The Secret of Working with Special FX

There's also a secret to creating your special effects clips. You need to think about creating your movie as the process of assembling a number of smaller clips into a final, finished video movie. Work on your special effects clips as separate projectsthe smaller the better. If you have a scene where the special effects are only used for a minute or two, cut that section out of the longer clip and start a new project for that section.

In your special effects clip "project," add your effects, render, test, adjust, and render again; and then save. Bring your special effects clip into your original project and overlay it in the same part of the clip where you took it from originally. It will now behave just the same as any other clip, requiring no special rendering or processing, and therefore no extra overhead from your computer. Continue in this way, with all of the clips for your project, assembling them into the "master" project file only after they are completely done. You will find it much easier to work this way. You can even go back and make changes to these clips and re-import them as needed.

That's it! Have fun, be creative, think outside the box (there's a lot of great effects you can do with just your camera and no software at all), and think small and quick. And if you get a chance, write to me at [e-mail] with your experiences, comments, and new ideas.