If you’re an advanced editor looking to jump onto another professional editing platform, maybe you give DaVinci Resolve 16 a shot. There is both a free and a paid version available, with the main differences being additional plugins, support for 4K, 8K and higher resolution, and a number of other more advanced features. While there are some online training they offer for free as well that can be found here. This software is pretty hefty for a first-time filmmaker. So, this may not be the best option if you’re not already super familiar with editing software.

iMovie (Mac, i-devices)

If you are a Mac user, this software was likely pre-loaded, but if not, it’s free for not only Mac’s computer line but also iphones and ipads in the App Store. This streamlined editing software allows you to easily cut together films and comes with some free templates for trailers and the like. Just be aware though that those trailer templates can end up making your films look just like hundreds of others using that software. We encourage you to try to be original as much as you can and avoid these for your AYFF competition and festival entries!

YouTube Studio (Mac and Windows)

If you’re a Youtube user, you may have already run across this feature, but YouTube Studio has an editing feature! While it doesn’t have quite as many features as the other editors we’ve outlined, this could be a good way to make some trims or change out music or audio. There’s a good number of YouTube videos around about these features, but this one takes it step-by-step on how to locate and then utilize them all.

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While we’ve seen TONS of free editing software during our research, we’re only including ones that we’ve personally vetted so far. Do you have some software that you like using that didn’t make this list? Shoot us an email at info@austinyouthfilmfestival.com! We’d love to hear about the pros and cons to other software you’ve used! Do you have some amazing online resources that all filmmakers should know about?! Contact us! Maybe we’ll credit you and add it to a compilation of more recommendations on a future post!