That's because they were based on the original hardware for linear video editing, which had a metric shitload of buttons and knobs you'd have to know. I could see using a minimal CLI for something like this, but it wouldn't be useful for those guys who learned on linear equipment then had to switch to the nonlinear equipment, which already had a steep learning curve since they were used to a more linear process. I don't know why the author of the article picked Premiere as an example of a "bad UI", because it is pretty close to perfect for that particular time in video editing.
Source: I am experienced in several nonlinear and linear video editing technologies from the 90's and early 2000's, since my father was in the videography business.
It would be useful for somebody who has no experience in video editing, but would like to cut together some footage taken on their phone. And yet, even the video editing software aimed at beginners and novices are crazy complicated.
Oh yea, today we can do so much more with less UI, but I'm not into video editing so I'm not sure of what's available. I'm sure there are simpler apps for regular people now.
Please let me know if you happen to stumble upon one. Every once in a while, I get the desire to take a small clip of a larger video to use as a gifv. I've yet to find a single video editing program that makes this very simple thing easy for somebody who has no idea what he's doing.
In the past, QuickTime (Pro?) was excellent for this sort of thing; you could just mark the section you wanted right in the player window and export a new clip. I don't know what the present situation is with QuickTime, and obviously that's an Apple solution.
There are basically two classes of editors:
* "pro" editors, like Premier, and (old?) Final Cut Pro
* "home" editors, like iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, OpenShot etc.
You want something from the latter category. The general idea is:
1) Add your source video file to a new project
2) Drag that video onto your timeline
3) Edit the timeline to crop your video (various methods depending on user preference)
4) Export your new clip
You haven't mentioned your platform, so lets give a simple example using the free, cross-platform OpenShot:
1) Add your source video file to a new project
2) Drag that video onto your timeline
3) Grab the edges of your video clip in the timeline, and drag them to crop your video
4) Export your new clip
Is this an easy enough method? I think to get any easier than that, you may be looking at a purpose-built tool to do only the simple thing you want, rather than a general purpose editing tool.
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edit: I didn't see your file format requirement. I honestly don't know anything about .gifv; it appears to not actually be a file format at all, but some tomfoolery that Imgur is engaging in? You'll have to export to an actual video format (say webm or mp4) and figure it out from there.
Source: I am experienced in several nonlinear and linear video editing technologies from the 90's and early 2000's, since my father was in the videography business.