Before the digital revolution, videos — like still photographs — were actually shot on film. Editing them involved cutting out individual frames and splicing the filmstrip back together, a tedious and expensive process that resulted in lots of little plastic squares on the cutting room floor. You also had to move through all previous footage to reach the scenes you wanted to edit, more or less requiring you to edit the film in the order in which you shot it.
These things, along with expensive equipment and production costs made producing a video for many nonprofits or libraries a pipe dream. But times have changed and now editing video is easier than ever before and the costs of equipment, production, and editing tools are ever-decreasing.
Today, software makes editing digital footage faster, easier, and much more affordable, and puts it within reach of anyone with a personal computer. Even better, digital video editing is “nonlinear,” which means you can access the scenes you want to edit directly. This helps speed up the process, especially for a short, Internet-ready video for which you just need to trim off the ends and add a title screen or two.
