Video and podcast editing

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Regardless of whether you have recorded a screen capture video, a lecture in a Unitube lecture hall or a podcast in a studio, the produced video and audio files often need to be edited before publishing. The University of Helsinki has chosen to recommend and offer a few tools for this purpose with the idea that the threshold to use them isn't too high and, if necessary, support and training can be offered if you wish to use video in teaching with the maximal pedagogical effect.

The primary user-friendly video editor supported by the university is ScreenPal. For ultralight editing, we also recommend and support the use of LosslessCut. You can read more about support and training on its own page.

ScreenPal for general video editing
Losslesscut for quick and easy edits
Clipchamp - Browser-based online video editor
Audacity for audio file editing
Other editing tools

ScreenPal for general video editing

To both staff and students, the university offers a paid license for ScreenPal (Windows, Mac) which is a handy program for producing screen capture videos and the most common video editing features including greenscreen effects and adding your own images and texts on top of the video. The audio track of the video can also be saved as a file, music can be added to the video and you can re-record, for example, speech parts that went wrong. 

ScreenPal instructions

  1. Instructions for ScreenPal on the Helpdesk-pages (in English)
  2. Videos in Unitube on the use of ScreenPal (in Finnish - but check out ScreenPal's own tutorials in English!)
  3. Student's digital skills -course: light editing with ScreenPal-tutorial (in English)
Kuva: ScreenPal-ohjelman Tools-valikko

 

Losslesscut for quick and easy edits

If your goal is simply to trim a specific part of a video, such as the beginning and end, the quickest and easiest way to do that is to use the LosslessCut video editor. LosslessCut can edit the video without heavy and time-consuming re-encoding, so even hour-long lecture hall videos are saved quickly after editing. For the same reason, however, the program is not suitable for more versatile video editing, such as combining videos from different sources.

The program can be installed on university-managed computers via the Software Center and for home computers, LosslessCut can be downloaded for free from the program's GitHub page.

At its simplest, you can trim the beginning and end of a video in four steps:

  1. Open the video file in the LosslessCut program.
  2. Select the position on the timeline where you want the video to start and press the left finger button in the timeline action menu - everything to the left of this position will be removed.
  3. Select the position on the timeline where you want the video to end and press the right finger button - everything to the right of this position on the video timeline will be removed.
  4. Press Export and save the trimmed video.
Picture of the editing view in LosslessCut

Clipchamp - Browser-based online video editor

The Microsoft 365 university license includes the Clipchamp video editor, which works with Chrome-based browsers (not Firefox!). As a browser and web-based application, Clipchamp works on most platforms (at least Windows, macOS, Linux, Chromebook). For those who use M365 products (Teams, OneDrive) extensively, the program allows for quite versatile video editing as well as screen capture functionalities similar to ScreenPal, but Clipchamp always requires an internet connection. 

Kuva Clipchamp-videoeditorin näkymästä

Clipchamp is continuously evolving as part of the Microsoft 365 product family and also includes AI features such as text-to-speech functionality, which allows you to write the narrator's voice for the video if you do not want to speak in the video yourself. The finished video is conveniently saved in OneDrive.

Technical inquiries about Clipchamp, as well as other M365 products, can be directed to: helpdesk@helsinki.fi

Audacity for audio file editing

The free software Audacity is perhaps the most well-known audio file editing program in the world. For centrally maintained computers it can be installed from the Software Center, and for home computers from the program's homepage. With Audacity, you can cut audio files like you'd cut video and also combine multiple audio tracks, even overlapping them. For example, the podcast studio equipment typically creates multi-track audio files.

Other editing tools

At the University of Helsinki you may find other video editing programs besides the aforementioned ones through, for example, the Software Center. However, these are generally provided without any support or instructions, so their utilization depends on the user's own initiative. Additionally, there may be other options available for Mac and Linux computers that are not available for Windows.

Advanced editing

It is possible to install the free DaVinci Resolve (Win/Mac) on work computers, which is a professional-level video editing program. Premiere Pro is quite commonly used and available to purchase for university computers, instructions for purchasing Adobe-software in Flamma.

Apple devices

Mac and iPad/iPhone users have Apple's own iMovie video editor at their disposal, which is a good lightweight editor to use instead of ScreenPal.

Editors also available for Linux

On the university's Windows computers, you can install the fairly versatile Kdenlive video editor yourself from the Software Center, which is also available for home computers - including the Linux operating system.