Make a short movie using clips stored on your computer’s hard drive without installing any third-party applications.
Recording videos with your smartphone and saving them on your computer’s hard drive often ends up in the same way for all users. Clips accumulate, take up the little storage left on your machine, and never get watched. To put an end to this bad habit, why not do a quick edit to create a structured and staged video to better take advantage of these forgotten memories and thus get rid of these unnecessary rushes?
On Windows, there are many free video editing software, often very comprehensive, aimed at all audiences. But if you don’t want to have to dive into a tool that’s too complex, it’s entirely possible to do simple video editing using the Photos application, which is natively installed on Windows 10. Here’s how to use it.
1. Create a new video
Launch the Photos app on your PC. On the main page that appears, click on the New video button (1) then choose to create a New video project (2). Then enter the name of the video you are about to make.
2. Import content into your project
Before you start editing your movie, you need to import all of the video clips you want to use into your project. To do this, click on the Add button (1) and choose the source from which you want to import your clips. Wait a few moments for Photos to import the media into your project.
3. Insert your clips
The interface of the editing tool integrated in Photos is divided into three parts: the videos you plan to use for your movie are grouped on the left, the preview of the current edit is in the right pane, while the banner at the bottom, Storyboard, is none other than the part on which you are going to work.
To import the first clip that will constitute your film, drag and drop the file directly from the Project library to the Storyboard strip.
4. Add a title
If you want, you can start your movie by adding a short intro. To do this, choose to Add Title Card. This should automatically be selected and visible in your project’s preview pane. Use the toolbar at your disposal to modify the Duration, add Text or even customize the Background.
5. Edit your clips
Chances are, the videos you imported into your project are too long. To give your movie some consistency, select a clip and edit it using the Trim, or Split function.
The first will allow you to select exactly the portion to keep, while the second will be used to split a video into two clips. You will only have to act on the displayed cursors to select the passage or indicate where the video should be trimmed.
6. Add effects
To give rhythm to your editing, the tool offers a number of effects. You will be able to add Text in your clips, apply a Motion effect, 3D Effects, Filters or even modify the Speed ​​of an extract.
7. Insert sound wrap and customize the theme
To finalize your editing, you will be able to integrate a Background Music among the predefined musics in the program with the possibility of synchronizing your video with the rhythm of the music, or select a personalized Audio file from your hard disk.
In addition, if it is possible to keep your montage as it is, you can also choose to apply one of the Themes predefined in the application. Click on the options menu represented by three small dots (1) and enter Themes (2).
After you’ve chosen your theme and applied it to your montage, the music and skin for your movie should be changed.
8. Export your movie
When all the elements that make up your video are ready, you can preview the finalized movie by selecting the first clip (1) and playing the movie from the preview window (2).
If the project suits you, you can export your movie. To do this, click on End the video (3).
Select the quality of the final video (High in 1080p, Medium in 720p and Low in 540p) and click Export and choose a save location on your machine. The process of exporting your movie starts, and depending on the performance of your machine, the time it takes to export your project may take more or less time.