Some useful free software for students

The following are some free software packages that any budding Digital Media pro should consider for their system.

Celtx
When it comes to free screenwriting software, Celtx is your best bet. It’s not the best screenwriting software in the world, but you can’t beat the price, and it does offer a number of pre-production features like storyboard integration and scheduling. There’s also a mobile version for iPads and iPhones. Free on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Handbrake
If you’re ripping a DVD these days, I doubt you’re outputting to a blank DVD — instead, you’re probably exporting to a file on your laptop, Apple TV, media server, or mobile device. Handbrake is your best bet for converting an old-fashioned disc into a high-quality (legal or illegal… ) copy. Also cross-platform (Mac, Windows, etc).

VLC Player
VLC is free video player. You know how sometimes if you try to open a video in Windows Media Player or Quicktime it won’t play? VLC handles many more formats than either of those default video players. As they say on the VLC site, “it plays everything!” Works pretty well on underpowered computers, as well. Free on all OSes.

Audacity
GarageBand ships with every new Mac and is great for recording music. But if you’d like a simpler way to record audio for, say, a podcast or interview, Audacity is a free (and lighter) alternative. It records live audio from any source, imports and exports a variety of formats, and allows you to apply a variety of filters and edit multitrack audio. It’s cross-platform software that is available for Mac, PC and Linux.

MPEG Streamclip
Now that Quicktime Pro has gone the way of the dodo, Apple’s own native video application has gotten a bit over-simplified in its video-conversion abilities. MPEG Streamclip steps in as a great free transcoding app. It’s a great option for batch-conversion of files as well (as I mention in the DSLR Guide). Mac and Windows.

Cyberduck
If you have your own website you’re probably transferring files to and from the site using an FTP program. Cyberduck is an often-updated, free Mac FTP app.

FileZilla
If you’re on Windows and are looking for an alternative to Cyberduck, try FileZilla (as with all the other options in this email, it’s free).

GiMP
Don’t have Photoshop or want something that loads a bit faster? Check out the free image editor GiMP, which is actually quite powerful in addition to being free. Available on Windows and Mac (for the latter, you’ll have to click through to the sister project GiMP on Mac OS X).

*ITB ACCEPTS NO LIABILITY FOR THE EFFECTS THAT THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE MAY HAVE ON YOUR END USER SYSTEM. ANY DECISION TO INSTALL SUCH SOFTWARE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK*