Video Editing Tips

If you want to get more oomph to your video editing work, then why not try out Lives, a linux-based open source project that is free yet powerful enough to get you on the professional way to video editing. It can be used as a video editor, a video server and more depending on the desired function you may want it to take for being open-sourced, you get to incorporate the features you need into the package, eliminating unneeded ones to save on resources. Read the rest…

Another of the free and open-sourced video editors out on the internet that has spawned many a forks as they are called, or versions made by other people and not the original author. The forks added more capabilities in terms of support and other capabilities but overall have the same look and feel. It is quite limited but for something that is free, it is quite awesome with some easy editing capabilities. You may want to get more performance by choosing from some of the forks/variants so do check at SourceForge where most open-sourced software are hosted for all to use and download. Read the rest…

If you’re the type that wants to make serious movies and videos, here’s the idea rig for you to put together.

Your editing PC must have:

1. A capture card. This to capture video that is not recorded digitally into a hard disk or memory stick. You can also use this up capture videos from your old VCDs and VHS tapes.

2. A lot pf processing speed. You need at least an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 or any equivalent to handle the processing requirements smoothly.

3. At least 2gb RAM. Video editing software, especially the more advanced ones, need a lot of memory. So if you’re also using Windows Vista, you’ll be needing a lot more for smoother operation.

4. Hard disk space. A lot of it. Raw video tends to be large – some even breaching 1gb EACH, so you need space both for that and the output.

One of the best proprietary video editing software around that money can buy. It offers advanced editing features that can be found on more expensive professional software. It is capable of using data from Sony’s digital recorders but a good firewire converter must be installed to allow importing of the video information. The more expensive version of the software boasts ability to format video for upload to the much famed iPod and Sony’s own PSP system. It also has a canny ability to upload video directly to YouTube which is a very good feature for social internet lovers. Designed as a non-linear editing tool for desktops with several versions that varies in capabilities according to the price. The complexity of the system has been addressed by Sony with the inclusion of many How-To videos that would allows the user to get step by step instruction in the system’s use. Sony’s software is a bit complex but overall, it is considered to be one of the best consumer editing software around.

Using opensourced and free video editing tools seems to be the cheapest, if not free, way of finally finishing that video. However, since there are tons of them around, we’ll focus on just on one: Kino.

The latest version was a few months ago but seems to be still relevant: ver. 1.3.2.

This is basically a re-release of 1.3.1 with some build-related fixes.

Author Dan Dennedy
Publishing date 20.08.2008 19:15

1.3.2 Release Notes
Just some build-related fixes.
1.3.1 Release Notes

* Added HuffYUV AVI export
* Added option not to recover to the crash detection dialog
* New Belarusian translation by Hleb Valoshka
* Updated Finnish and French translations
* Bug fixes

NOTE: configure’s –enable-udev-rules-dir has changed to –with-udev-rules-dir

Source

Image Source: athousandandone.com

Playback Speed – this is one feature of a video editing program that is most likely to be neglected and unappreciated. Yet it remains to be one of the coolest feature in a program. Playback Speed enables you to control and manipulate the speed of a video clip. It has many purposes in a movie if used creatively. It can add drama to a scene when you slow down the speed. Sort of a “slow-mo” effect. It can be humorous also if its set at a faster speed. It can also give you added flexibility to fit a specific video clip into a frame. Just like when you are doing a music video wherein you have to sync the drummer to play exactly in tune with the video. You will just have to pay close attention to the audio when you manipulate the speed.

Image Source: iskysoft.com

You can select a fragment in a source file by switching to the editing mode of that file. To do that, double click on the file name which is on the Source Files list. When you double click it, the built in player will start playing. Usually located in the right part of the window of the program. Next is to move the slider to the desired part of the movie and then click on the In Point button. This will be marked as the starting position of the file. Next step is to move the slider to the desired position within the movie. Then you select the Out Point button. This will set the end of the file to be added. After doing the procedure that i mentioned, the selected In and Out points will display the fragment length or duration in the additional window Properties. You can access this by pressing Ctrl + Enter on the file. Note that this is not applicable to images. Fragment selection is only available for audio and video files.

Image Source: students.ou.edu

The preset video editing tool from Microsoft is probably one of the coolest feature of the whole package. It provides the ultimate user-friendly interface. I started using the software just recently. I am amazed that i could pretty much edit my videos with such incredible ease and efficiency. I did not take long to be comfortable using this software.

How to cut or remove unwanted shots.

• Movie Maker gives you the option of capturing your video manually. You decide exactly what sections of the video you just want to transfer.
• Movie Maker allows you to cut video clips in half. This is a great way to get rid of videos that you will not use for the final movie.
• You can trim the ends of your clips by setting the exact start and end points of each video clip. While working on the timeline, drag the end of each clip to the exact point that you would like it to start or stop.

Image Source: www.crcgraphix.com

If video editing sounds like an appealing job, there are a few stuffs you must bear in mind and learn before you take your first steps into the field:

The first thing to consider before you get on on your video editing career is training. Across the country there are a variety of schools and universities that have curriculums which focuses on enhancing one’s video editing techniques and skills. These courses are proposed to teach students the proper usage and application of a number of different digital video editing programs.

The next thing to remember is to make professional business connections. Broadcasting, whether it is in film, television or radio is all about who you know. It’s intricate to make a name for you in any professional field, and it’s especially true in the field of broadcasting. Due to the fact that film and video editing jobs rely deeply on the principles of what you know and how well you can adjust to new programs and techniques, entry level jobs are few and far between.

The final piece of advice is that don’t be afraid of experimenting with new techniques. If all editors followed the alike guide for creating a film, the industry would never progress.It is important to take risks at times and try to include the technology and your own skill in a way which that have not been done previous to.

If the processor is not able to handle such speeds frames or parts of your picture may be lost in the copy process. The memory and processor must also work in tandem at a certain speed to allow seamless editing and processing of video data in the production of the final product. As you edit your video and start combining them into the finished product, you would see that it occupies quite a huge amount of disk space for one, windows uses a swap file or a file where most frequently used information is stored onto the hard disk and treated as memory and two as the video editing/creation process is done, the editing software will use/create a temporary file as it integrates and compiles so to speak all the various elements (video, audio and effects) into the finished product.