Video Asylum

Posted by dwill123 (A) on November 12, 2003 at 07:53:29

In Reply to: Making music video posted by antares on November 11, 2003 at 08:41:40:

If you have a digital camcorder (one that supports 1394 Firewire) you’re half way home. All you need now is decent NLE software that can ‘capture – edit – convert – burn’.

Capture – capture your filmed sequences to your pc’s hard disk. If your camcorder supports Firewire and you have a pc with a Firewire card ($50) your in like flint. If you only have access to an older analog VHS camcorder then you’ll need some sort of analog to digital converter capture device. Not terribly expensive but not needed if you have a digital camcorder.

Edit – once you’ve captured your filmed sequences you’ll want to edit them: trim segments, put segments in proper order, add transitions between segments, add titles and add\edit your audio. Sounds like a lot but newer NLE software makes this task almost fun. A previous post mentioned using Premiere or Vegas. Absolutely great products but they are both considered ‘pro-sumer’ level. Meaning they are really for the more advanced user (not Hollywood level just more than a beginner). They carry a bit of a learning curve. What I would suggest is Ulead’s consumer level product: VideoStudio 7 (Ulead - Videostudio 7). Retail price is about $99 but if you know a student of teacher you can get it for about $50. This is an all-in-one package. It will do everything you need to produce your video. Two additional points about software:
1.You can do all that is needed by using free software available on the Internet. Products like Virtualdub and TMPGEnc are the standards for the free market. The catch is their power comes from the ability to customize parameters and this can be a little more than you want to get into. If not checkout dvdrhelp.com.
2.A word to the wise – STAY AWAY FROM PINNACLE STUDIO 8. You’ve been warned.

Convert – depending on what format you want to deliver the finished product, encoding will be important. To deliver on a standard cd you’ll encode to video cd (vcd) or super video cd (svcd). All you need is a standards cd burner in your pc and away you go. Again most of the consumer level and above products should be able to handle this process. If you want it to be in DVD format on DVD media then it must be encoded to MPEG-2. Again newer consumer level and above products can handle this.

Burn – record the finished product to the intended media (cd or DVD). The above-mentioned products should be able to handle this or something like Nero will work.

Long post but I hope it gets you started. For more independent info checkout:
dvdrhelp.com
www.videoguys.com

Good luck.