How to Produce Your Own Online Movie
- By Theresa Lütge-Smith
It's easy to create, produce and distribute your own
movie, providing you are equipped with the right tools of the trade,
and the necessary technical know-how.
What was previously only the domain of Hollywood movie producers and
those with high-end and very expensive equipment is now within reach
of the masses. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, there
has been a drastic decrease in the prices of digital video cameras,
as well as the introduction of very affordable and user-friendly computer
editing software for both PC and MAC. Secondly, there have been increases
in download speeds and broadband capability on the Internet. All of
these developments mean the perfect playing ground for experimenting
with a whole new medium of artistic creation and entertainment. The
Internet has spawned an entirely new breed of creative artist and
has allowed amateurs and semi-professionals to dabble in multimedia,
and in combinations of video, audio, text and image as never before.
Things to Consider
While many articles and books on the subject of online video wax lyrical
about the ease and affordability of making one's own video production,
there are still a few things to bear in mind. While the enthusiasm
for the creation of online video is definitely warranted, one should
also remember that video creation, capturing, and editing have, if
anything, become even more complex and technologically dense than
before. A vast range of products and components must be studied, and
new formats need to be understood, before one can claim to know about
video. While it is certainly true that creating an online movie is
today relatively easier in comparison to a few years ago, one also
has to be aware of issues pertaining to the quality and professionalism
of the finished product. Of course anyone can edit and upload a video
of their family vacation, but there are many aspects that have to
be taken into account before a really worthwhile product can be produced.
Aspects including the size of video clips that one uploads for viewing;
streaming options and so on, need to be taken into account. Large
video files are essentially useless on the Internet, because the normal
user is still attempting to download video files using a 56K modem.
Besides, there are many other technical issues that the incipient
movie maker should be aware of when distributing their creations online.
Digital Surpasses Analog
While it is quite possible and feasible to make good videos and movies
using an analog video camera, the latest digital (DV) cameras produce
a much better product with less fuss. The cost and quality factor
is one of the main reasons for going digital in that a digital camera,
which costs below $1000, can produce better results compared to an
analog camera that would cost ten times more. However, technically
and in terms of ease of use, there is little comparison. The digital
format ensures that there is little disturbance in the transition
from source to computer and from that stage to playing back the video
Even more important is that editing becomes much simpler because no
conversion is necessary when the video is transferred or "captured"
to the computer. It can be then digitally edited and transferred back
to digital tape. Whereas with analog cameras, one would need a capture
card on the computer side to perform the conversion from analog to
digital, and, as many who have struggled on this route will know,
this can present a myriad of technical issues when it comes to the
quality of the digitized video.
If you are trying to decide whether to go digital or not, here are
some of the main reasons for using DV:
- Better image quality with DV compared to VHS;
- Copies of digital videos, and copies of copies, are as sharp
as the original, while analog can deteriorate when copied;
- Digital videos are easy to transfer to the computer and are already
in the required digital format;
- Digital video has audio that is CD quality;
- Digital video uses component color sampling to retain three times
the color information as analog VHS and S-VHS video. The net result
is brighter and truer colors;
- Time Base Correction stabilizes the picture, virtually eliminating
video jitters;
- Error Correction fills in missing video data, providing seamless
professional-looking video.
What do you need?
Editing and processing video requires the best equipment you can
afford. For starters a fast processor is a must and a very large
hard drive is imperative. This is simply because video requires
speed to process and space to store the video. A Pentium II or a
PowerPC 603 or above, with a minimum of 40 Megabytes RAM is the
minimum. However, you will need a bit more if you are going to seriously
invest in video production. Thirty minutes of video can use between
five to eight GB of space. Luckily hard drives are getting larger
and less expensive, and if you are seriously considering more than
just playing around with a bit of video editing, it might be wise
to invest in an 80GB drive. The graphics card is also important.
Watch for the latest developments and acquire a good name-brand
component that allows for both input and output. One should also
pay attention to the compression rate and data throughput your card
can handle. The general and desired aim is to get the best software
and hardware that you can possibly afford. Buying cheaply will only
lead to frustration and problems later on.
The most obvious investment is a good digital camera. Keep a close
watch on product reviews in trade magazines and journals. There
are continual developments in this market and big-name brands are
bringing out newer and more feature-rich products at an amazing
rate. Some of these top name brands to watch are:
One will also need editing software, Internet know-how and Web space
to offer the video online. Editing software is one of those areas
that has expanded rapidly in recent months and besides the old stalwarts
like Adobe's Premiere, there is also a new range of cheaper but
very capable contenders for the video editing software crown. A
cheaper more user-friendly software editing suite, like MGI's Videowave,
could possibly be a better entry point for those new to video editing.
In order to transfer video to the computer for editing and eventual
processing for uploading to the Internet, you will need either a
video capture card for an analog camera, which converts the analog
data to digital format; or a Firewire card for use with your digital
camera.
What is Firewire?
Firewire is the card of choice at the moment for data transfer,
when dealing with digital video. Many new computers have support
for Firewire already built in. Technically, Firewire is high speed
serial input/output (I/O) technology for connecting peripherals
to a computer.
Originally developed by Apple, Firewire - or sometimes referred
to as IEEE 1394 - is very fast, at 400 megabits per second. Because
of this speed, it serves as a good interface for use with multimedia
products, such as video camcorders. However, while it has become
synonymous with DV, it can be used for a number of other purposes,
such as running hard drives, printers and scanners.
Editing
Once you have captured your video, or transferred it from the source
or camcorder to the computer, the most important stage of production
begins - editing. The topic of editing would require a book, or
at least a number of articles, to cover it in any decent depth.
However, a few essential points and background issues warrant mention.
What exactly does editing software entail? All video editors perform
the same basic functions. The editor allows you to cut-and-paste
video clips or scenes - the essence of creating a cogent video with
smooth transitions. Non-linear editing (NLE) has become extremely
popular and allows you to drag and drop clips onto a timeline. This
method, employed by all modern editing programs, allows for a vast
amount of flexibility, which means clips can be re-ordered or changed
on the timeline at any stage.
Editors allow for the audio track to be separate from the images,
so that one can also trim, edit and manipulate the audio to complement
the video sequence. Video software also allows for the creation
of titles, transitions and other elements that add a professional
feel to the final product. Many video editing programs have filters
that allow you to correct filming errors and make corrections to
the actual captured data. More importantly, for Internet movies
the editors allow for saving and export of the final product to
a variety of formats, such as MPEG and AVI as well as streaming
video formats. Good editors also allow for Internet aspects when
exporting, such as compression rates, different compression formats
and estimated download times.
Editing software is becoming more and more accessible and user-friendly.
Using a mainstream program like Pinnacle Studio is a good example.
The latest version of this program is compatible with most capture
devices; the editing process is divided into three simple stages:
capture, edit and create video. Editing audio is easy and you can
drag MP3s to the timeline to accompany the video sequences. Rendering
your video is the final process; you can render to a video cassette
to choose between AVI or MPEG formats. You can also stream your
video for Windows Media and RealVideo.
Post-production is well catered to by specialized software. You
can tweak and change each frame with programs such as Adobe's After
Effects, one of the leaders in the post production field. There
are a large number of plug-ins for Adobe Premiere and After Effects
that extend video editing capabilities to provide special effects
and transitions. Other software in this category includes the very
effective Boris Effects and Final Effects.
Part 2: Compression
& Uploading
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