Video editing

HI all, making a short film for college soon and need some FREE video editing software that isnt windows movie maker any ideas?

Wavepad video editor. not sure if it's free or not i got it when i last got my computer serviced.

Try this list and see what you like (aside from Movie maker ):

http://tv.isg.si/site/?q=node/873

Try Avidemux... Or if you have a Linux distro, try Cinelerra, Kdenlive or Kino (somehow the last one reminds me of those flying cameras on SGU, which I don't know the name )

Their name would be...Kino, which is also the name of a company that remasters old movies

Darkwing wrote:Their name would be...Kino, which is also the name of a company that remasters old movies

Forgot Sarcasm can't be transmitted through the internet :$

I've heard about that company once, I think...

They remastered Nosferatu and Metropolis and they did damn fine jobs of it too

Thanks i'll check them out, should be starting filming next week any hints on the actual shooting of it ( im using my mams camcorder to make it )

Tips? Tips he says? Of course, I mean, what exactly does the founder of this forum do in his spare time anyways but make, let's see, films! I'll give you some basic filmmaking tips that will apply to pretty much any style of film, but depending on your style of film, I can give you certain other tips too. So what kind of film is it you're making?

Were making an advertisment for children in need (pudsy bear) it's a charitable organisations that helps children who ar ebullied, abused etc... for our film we are going to show this child being bullied then someone walks in and tells her about pudsy, i was thinking make it in black and white or a depresing color scheme to start then once she finds out about the help, it turns to color

KK, well, some basic starter tips then:

-Make sure you do a storyboard for the entire film, it's annoying up front, but will save you time and trouble in the end

-Follow the 180degree rule as best you can (Imagine a line going down through the middle of the set. Shoot everything on one side of that line and don't cross it, it disorients the audience because it changes the direction of the subject(s))

-Do not jump cut (part of the reason we use a storyboard). Jump cutting is where you have two shots that when they switch (cut) there is little to know change in direction, shot size and shot angle, thus giving a sort of "jump" feel to it

-Actors should NEVER look straight at the camera. This is known s breaking the fourth wall and as soon as you do it, you've completely lost credibility for your video because now the audience will watch it remembering it is just a video and won't become a part of it (engrossed). If you need them to look straight, have them look just above, below, or to the side of the camera lens, that way you still get a straight shot, but they're not looking at the camera

-If at all possible, use three point lighting as your basic rig. The set-up is as follows:
1) Key light. the key light is the main source of light. It is essentially the "sun" of the shot.
2.) Fill light. The fill light goes opposite the key light. The fill light should be ~50% dimmer than the key light. This light softens the shadows and helps prevent the subject from looking bleached
3.) Backlight. This light is somewhere in the 25-50% dimness range. This light goes directly behind the subject. It's primary purpose is to make the subject "outlined" from the background so that the subject doesn't fall into the background making it look flat. This is the light that gives hair that little outline around it. Make sure this light is pointed directly at the camera because it will cause flaring

Now I don't imagine you have a full fledged film lighting rig, so here's what you can do. If shooting outdoors or in an area with a strong, directional light source, use that as your key light. If outdoors, use the sun, natures own keylight. For the fill light, take a piece of cardboard ~2' X 2'. Cover it with aluminum foil. Position this where you would the key light (opposite the sun if outdoors). The closer it is to the subject, the brighter the light will be. The further from the subject, the dimmer. Play around with distance until you find a suitable dimness, but keep it consistent between shots!
For your backlight, if you have access to an electrical outlet, I would recommend a desk lamp or another piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil.

-Keep shot consistency (continuity). If a character has a scar on their right cheek, make sure it's always on their right cheek! You would be surprised at how many professionals screw this one up! Shot consistency also refers to the lighting, composition and colour.

-Pick a colour scheme. The most basic colour scheme is the primary colour (red, yellow and blue). So for instance, if you have a character with a red shirt, have another character with blue pants and an object that is yellow. It doesn't (and shouldn't) be the actual colours though nor does it have to fully be that colour. For instance, anything in the red spectrum, from dark to light would count as red. There re many colour schemes out there, do some digging and find one that fits.

-Temperature. Keep the temperature of the colours/lighting consistent. If everything happened in the arctic, you would want you colour scheme to favour cooler colours like light blue. You wouldn't want to use a lot of yellows and reds because that is a warm temperature.

-Do not use zooms. Zooms make the video look amateur at best. Unless you are doing somethign that's supposed to look like an amateur made it (ie a home movie), stay away from the zooms!

-Use trucking/dollying/panning. This is the camera movements that go from side to side, around the object, go from looking left to looking right etc. If you do these smoothely, they can make a video look very professional and keep the viewer engaged. A way of trucking and dollying without the use of a steadicam or technology, is to hold the camera, bend at the knees until they;re close to a 90degree angle and then walk to the side (slowly) like a crab. If you are on a flat surface, this can work quite well. Other options are using wheely chairs like a computer chair where you have someone push the camera person in the chair

-Stay away from doing all still shots. Still shots are boring. If the camera stays still all the time for every shot, people will lose interest. Thus you use trucking/dollying/panning.

-Instead of doing black and white going into colour (mind immediately thinks bad TV commercial or the Wizard of Oz) use lighting and colour schemes. For your bully segments, do it in a parking lot or somethign with a lot of dull concrete. Also, make sure it is cloudy (maybe even raining or something) and keep the film temperature at a grey midtone range. No bright colours but keep your darks limited. Grey is more depressing than black. So have your victim where grey sweatpants (or something less obvious perhaps)

If you do that method, when you use bright colours at the end or have it sunny, it won't seem so obvious and cliche that the mood has just changed. Going from black and white to colour is like holding up a sign saying "It's happy now". It's obvious and you'll lose credibility.

-Do not use fancy editing effects/transitions. These wreak of amateur home video. Stick to fades, straight cuts, dissolves or in some cases smooth wipes. I personally prefer to stick to cross-fades and straight cuts, especially for a video like this, if done well, cross fades can be very depressing and straight cuts can be dramatic.

-Make sure your soundtrack fits the mood. Too many times have I heard happy music during a sad sequence, it just doesn't fit

-Make-up is your friend. If somebody is getting beat up, a little blood and bruising will go a long way.

-Play with camera angles. If the camera is low looking up at the subject, this gives across either a super-hero like quality, or a helpless quality. In your case, you might want some shots from the victim's perspective on the ground looking up at the attackers. This will give the attackers a menacing quality. On the same not, shooting with the camera somewhat above the attackers as they loom over the victim on the ground will also help that menacing feeling. You will want to stick to straight cuts most likely for this sequence.
-For the happier sequence, shoot more mid-height shots (or really high or long shots). This will give sense of equality and balance.

-Use long shots to set the stage. Your intitial shot in almost all case will be a long shot of the set, with perhaps the character being kind small walking along nervously, fearful of impending doom. Once the stage is set though, limit the long shots. Don't be afraid to do close-ups and get all of the juicy emotions off the subjects. Play with objects being in between the subjects and the camera. Don't always be so focused on the subjects.
-Don't keep things centered
-Use rushed motion and shakiness to depict panic/fear

-In post (editing) adjust all of the film to have more contrast. When you shoot with your general camera, everything will stay about the same, so adding some contrast (making the darks dark and the lights light) will give a more realistic quality.

-If you have the option, try to shoot in either 24 or 30 fps. This has a more natural look. if you're using an HD camera, than it is most likely set at a default of 60fps which makes things look a bit rushed an unnatural motion-wise. Also when you export your video, make sure you're exporting to the right frame right. A lot of times there are mutliple options labeled something like:
HDV72030
HDV72060
HDV108060

If you see numbers 24, 30 or 60 in your export options, this is referring to the frame rate.

If you did not shoot in HD, do not export to HD, stay with SD (generally 480p)

If you did shoot in HD, in editing, try to set it to progressive instead of interlaced. If you can't do that, look for an effect or something to the nature of de-interlace. If you do this, make sure you export to p and not i (ie 720p vs 720i)

Also, I would recommend looking up the Videomaker channel on youtube, they got some great tips and tricks for those on a tight budget

Ph and to add to continuity, make sure tht between shots, if a character has their left hand on their hip on shot 1, that shot 2 their hand still be on their hip. Things like that you gotta show them take it off otherwise the audience won't believe the credibility of the film.


Also, use cutaways! These are the shots where you have a long dialogue sequence or something and you don't wanna just keep showing the person talking, so to break it up, do a shot of somethign they're looking at, or a close up of them fiddling with their thumbs or something. Cutaways are also an easy fix to a jump cut. If you're editing and see a jump cut and you're like "crap!" To fix it, just shoot a quick cuataway. Cutaway's only last a second.

As for shot length, if it's over 3 seconds, it's long, if it's over 5 seconds, it's too long and you better have a damn good reason for shooting a 5 second shot. Optimum target is 2-3 second shots. If you have a longer shot, use mise en scene, where the camera does stuff in the shot, moves around, pans etc. There have been some long mise en scenes (orsen welles has the record for a 2 or 3 minute shot, but stuff happens. The russians made some film that happened all in one shot, but I don't think it turned out well, so we'll stick to Orson Welles' shot)

Here's the shot. Remember, the cameras back then were enormous and the rigs to move them around were even bigger and this took A LOT of takes, cause if you screwed even one little thing up, the entire shot would have to be done again!

WOAH infomation overload, thanks DW didn't know alot of that, i am now thinking of taking media next year when i resit my As levels.

Heh, sorry, but hey, if you follow a lot of that, you'll have one kickass looking video! Key with film is not to say things with dialogue, but everything else!

thats the key to acting too

Yep, well the key to acting is to not act. Oxymoron, I think so

Yes, and

Acting is Reacting

Indeed. I am looking forward to seeing if this new project will actually be completed. People are starting to come together for it so you never know!!!

Looks like my project may not even start, i can't use my mothers camera she wont let me, ill ask others in my group and see if the college can lend me one but it's not looking hopefull :/

Did ya tell her it was for school so you can get a good grade so you can pass so you can graduate so you can get a good career so you can make good money?

Yes i did, she still said no.

Any particular reason why or is it just "no"? I'd lend you mine but we're separated by a bit of an ocean

I would have appreciated that, but it's a simple no i've mesaged the people in my group, we have the lesson tomorrow first thing and i shall ask the teacher about lending one from the college or my team mates bring one in.

Parents, a common trait they have is being over-protective. And no doubt it's quick and easy to judge now, then someday when you are one, you'll be just the same. Oh well, at least for me that won't be a problem

I've decided im being one of thoose awsome parents, the kind which get along with you kids friends coz you'll buy them alchohol

And then the children become very messed up, on drugs, no education, little to no money and very angry. C'est la vie

Proffeser farnsworth: GOOD NEWS!!!! my teammate has a camcorder just not HD but the film is back on i shall post it here once it is done

NIFTY! Feel free to gimme a holler if you need any more tips or anything

Darkwing wrote:Parents, a common trait they have is being over-protective. And no doubt it's quick and easy to judge now, then someday when you are one, you'll be just the same. Oh well, at least for me that won't be a problem

And then you end up going to one of those parties, wake up in the morning not remembering much, wonder if you used a condom/s, and then a few weeks later you get a woman on your doorstep....

I would judge the girl if she was nice i would congratulate my son, moan at him and pay for an abortion (if it was soon enough) and if a girl doesnt want to get pregnant there is something called the pill, or some needle thing.

Darkjedi wrote:

Darkwing wrote:Parents, a common trait they have is being over-protective. And no doubt it's quick and easy to judge now, then someday when you are one, you'll be just the same. Oh well, at least for me that won't be a problem

And then you end up going to one of those parties, wake up in the morning not remembering much, wonder if you used a condom/s, and then a few weeks later you get a woman on your doorstep....

I don't think I need to begin to describe how inaccurate a scenario this is for me

You're right....

There would be space geese, and cheese whiz.....

I don't want to even begin to know what you're getting t!

Darkjedi wrote:You're right....

There would be space geese, and cheese whiz.....

Darkwing wrote:I don't want to even begin to know what you're getting t!

No one does... DW... No one does...

But hey, you're right... The sooner you conquer the world, than actually going to a party xD

I know your fantasies DW, you don't have to try and hide them.

@ JP

The laser on my moonbase is prepping for firing sequence...

..right, well, this is OT, so back on topic before I crack out the whip

Hey, we're just giving ideas for an interesting plot in a sci-fi sitcom! XD

Ps: I took away the charger when I stayed there... You said I could remove it, so, I used it to build DW's new laser drill...

As long as it's used for a good cause, I'll be happy. (good cause, as in drilling a hole in the center of the earth to inject the red matter)

Just make sure you give it back after you're done with it.

(Shoot, I'm going to have to move my moon base to escape the black hole...)

Darkjedi wrote:As long as it's used for a good cause, I'll be happy. (good cause, as in drilling a hole in the center of the earth to inject the red matter)

Just make sure you give it back after you're done with it.

(Shoot, I'm going to have to move my moon base to escape the black hole...)

I'll have to move my mobile base that way... Just wait before we secure his goal, ok?

and what part of NO MORE OT don't you understand?

Darkwing wrote:and what part of NO MORE OT don't you understand?

Ok... Ok...

Note to myself: No longuer mess with sysadmin...

We roleplay too much lol

What video editing software do you use DW?

Final Cut Express

How must does that cost?

(googleing reduces overall forum post count)

FCE is about 200 dollars, the full version, Final Cut Pro (which is a commonly used program in the industry along with Adobe Premiere) costs about 1,000 dollars

Ouch! I see why you have the express edition.

Indeed, ideally I'd have Premiere, buuuuuuutt, the suite is 1700 bucks

Good news the video has been shot now to wait for my friend to send it and then edit it