Tuesday, March 15, 2011

An Introduction to Video Editing

Well, I was thinking of going to the wiki session, but (a) the room has no tables, making it difficult to take notes, and (b) one of the presentes is fromLinden Labs, makers of Second Life, and that's a product that seems to be turning into yesterday, so I came here, my second choice for the time slot. And it's conference organizer Joe Welinske presenting this one.

Important inflection point. The cost of software for working with video and the storage to host it has dropped precipitously, sometimes even free.

Video should be part of UA deliverables. It's attractive to growing number of consumers, especially younger demographic.

At AutoDesk, they are hosting their video on YouTube. It's free! Used to be video hosted on your corporate server. By hosting on YouTube, you're taking advantage of Google always indexing this information, making it easy to find. It's a great way to get users to your information.

Use many tools. Haven't found one tool that does everything. A camera is good because live action adds something to web video. Lighting is always a big issue.

One tool used is called Power Director, and it's available for less than $100. The same power a couple of decades ago would cost $10,000 and require lots and lots of expensive hardware.

One area of video editing software is a library of media elements. In a project, you bring them in from other sources. Key part to put it all together is the timeline. On he timeline are thumbnails representing media elements, which you can drag and drop and they become linked. You can create multiple tracks, such as one for music and one for narration.

Don't try and make your video capture your final place. So many people try to make the capture process perfect. Better to just let the camera run, and edit it later.  OTOH, you want to capture audio in one session, including multiple takes, so all are based on same ambient room pressure, background noise, etc.

Use an eBay lighting box kit, makes a huge difference in making the subject glow. All folds up into  little packet.

Many different video formats. They are supported in different environments, and they also affect speed, quality, and size. Formats include .avi, .mpegx, .H.264, .wmv, ,mov, and .swf. Learing all the issues with all the different formats takes some research.

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