If you’re a scientist planning on making videos, one thing that you are going to need is video editing software. But what software should you use? If you are just getting started (and even if you aren’t), we recommend using HitFilm Express.

First things first: we aren’t being paid to give you this recommendation. In fact, we have never been in touch with anyone associated with HitFilm Express.

HitFilm Express (shown above) is a stripped down version of HitFilm Pro, which is video editing and special effects software intended for video professionals. The good news is that the features that were stripped out are things that amateur video producers are unlikely to need. The even better news is that HitFilm Express is free and available for both Macs and PCs.

Despite being free, HitFilm Express has really powerful capabilities, far more powerful than any other free video editing software that we have tried. HitFilm Express will offer to sell you various add-on packs to add even greater capability, but even the base version will almost certainly give you everything that you’ll need.

Here’s the link to download the software. Do note that the download page implies strongly that you need to mention them on social media in order to complete the download. You can ignore this suggestion.

SciFund Challenge has a lot of advice for beginners on how to use HitFilm Express in our Video for Scientists class. Here’s the relevant section of the class material.