Video production is rapidly becoming a part of mainstream business, whether you’re shooting how-to videos for clients, video blogging for your site, or actually making movies for a living. Of course, all this stuff requires a small fortune in video hardware and software. Well, maybe not software: Free Geekery catalogs 15 freeware programs for filmmakers, everything from screenplay templates to animation software to post-production utilities. Here’s one I hadn’t heard of:
Jahshaka [11.8MB| Freeware | Win All/ Mac/Linux] Need an all-in-one tool to whip your film into shape? Jahshaka might be the free and easy answer to your needs. Jahshaka is a video and film compositing, editing and special fx system that operates in real-time. And if all that wasn’t enough, it also throws in CG, paint and image processing. Jahshaka is comparable to many more expensive programs. Your film will look just as good as those with store-bought programs, but you’ll get smug satisfaction from those extra dollars in your wallet.
Of course, don’t forget the surprisingly capable iMovie and Windows Movie Maker that come bundled with OS X and Windows, respectively. So given all this freeware goodness, it’s now possible to get into mid-level moviemaking with little more than a $250 MiniDV camcorder and a vision. Lights! Camera! Action!
