Free good video editing software?

I watch HBO's TRUE BLOOD religiously, and the format is as follows:

1) Show opens and goes on until there is a surprise element
2) Cuts to title and theme song
3) Theme ends and show continues
4) Ends on a cliffhanger
5) Following show picks up from last show's cliffhanger scene; process repeats

I want to make the episodes into a movie. Nothing fancy, I just want to isolate a title scene, move it to the front of the film, and link all the episodes together into a larger file. Make it look more cinematic.

I have all of the first season in AVI format.

What's some good free software to edit clips together? Windows Movie Maker won't allow me to add more than one video stream like I'm thinking I need to do; at least not one that would allow for clean editing. I'll probably need to trim frame by frame, to remove end credits and streamline the different videos.

I'm a complete noob to all of this stuff, just playing around. I thought getting into editing might be something I'd enjoy.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks to all!

[GoldnGT]

WMM provides a lot of tools that other software out there does as well. Its gonna be VERY hard pressed to find another software that will do the things that WMM will do for free.

As far as one that will do what you are wanting... Adobe Premiere CS4 will do everything you are looking for. But again.. you asked for free software...

WMM is good if you give it some time. you will just have to edit every video you have and remove the parts you don't want, save it down and then after you've got all your bits made, start a new project and bring them in. It gets kinda tedious but its not too bad. I'll send you a PM..

[rack04]

Originally Posted by kzm007

I want to make the episodes into a movie. Nothing fancy, I just want to isolate a title scene, move it to the front of the film, and link all the episodes together into a larger file. Make it look more cinematic.

What do you mean "title scene, move it to the front of the film"? Do you want to burn to DVD in DVD format?

[GoldnGT]

I think he means that the "opening scene" from the TV show, he only wants in there one time instead of every time there's a new episode starting. I'm sure he'll look to burn to DVD in the end though.

[rack04]

How did you get the videos to avi without knowing how to edit? Nevermind, don't answer that.

The easiest is FAVC. It will take all the episodes and create a custom menu. This is a very easy/basic program. There isn't much you can change in the output. Please also note that you need to have the proper audio and video codecs installed, .NET framework Version 2, and AviSynth v2.56a installed. Here is a guide to get you started:

http://www.digital-digest.com/articl...ide_page1.html

[shilala]

I'll warn you, you'll want to kill yourself before you're done.
I just got all of season one True Blood for my daughter. They were in .mkv format and I transcoded them to mp4 and dumped them on her ipod touch.
It was easy.
To make one long episode without all the filler would be sheer hell, and it'd take me all day.
(Even with cs4, because the rendering would take forever without transcoding to something it can work with. I don't even know if Premiere supports .mkv format.)
I use Xillisoft Converter to do all my transcoding prior to using Premier. It makes things a lot easier. It's still long, painful,, torturous, and I hate it.

[rack04]

Originally Posted by shilala

They were in .mkv format and I transcoded them to mp4 and dumped them on her ipod touch.

One clarification. MKV and MP4 are multimedia containers. You were actually encoding the video inside the container. For Ipod conversions my process is long but it ensures playback compliance and quality. I can explain further is anybody actually cares.

In reference to Justin's thread, they showed up as AVI lol.

Michael's right, I just want to pull the title sequence to the front and snap all the episodes together.

I wouldn't be burning any DVDs. 12 hours of footage would kill anyone...maybe it's best left as is. I just wanted to know if it could be done easily.

[rack04]

Originally Posted by kzm007

In reference to Justin's thread, they were DLed as AVI. Michael's right, I just want to pull the title sequence to the front and snap all the episodes together.

I wouldn't be burning any DVDs. 12 hours of footage would kill anyone...maybe it's best left as is. I just wanted to know if it could be done easily.

It can be done but it is far from easy.

[shilala]

I agree with Justin. I'd use the fast forward button.
I have a cheapo $42.00 walmart hdmi upconvert dvd player and I can burn a dozen or so xvid avi's on one dvd.
Works great.