Basic Video Editing, Part 1

So, once you've figured what editing software is in your price range, naturally you might want some help on how to edit if you have never done it before. Well, that is my plan for the next few days... to give you some basic video editing tips and techniques. I hope you find it helpful. I promise that I'll get into some deeper explanations down the road, but let's keep it simple to start off with. Here's what I dug up from some video editing websites:

So you've got a camera and you've gone out and shot some video with it. Sooner or later you're going to want to understand how to do Basic Video Editing.

Editing video is not as difficult as it may sound; a little planning up front will save you time and assure you satisfied viewers. In any given trip to the zoo, you might shoot 45 minutes' or an hour's worth of video, about five minutes of which is worth watching. The quickest way to get your friends to eternally forswear watching your work is to show them your raw footage so you need to edit it.

Most camcorders sold today record onto either a built-in hard drive or removable memory cards that connect directly to your computer and mount like a hard drive, allowing you to easily transfer your footage. If your camcorder doesn't - if, for example, it records onto DVD or even onto tape - then you'll have another step between the camera and editing which will depend on your camcorder (you'll need to see the manual for more information on that).
You're going to edit your footage in some application, of which there are many. A version might have come with your camera, you might have found one online or you may have purchased one in the store. To make things even easier, both Windows and Macintosh operating systems come with their own basic video editing software (Apple's iMovie and Microsoft's MovieMaker).

SOURCE: http://www.videomaker.com/article/14223/