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duh 
"catpurrs"
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 Posted - 09/01/2008 : 21:52:51
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Aside from the professionals in our community here, does anyone else dabble in film or video production? Audiovisual aids? Powerpoint? Showing neighbors your slides?
8 years ago, (hard for me to believe it was really that long ago) I spent a weekend with a friend who is a very accomplished horse trainer, taking video of her demonstrating how she works. We were going to produce a VHS instuctional video.
I edited it and copied it on to several tapes but somehow we lost our focus and nothing ever came of it. A couple of years ago, she told me she was going to have a professional create the video.
However, here is is all this time later...I got out my original videos made with consumer equipment, on hi8 tapes and found that my old camcorder is broke and can't play them. So I sent them off to an outfit that converted them to DVD.
I watched the recordings again and was impressed with how much good information is on them. So, I've been re-editing them, with plans to put them on the web.
It is lots of work but I'm having a ball.
Anyhow, I've formed a new appreciation for the work of film editors. That has to be where the greatest creativity and love of the art of filmmaking must be found!
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So, do we have any other home movie makers here? What software do you use? Any tips to share?
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GHcool 
"Forever a curious character."
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Posted - 09/02/2008 : 08:20:52
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Well, I've been an aspiring editor for years now, and have only recently started editing professionally. I primarily use Final Cut Pro, but I'm also familiar with Avid and other software. I've edited all of my own work, some of which can be seen on YouTube and elsewhere (check out this thread).
As for tips, that's a lifetime of experience that would take way too much time to go through. If you are really interested in editing, I would suggest taking a course at a local college if one is offered, but if that's not possible, there are four books I'd most recommend to any aspiring editor:
1. The Filmmaker's Handbook by Steven Ascher and Edward Pincus (Plume, 2007)
2. In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch, the editor of Cold Mountain and Apocalypse Now (Silman-James Press, 2001).
3. First Cut by Gabriella Oldham (University of California Press, 1992)
4. The Technique of Film and Video Editing by Ken Dancyger (Focal Press, 2002). |
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duh
"catpurrs"
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Posted - 09/02/2008 : 21:05:04
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quote:
Originally posted by GHcool
As for tips, that's a lifetime of experience that would take way too much time to go through. If you are really interested in editing, I would suggest taking a course at a local college if one is offered, but if that's not possible, there are four books I'd most recommend to any aspiring editor:
1. The Filmmaker's Handbook by Steven Ascher and Edward Pincus (Plume, 2007)
2. In the Blink of an Eye by Walter Murch, the editor of Cold Mountain and Apocalypse Now (Silman-James Press, 2001).
3. First Cut by Gabriella Oldham (University of California Press, 1992)
4. The Technique of Film and Video Editing by Ken Dancyger (Focal Press, 2002).
Thanks so much for the recommendations!
Way back in the late 90's I got a copy of Adobe Premiere with my purchase of a video capture card from Pinnacle Systems. I still use it for lots of stuff because of title effects and things it can do that nonprofessional programs can't.
I also still occasionally use an old German program that I had before that, that is comparable to Premiere. It is Main Concept v. 3.5. I started with v. 2 and upgraded as they went along but was very disappointed with v. 5. 5 was too consumerized and dumbed down.
When I got my new laptop with Vista, I installed Main Concept v. 3.5 on it and to my delight, it runs better on Vista than it ever did before.
I've turned my old desktopunder tower over to exclusive video editing usage and storage.
Seems like rarely does any single program do everything I need. If I could justify the expense of a contemporary up-to-date professional program such as Final Cut Pro, maybe I wouldn't have that problem.
Other programs I'm using are:
*Consumer version of Sony Vegas Movie (hint: if it freezes while rendering, turn your hardware acceleration partway down)--I like it because it works well with dvds recorded with my Sony camcorder.
*Video Edit Magic -- a professional interface in a consumer priced product
*Windows Move Maker -- I like the way it makes it so easy to clip a file into smaller clips like a playlist and then you can go back and render each clip as a separate movie.
*Virtual Dub--occasionally useful
*Windows Media Recorder--I record lots of horse show webcast with it
*Replay Screencast -- nice for recording protected webcasts
*Flix Pro--my copy is old, from when Wildform still owned Flix. I still use this a lot for converting to Flash or to SWF.
*3D Flash Animator--much, much easier to use than Adobe Flash!!!!!
*ASF-AVI-RM-WMV-Repair to make files seekable
*AVI-MPEG-RM-WMV Splitter to quickly split up large files
*TGA Tool -- small free utility for making transparent titles
*ASF WMV Join -- for joining file together
*Corel Photopaint. Altho Photoshop is the queen bee, I've always used Photopaint and am comfortable with it. It can do some stuff with AVI files. I use it to make animations.
*And assorted other freebie software. Sometimes one finds oneself with a file that no program wants to handle so one goes in search of something to make it usable.
For free video hosting, Youtube is good for getting noticed. For videos that I want to appear on my own pages only, I used Google Video. With it, you can opt not to have your videos appear in searches at Google Video, yet you can embed and play them on your own pages. So, people have to come to your pages to find the video. I put a teaser video on Youtube and then get people to come to my pages to see the full version.
My focus with video has always been oriented towards the horse business. I was among the first folks to really hit that area intensively.
Have you noticed, lots of large institutions (such as major TV networks) still don't 'get it' with regard to webcasting? For example, I think the Olympics should have been viewable online 24/7. We should have been able to view the sport of our choice as it happened, complete and unedited.
GH, perhaps you are too young to remember "Loadmedia.com" It is now owned by a domain squatter but back in 97 or thereabouts, it was a novel new experiment in pushing video entertainment to web viewers. John Gerald O'Hurley was involved with the project.
Does anyone remember the ill-fated "pop.com?" There's a site there now, but it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the original registrants, who included (I recall) Steven Spielberg. I remember the fanfare when they first came up with the concept. Then they let it crap out when they couldn't think of a way to monitize it.
Another one that crapped out was atomfilms.com. There is some other less fancy pretender there now.
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Personal Film and Video Producers here?
