to show me a video of his trip to the
hills. By the time it was finished, I
could have trekked the hills myself.
The poor guy didn’t have a clue how to
edit his footage. He’s one of the many
digital video camera owners who don’t
know how to get what they’ve shot into
viewable shape.
Before you shout “Action!” make sure
that you have a few of these hardware
and software necessities stacked beside
your director’s chair.
FireWire: If you want to edit digital video,
your PC and video camera must have
FireWire ports. The good news is that
nearly all PCs sold in the last couple of
years come with FireWire ports built in.
If your system lacks one, you can buy a
FireWire add-in card.
Hard-disk space: One hour of digital
video uses about 13GB of hard-disk
space. To have enough room to edit the
video, you’ll need at least 40GB of free
storage space. And keep in mind that
your fi nished movie, stored on your hard
drive, will eat up space there, too.
Operating systems: Windows XP, 2000,
and NT are better operating system
options for editing digital video because
they put no limitation on fi le size. Depending
on the particular version you have,
Windows 98 and Me limit fi le size to 2GB
or 4GB, which translates into either 10 or
20 minutes of continuous video.
Processor speed and RAM: Because video
is so data rich, you’ll need a machine
that’s speedier than a 750-MHz Pentium
4 PC. Though it’s possible to edit video
on a slower system, your work will suffer
from jerky motion and long waits as the
monster video fi le bogs down the CPU.
Because the amount of RAM your PC
has affects its performance, I recommend
having at least 256MB of RAM installed.
Here’s some quick and simple
post-production advice for anyone to do
digital videography.
Pick your program: Windows XP’s Service
Pack 2 includes the free Movie Maker 2.1
application. To open it, click Start, All
Programs, Accessories, Windows Movie
Maker. This basic program’s Movie Tasks
pane in the upper left takes you step-bystep
through the process of creating your
video (see Figure 1). Adobe’s Premiere
Elements, a more full-featured editing
program, offers special effects, titling,
and the ability to burn a DVD right from
the software, among other features. If
you eventually decide to make the leap to
Adobe’s professional-level app, Premiere
Pro, you’ll be able to use all the tricks
you’ve learned in the lower-cost package
because the interfaces are remarkably
consistent. All three programs take you
from getting raw footage into your PC to
outputting polished video.
Import your video: To move video from
your camcorder to your hard drive, connect
your PC and camcorder with a
FireWire cable, turn the camcorder on,
and open your video editing software. The
program should recognize the camera
automatically. In most video editing
programs, the Capture command
opens a window containing VCR-like
controls for playing, stopping, fastforwarding,
and rewinding. Give your
video clips names that will jog your
memory about their content when
you’re ready to start editing.
Edit your footage: The simplest way to
edit your movie is to put the clips into
your software’s timeline in the order
you prefer. The timeline shows your
movie in frame-by-frame sequence
(see Figure 2). Once all of your clips are
displayed on the timeline, select each clip
in turn and set the “in” and “out” points.
These are the frames that mark where
each video clip begins and ends. Essentially,
you’re trimming the tops and tails from
your clips to remove unwanted pieces.
Add fi lters and transitions: When you’re
satisfi ed with the order and duration of
the clips, you’re ready to fashion them
into a movie. It’s possible that all your
clips look similar, but chances are you’ll
want to tweak at least a few of them to
give the whole group a more consistent
appearance. For example, you might fi nd
that some clips are brighter or more colorful
than others. Your editing program
should contain filters that allow you to
adjust a scene’s brightness, contrast, and
color balance. Bear in mind, though, that
there’s a limit to how fi nely you can polish
poorly lit or jerky footage.
You’re better off shooting well-lit video
in the fi rst place; a small camera-mount-
ed light will help keep your interior shots
bright. A battery-powered light that fi ts
into the accessory shoe on the top of your
camera will provide a steady level of additional
front light.
When you’re satisfied with how your
clips look, add transitions to smooth shifts
between clips or to add dramatic impact.
Your video editing software likely provides
a slew of transitions and wipes, but
your best bet is to keep it simple. Stick to
straight cuts, dissolves, and the ever-popular
“fade to black.” A cross-dissolve fades
out one clip as another clip fades in. An
additive dissolve adds a second clip and
then fades out the first one. Most other
transitions available in programs, such as
page curls and fancy wipes, are the hallmarks
of cheesy 1980s videos.
Add titles, graphics, and motion: Every
video editing program allows you to add
text overlays, titles, and credits to your
movie (see Figure 3). Some also feature
built-in motion so that, for example, text
can scroll down the screen or appear letter
by letter. If you have a digital still camera,
you can import pictures from it and add
them to your movie. If the still images are
larger than 720 by 480 pixels (the size of
a frame of video), you can use your editing
program’s motion capabilities to pan
across the image. The technique works
well to set the scene at the start of a video.
One thing to keep in mind is the curvature
of a TV screen, which can cause
images to look distorted near their edges.
Keep the important details of each shot
near the center of the screen, and avoid
having words approach the edges.
Add music and narration: Few free video
editing programs let you import multiple
audio tracks, so you’ll need to spend if
you want to give your video a more elaborate
sound track. Adobe’s Premiere Elements
can handle up to 99 audio tracks
in a movie. The application also gives
you the ability to separate audio that you
import along with your video into individual,
editable tracks.
If you decide to add a voice-over to
your video, a simple trick is to use your
camera to record the narration. Then
you simply import the video and audio
together into your program, throw away
the unwanted video track, and then position
the audio track in your project. To
help with your sound track’s continuity,
stagger the audio so that the sound from
one clip runs into the next. If
you do this, the cut will seem
less abrupt because the audio
and the video won’t end at the
same time.
You should be able to import
MP3s and other common
audio formats, such as .wav
fi les, into your video. If you’re
working on a corporate video,
however, be sure to obtain the
rights to all the songs you use.
You may want to consider purchasing
an inexpensive royalty-
free music collection so
your boss won’t get sued.
Get on TV: Once you have completed
your masterpiece, getting it into TVviewing
shape is pretty straightforward.
The first step is to copy your video to
disc: You can port the edited video from
your computer back to your camera and
rerecord it, or you can play it through
your camera to tape on an attached
VCR, or you can burn a DVD. And that’s
all—you’re done!
Now, don’t expect these tips to make
you the new Ang Lee, but they’re a good
start at least. Don’t be afraid to try out all
the features of your editing program—
you can always undo a wacky effect if it
doesn’t pan out. Remember, less is always
better in this short-attention-span world,
so edit your videos tightly.
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