I have a recurring nightmare. It goes like this: YouTube and inexpensive digital video cameras existed when I was in middle school. That’s pretty much the whole nightmare but most any adult that experienced the tragedy of early ‘90s middle school style and music knows exactly what I’m talking about.

But then the grown-up me realizes that along with the possibility of creating a whole channel of air bass renditions of every song on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Mother’s Milk album, these advances in video technology mean that amateur videographers and photographers of all ages can make some pretty great things.

Now discounted by as much as 50% in the Intel AppUp® center, Corel Software is the perfect place to start getting creative with video and photography.

With Corel VideoStudio Pro X5 users can edit videos, apply advanced effects, record screen grabs, and create family movies, slideshows, and anything in-between. I like to believe middle school Zach would have edited existential art house films about ennui, but I would have likely just gotten my buddies together and made a movie that was edited to make us look like football players worthy of the Super Bowl. Corel’s effects tools are that good. Corel VideoStudio Pro X5 is on sale, discounted 50% to $39.99.

Corel PaintShop Pro X5 is a powerful photo editing tool. The effects and the HDR technology rock on the Ultrabook™ for lightning-fast photo editing. Corel has updated the software with some great features, including face recognition, and mapping photos to locations. I know exactly what I would have used this one for: touching up my school pictures. Goodbye scrawny dude, hello muscle-bound heartbreaker. Corel PaintShop Pro X5 is now $39.99 in the Intel AppUp center.

After we’ve all created these excellent videos and photos, what do we do with them? Share them with others, of course. WinZip 17 Pro by Corel is there to make the sharing easier. It’s some of the best compression software around and it directly connects to all the important websites. With easy organization and backup features, WinZip 17 Pro is absolutely necessary for today’s video and photo sharing. It would have also been perfect for me to hoard all of the embarrassing videos and photos of friends and then unleash them on the Internet now that we’re all so much older and wiser, but probably not much cooler. Grab this one for $29.95 at the Intel AppUp center.

Head to the Intel AppUp center now for Corel Software. These tools are professional grade with the intuitive design perfect for amateurs. I’ve already downloaded them and I’m currently editing videos of me lip-synching to “Higher Ground.” What. It’s going to be really cool, I promise.