Video editing defined

• Selecting clips to use in your movie
• Trimming and enhancing clips
• Adding titles and transitions
• Setting the movie to music
• Adding narration if desired

Using video-editing software to make movies

• Editing can greatly improve any video (helps avoid the shaky, interminable "home movies" with constant movement that make viewers dizzy)
  

• Powerful, full-featured video-editing software is cheap ($50 - $100); examples are--
  
• Pinnacle Studio (PC Mag review: http://tinyurl.com/yadzcby); and
• Serif MoviePuls X3 (Videomaker review: http://tinyurl.com/y9gqbf4) 
  

• Basic video-editing software is often included with a camcorder purchase ... and free editing software is available for Windows PCs (Microsoft Movie Maker) and Macs (Apple iMovie)
  

• Three basic steps in editing (demonstration using Pinnacle Studio 12 Trial)
  
• Capture the video (USB or Firewire cable, SD card, etc.) from the camera to the computer
• Edit by dragging clips onto the timeline or storyboard, then trimming and enhancing clips, adding titles, transitions, music, narration
  
• Make or export the movie as a DVD for family or friends, a video to upload to YouTube, etc.
  

Resources: Videomaker article on Basic Video Editing, at http://tinyurl.com/ycsn9sd, and on Getting Started with Free Video Editing Software, at http://tinyurl.com/bwlts3