Your First Editing Exercise


Now that you've gotten the lay of the Movie Maker land, it's time to dive in: It's time to get started using Movie Maker to edit your first video!

For a first project, you should edit a few shots together so you can see how the process works and get a feel for how Movie Maker works. It's a good idea to do a few, practice edits just to learn how to use the program, without having any pressure to finish a project while you are learning how the process works.

After you learn how to import video and follow the basic editing steps in Movie Maker, you can make a real video project. The following sections walk you through these steps:

1.

Check disk space.

2.

Connect your camcorder to your computer.

3.

Capture video.

4.

Import music.

5.

Import photo.

6.

Organize and combine your collections.

7.

Edit.

8.

Trim clips.

9.

Add music.

10.

Add transitions.

11.

Add titles.

12.

Rough cut to fine cut.

13.

Finish video.

Step 1: Check Disk Space

Do you have enough disk space to edit? In addition to the 2GB of hard disk space you need to install and run Movie Maker, you need to have more space available for putting video onto your computer's hard drive or on an external hard drive.

External hard drives are a good investment if you'll be making movies that are longer than a few minutes. To edit an hour-long program, you need at least 25GB of space. Of that, 13GB is for video files, and Movie Maker needs 12GB more of temporary space for processing the video files during editing. You also need extra hard disk space if you plan to create DVDs.

If you are using an external hard drive for your video files, you need to be sure to connect it to your computer before you begin. And if you will be importing video onto an external hard drive, you still need to connect your camcorder to your computer. Then you need to save your video files onto your hard drive.

Note

Don't try to connect your camcorder directly to your external hard drive, even if that's where you want to store your video files. You need to tell Movie Maker to put the video there after you launch Movie Maker's Video Capture Wizard.


Step 2: Connect Your Camcorder to Your Computer

Next, you need to get out the FireWire (also called IEEE 1394) cable that connects your computer and your camcorder. You'll see that the FireWire camcorder-to-computer cable has two different endsa small one with pins that goes into your camcorder and a larger fitting that connects to the FireWire port on your computer. You need to connect both ends of the cable. In Figure 3.14, the cable end with the pins is on top; this is the one that goes into your camcorder. The cable end on the bottom connects to the FireWire port on your computer.

Figure 3.14. The FireWire cable connects your camcorder to your computer.


Next, you need to turn on your camcorder and select the VCR (not camera) or Playback mode, as shown in Figure 3.15.

Figure 3.15. When you're ready to import video from your camcorder to your computer, you select the VCR mode for video playback.


You can control the rewind, play, and fast forward modes on your camcorder from Movie Maker, so you don't need to use the camera controls when you're ready to view video in Movie Maker.

Note

If your computer does not have a digital video capture card (a requirement covered in Chapter 1), you won't be able to import video. If there is no FireWire port on your computer, this may indicate that you do not have a video capture card. You may be able to purchase a card that is compatible with your computer and install it.


Tip

You can use the expert columns and support groups on Movie Maker's website to find more information and tips on using Movie Maker (including capture problems, which comprise one of the most common trouble spots). See www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/communities/movie.mspx.


Step 3: Capture Video

Now you're ready to capture video. (I agree: Capture is a funny term for describing the process of importing video. After all, you're not going to be using a lasso!) After you launch Movie Maker, you see the main Movie Maker screen you saw earlier in this chapter, with the Movie Tasks pane on the left. At this point, you need to click the arrow next to Capture Video to show the options underneath it.

Launching the Video Capture Wizard

In Movie Maker, from the Movie Tasks pane, you select the first option: Capture from Video Device. This launches the Video Capture Wizard, which helps you capture video.

The Captured Video File Screen

When you are prompted by the wizard's Captured Video File screen, type the name of your file and select the location where you want your videos to be saved (see Figure 3.16).

Figure 3.16. The Captured Video File screen: naming your movie.


Filenames are important and help you stay organized throughout a project. You should use a descriptive filename; for example, school exterior is better than shot23. You can identify clips more easily when you use descriptive names.

On this screen, you also need to select the hard drive you want to save your video files to and then click Next.

Video Setting

On the next wizard screen, you need to choose the video quality setting (see Figure 3.17). The first option is Best Quality for Playback on My Computer (Recommended); select it for this exercise to keep things simple. Then click Next.

Figure 3.17. The Captured Video File screen: selecting the video quality.


Capture Method

Next, the wizard asks you how you would like to capture your videoautomatically or manually:

  • Capture the Entire Tape Automatically If you know you want to import all the video you shot, you should select this option. You should use this option only if you're sure you want everything on your tape.

  • Capture Parts of the Tape Manually Because video takes up a lot of hard drive space, it's a better practice to import only the usable portions of your video. Therefore, you should generally select this option.

For this exercise, you should select Capture Parts of the Tape Manually so you get to know how this works.

For this exercise, you should also check the box Show Preview During Capture so you can see the process, and then click Next.

The Capture Video Screen

On the wizard's Capture Video screen, you can find the beginning of a clip you want to use and then rewind the tape a few seconds before that clip starts to give yourself room to edit the clip. Then you click Start Capture. After you let the clip play, you should wait a few seconds and then click Stop Capture.

If you know the length of a clip that you want to capture, you can check the box Capture Time Limit and enter the duration of that clip.

If you have 2 minutes of video to capture, it will take your computer 2 minutes to import it.

Figure 3.18 shows an example of what the Capture Video screen looks like.

Figure 3.18. Capturing video.


When you're finished capturing your video clip, at the bottom of the screen, click Finish.

The Import Screen

Now the Video Capture Wizard copies the temporary file to your disk. Movie Maker puts the video file into a new collection. You need to wait for the importing files process to complete.

Step 4: Import Music

If you have any music to import for this video, now is the time to add it to your collections. From the Movie Tasks pane, you choose Import Audio or Music (under Capture Video). Then you navigate to the music file you want to use and click it. Then you select Import. Your music track appears in the Collections pane in the center of your screen (see Figure 3.19).

Figure 3.19. Importing music.


Step 5: Import Photo

If you want to use any digital photos in a movie, you need to add them to your collections. The process is very similar to that for adding music.

From the Movie Tasks pane, you select Import photo. Then you navigate to the photos you want to use and click them. Next, you select Import. Your photo appears in the Collections pane in the center of your screen. Movie Maker automatically creates a 5-second video clip from each photo you import (see Figure 3.20).

Figure 3.20. Importing photos.


Congratulations! You've imported all the elements you needvideo, music, and/or photosto create your first movie!

Step 6: Organize and Combine Your Collections

If you imported only video, all your files should be in one collection. If you have audio or photos in collections separate from your video, you need to organize them all into one collection. You should cut and paste your elements from the different collections into one collection to make editing easier.

Music Downloads for Movies

Want to add some music to a movie? Many websites provide free or paid downloads you can legally use to edit into movies. You can preview the music online at all the sites listed here.

Free Sites

Freeplay Music This website, www.freeplaymusic.com, features more than 800 free MP3 music tracks that you can legally use for free for home or school movies. (Read the site terms for using music for licensing if you have questions about licensing the music for for-profit use.)

CNET Downloads CNET's http://music.download.com offers thousands of legal, free music downloads from independent musicians around the world.

More free tracks Apple's iTunes Music Store, Amazon.com, and some of the other paid download music sites listed below offer free weekly music downloads. Check the sites for details. You'll also find more free, legal music onlinejust search the Internet for more sources.

Pay Sites

iTunes Music Store Apple's iTunes Music Store has more than 1.5 million songs to choose from, including a limited number of free downloads that change weekly. You need to download iTunes for PC from the Apple iTunes Music Store to use this site. The iTunes Music Store sells more than 70% of the legal music downloads sold online. Visit www.apple.com/itunes.

MSN Music Microsoft's MSN Music features more than 1 million songs for 99¢ each. Visit www.music.msn.com.

Amazon.com Amazon.com features hundreds of free and thousands of paid downloads. Visit www.amazon.com.

Walmart.com Walmart's price is 88¢ for each track. Visit www.walmart.com.

Yahoo! Music Unlimited Yahoo!'s Music Unlimited offers more than 1 million songs for 79¢ each. Visit www.music.yahoo.com.

Real's Rhapsody Real's Rhapsody music service offers more than 1 million songs, with downloads priced at 79¢ each. See www.realrhapsody.com.

Magnatune Looking for some wonderful instrumental music for your movie? While you can find many of the latest hits on commercial music websites, it can be hard to find a great instrumental to edit into your movie. Magnatune is one of my new favorite music download sites because it offers lots of high quality instrumental musicand at low cost. It's also a good source when you want to find something everyone hasn't heard before. It features more than 200 independent musi cians and 5,000 songs; downloading an MP3 album costs $5 to $8 or more. Visit www.magnatune.com.


Step 7: Edit

Now you're ready to edit. You've been very patient so far, gathering your elements and doing all the background work. Now it's time to have some fun. You simply select and drag the video clip or photo that you want to appear at the beginning of your movie from the center of the screen in your Collections pane down to the Storyboard or Timeline view.

Figure 3.21 shows a highlighted video clip, outlined in gray.

Figure 3.21. Video clips in a collection.


When you drag and drop the clip into the Timeline (or Storyboard) view, it drops into the beginning of the video, as shown in Figure 3.22. You can rearrange clips in the order you wantor delete them from your moviein the Timeline view or Storyboard view.

Figure 3.22. After you drag and drop a clip from your collection into the Timeline (or Storyboard) view at the bottom of the screen, your video clip displays.


If you decide you don't want this clip in your movie, you simply highlight the clip in the Timeline view (by clicking and holding down the mouse button) and press the Delete key. The clip is still available in the Collections pane, but it is not included in the movie.

You can continue dragging and dropping clips into the Storyboard or Timeline view to make your movie.

As you begin to accumulate more clips, you can use the scrollbar (in Figure 3.23, it's where the cursor is) at the bottom of the Storyboard or Timeline view to navigate more easily through the program.

Figure 3.23. Assembling clips in the Timeline view.


Step 8: Trim Clips

Inside the World of Editing

Want to learn more about the creative art of editing? Two inspiring DVDs take you inside the world of editing, profiling editors at work and honoring their art form in television and feature films.

TV: Journeys Below the Line: 24/The Editing Process

The educational, 30-minute DVD Journeys Below the Line: 24/The Editing Process takes you inside the Fox series 24 . Hosted by actor Kiefer Sutherland, it features interviews with the script supervisor, the editors, and the show's postproduction supervisor, to help you under stand the complex process of editing a fast paced weekly network drama.

The DVD, part of a planned series, was created under the auspices of the Academy of Arts and Television Sciences Foundation (a nonprofit arm of the industry group that awards the Emmys), and it comes with a CD-ROM of educa tional extras. You can find more details about the DVD as well as download a sample page of the script, script notes, editor's log, and other production documents at the project's website, www.journeysbelowtheline.com.

Motion Pictures: The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing

The editor's art is usually invisible, but The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing, an inspired and intimate behind-the-scenes look at film editors, puts it center stage, tracing the history of editing from the start of the motion picture to today's top hits. This 99-minute feature DVD from Warner Home Video) features a star-studded cast of many of the industry's most talented editors (Aviator editor Thelma Schoonmaker, Kill Bill editor Sally Menke, and War of the Worlds editor Michael Kahn, to name a few), as well as interviews with directors including Quentin Tarantino, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg.

The film also covers editor Walter Murch during the making of the film Cold Mountain, taking you inside the editing room as Murch edits the film, using pioneering digital video editing technology.

For an inside interview with producer Alan Heim about the making of The Cutting Edge, see www.editorsguild.com/newsletter/NovDec04/novdec04_alan_heim.html.


Now that you have a number of clips in order, it's time to get out the pruning shears and trim your clips (see Figure 3.24). Is a clip too long? Click the clip, either at the beginning or the end, and you are then able to drag the blue line with double red arrows to shorten it. The monitor displays the video as you move it. Then you go to the in (or beginning) point or end point that you want and release the mouse; your clip is then trimmed. It's that easy!

Figure 3.24. Trimming a clip.


Again, trimming a clip in the Storyboard or Timeline view doesn't trim it in your collection. If you want to revert to the full-length clip, you can do that at any point.

Splitting a Clip

What happens when you want to take out something in the middle of a clip? The answer is to split the clip into two. You'll probably need to use this feature often.

You can split a clip anywhere you want to, by using the Split Clip button at the bottom right of the screen. You position the video where you want to split it and then click the Split Clip button, as shown in Figure 3.25.

Figure 3.25. Splitting a video clip using the Split Clip icon. In this screen, you see the cursor arrow (way over on the right, just above the Timeline) on the Split Clip icon.


Step 9: Add Music

Adding music makes a movie much more lively. It's fun to sample and choose the music to go with your clips. You should listen to enough selections to make sure you get the right fit between your images and the emotions in the music. It may take some time. Experimenting with different musical choices is a great exercise in learning just how powerful music can be.

When you add music, you can choose to mute the original audio on your video file or mix it together with the music you add. You have the flexibility to choose to use any of these options throughout your movie: You can use both music and your original audio at times, and you can have just music or just your original audio in portions of your movie.

Once you've imported your music, you can click Show Collections under Edit Movie in the Movie Tasks pane. Then you highlight your music in the Collections pane and drag and drop it into the Timeline view in the audio/music track at the point where you want it to play. Then you release it.

If you're using music in your movie, you need to consider whether the video and audio will end at the same point. If your music is only 1 minute long and your video is 3 minutes long, you need to either loop the music over and over or trim the video to 1 minute in length.

If you prefer to use a sound effect rather than music, you can also do this in Movie Maker. You import a sound effect the same way you import music, adding it to your collection.

Because Movie Maker has only two audio tracks, you can only use music or a sound effect, but not both, if you have audio in a video track.

Sound Effects Downloads for Movies

You'll be surprised at how much adding sound effects can add depth and drama to a movie. You may have never thought about it before, but the perfect "cha-ching" can liven up a movie. Sound effects are not just about thunder and lightning. Did you know there are sound effects for wizard spells, too?

Movie Maker comes with a small library of sound effects, but you might want to get more. Lots of great websites offer free or paid down loads you can legally edit into your movies. You can preview the sound effects online at all of the sites listed here.

Warning: Be prepared to be intrigued when you start sampling sound effects. You may find that you start thinking of ways to use sound effects that you've never imagined before!

Free Sites

Microsoft Microsoft offers a free Windows Movie Maker Creativity Kit (in the Windows Media Bonus Pack for Windows XP) with free sound effects from Sounddogs.com, a major Hollywood movie sound effects provider. You can download the Bonus Pack free from www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/bonuspack.aspx.

Partners in Rhyme You'll find dozens of free public domain sound effects here. This site also sells sound effects. Visit www.partnersinrhyme.com (see Figure 3.29).

Figure 3.29. The Partners in Rhyme website.


Pay Sites

Sounddogs.com If you can't find what you're looking for at Sounddogs.com, you're in trouble! This go-to site is the largest sound effects library online, with more than 47,000 sound effects available. You can have hours of fun just previewing the various effects. Prices vary widely from $1 and up, depending on the length and format of the sound effect you choose. "Dog packs" that feature a number of sounds are also available. Sounddogs.com also features paid music downloads. Visit www.sounddogs.com.


Adjusting Audio Levels

You can right-click an audio file in the Timeline view and choose Volume to get the Audio Clip Volume dialog box, where you can change the audio level of music or the audio in your video (see Figure 3.26).

Figure 3.26. Adjusting audio clip volume.


Mixing Audio Levels

Movie Maker has a very cool way to let you vary the audio levels of your video sound and music tracks: You can use the Set Audio button, which is located on the left side of the screen (the cursor is over it in Figure 3.27).

Figure 3.27. Mixing sound levels by using the Set Audio button's Audio Levels dialog box.


Clicking the Set Audio button opens the Audio Levels dialog box, which allows you to turn up or tone down the music relative to the audio from the video (and vice versa). Moving the slider left and right varies the audio coming from these two sources. Closing this box saves your setting.

Step 10: Add Transitions

To add a transition to your video, from the Movie Tasks pane, you select View Video Transitions and drag and drop the transition over your video in the Timeline or Storyboard view. Then you can preview transitions in the video monitor.

In most cases, you should use the Dissolve transition. This is a gentle, gradual way of going from shot to shot. If you want to call attention to a transition, however, you can use a flashier transition. It's often good to use the same transition repeatedly in a movie to get a visual rhythm going. Or you can just go wild and use every transition in Movie Maker. (Kids love to do silly stuff like this.)

Step 11: Add Titles

To add titles to your movie, from the Movie Tasks pane, you select Make Titles or Credits under the Edit Movie category. Then you decide, in the screen that appears next, where in your movie you would like the titles to appear (see Figure 3.28).

Figure 3.28. Adding a title to your movie.


Next, you are prompted to enter your text. You can preview the title in the video monitor. You can click Change the Title Animation or Change the Text Font and Color to see other choices. There are many options to choose from, and each one adds a different character and personality to your video, so take the time to find the title animation, font, and color you like best.

When you're satisfied with your title selection, you can click Done, Add Title to Movie.

Step 12: Rough Cut to Fine Cut

What are a rough cut and a fine cut? These filmmaking terms help define the stage of a project:

  • Rough cut A rough cut is a basic edit, with the clips in a logical order, the music and audio in place, and the titles and credits inserted. You can think of it as a first draft.

    You look at a rough cut of your movie to make sure things make sense and that the basic structure is working. At this stage, you may want to reorder a sequence or delete some footage that isn't working or is making your movie drag.

  • Fine cut A fine cut is an edited version that is pretty close to finished, in which all the clips have been trimmed, the audio and levels are mixed for optimal playback, and the titles and credit are inserted. You can think of it as a nearly final draft.

    At the fine cut point, you're close to finishing, and you just want to check to make sure things look good. You can evaluate what minor adjustments might need to be made and do the final tweaking to make your movie a masterpiece!

When going from the rough cut to the fine cut, you need to watch your video and see how it looks. Is the audio where you want it? Are the shots in the right order? Do you like the transitions and effects you've used? You probably have a bit of editing to do, so take care of business: Trim video clips if you need to, adjust the music, and fix any other details to improve your video.

You should spend time trimming clips and tightening things up. It can really transform your video. This is what editing's all about!

Note

Don't skimp on this phase. You've come this far, and perfection is within your reach, so make your video what you really want it to be. The finishing touches make all the difference between an amateur effort and a video that will make you feel proud.


Step 13: Finish Video

When everything in your video is just the way you want it, you're ready to save it. You'll learn all about this in Chapter 4.




Create Your Own Digitial Movies
Create Your Own Digitial Movies
ISBN: N/A
EAN: N/A
Year: 2005
Pages: 85

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