We very quickly outgrew the free/cheapie editing software such as Windows Movie Maker and Pinnacle. WMM can't use MPEG video and the titling is basic at best. Pinnacle is a little better, but still is a very consumer-oriented product best suited to home movie editing. To do things like make a compelling welcome video for the website, or have the ability to include readable titles that show the scripture passages in a sermon, you really need to step up from there.

The first step up is Adobe Premiere Elements. At $100 (or $60 for non-profits, and WELS churches can get this deal through Insight Public Sector) it does a very nice job of handling sermon video. Sometimes, after about the fourth or fifth title placement, the software gets unstable, so make sure you hit the 'save' button often. Normalizing audio is very easy, and managing fade-in/fade-out is a snap. You can really do a lot with this, and for a church of less than 200 members that really doesn't need to do extensive graphics or animation, but might like to manage camera angle switches in post-production and maybe do some basic video loops, this is a really great deal for the money. You even get some stock audio, so you can add a soundtrack to your videos and not worry about copyright.

The next step up, for when you need to incorporate animated graphic, put together more complex compositions and produce content to support various ministries is to go all the way to Adobe CS4 Production Premium. Don't let the $1,700 retail price tag scare you, Insight Public Sector can get it for you for a mere $600. This is the real deal, a fully professional video management studio that includes everything from PhotoShop and Illustrator for print work, Premiere Pro, Flash and After Effects for Video, and a neat tool called On Location that helps capture video.

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