Fast, Cheap, Easy Way to Learn to Edit Video

There are no shortage of books on digital video editing, but many of us require a more hands-on approach to learning challenging new technical skills. But often our budgets and/or schedules prevent us from signing up for a class -- presuming there's even one that's geographically accessible.

So what to do if you're understandably flummoxed about wading through dense how-to manuals, and yearn to have a real expert walk you through the steps -- painlessly and affordably?

Lynda.com to the rescue!

If you haven't already encountered this online training bonanza, you're in for a treat.

The educational enterprise, which has been around since the dawn of the Web, now offers a whopping 627 courses on the ins and outs of a huge variety of software mostly pertaining to the creative arts, from Flash to Photoshop. Each course contains a series of video "chapters" that are each only a few minutes long -- 39,400 in all.

We routinely recommend the Final Cut classes to still photographers who are making the leap to multimedia -- and, in fact, to anyone who wants to learn how to edit digital video. There's something in every sequence for practitioners of all levels, from beginners to established pros.

Specifically:

Final Cut Express 4 Essential Training (2:47), taught by Lonzell Watson.

Final Cut Express HD 3.5 Essential Training (6:05), taught by Richard Harrington .

And everyone involved in moviemaking can benefit from this introductory course:

Digital Video Principles (2:35), taught by Larry Jordan. Need to get up to speed (or refresh your memory) on concepts such as progressive, interlaced, frame rate, data rate, fps, aspect ratio, sample rate, resolution, waveform? Here's where to start.

Mastered all that? Larry Jordan also teaches nearly two dozen Final Cut Pro classes for lynda.com, adding up to more than 100 hours of online instruction. As we said, something for everyone.

The company's founder, Lynda Weinman, is herself an accomplished Web designer and prominent graphics educator. She has made sure that her own faculty are not only experts in their respective fields, but also top communicators and teachers in their own right.

Learn at your own pace, at your convenience, in the privacy of your own home or office. You can spend as much or as little time as you want on each "lesson," and go back as often as you need. While you'll normally want to undertake an entire course, in its prescribed sequence, sometimes you'll just want to search for and dip into individual lessons as needed.

About ten percent of each course's videos are offered for free, on a "try before you buy" basis.

Now here's the best news.

You can get ALL these courses for ONE fee, which is less than the cost of a single how-to book. The all-you-can-eat price is only $25 per month -- even less if you get a $250 annual subscription.

Register here, and let us know what you think!