Video Transfer: Do I need a special app/program to transfer videos from my laptop to a cd or flash drive

If they are just .mov,.mp4, HEVC, WMV, AVI etc. video files you can copy/burn them the same as any other file.

If you are copying a DVD or DVD files (MPEG2 .IFO, .BUP, .VOB files), then yes, you need Roxio Toast or other DVD authoring app.