Cheap/free/open-source mac software for video editing?

I’ve tried iMovie but it feels a little too dumbed down. I’d like to export things in 4:3 for instance, but iMovie only supports 16:9. Since I’m a beginner I’d rather not spend 300 dollars on a professional program.

Any recommendations?

I found https://shotcut.org/. Looks promising so far!

Iv been using olive video editor for years and think it is great - quite basic but does everything i need it to and has an intuitive interface (for me)

DaVinci Resolve

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Thanks!

I’d have to retract my opinion on Shotcut – It crashed several times already for no apparent reason.

Will try Olive and DaVinci…

…sorry i was so short - usually i try to add a few words but did not have time yesterday…

…DaVinci has a very steep learning curve but can do a lot and beginning working with it for me the secret was to get just the basics done and only later touch the more advanced topics…

…what i found really helpful with DaVinci was that there are thousands of 2-3-minute-clips on Youtube answering questions about features and workflow very specific and compact so if a problem develops during an edit-session it is usually solved within minutes…

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Gonna +1 Davinci Resolve. The free version is pretty full-featured and offers a lot of headroom to get fancy if that’s something you want later. As fairplay mentioned, the tutorials are ubiquitous and pretty easy to find.

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I tend to jump between different open source video editors depending on my needs as each has their own up and downsides

Blender VSE
If you are already familiar with Blender this may be the easiest and most stable to use. It’s cross-platform and as stable as Blender (which is quite stable for me). However, there aren’t many effects and adding things like titles and anything beyond colour adjustments requires community addons or doing it in other software

Kdenlive
I use this a few times a year when I’m doing more complex editing. Not as stable as Blender but is more like a video editor than Blender and has all of the effects and editing features you might want from an editor.

I would recommend Olive too but I noticed that the developer recently warned that development may stop. So, use at your own risk.

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Ah thats a shame about olive development ! Hope they are sble to continue.

But for my basic editing needs the version im running is just fine. Theres a few features/bug fixes i wish it had but its very useable as is for me…

As a professional editor who has been using NLEs since the late 90s, Davinci Resolve is the best thing out there right now. They also have free learning courses on their site and you can get certified with a short open book test online at the end too. Very recommend.

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I just tried Davinci and I really like it. It’s very intuitive. Very thumbs up!

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