Publishing Your Home Video
So you’ve got a camcorder, maybe you even know how to record with it…but you have not a clue how to edit out 15 minutes of Uncle Tom Sleeping at little Timmy’s party. Maybe you’d like to remove the 5 minutes of recording with the lens cap on?
Maybe you know the basics but you’re just not happy with the turnout. You spend a lot of time but in the end the video looks lousy and you don’t want anyone to know you did it.
This article will lay out 5 easy to follow steps that will streamline your video editing project, not only making the process easier on you but also making the quality of the finished video much better. Not only will you be happier with the final outcome, but friends and family will be impressed when you tell them you did it yourself.
Lets take a look at what these five steps are.
The five steps are listed here;
-Plan
-Prepare
-Edit
-Review
-Produce
These may seem pretty obvious, but many people skip, ignore, or forget to do these steps. Lets take a look at the steps.
STEP 1 – *PLAN*
Planning your video is an integral step to producing a clean, polished, final version. In this step you decide what you want and what you don’t want to remain in your video. The best thing to do is devote enough time to watch the entire video if possible. Sit down with a pen, paper, and the remote. When you find a segment you don’t want in the video, pause it and write down the start and end time of the clip. Most DVD players and camcorders give you an elapsed time displayed on screen or on an lcd display on the unit.
So, for instance, lets assume that you want to remove a segment of a birthday party where you forgot to turn the camcorder off. You would write down where in the video it takes place. Lets say it starts at 5 minutes and 3 seconds (“5:03″), and ends at 6 minutes (“6:00″).
After you have decided all of the things to edit out, what do you want to add?
Maybe you would like to add background music, or a title. Make notes while your watching of when you would like to add something and what it is you want to add.
If the video is long or you are pressed for time you can do this in segments. The time spent doing this will save you a lot of time in the future when your working with the video.
One key point to consider, is where will your video be published to when your done? Will it go on DVD, Blu-Ray, the Web? This is important because it will determine how you handle the video and what formats you use. You should always work with video keeping the final format in mind.
STEP 2 – *PREPARE*
Once you know what you want from your finalized video, you need to collect the “tools” you need to make it happen. Any mechanic will tell you there is nothing worse then getting set to work on a car, getting underneath the hood…then realizing you need to go buy the right tool or get it from your tool box. The same holds true when doing anything, especially working on intangible things like video editng.
Make sure that all of your videos, clips, pictures, music are all located in one easy to reach place. if it helps put them (or a copy of them) all in the same folder, in your MyDocuments or on your desktop.
Start importing or inputting them into your editing software. Dependent on the size of the files and your software among other things, this may take a while.
Most of the time spent on video editing is waiting for the computer to process the video, convert the format, or transcode it. If you think you are gonna have to wait a while, go shopping, make a sandwich, or take a nap…let the computer do the work for you.
Make sure your files are in the best formats. Remember that its always better to shrink the video size (resolution) lower then to stretch it out later on. So if your planning on putting it on the web, in say 480×360 resolution….it may be best to start and edit it at 600×480. This way if you ever want it to be bigger, the quality will remain the same up to 600×480.
Once all of your files are in place, ready to be manipulated and edited, then your ready for step 3…
STEP 3 – *EDIT*
This is where step 1 & 2 mesh together. The first thing you want to do, before making any major changes, is have your notes from step 1 and your media from step 2 ready and in front of you.
Once everything is in place start putting everything where you want it. One of the biggest mistakes many people make when editing video is nit picking the small details. First get everything in place. Don’t worry about small things right away.
If your video was broken down into 100 clips, determine if there is any range of 5 or more clips you don’t want. If not drag all the clips into the timeline or storyboard. Otherwise drag everything except for the ranges of clips you don’t want. Most video editing software packages will display the time of the video as your working on it, and its original time. Both are important, but make sure not to confuse the two.
Now what you need to do, is start making the largest edits first. Once your done making the edits, then you make all additions.
It’s at this point that you add a title screen, any music or pictures, and any effects.
Once your finished this step, move onto step 4…
STEP 4 – *REVIEW*
This is an often overlooked step. This step will in the long run save you a bunch of time. This is where you look over your video and make sure that everything was changed to your satisfaction.
Usually you can watch your project within the video editing software. Kick back, hit play and watch the fruits of your labor…but be ready. This is a lot like step one. Some people like to correct any mistakes or make any additional edits right when they see them. This is fine, but i find it much easier and effective to repeat Step 1. Ill make notes of all the changes and additional edits id like to make.
I then go back if needed and redo step 3. I make the largest edits first, and work my way into the small details. Once I’m satisfied i review the video again. I repeat this process until im completely satisfied. At this point you need to save or export the video out as a standard video format. Which format will depend on where its going, its usage, etc. Once you have it saved go to step 5…
STEP 5 – *PRODUCE*
Most people think this is just burning to a DVD or Blu-Ray. We have gotten used to the quick process of burning music to CD. The main difference is that video files are much larger, and they need to be converted to a format your DVD player or Blu-Ray player will understand.
The conversion process is called transcoding. Also during this process (if its not offered or done in step 3), many burning utilities offer the capability of adding DVD/Blu-Ray menus to your video.
Producing your video comes in 3 steps; Final touches, Transcoding, Burning.
You at this point, may choose to add a title menu, chapter menu, etc. Once your done making these last minute additions, you’ll start the encoding and burning process. For our purposes this is typically one step, even though technically its two. usually when you click burn the computer will first transcode, then automatically start burning when the video is ready. This step is easy for us, the computer does most of the work.
Now your video is finished, you may want to pop it into a DVD player or Blu-Ray player and watch it to make sure it burnt correctly and came out the way you wanted. If not don’t give up or get mad. There is a learning curve. With so many formats and resolutions, even the pro’s make mistakes which compromise the quality of the video. There is no real video standard when it comes to computer formats or TV formats, so you need to get a feel for what looks the best on your machines.