For years I used ScreenFlow, which offers a paid upgrade every couple of years, and doesn’t update the old versions when OS upgrades break them. There was a time when I was making promotional videos almost every week for a nonprofit, and at the time I thought some of the specific features of ScrenFlow were worth paying for.

I’ve gotten good enough with Blender3D that, assuming some kind soul posted a tutorial, I’d be able to do just about any video effect I can think of. But I ask students to do a lot of multimedia projects, and I don’t see myself recommending the Blender video editor to students. (Way too many options, and way too many ways to close a window or switch accidentally into a different mode.)

I’ve been looking for something with an easy learning curve, and I had some unscheduled time today, so I thought I’d give Open Shot Video Editor a chance.

It did crash on me twice, and I had to look online for how to make it stop assuming I wanted to animate elements when I was trying to give them a new permanent place.

I haven’t explored all the options, but it got the job done.