VideoPad

A friend asked me the other day whether I knew of a simple program to edit video files. After one minute of research, I discovered that the default Movie player in Windows 10 enables one to trim video files, i.e. extract a portion of an existing file and save this portion to a new file. I checked that this indeed does work and passed the tip on.

The next time that we discussed this topic, she said that the player didn't work on her computer and that it was 'LimitedWare', that it [presumably the editing functionality] stops working after a certain time. It may be so but that doesn't interest me. Someone else had suggested a program called VideoPad which I saw on her desktop when we had a zoom chat. I intuited that this program could put together several video files in order to create a composite movie.

Today I downloaded and installed the program; I used it to create a movie of clips which my wife had filmed of our garden and balconies. I wanted to see whether this program could replace the venerable (but painful) Microsoft Movie Maker. On the basis of the short film which I made, the answer is YES! There are both time line and storyboard views as well as transitions. I didn't see whether the possibility of turning a picture by 90 degrees exists, but I suspect that it does. Fewer transitions between two clips are available in VP than in MMM, but the existing ones are sufficient as normally I only use fades and cross-fades .

Extra advantages: the program accepts both mp4 and mov files without the need to convert them to wmv, which saves time. The program can output to a variety of formats, where mp4 is the default, as well as to ISO format in order to burn a DVD. In other words, VideoPad is much better than MMM for these functions.

Summing up: it seems that VideoPad is anywhere between the same and infinitely better than MMM, so I will definitely use it for my next movie project. Except that I can't imagine what this next project might be as the possibility of a holiday abroad is currently 0%. 

One idea which I had was as follows: in 'the old days' before we had a video camera which directly created computer files (since 2013), I used to transfer video cassettes directly to DVDs, without any editing. I could take such a dvd, upload it into a computer as one huge file then cut it into myriad pieces, each one a 'scene'. Then I could recombine chosen pieces in order to create a more coherent movie. Of course, the quality won't be so high as my current movies, as the very first step was analog to digital, but there won't be any further loss of quality along the way. I have to admit that such a project currently has a very low possibility of happening.

Another more up-to-date and ongoing project is to make a compilation of grand-daughter number two in her first steps. 

I am 'coming out of the bunker' and going back to work in my office tomorrow. The major thing that I am going to miss is the quiet of home; I haven't heard a word of Russian in six weeks. I suspect that whilst working I will listen to music through headphones for most of the time. I will wear a mask every time that I leave my minimal work space, although I don't know what to do about gloves - especially when going to the toilet. I don't particularly want to use eight pairs of gloves a day, but on the other hand, I don't want to touch 'communal surfaces' with my bare hands.

[Edit: frequent hand washing replaces the need for gloves]