Making Movies with Studio

Within its uniquely unified video-editing/DVD-authoring interface, Studio gives you an unparalleled range of production activities. Depending on your equipment, you can capture footage from a digital or analog camcorder, edit the footage, integrate video from other sources, and output the results for streaming on the Internet, playing back on your desktop, or delivering via DVD or CD.

However, all good movies, regardless how they are delivered, must start with an appreciation of how to create movies worth watching. Chapter 1 explores the notion of creating watchable video, a primer aimed at teaching you the proper settings for your video camera and sound shooting techniques. Chapter 2 introduces you to the Studio interface and gets your computer ready for video production.

Editing and production

After you've shot your source videos using the proper camera settings and solid shooting techniques, the process of editing and production begins. It involves the following four steps:

• Gathering assets. This is where you capture your video, import still images, or grab them from your camcorder or captured video, and import any background audio files. These activities are covered in Chapters 3, 4, and 5.
  
  
• Trimming and organizing. In most instances, you won't want to include every minute that you shot in the final production. Accordingly, you trim unwanted sections, then place your video clips and still images in the desired order. Chapter 7 describes how to get this done.
  
  
• Garnishing. Here's where the true editing comes in. During this stage, you add transitions between clips, title tracks, still image overlays, and any special effects. You can also input a narration track, add music ripped from a CD, or create your own custom background track using SmartSound (a utility included with Studio). Chapters 8 through 11 cover these activities.
  
  
• Rendering. This is where you produce your final output. Though "encoding into a streaming format" may sound complicated, Studio includes easy-to-follow templates that simplify the task, making this stage the most mechanical of all. Chapter 14 describes how to output your videos as digital files for posting to a Web site, sending via email, or copying to CD-ROM.
  
  

If you're outputting to DVD there's another stage, of course, typically called authoring. This is when you create your menus, link videos and still image assets, and preview to ensure that your project flows as desired. Then you burn your disc. DVD production is covered in Chapter 12.

You can also write your production back to your camcorder, where you can dub copies for VHS or other analog players. I describe how to do this in Chapter 13. Finally, Chapter 15 details how to convert tape based videos to DVD with Pinnacle's Instant DVD Recorder.