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This page is for those people who,
like myself when I wanted to make videos and upload them, don't know how
to. I hasten to add that the following is only how I do it, and as my
efforts are the result of trial and error, I would welcome suggestions
and advice from other videomakers as to how they make their videos and
what software they use for editing and uploading.
Three problems confronted me when I wanted to make videos and upload
them. What camera should I buy, how do I use it, and how do I get my
film into my computer? Well I won't go into the ins and outs of how I
arrived at my present system but merely tell you what I now do.
If you haven't got a camera already and are going to buy one, it's
essential you get one with a firewire (i link) dv out socket.
If you know nothing about lighting, daylight is the easiest and the
best. Unfortunately most of us will need to film indoors so good
lighting is essential. I use four halogen lights that you can buy in
any electrical store. I daresay proper professional lights would
be better, I don't know, but I do know they will be more expensive. I
place two lights in front either side facing toward me, and two behind, facing
behind diffusing shadows. This setup is very, very hot in the summer,
and I can only film in bursts as the sweat starts to pour off me. I set
the camera to manual and use the brightest setting. Again, I'm not
advocating this is the way to make videos, this is just how I do it, and
if anybody's got any advice to the contrary, please let me know so I can
put it on this page.
I also use a lapel mic through an amp and speakers. I have never been
able to get a good balance with backing music and singing so can't offer
advice on that.
So, you've finished your video and now you may want to edit it. i.e. add
titles etc. Although some cameras come with a load of bells and
whistles, I am advised by books that I have read, that it is best to do the
editing somewhere else. I do my editing on a stand alone editing machine
called a Casablanca Avio DV, for this I needed a camera that gave me
both dv out and dv in so that I could transport my video to my editing
machine and back again to my camera when edited and thence to my
computer. I could not transport my edited film directly from my Avio to
my computer because it's all to do with master and slave machines and
both the Avio and the pc are masters, whereas the camera is the slave.
There are however numerous editing software where you can edit your
video on your pc, for this you need a camera with only dv out. However,
if you want to send it back to your camera you will need one with dv out
and in. Having made and edited my video and transported it back to my
camera it is now ready to be transported to my pc. Many videos that
people make are not edited and are just uploaded direct from the camera
without titles or trimming. The choice is yours. Anyway, now you need to
get it into your computer. Well, microsoft have very kindly
incorporated such a facility in their windows xp package, it's called
windows movie maker, which is a capturing and editing software, although
I only use it to capture my video. So with the camera attached to my pc
via the firewire (i link) cable, and my camera set in playback mode, I
open up windows movie maker, click on file and click on capture video.
It will ask you to give your video a name and where you want it to go.
'My videos' is the obvious choice. Click next. It will then give you a
choice of format for capturing your video. I choose avi because it gives
the best quality. It then gives you the choice of capturing your video
automatically or manually. I choose manually because you can cue up your
tape regardless of what is before, to where you want to capture from.
You then click 'start capture' and 'stop capture' when you want to stop.
Then finish. Then click 'save movie file' which then saves it in a
smaller size. The original video will be too large in size to send over
the internet so has to be reduced. Most video sharing sites stipulate
that the video must be less than 100 mb so the video has to be reduced
quite considerably in size. Some quality is lost in this transformation
although some videos I see have amazing quality, so again, if anyone
knows the secret of keeping the quality when uploading, please let us
all know. Well, if you didn't know how to make videos and upload them
before, I hope this has been of some help, and for those of you who do
know how to make good videos and upload them, then after you've picked
yourself up off the floor and wiped the tears of laughter from your
cheeks, perhaps you'd be good enough to share your knowledge with the
rest of us. Lol, as they say. Eric.
Ralph Muscatell sent me the following:
My computer is an Apple OS X Tiger with a built in
digital webcam, both still and video that I use to upload myself and
friends in our music club. I later bought a Canon digital video HDZR850.
After shooting video I use Apple's IMovies software to upload the
video using a Firewire and an auxiliary power cord that goes in my
camera directly and then to an extension power cord. My firewire
connects to a USB port on my computer and to my video camera. One
advantage in using Apple (if you have an Apple store nearby) For $99.
per year I take a "one-on-one" lesson with an "Apple Genius"on any topic
I want. Right now I'm taking movie making and it's great. Much of
the same info is on and in my Apple IMovie software, but it's easier for
me to have this person to person instruction. I neglected to say that I
can take one hour PER WEEK FORA YEAR". THAT'S ABOUT $2.OO PER HOUR.
Another source, but not as reliable as my one-on-one is searching on
youtube asking specifically what you want to learn.
cheers, Ralph. |