Some people don't have computers, it's true. They don't have the money, family never bought one, and the schools don't have one either. Or there may be computers available but you can't put the editing software on them. Maybe you don't have administrator program installing privileges or you once broke the computer before so your mom won't let you do that anymore. Maybe you have the right software but can't get the footage from your camera to the computer.

Whatever the reason you don't have a computer to edit with, don't quit just yet. There are other ways to edit a movie shot on video.

Start/Stop Videotaping TV

This is the lowest quality solution but may yield the most interesting results. It requires a player to play the original footage on a television and a camcorder pointed at the TV set up to record just the footage you need. You do this until you have recorded all the footage in the order you want it to be seen.

VCR To VCR Editing

Similar to the above method but will save you some quality loss by connecting the VCRs directly to each other instead of recording via the TV output to a camcorder. You use one VCR to record the footage and use the other to cue up the footage and play it. Clearly you'll still need a TV to cue up the original footage, but the recording VCR needn't have a TV attached till you want to view the finished product.

Cutting Splicing Tape

If you only have access to a single VCR or camcorder you have little choice but to cut the footage and attach them back together in hopes that it will come out in the order you want. This is best used with a VCR that you can take the cover off of and properly mark the places where footage starts and ends. This method will be tedious and not a skill that will be very useful otherwise.

In-Camera Editing

If you have the foresight to consider editing before you shoot footage you can simply shoot everything in the proper order the first time and not have to actually edit. This may make things rather unwieldy if your production includes lots of location hopping, but won't be too much of a pain on smaller films that are shot in the same general area.

Shoot In Single Takes

This is the ultimate in-camera editing. Just make the whole movie in one long shot. It will significantly limit what you can do with the film, but can also flex your creativity like nothing else. So come up with a way to do it all without stopping the camera; stage it all in one place, build a bunch of sets right next to each other, or come up with creative transitions where you can insert some voiceover while you run to the next location.

Just don't whine about your position, use what you got. If you feel some of these techniques wouldn't work for the type of film you want to do, then use them for a lesser film. In the process of directing we go through stages and all of us will be in a stage like these if we don't have a lot of resources. There's nothing wrong with making do what you have, in fact it might help you see some options you would have otherwise overlooked. Take what is in front of you and use it to the greatest effect and THAT skill will serve you well throughout your filmmaking career.