HOW TO BECOME THE ULTIMATE DIGITAL MOVIE MAKER

When I was a kid, my dad shot home movies using a Super 8 film camera. The movies themselves were about what you would expect cute little Leo mugging about in a dark, shaky, poorly focused little film.

Well, all that's changed. Thanks to today's digital video technology, you can now shoot your movies in high-resolution home video and edit them on your home computer. The result? A cute little kid mugging about in a dark, shaky, poorly focused little film but now it's all digital!

In other words, all the high-tech gadgets in the world won't make you a better movie maker. You can add all the glitzy digital special effects you want, but if you shoot in a dark room and can't hold the camera steady, it'll still look like a bad Super 8 film. Sorry about that.

Choosing the Right Format

Digital video recording lets you use your PC as a movie editing studio to create sophisticated home movies you can distribute on DVDs. The key to successful digital movie making whether you're making independent films or movies of your kids' birthday parties is to start with a digital camcorder.

You don't have to spend a lot of money to get a digital camcorder. Now that analog VHS camcorders have been relegated to the garbage bin (or to eBay kind of the same thing), virtually every camcorder sold today records in a digital format. But which format is the right one for you?

Here's a short list of the digital camcorder formats you'll find in today's camcorders:

• MiniDV This is the most popular and most common digital camcorder format. It records broadcast-quality video (500+ lines of resolution) on small, low-priced cassettes, about 1/12 the size of a standard VHS tape. Use MiniDV for optimal compatibility with video editing programs and other equipment.

• HDV This is a high-definition version of the MiniDV format, found on only a few high-priced high definition camcorders. HDV uses standard MiniDV cassettes but produces either 720p or 1080i resolution, along with Dolby Digital surround sound.

• DVD DVD camcorders don't use tape at all; they record directly to recordable (R) or rewritable (RW) DVDs. You can get up to 120 minutes on a blank DVD.

• Digital8 This is an older, and generally lower-priced, digital format. For compatibility with older analog recorders, Digital8 camcorders can view 8mm or Hi-8 tapes. Digital8 camcorders tend to be a bit larger in size and weight than MiniDV models.

Most camcorders today are in the MiniDV format, although some low-priced Digital8 models are still floating around. MiniDV camcorders are also the most affordable models to operate; a 60-minute MiniDV tape costs $5 or less. Look for a model that feels good in your hand, offers a wide zoom range, and delivers a good picture under all lighting conditions.

By the way, if you want to do some online research on camcorders, check out Camcorderinfo.com (www.camcorderinfo.com). It's a great place for news, information, and reviews about all the latest camcorders.

Sorting Through the Features

Even the lowest-priced MiniDV recorders will take surprisingly good pictures; most of the picture quality is in the format itself, rather than in additional features, which means many people can get by with a simple $500 camcorder, no problem. But higher-priced models are available, and worthy of your consideration especially if you're a high-tech gadget hound, like me.

The more money you spend on a camcorder, the more bells and whistles you get. In particular, a bigger budget buys you one or more of the following three things: smallness (thanks to the compact MicroMV cassette format), ease of use (thanks to direct-to-DVD recording), or pro-level performance. And when I say pro-level performance, I mean pro-level performance; the very best consumer camcorders deliver digital pictures good enough for television or film use.

These pro-level camcorders look, feel, and perform just like the type of camcorder you see TV news crews or independent filmmakers lugging around. They're big and bulky, often let you use interchangeable lenses, and shoot in the 16:9 widescreen format. More important, they come with a bevy of automatic recording modes and manual adjustments that let you custom-tailor your movies to a variety of shooting styles and situations. Plus, picture quality is second to none, especially under difficult lighting conditions. Lots of technospeak, I know, but it all translates into lots of flexibility to deliver eye-popping widescreen pictures.

Even if you don't pop for one of these uber-expensive pro-level camcorders, you should still expect pro-level performance and features when you spend more than $600 or so on a camcorder. Any camcorder selling in this range should have a good-quality zoom lens, an image stabilization system (to keep your pictures steady even if your hands aren't), a variety of automatic exposure modes, and some sort of video editing built in. This last feature lets you perform in-camera edits between scenes, including audio dubbing, fade in and out, and other special effects.

You should also pay particular attention to the camcorder's image sensing system. Most lower-priced camcorders use a single CCD to capture the video image; higher-priced models use a 3-CCD system that splits the image optically and feeds color-filtered versions of the scene to three CCD sensors, one for each color red, green, and blue. (All TV and film production is done with 3-CCD cameras, BTW.) The bigger the CCDs, the better; 1/3'' CCDs are better than 1/6'' ones. And, for even better picture quality, look for a camcorder with progressive scan technology and true 16:9 framing for film-like results.

Shooting in High Definition

The best camcorders today, however, move beyond the traditional standard definition format to record movies in true high definition video (HDV). Today, HDV camcorders are few and far between (and priced like small cars), but expect more (and lower-priced) models to hit the market over the next year or two.

An HDV camcorder offers all the features of a pro-level standard definition, but with the capability of recording high-definition signals onto a MiniDV tape. Depending on the camera, you're looking at recording in either the 720p or 1080i format, both of which should be playable on any HDTV-capable television. The 720p format uses progressive scanning for better reproduction of fast-moving action; the 1080i format offers the highest-resolution picture available today, especially noticeable when shooting nature videos. Either format is head and shoulders better than 480-line standard definition video, though a MiniDV tape's recording capacity is reduced in recording in HD.

Naturally, an HDV camcorder will shoot in the 16:9 aspect ratio, which is part of the high-definition format. (Some HDV cameras let you switch to the 4:3 ratio, and to standard definition recording, if you like.) You can also record Dolby Digital surround sound, although you'll probably need an external surround sound microphone for this. (Don't worry, Sony makes a nifty little surround sound mic' that mounts right on top of your camcorder; I talk about it later in this section.)

Should you spring for a HDV camcorder? Well, the high-definition picture is definitely nice better than nice, actually. But, for now anyway, you're limited in how you can distribute your high-definition videos. That's because we don't yet have a high-definition DVD format, so you can't burn your HDV video to DVD. You're pretty much limited to connecting your HDV camcorder to your HDTV set and playing back right from the camcorder. That's great for playback in your living room, but leaves something to be desired if you want to send a tape to Grandma in Des Moines unless Grandma has an HDV camcorder, too. (And she probably doesn't.)

Another option, of course, is to copy your HDV video to your computer's hard disk. You'll need to do this anyway, of course, if you want to engage in any fancy video editing. But most newer PCs (especially Media Center PC models) let you play back high-definition videos, so if you have a Media Center PC hooked up to your home theater system, this may be the way to go.

Beefing Up Your PC for Video Editing

The topic of editing your videos warrants a bit of further discussion. Just what do you need to do your own home movie editing?

The short answer is, lots of horsepower. That's because video editing is the second-most demanding operation you can do on your PC. (The most-demanding activity is playing games, believe it or not.) It takes a lot of processing power, memory, and hard disk storage to edit and process full-motion video on your PC, and most older and lower-priced PCs simply aren't up to the task. Which means, of course, that you now have a new reason for upgrading your personal computer. (As if you needed an excuse…)

So, what kind of PC do you need for video editing?

First off, let me make yet another case for going the Apple route. There's no better computer for video editing than a Power Mac G5, period; it has all the horsepower and all the features you need to do all sorts of fancy video editing, without even breaking a sweat.

But let's assume that you're a Windows type of person, which you probably are. (I shall think no less of you for this.) To start with, you want to go with the fastest, most powerful processor you can afford. The AMD Athlon FX 64 is the fastest single processor out there today, and is always a good choice. On the Intel side of things, look for a fast P4 with Hyper-Threading Technology at least 3.2GHz, faster if you can get it. In fact, look back at the gaming PCs I talked about in Chapter 2, "The Ultimate Gamer"; if a PC is fast enough to play Doom 3, it's fast enough for video editing.

Memory is an important part of the equation, too. I'd recommend no less than 1GB of fast RAM, and go for 2GB or more if you can.

You'll also need lots of hard disk space, with a fairly fast hard disk. My recommendation here is to go with a dedicated hard disk just for your video editing, maybe an external model with FireWire connection. (FireWire is faster for this type of data transfer than even USB 2.0.) The bigger the better, of course, especially if you're editing high-definition video although even standard definition video is a real space hog. For example, if you shoot a standard definition video with a 16:9 aspect ratio at 5:1 compression, you'll need 3.6MB for every second of video you shoot. That's almost 13GB for a full hour of video. As you can see, get a few videos on your hard disk (or even a few differently edited versions of the same video) and the space used starts getting pretty big. For this reason, I like big 300GB and 400GB drives for video storage. You can't have too much hard disk space.

Naturally, your PC needs to have a FireWire connection, since that's how most digital camcorders connect. (Your camcorder manufacturer might use the consumer electronics term iLink, or the more technical IEEE 1394, but it's still FireWire.) If your computer doesn't have a FireWire port, you can add one via PCI card, no problem.

As for video editing software, there are a few different ways to go. If you're editing on a Mac, you have Final Cut Pro available, which is a very good program to use. On a Windows XP computer, you have Windows Movie Maker included for free; it's okay for basic editing, but you probably want something just a tad more full featured. To this end I recommend Adobe Premiere Elements (www.adobe.com), which will do all sorts of whiz-bang transitions and special effects. Then, of course, you can use any DVD authoring software to burn your movie to DVD; one is as good as another, in my experience.

Other Accessories for Video Movie Making

If you're just shooting movies of your kid's birthday party, you probably don't need any fancy accessories. If you plan on becoming the next Quentin Tarrantino, however, you can make your movies more professional by using the appropriate camcorder accessories.

For example, you get a better-quality picture when you put more light in the lens, so using auxiliary lighting makes a lot of sense via either a single camera-mounted light or a full multiple-flood setup. You can also enhance your shoots by using a better microphone than the one in the camcorder; you can choose from boom mics (for picking up sounds from a distance), stereo mics, surround sound mics, and even wireless mics just like the pros use.

And let's not forget stability. Only amateur movies (and professional movies trying for an artsy "shaky cam" effect) bounce around like a monkey on caffeine. You need a way to steady your camera when you shoot, which can be as simple as a monopod or tripod, or a fancy shoulder mount with some sort of motion-stabilization rig.

Put it all together, and you end up with a steady, well-lit movie with legible sound. That's a far cry from the dark, shaky Super 8 movies of my youth and a good reason to invest in all these fun little gadgets.