Do not confuse a Shotcut " project file " (with a  .MLT  extension) with a video file (with extensions like  .MP4 ,  .AVI ,  .MOV ,  .M4V , etc.).  They are not the same.  Uploading a .MLT project file to the edTPA video web site will do you absolutely no good whatsoever.   You can think of a project file as a recipe (i.e., the list of ingredients and steps required) for making a video, and not the video itself.  Project files are quite small (with sizes measured in kilobytes (KB) compared to typical video files (with sizes measured in megabytes (MB), or even gigabytes (GB)).  Shotcut project files sometimes come in handy when individuals are working on a complex editing task, and need to turn off their computer before the task is complete.  When they restart their machine at a later time, they can open the  .MLT  project file and pick up where they left off instead of having to start from the beginning again.  Since the tasks students need to perform while editing their edTPA videos are quite simple, it is not necessary for them to create Shotcut project files.

To create a video file, rather than a . MLT  project file, in Shotcut:

1. Click the  Export  button on the right of the Shotcut button bar at the top of the screen.  (See  Figure 1 ,   below.)  ( Do not  open the  File  menu and click the  Save or Save As  options as you would normally do in a program like a word processor.)
2. Click the  Export File  button at the bottom of the  Export  window (as shown in Figure 2 , below).
3. In the  Export File  window that now opens, navigate to the location where you would like to save the video, provide the file with an appropriate name, and click the  Save  button at the bottom to complete the process.

Figure 2:    The image below shows the Shotcut  Export  window with the Export File  button highlighted in red.