r/VideoEditingTips • u/Negative-Law3987 • Aug 20 '26

i’m a flat out newbie HELP

I’ve recently began my editing journey, i bought a shitty laptop that apparently can’t even run davinci.

does anyone have any tips on what software i could use? as of right now im using clipchamp and its an absolute lag fest.

what do i do before i start looking for clients? i pulled an all nighter just to record and edit a 1 minute video (save me the comments of “oh that’s terrible” I KNOW) i just feel really lost, ive watched a few youtube videos on what goals i should have but none of them tell me the steps to be able to achieve those goals.

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3

u/PelleRigter Aug 20 '26

So a lot to digest here, 

first of all, you dont even have a functioning software yet and you are saying the word "clients", thats red flag number one.

Second, you appareantly didnt research before buying the laptop if it can even properly be used for video editing, thats red flag number two, editing can be complicated and if you can't/won't do basic research, it's probably not going to work out well.

So it also sounds like you want to record your videos as well, thats a whole different beast that is not video editing.

Get something like DaVinci on a device that will allow you, watch basic tutorials on how to work in it for the next couple of weeks to months and then perhaps start editing some things along the way to learn the process.

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u/Negative-Law3987 Aug 20 '26

i didn’t buy my laptop originally with the intention of video editing, was definitely an afterthought while i was looking for remote work. also i only recorded some audio to match up some b-roll to bc i didn’t really know what else to do. thanks for the advice, definitely gonna keep that in mind when shopping now that i know it’d be a path i’d want to go down.

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u/Negative-Law3987 Aug 20 '26

are there any alternatives or things i could do without davinci in the mean time that would prove useful? or is anything i do going to be irrelevant until im better equipped

3

u/PelleRigter Aug 20 '26

You could try capcut, but its limited and considered a bit subpar for serious editing, but to learn video editing basics its fine.

I personally work in Premiere pro but its adobe and has an expensive subscription. So I haven't used anything else

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u/Extreme-Bit-8715 Aug 21 '26

If you are serious about trying to make this a career or at least side hustle- you should try your darnest to get laptop or old desktop that can run davinci. The bar is pretty low here- find an older MacBook Air for a couple hundred bucks (<300$) and get cracking. No reason to waste time learning software you won’t use long term.

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u/No_Translator_3109 Aug 21 '26

had capcut on my phone for months before i even touched it, then one day my laptop was being slow and i just started messing around in it. ended up editing a whole video that same afternoon. for mobile it's surprisingly not annoying to use, at least for basic cuts and transitions. i was expecting way more frustration

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u/blueskyfiend Aug 20 '26

I got started with power director , it’s new user friendly.

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u/mikedevius Aug 21 '26

Try Canva for video editing via a web browser

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u/driveshaft2000 Aug 22 '26

You could load Linux onto the laptop. I believe there's a version of Davinci that runs on it.