Technical requirements

To edit with QuickTime Player, you’ll need a Mac computer running macOS Catalina (10.15) or later. QuickTime Player is the macOS default video player that comes pre-installed on your Mac. If you have any file with the .mp4 or .mov extension (which you will if you use the Camera app on an Apple device), it will open automatically in QuickTime when you double-click the file.

Important note

You shouldn’t need to download QuickTime Player. It’s not on the App Store, and you should avoid looking for it on the web. It’s part of the macOS operating system and will be on every Mac. There used to be a version (QuickTime 7) that was available for Windows, but this became unsupported as of 2016. QuickTime downloads advertised online could be scams or viruses, so be careful.

We’ll also be using resources hosted on GitHub. The interactive exercise in this chapter involves putting together different parts of a video called The Timeline. The materials you need for that can be found within the Chapter 1_The Timeline folder within the .zip file provided to you through a download link in the To get the most out of this book section in the Preface. I’d recommend dragging all the files onto your desktop for easy access: when using QuickTime Player, you’ll be doing all of your edits on the desktop. With that, let’s get started on our journey toward editing like a pro.