I use
Ulead MediaStudios 7.0 Pro. It's a very powerful editing application,
pretty much a jack-of-all-trades suite with many sub-programs within such
as Video Capture, Audio Editor (I love using this), Video Paint (for manual
retouching, inserting/removinge elements, and adding overlay effects),
and CG Infinity (for creating dynamic titles and graphics). It is now
on version 8.0 but I'm more than happy with 7.0 so I see no reason
to upgrade.
If you're just starting out I wouldn't begin with a high level editing program
unless you're very PC savvy and have tons of patience to experiment and
learn. This isn't something you learn overnight. Windows Movie Maker is
the simplest editing program and good to practice on. Another great
thing is WMM is free since Windows XP comes with this
program installed.
How can I get footage for editing?
Well, one thing you don't want to do is take someone else's video and chop
it up. Not only is it in poor taste to take someone else's footage in which
they've already applied their own effects and transitions, you're also
most likely taking footage that's already been compressed at least
once. Which means when you compress it again when rendering
your video the quality is going to look terrible.
There are many methods to capture your own footage but the easiest
way I've found is using a little program called DVDx 2.0. This program
allows you to capture high quality clips from any movie in your
DVD-Rom. I have provided the download link and instructions
on how to use it below....
If you have a DVD-ROM drive on your PC this program will allow you
to search through any movie on DVD and capture high quality clips to
your hard drive in any format (AVI, DIVX, MPEG, whatever).
1).
Put a DVD in your DVD-Rom. Wait until it recognizes the
DVD before opening DVDx. If PowerDVD (or whatever default
DVD player you use) comes up just close it out and proceed
to Step 2.
2).
Open the DVDx program, go to File in the upper left hand
corner and select DVD root (this breaks down the DVD by
the movie, previews, menus, etc). The title with the
longest running time is almost always the actual movie
so choose that one. After choosing the title it should
take you to the input settings screen.
3).
Your input settings are usually automatically selected
and correct so leave those alone (feel free to toy with
them once you get more experienced though). So hit "OK"
and proceed to the next step.
4).
Now you should be at the screen where you can see the
movie screen. You should see a timeline at the bottom.
On that timeline is a little lever where you can move
to any point at the movie and start capturing.
However, before you do that the main thing you'll want
to play with is your "Output Settings". You'll see a
little filmstrip icon right above the timeline (near
the record button). Click that icon to bring up your
output settings. This is where you determine what kind
of file you want to create (avi or mpeg), the video size
(resolution), what kind of compression you'll use(mpeg1,
mpeg2Divx, etc), how many frames per second, what kind
of audio compression, fullscreen or letterbox (you'll
want to toy with this), etc. After configuring the
settings the way you want them hit "apply".
5).
There is also a little folder icon right above the
timeline (right next to the record button). You'll
click this icon to select a destination where to save
the file and also name it. Each time you capture a
clip you should hit this icon and give it a new name
or it'll just record over the last clip you captured.
6).
Now you're ready to start capturing. Just put the lever
at the starting point where you want to start capturing,
hit the red record button and it'll start capturing until
you hit the stop button. Once again, everytime you start
on a new clip don't forget to change the file name or it'll
write over the clip you just captured.
Do you have any tips on making a video?
A good music video is subjective. The things you may inject in your video
(sometimes personal things) other people may miss or not understand.
Not everyone is going to like your song choice, etc. Personally,
there are three things I'm adamant about when making a video....
1. Picking a song that matches the feel or theme of the movie or TV show
that you're making a video of. I like to see a vidder correlate his/her clip
choice with the lyrics of the song. Making the lyrics relevant to what the
viewer is watching usually makes for a memorable video.
2. Have some kind of timing between the clips and the song. Beat editing is
difficult and tedious but the pay off is worth the time it takes. I try my best
to time my clips with the lyrics and just about every instrument (guitar riffs,
drum beats, whatever) in the song at one time or another. It creates a nice
rhythm. If it's a slower, more mellow song I try to focus solely on timing clips
with the vocals.
3. Take your time. Don't try to rush a video just to get it out there. It takes
patience. Anyone can slap a bunch of clips together and add music. Try to
make your video have some kind of meaning and not just random clips with
background music.