I’ve edited more than my fair share of videos in my time.
For free and assuming you are on windows of whatever version you should look no further than MS Windows Moview Maker (MSWMM). Intuitive and easy to use but you will very quickly realise its limitations.
The next step is to find a copy of Adobe Premiere Elements (APE). Shouldn’t be too difficult to get a copy for free, e.g. version 7 is many years old now and will be in many peoples rubbish pile but it still works well. I use version 10 which I bought for the princely sum of twenty of your english pounds. APE is much more advanced and has loads of different options over and above the usual different ways of fading from one scene to another.
However it is a total pig to learn, took me over 12 months. I kept on going back to MSWMM until I finally bit the bullet and learned how to at least make a basic movie on it by viewing various hints and tips on youtube.
I don’t own any apple products so am unable to comment on their offerings other than I have seen stuff edited using Final Cut which is apple specific and it looks very nice. I have no idea if this is free or needs to be bought but that bloke at google can probably tell you.
