SILS Video Production Workshop

Introduction The SILS ITRC currently has three digital video cameras:

Canon Vixia HF10 A high definition camera, records straight to disk (i.e., the Vixia has no tapes, you dump the video directly to a computer via USB). It is relatively simple to use and has a small form factor. Uses built‐in flash drive or miniSD cards – either your own or the lab’s.

Canon GL2 If you are looking to record high quality, standard definition digital video, the Canon GL2 may be the camera you need. However, using it requires dealing with MiniDV tapes.

Sony TRV27 If you need to capture MiniDV footage, you should first consider the Canon GL2, which is a much nicer camera.

During the workshop we will cover editing digital footage with Apple iMovie ’08, though there are other editing options available in the lab. We have 4 iMacs that run iMovie (and the entire iLife software suite). iMovie is a good choice for making quick, easy, high‐quality video projects.

There are four main steps to making digital video (we will concentrate on the last 3): 1) Pre‐production: make your plan, examine your recording environment 2) Record it with a digital video camera 3) “Capture” and edit the footage on your computer 4) “Export” your finished movie into a “deliverable” format

Recording the video Every video camera has different features, so it’s impossible to tell you everything you need to know about all cameras. In general, here are some things you should consider: • Set everything to “auto” (“easy” on the Vixia) unless you know what you’re doing with the manual settings • If you are using the camera’s built‐in microphone, get as close as you can to your subject, or try to shoot outside. • In general, the more light the better. If you’re inside, turn on available lights. If you’re outside, make sure there are no bright lights behind your subject. • Generally, don’t rewind or fast forward while you’re recording to avoid taping over important footage.

1 Capturing and editing the video Apple has several short iMovie ’08 video tutorials that are worth your time: http://www.apple.com/findouthow/movies/imovie08.html iMovie is a jealous lover – it likes to be the only one that touches your video. Your experience will be smoother if you stick with iMovie to do everything during this phase.

Perian will help your Mac play .avi (and other) files. This is essential for using Flip Cameras with your Mac. Perian is a free, open source tool, available at perian.org.

1) Capture the video – from your camera or a built in iSight camera. Select File > Import from Camera… If you are importing from a Flip Cam or a camera that iMovie doesn’t automatically recognize, select File > Import Movies, and navigate to the files on your Flip Cam. Use a firewire cable (aka the “DV” or “IEEE 1394” cable) if available, but USB will usually work. 2) There is no “save” in iMovie! It will put the files you’re capturing in an “Event”. This “event” is where your video clips are stored. By default, they are stored in (user home) > Movies > iMovie Events. Your video files will be huge – make sure you have enough space on your hard drive. 3) You pull clips from different events to make your movie project. That is, the iMovie project is the file that contains all your edits, transitions, etc. 4) Select, drag, and drop clips from your events to your timeline (next to the Project Library). Drag the clips’ edges to adjust the clip length. 5) After you’re done editing, add titles and transitions.

Exporting your finished movie

The movie you have just made is not yet a usable video file – it is simply an iMovie project file. The project file will not play outside of iMovie. To turn your movie into something others can see, you have to “share” the movie, i.e. export it to file that can be played in Quicktime, Windows Media Player, etc. iMovie has builtin compatibility with iTunes, MobileMe, and YouTube: you can export your movie directly by clicking on Share, and selecting your final movie destination.

If you want to export to a format that is widely compatible with most other PCs, Macs, or video sites, select Share > Export Using Quicktime > Export: Movie to Quicktime Movie. This will create a .mov file that most people will be able to play – this is a good deliverable format for finished movies. The default settings are adequate in most cases.

If you want to continue to work on your finished iMovie project in a different iLife program (i.e. Garageband for polishing audio or iDVD for burning a DVD) select Share > Media Browser. Your movie will then be available in the “Media Browser” of those programs.