[SallyintNorth]

Well, so I have some footage of a gilt giving birth to her first piglet.  The piglet is not in shot at the point of birth, unfortunately, but it's interesting to see the sow's reactions.  (In fact, I suspect it's interesting to see all three of the first-timer gilt, the first-timer owner and the new-to-the-world piglet!)

I'll need to edit the vid (it's 15 mins long, piglet born at 5:15, quite a few shots of my bum I might like to remove) and host it somewhere, I guess.

I need recommendations and instructions for very simple video editing tools (free) and also for video hosting, please.

[suziequeue]

Are you PC or Mac SitN??

Most computers now come with a little generic video editing software attached.

Have you managed to upload the video on your computer?

[SallyintNorth]

Hi SuzieQ

I use Windows 7 most of the time although I do have an old iBook.

I have the video uploaded onto the laptop and we've watched it.  There are some magical moments but it's 15 minutes long so really I'd like to do a 'highlights' to post on the internet.

I did right-mouse Open with ... to see what Windows offered but it only offered Real Player or Windows Media Player.  I couldn't see any editing options in Media Player.

[Dan]

Hi Sally

Your old iBook should have a version of iMovie on it - it is a simple editing application and can export in most formats suitable for hosting online. It's what I use for our videos.

Alternatively you can download Windows Live Movie Maker here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/products/features/movie-maker

For hosting we use Vimeo, but if you want the biggest audience there's no beating YouTube.

HTH, happy to help more if I can. 

[Norfolk Newby]

A couple of months ago a local organisation where I am a volunteer (it is a credit union) wanted to make a short film about itself. I offered to help and downloaded Windows Live Movie Maker from this web site:

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker

which is free and runs on a Windows 7 PC.

It can combine short lengths of film together with still photos (.JPG file) and sound files (.MP3 files) which in my case were a mixture of speech and music. You can edit the film cutting out what you don't want. It also allows you to fade the ends of the film into the photos so that you don't get and instant change.This looks more professional. You can then add titles and credits. The software is fairly intuitive to use.

You may want to edit sound files as well and I use a program called Audacity which is also free to download:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

It can do all sorts of editing of sound files; removing clicks and other noise, adding echo, changing pitch etc.

Together these two programs will do most of what you want and the end result will look very good. You can save the film as a .WMV file which is fairly compact while being good enough to display on a large TV screen. You can also make a compressed version which can be sent with an email or posted on YouTube.

This is the result of our local effort

Wayland Bank

It was the result of a dozen or so people so I can't claim much credit for myself but it might give you an idea of what you can achieve yourself.