Wiley Digital Video For Dummies, 4th Edition
Contents
1. Using such a program for exam ple Apple iMovie or Windows Movie Maker you can navigate to any scene in the movie insert scenes move them around cut them out of the timeline altogether and slice dice tweak and fine tune to your heart s content 4 Part I Getting Ready for Digital Video 2 Connect your digital camcorder to your computer s FireWire port and turn the camcorder on to Player or VIR mode If you re not sure how to connect the camcorder see Chapter 5 where I discuss video capture in greater detail 3 Choose FileCapture Video in Windows Movie Maker or slide the Mode button to Camera in iMovie as shown in Figure 1 3 In Windows Movie Maker you are asked to provide a name for your cap tured video The name should be descriptive so that you ll be able to identify the file later Movie Maker also asks you to choose a video qual ity setting For now just choose Digital Device Format DV AVI 4 Use the Play Fast Forward and Rewind buttons in the capture window to locate video you want to capture 5 When you are ready to start capturing click Import iMovie or Start Capture Movie Maker u 4 sun 9 25 AM iMovie File Edit Advanced Window Help iMovie eee 2 00 00 NTSC ama as 2 eee OLD FAITHFUL GEYSER f Figure 1 3 Use the playback buttons to find some 7 ow ny bed aa mG m gt gt _ s2. 2 View video effects F r View video transkions Mave tiles or credits z Mare an AtoMovie J Finish Movie A Save to my computer amp 202004 10 35 AM 20 2004 10 37 AM 20 2004 10 30AM Save to CD Sendin e mail Send to the Web a F Send to OY camera Howto capture video haaha o gonvzond 10 42AM 72072004 10 50 AM Svoo osaa MIDOO ow to add thes effocts transitions DOIDO r Howto save and share movies Ls m KD SOTO Om m 4 D Show Timeline OLD fe GEYSER 8 20 2004 10 32AM 1 8 20 2004 10 7 AM cal gt Ready _ _ S Storyboard Clip browser 15 16 Part I Getting Ready for Digital Video b a Figure 1 5 A clip has been inserted in the middle of the storyboard PCS After you ve added a couple of scenes to your movie you may decide that you want to insert a scene between them With a nonlinear editing program like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker this edit is easy Just click and drag a clip and drop it right between two clips that are already in the storyboard The software automatically shifts clips over to make room for the inserted clip as shown in Figure 1 5 Almost as easy as shuffling cards edits like these are the essence of nonlinear video editing E Untitled Windows Movie Maker File Edit View Tools Clip Play Help bea B Tasks Collections G summen x Collection summerl4 Storyboard 8 20 2004 10 53 AM Movie Tasks Drag a clip and ctep it o
3. camcorder s playback features This means you don t have to juggle your fingers and try to press Play on the camcorder and Record in the software at exactly the same time Just clic Capture in a program like Apple iMovie or Windows Movie Maker and th software automatically starts and stops your camcorder as needed 1 Hot swap capability You can connect or disconnect FireWire compo nents whenever you want You don t need to shut down the computer unplug power cables or confer with your local public utility district before connecting or disconnecting a FireWire component Most new Macintosh computers come with FireWire ports Many but not all md Windows PCs have FireWire ports as well If your PC does not have a FireWire port you may be able to add one using an expansion card I cover upgrades and adjustments to your system in Chapter 2 Some camcorders use a USB 2 0 port instead of FireWire but FireWire is easier to use and compatible with more editing programs If you re buying a new PC for video editing con sider FireWire a must have feature Most digital camcorders offer FireWire ports although sometimes the port has a different name Some manufacturers don t want to use Apple s trade marked FireWire name so they call the port i LINK IEEE 1394 or simply DV Whatever name is used FireWire truly makes video editing easy and I strongly recommend that you buy a camcorder that includes a FireWire
4. fies Trans emeas owo video you pees es Mra E DIS OPA 4 want to lJ i g capture N Bowe 8 73G8 free a Mode button Storyboard Clip browser Chapter 1 Introducing Digital Video avr ee Figure 1 4 Two clips have been placed in the storyboard Sas 6 Click Import iMovie again or Stop Capture Movie Maker to stop capturing video 7 In Windows Movie Maker click Finish to close the Video Capture Wizard In Apple iMovie slide the Mode button over to Edit You should now see a selection of video clips in the clip browser 8 Click and drag a clip from the clip browser and drop it on the storyboard 9 Click and drag a second clip from the clip browser and drop it on the storyboard just after the first clip Congratulations You ve just made your first movie edit You should now have two clips on the storyboard looking similar to Figure 1 4 If your Windows Movie Maker window doesn t look quite like this click the Show Storyboard button if you see it onscreen FL Untitled Windows Movie Maker ox File Edit View Tools Clip Play Help bed g B Tasks Collections 3 summen4 x Collection summer04 Storyboard 8 20 2004 10 22 AM 1 Movie Tasks Drag a sip and crepit on the stoybomid below 1 Capture Video ics Capture from video device de Impeet 2 audo or musi 2 Edit Movie A A202004 10 32 AM G20V2004 10 32 AM V20 2004 10 35 AM
5. really easy to add special creative touches to your movies Creating a transition You can add a transition to the simple movie you put together in the previous section by following these steps 1 Create a movie project with a couple of clips in the storyboard as described in the previous section You can follow these steps using any movie project that includes two or more clips 2 Open the list of video transitions in your editing program In Apple iMovie click the Trans button just below the browser window In Windows Movie Maker click View Video Transitions in the Movie Tasks list on the left side of the screen or choose Tools Transitions 3 Click and drag one of the Circle transitions to a spot between two clips on the storyboard A transition indicator appears between the two clips as shown in Figure 1 6 4 Click Play in the preview window to preview the transition If you are using iMovie the transition may not appear immediately If you see a tiny red progress bar under the transition wait a few seconds for it to finish When the progress bar is complete you should be able to preview the transition 18 PCS Figure 1 6 Transitions adda special touch to your movies Ready Part I Getting Ready for Digital Video QD Untitled Windows Movie Maker File Edit View Tools Clip Play Help neaj B Tasks Collections C Video Transitions x Videon Transitions Movie Tasks Drag a video
6. the graceful motion of an eagle in flight we are receiving a steady stream of infi nitely variable data through our various senses Of course we don t think of all these things as data but rather as light sound smell and touch 10 Part I Getting Ready for Digital Video LSS Figure 1 1 Analog data is infinitely variable e i E Figure 1 2 Digital data contains specific values a Computers are pretty dumb compared to the human brain They can t com prehend the analog data of the world all computers understand are yes one and no zero In spite of this limitation we force our computers to show pic tures play music and display moving video infinitely variable sounds colors and shapes must be converted into the language of computers ones and zeros This conversion process is called digitizing Digital video often abbreviated as DV is video that has been digitized To fully understand the difference between analog data and digital data sup pose you want to draw the profile of a hill An analog representation of the profile shown in Figure 1 1 would follow the contour of the hill perfectly because analog values are infinitely variable However a digital contour of that same hill would not be able to follow every single detail of the hill because as shown in Figure 1 2 digital values are made up of specifically defined individual bits of data Chapter 1 Introducing Digita
7. you may want to share your video work with others Thankfully sharing digital video is pretty easy too Part IV of this book shows you all the details of shar ing video on tape DVD or the Internet but the following sections provide a handy brief glimpse of what you can do Exporting a movie Modern video editing programs are designed to make it as easy as possible to share your movie projects often with no more than a couple of mouse clicks For now I show you how to export a movie that is suitable for viewing over the Internet The steps for exporting your movie are a little different depending on whether you are using Apple iMovie or Windows Movie Maker so I ll address each program separately Exporting from Apple iMovie Apple iMovie exports movies in QuickTime format or you can export directly to your camcorder s videotape or Apple iDVD To export your project in iMovie follow these steps 1 Open the project you want to export 2 Choose File gt Export The iMovie Export dialog box appears 3 Choose how you want to export your movie from the Export menu For now I recommend that you choose To QuickTime as shown in Figure 1 8 4 Choose a Format such as Web 5 Click Export 6 Give a name for your movie file in the Save As box Make a note of the folder in which you are saving the movie Choose a different folder if you wish If you remove the mov filename extension Windows users you proba bly know a fe
8. Chapter 1 Introducing Digital Video In This Chapter What is digital video How video editing works Making your first digital movie Sharing your movie is often said that we live in the Digital Age We call each other on digital cell phones we take snap shots with digital cameras we download digital music from online digital stores to our digital audio players and when we make home movies we make them using digital video Digital video first appeared over a decade ago Sony and Panasonic released the first consumer oriented digital video camcorders in 1995 Also in 1995 Apple introduced the high speed FireWire interface In theory FireWire would allow camcorders to easily connect to computers making it easy to store video on your computer and edit that video into professional style movies In practice few computers back then could handle digital video If you buy a new camcorder today chances are it s a digital camcorder Likewise so long as your computer isn t more than about four or five years old you can probably use it to copy digital video from a camcorder pick and choose scenes add some special effects and turn it into a real movie This chapter introduces you to digital video and shows you how easy it is to edit and share your movies with others What s Digital Video Human beings experience the world as an analog environment When we take in the serene beauty of a rose garden the mournful song of a cello or
9. Windows Movie Maker scroll down in the list of effects and choose one of the Film Age effects It doesn t matter if you choose Old Older or Oldest Chapter 1 Introducing Digital Video g 4 Apply the effect to the clip In iMovie click Apply at the top of the effects window In Windows Movie Maker click and drag the effect onto the clip on the storyboard 5 Click Play in the preview window to preview the effect as shown in Figure 1 7 Again if you re using iMovie you will probably have to wait for the tiny red progress bar on the clip to finish before you can preview the effect These are just a couple of the cool things you can do with digital video Part III of this book helps you explore the wonders of video editing in greater detail So break out your director s chair and get ready to make some movie magic Click to apply effect iMovie File I 4 Sun 9 54AM Edit Advanced Window Help iMovie summer04 03 43 NTSC PR Adjust Colors aged Film BRSlack amp White PBeartnquake WBdecicity e Figure 1 7 Making video look like aged film is just one of many special video effects you can use if Choose an effect Click to browse effects 20 Part I Getting Ready for Digital Video Sharing Video WING RY One of the best things about digital video is that it enables you to get really creative with your own movie projects To make your work worthwhile
10. iMovie outputs videos in Apple QuickTime format and Windows versions of QuickTime shown in Figure 1 11 have been available for years Chapter 14 tells you more about available video player programs Chapter 1 Introducing Digital Video 23 a 7 OLD FAITHFUL PC s Figure 1 10 Gas Windows Media movies can be played ona Mac AU FE ta aS OLD FAITHFUL M Figure 1 11 CEYSER ae Es and QuickTime files can be played in 00907 Windows 2 ia aa gt gt O After you have previewed your movie you can either share it with others or edit it some more I usually go through the preview and re edit process dozens of times before I decide that a movie project is ready for release but thanks to digital video re editing is no problem at all Chapter 13 offers some tips for previewing your movies more effectively 24 Part I Getting Ready for Digital Video
11. ie Maker Windows or Apple iMovie Macintosh Comparing editing methods Video and audio for that matter is considered a linear medium because it comes at you in a linear stream through time A still picture on the other hand just sits there you take it in all at once and a Web site lets you jump randomly from page to page Because neither photos nor Web pages are perceived as linear streams they re both examples of nonlinear media You tweak a linear medium such as video by using one of two basic methods linear or nonlinear editing If your approach to editing is linear you must do all the editing work in chronological order from the start of the movie to the finish Here s an old fashioned example If you edit video by dubbing certain parts from a camcorder tape onto a VHS tape in your VCR you have to do all your edits in one session in chronological order As you probably guessed linear editing is terribly inefficient If you dub a program and then decide to perform an addi tional edit subsequent video usually has to be redubbed Oh the pain the tedium What is the alternative Thinking outside the line nonlinear editing You can do nonlinear edits in any order you don t have to start at the beginning and slog on through to the end every time The magical gizmo that makes nonlinear editing possible is a combination of the personal computer and programs designed for nonlinear editing NLE
12. l Video ar Comparing analog and digital video We re often led to believe that digital is better but believe it or not digital recordings are theoretically inferior to analog recordings This is because analog recordings can theoretically contain more information But the truth is major advances in digital technology mean that this really doesn t matter Yes a digital recording must be made up of specific individual values but modern recordings have so many discrete values packed so closely together that human eyes and ears can barely tell the difference Casual observation often reveals that digital recordings actually seem to be of a higher quality than analog recordings Why A major problem with analog recordings is that they are highly susceptible to deterioration Every time analog data is copied some of the original infi nitely variable data is lost This phenomenon called generational loss can be observed in that dark grainy copy of a copy of a copy of a wedding video that was first shot more than 10 years ago However digital data doesn t have this problem A one is always a one no matter how many times it is copied and a zero is always a zero Likewise analog recordings are more susceptible to deterioration after every playback which explains why your 1964 vintage Meet the Beatles LP pops hisses and has lost many of its highs and lows over the years Digital recordings are based on instructions that tell the co
13. mputer how to create the data as long as the computer can read the instructions it creates the data the same way every time Whether you are editing analog or digital material always work from a copy of the master and keep the master safe When adding analog material to your project the fewer generations your recording is from the original the better When you consider the implications of generational loss on video editing you begin to see what a blessing digital video really is You re constantly copying editing and recopying content as you edit your movie projects and with digital video you can edit to your heart s content confident that the quality won t diminish with each new copy you make Warming up to FireWire FireWire is one of the technologies that makes digital video so fun and easy to work with FireWire also sometimes called IEEE 1394 or i LINK was originally developed by Apple Computer and is actually an interface format for computer peripherals Various peripherals including scanners CD burn ers external hard drives and of course digital video cameras use FireWire technology Key features of FireWire include 11 Vel ytillling WUITKIIIE 1 Device control OK this one isn t actually a feature of FireWire it s just one of the things that makes using FireWire really neat If your digital camcorder is connected to your computer s FireWire port most video editing programs can control the
14. n the stonboard below 1 Capture Video ics Capture from video device w Import audo or music Edit Movie B202004 10 32 AM G20 2004 10 32 AM E 20 2004 10 35 AM i vaw video effects r View video transitions Mave tiles or credits z Make an AutoMovie Finish Movie Save to my computer Q 20 2004 10 35 AM 6 20 2004 10 37 AM amp 20 2004 10 30AM Save to CD Send in e mail Send to the Web Send to DY camera n Movie Making Tips Howto capture video E Passed irs n cps hia 8 20 2004 10 42 AM 8 20 2004 10 50 AM 20 2004 10 53 AM gt JOO cw to add titles effects tranations ODOTA How to save ond shore moies La vi gt RP w D E Show Timeline CEYSER 820 2004 10 32AM 1 cal Ready 8 20 2004 10 37 AM Inserted clip Chapter 1 Introducing Digital Video 7 Performing Hollywood magic at the click of a mouse The previous section shows the basics of making a movie by assembling clips in a specific order and frankly most of your editing work will probably consist of simple tasks like that But when you want to go beyond ordinary you can really spice up your movies by adding special effects or transitions between clips Special effects are covered in Chapter 11 and I show you just about everything you ll ever need to know about transitions in Chapter 9 Of course there s no need to wait until later Modern video editing programs make it
15. o pt Figure 1 9 Review movie details here Do Save Movie Wizard Movie Setting Select the setting you want to use to save your movie The setting you select determines the quality and fle size of your saved movie O Dial up modem 56 Kbps O ISDN 64 Kbps DA cable modem or higher 384 Kbps Show more choices Learn more about choosing a connection speed Setting detpis Movie File size File aea eons Media Video WMV Estimated space required Bit rate 34 kbps 1277 08 Display sizq 320 x 240 pixels Aspect ratip 4 3 Estimpted disk space available on drive C Frames per second 30 49 68 GB 4 Back Next gt Cancel Estimated file size Click for more quality options Playing your movie After your movie has been exported playing it is pretty easy Simply locate the file on your hard drive and double click its name The movie should auto matically open and start to play as shown in Figure 1 10 If you exported your movie from Windows Movie Maker the movie file will be in Windows Media WMV format Despite the name you don t have to be a Windows user to view Windows Media video You do need Windows Media Player to view Windows Media files but Microsoft does offer a version of Windows Media Player for Macintosh Figure 1 10 shows a Windows Media version of the Chapter 1 movie playing contentedly on my Mac Movies created on a Mac are also cross platform friendly
16. port Chapter 3 provides more detail on choosing a great digital camcorder Some camcorders can transfer video using a USB Universal Serial Bus 2 0 port instead of FireWire In fact a few digital camcorders on the market offer only USB 2 0 connectivity and not FireWire The reason for this is that USB 2 0 ports are more common on modern Windows PCs than FireWire ports Video transfer via USB 2 0 might work for you but if possible I recommend FireWire instead When it comes to working with digital video FireWire is les likely to offer unexpected technical surprises than USB 2 0 Chapter 1 Introducing Digital Video 13 Editing Video Until a few years ago the only practical way for the average person to edit video was to connect two VCRs and use the Record and Pause buttons to cut out unwanted parts This was a tedious and inefficient process The up to date and vastly improved way to edit video is to use a computer and the following sections introduce you to the video editing techniques you re most likely to use In this chapter I show how to edit video using Apple iMovie and Windows Movie Maker the free video editing programs that come with the Macintosh OS or Microsoft Windows respectively Editing a short video project Editing video is really cool and easy to do if you have a reasonably modern computer But why talk about editing when you can jump right into it Here s the drill 1 Open Windows Mov
17. transition and dap t between bwo video clips on the storyboard balou 1 Capture Video 4 le Capture From video device Import video x 2 Edit Movie O Bars Bow Tie Horizontal Bow Tie Vertical Show collections View video effects mere oreren LHE Make tles of credits GEYSER Sees See Jae 3 Finish Movie s 3 Save to my computer Checkerboard Across Circle Circles Save to CD Send in e mail idto coma rat ay Movie Making Tips 4 yy J 4 A h How to capture video Howto edt cips Diagonal Cross Out Diagonal Down Right How to add ties effocts transions gme gons Diagonal Box Out JO DTPA DOTACE Howto save ond shore mowes A sO E e DEC de Cnet su OLD FAITHFUL M CEYSER 820 2004 10 32AM 1 6 20 2004 10 53AM 8 20 2004 10 37 AM OG gt Drop transition here Pretty cool huh But wait that s not all Creating special effects Adding special effects to your video is pretty easy too Here s one that makes a video clip look like it came from a really old reel of film 1 Click a clip in the storyboard to select it 2 Open the list of video effects in your video editing program In iMovie click the Effects button under the browser window In Windows Movie Maker click View Video Effects in the Movie Tasks list or choose Tools Video Effects 3 Click an Aged Film effect to select it In iMovie there is only one Aged Film effect In
18. w will have a hard time viewing your movie 7 Click Save Chapter 1 Introducing Digital Video 2 DE Figure 1 8 Choose export settings in this dialog box ee iMovie Export Export To QuickTime i Formats Web Your movie will be compressed with appropriate settings and may be reduced in width and height as well This operation may take several minutes to complete Cancel Export iMovie exports your movie The export process may take a few minutes depending on how long your movie is Exporting from Windows Movie Maker Like iMovie Windows Movie Maker also enables you to export video for a variety of applications Windows Movie Maker is especially well suited to exporting movies for Internet playback To export a movie for online viewing follow these steps 1 2 7 Open the project that you want to export Choose File Save Movie File The Save Movie Wizard appears Choose an export format for your movie and then click Next For now I recommend choosing My Computer Enter a filename for your movie and choose a location in which to save the file Click Next again The Save Movie Wizard shows details about the file including the file size see Figure 1 9 Click Next again The export process begins When export is done click Finish Your movie will probably begin playing in Windows Media Player Enjoy 22 Part I Getting Ready for Digital Vide
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