Digital Video FOR DUMmIES‰
3RD EDITION
Digital Video FOR DUMmIES‰
3RD EDITION
by Keith Underdahl Digital Video For Dummies®, 3rd Edition Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 909 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2003 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8700. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4447, e-mail: [email protected]. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of Wiley Publishing, Inc., in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
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is a trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc. About the Author Keith Underdahl lives in Albany, Oregon. Professionally, Keith is an electronic- publishing specialist for Ages Software, where he serves as program manager, interface designer, video-media producer, multimedia specialist, graphic artist, and when the day is over, he even sweeps out the place. Mr. Underdahl has written numerous books, including Teach Yourself Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Windows Movie Maker For Dummies, Macworld Final Cut Pro 2 Bible (co-author), and Adobe Premiere For Dummies.
Dedication Not all those who wander are lost.
— J. R. R. Tolkien
Author’s Acknowledgments When people find out that I have written several books, they usu- ally react with awe and amazement, because writing an entire book seems like a monumental task. Writing a book is a monumental task, unless you’re as fortunate and blessed as I am with such wonderful family and friends. I can’t imagine getting up in the morning, much less writing a book like Digital Video For Dummies, without the help and support of my wife Christa. She has been my support staff, cheerleader, business manager, and inspiration throughout my writing career. Without Christa’s initial encouragement and tireless ongoing support, I would not be writing.
Once again I must also thank my favorite movie subjects, Soren and Cole Underdahl. Not only do they take direction well, but they are also incredibly intelligent and look great on camera! Soren and Cole are featured in screen shots through this book, as well as some of the sample video clips found on the companion CD-ROM. Best of all, because they’re my own boys, the Wiley Publishing legal depart- ment doesn’t make me fill out all kinds of model releases and other daunting forms. If someone writes Boilerplate For Dummies, I’ll buy the first copy.
Of course, I was working on this book before I even knew I was working on this book, making videos and developing my skills. I’ve received a lot of help from people in and out of the video and software business, including Jon D’Angelica, Patrick BeauLieu, John Bowne, Ingrid de la Fuente, havoc23, Linda Herd, Pete Langlois, Andy Marken, Rick Muldoon, Paulien Ruijssenaars, Steve from Hard Times, and probably a lot of other people I can’t remember right at the moment.
Last but certainly not least, I wish to give my unwavering gratitude to the wonderful Composition Services team at Wiley Publishing. Basically I scribbled this whole book on a stack of cocktail napkins, and it was up to the folks at Wiley to turn it all into a coherent book. I wish to thank Steve Hayes, Linda Morris, Barry Childs- Helton, Dennis Short, and everyone else at Wiley. Keep up the great work, folks! Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Production Development Project Coordinator: Erin Smith Project Editor: Linda Morris Layout and Graphics: Seth Conley, Senior Acquisitions Editor: Steven Hayes Joyce Haughey, Leandra Hosier, Senior Copy Editor: Barry Childs-Helton Stephanie D. Jumper, Tiffany Muth, Janet Seib, Erin Zeltner Technical Editor: Dennis Short Proofreaders: John Tyler Connoley, Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner Andy Hollandbeck, Carl William Pierce, Permissions Editor: Laura Moss Kathy Simpson, Brian H. Walls, TECHBOOKS Production Services Media Development Specialist: Kit Malone Indexer: TECHBOOKS Production Services Media Development Supervisor: Richard Graves Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth Cartoons: Rich Tennant www.the5thwave.com
Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Contents at a Glance
Introduction ...... 1 Part I: Getting Ready for Digital Video...... 7 Chapter 1: Introducing Digital Video ...... 9 Chapter 2: Getting Your Computer Ready for Digital Video ...... 25 Chapter 3: Getting Your Digital Video Gear ...... 49 Part II: Gathering Footage...... 69 Chapter 4: Shooting Better Video ...... 71 Chapter 5: Capturing Digital Video ...... 93 Chapter 6: Capturing Analog Video ...... 111 Chapter 7: Importing Audio ...... 121 Part III: Editing Your Movie...... 135 Chapter 8: Hollywood Comes Home: Basic Editing ...... 137 Chapter 9: Using Transitions and Titles ...... 163 Chapter 10: Working with Audio ...... 185 Chapter 11: Advanced Video Editing ...... 197 Chapter 12: Working with Still Photos and Graphics ...... 209 Chapter 13: Wrapping Up Your Movie ...... 223 Part IV: Sharing Your Video...... 235 Chapter 14: Putting Your Movies on the Internet ...... 237 Chapter 15: Exporting Digital Video to Tape ...... 255 Chapter 16: Recording CDs and DVDs ...... 267 Part V: The Part of Tens ...... 283 Chapter 17: Ten Videography Tips and Tricks ...... 285 Chapter 18: Ten Tools for Digital Video Production ...... 303 Chapter 19: Comparing Ten Video-Editing Programs ...... 315 Part VI: Appendixes ...... 325 Appendix A: About the CD ...... 327 Appendix B: Glossary ...... 333 Appendix C: Installing Apple iMovie ...... 341 Appendix D: Using Pinnacle Studio ...... 345 Appendix E: Using Windows Movie Maker ...... 349 Index ...... 353
Table of Contents
Introduction...... 1
Why This Book? ...... 1 Foolish Assumptions ...... 2 Conventions Used in This Book ...... 3 How This Book Is Organized ...... 3 Part I: Getting Ready for Digital Video ...... 3 Part II: Gathering Footage ...... 4 Part III: Editing Your Movie ...... 4 Part IV: Sharing Your Video ...... 4 Part V: The Part of Tens ...... 4 Part VI: Appendixes ...... 4 Icons Used in This Book ...... 5 Where to Go From Here ...... 5
Part I: Getting Ready for Digital Video ...... 7
Chapter 1: Introducing Digital Video ...... 9 What Is Digital Video? ...... 9 Comparing analog and digital video ...... 10 Warming up to FireWire ...... 11 Editing Video ...... 13 Comparing editing methods ...... 13 Editing a short video project ...... 14 Performing Hollywood magic at the click of a mouse ...... 16 Sharing Video ...... 20 Exporting a movie ...... 20 Playing your movie ...... 22 Chapter 2: Getting Your Computer Ready for Digital Video ...... 25 Resolving the Mac-versus-PC Debate Once and for All ...... 25 Upgrading Your Computer ...... 27 Using a Macintosh ...... 28 Buying a new Mac ...... 28 Upgrading ye olde Mac ...... 29 Choosing Mac video software ...... 32 xiv Digital Video For Dummies, 3rd Edition
Using a Windows PC ...... 33 Buying a new PC ...... 33 Upgrading your PC for digital video ...... 35 Choosing Windows video software ...... 38 Optimizing Windows for video work ...... 39 Choosing Analog Capture Hardware ...... 42 Selecting capture cards ...... 42 Selecting external video converters ...... 43 Improving the Human-Machine Interface ...... 44 Working with video monitors ...... 44 Using a multimedia controller ...... 46 Chapter 3: Getting Your Digital Video Gear ...... 49 Choosing a Camcorder ...... 49 Mastering Video Fundamentals ...... 50 The mechanics of video recording ...... 50 Broadcast formats ...... 51 Interlacing versus progressive scan ...... 53 The many aspects of aspect ratios ...... 54 Color ...... 55 Picking a Camera Format ...... 56 MiniDV ...... 57 Digital8 ...... 57 Other digital formats ...... 58 Analog formats ...... 59 Choosing a Camera with the Right Features ...... 59 Accessorizing Your Camcorder ...... 62 Sounding Out Audio Equipment ...... 63 Choosing a microphone ...... 63 Selecting an audio recorder ...... 65 Shedding Some Light on the Scene ...... 65 Stabilizing Your Video Image ...... 66
Part II: Gathering Footage ...... 69
Chapter 4: Shooting Better Video ...... 71 Planning a Video Production ...... 71 Composing a Shot ...... 73 Evaluating Lighting ...... 73 Choosing lights ...... 75 Bouncing light ...... 75 Diffusing light ...... 77 Dealing with backlighting ...... 78 Using lens filters ...... 80 Table of Contents xv
Controlling Focus and Exposure ...... 80 Setting Up Your Camcorder ...... 81 Shooting Video ...... 82 Panning effectively ...... 83 Using (not abusing) the zoom lens ...... 84 Avoiding timecode breaks ...... 84 Recording Sound ...... 86 Managing ambient noise ...... 87 Creating your own sound effects ...... 88 Video-Shoot Checklist for Dummies ...... 90 Basic checklist ...... 90 Advanced checklist ...... 91 Chapter 5: Capturing Digital Video ...... 93 Preparing for Digital Video Capture ...... 93 Making room for video files ...... 96 Connecting a digital camcorder to your computer ...... 97 Capturing Digital Video ...... 99 Capturing video in Pinnacle Studio ...... 99 Capturing video in Apple iMovie ...... 106 Troubleshooting Capture Problems ...... 108 You can’t control your camera through your capture software ...... 108 Frames drop out during capture ...... 108 Capture stops unexpectedly ...... 109 Chapter 6: Capturing Analog Video ...... 111 Preparing for Analog Video Capture ...... 111 Preparing your computer for analog video ...... 112 Setting up capture hardware ...... 112 Capturing Video ...... 115 Adjusting video-capture settings in Studio ...... 116 Capturing your video ...... 118 Chapter 7: Importing Audio ...... 121 Understanding Audio ...... 121 Understanding sampling rates ...... 122 Delving into bit depth ...... 122 Recording Audio ...... 122 Recording audio with your Macintosh ...... 123 Recording voice-over tracks in Pinnacle Studio ...... 125 Working with CD Audio ...... 127 Importing CD audio in iMovie ...... 128 Importing CD audio in Studio ...... 129 xvi Digital Video For Dummies, 3rd Edition
Working with MP3 Audio ...... 130 Ripping MP3 files on a Mac ...... 131 Ripping MP3 files in Windows ...... 132
Part III: Editing Your Movie ...... 135
Chapter 8: Hollywood Comes Home: Basic Editing ...... 137 Starting a New Project ...... 137 Working with Clips ...... 139 Organizing clips ...... 140 Previewing clips ...... 142 Trimming out the unwanted parts ...... 143 Turning Your Clips into a Movie ...... 146 Visualizing your project with storyboards ...... 146 Using the timeline ...... 148 Fine-Tuning Your Movie in the Timeline ...... 152 Trimming clips in the timeline ...... 152 Removing clips from the timeline ...... 155 Undoing what you’ve done ...... 156 Adjusting playback speed ...... 156 Fixing Color and Light Issues ...... 159 Adjusting image qualities in Pinnacle Studio ...... 159 Modifying light and color in Apple iMovie ...... 161 Chapter 9: Using Transitions and Titles ...... 163 Using Fades and Transitions Between Clips ...... 163 Choosing the best transition ...... 164 Adding a transition to the timeline ...... 167 Adjusting transitions ...... 168 Giving Credit with Titles ...... 171 Creating titles for your movies ...... 171 Making effective titles ...... 172 Using Studio’s Title Editor ...... 175 Editing titles ...... 175 Changing backgrounds ...... 179 Creating Titles in iMovie ...... 181 Changing the Length of Titles ...... 183 Chapter 10: Working with Audio ...... 185 Using Audio in a Project ...... 185 Understanding audio tracks ...... 186 Adding audio to the timeline ...... 187 Adjusting volume ...... 188 Working with sound effects ...... 192 Table of Contents xvii
Adding a Soundtrack to Your Project ...... 194 Adding music from a CD ...... 195 Generating background music with SmartSound ...... 196 Chapter 11: Advanced Video Editing ...... 197 Using Video Effects in iMovie ...... 197 Reviewing iMovie’s effects ...... 198 Customizing effects ...... 201 Using Video Effects in Studio ...... 202 Stepping Up to More Advanced Editing ...... 204 Chapter 12: Working with Still Photos and Graphics ...... 209 Using Still Graphics in Movies ...... 209 Adjusting the image size ...... 210 Getting the colors just right ...... 212 Inserting Stills in Your Movie ...... 212 Using pictures in Apple iMovie ...... 212 Using pictures in Pinnacle Studio ...... 216 Freezing Frames from Video ...... 219 Chapter 13: Wrapping Up Your Movie ...... 223 Previewing Your Movie ...... 223 Casting a critical eye on your project ...... 224 Previewing on an external monitor ...... 225 Exporting the Movie ...... 226 Choosing AVI settings ...... 229 Setting MPEG settings ...... 232
Part IV: Sharing Your Video ...... 235
Chapter 14: Putting Your Movies on the Internet ...... 237 Choosing a Video Format ...... 238 Streaming your video ...... 238 Comparing player programs ...... 239 Exporting Movies for the Online World ...... 243 Making QuickTime movies with iMovie ...... 243 Exporting Internet movies from Studio ...... 248 Putting Your Movie on the Web ...... 251 Finding an online home for your movies ...... 252 Creating a (very) simple Web page ...... 252 xviii Digital Video For Dummies, 3rd Edition
Chapter 15: Exporting Digital Video to Tape ...... 255 Prepping Your Movie for TV Playback ...... 255 Setting Up Your Hardware ...... 256 Exporting the Movie ...... 258 Exporting to tape in Apple iMovie ...... 259 Exporting to tape in Pinnacle Studio ...... 261 Chapter 16: Recording CDs and DVDs ...... 267 Understanding DVD Basics ...... 267 Getting ready to record DVDs ...... 268 Comprehending DVD standards ...... 268 Making Effective Menus ...... 272 Creating a menu ...... 272 Previewing your menu ...... 276 Burning DVDs ...... 277
Part V: The Part of Tens ...... 283
Chapter 17: Ten Videography Tips and Tricks ...... 285 Beam Me Up, Scotty! ...... 285 Seeing Stars ...... 287 Forcing a Perspective ...... 288 Making Your Own Sound Effects ...... 290 Filtering Your Video ...... 291 Working with Assistants ...... 292 Rehearse! ...... 293 To Zoom or Not to Zoom? ...... 293 Dealing with the Elements ...... 294 Compositing Video ...... 296 Understanding compositing ...... 296 Shooting video against a blue screen ...... 298 Compositing video tracks ...... 300 Chapter 18: Ten Tools for Digital Video Production ...... 303 Tripods and Other Stabilization Devices ...... 303 Monopods ...... 304 Mobile stabilizers ...... 305 Lighting ...... 305 DVD-R Drives ...... 306 Microphones ...... 307 MiniDisc Recorders ...... 308 Multimedia Controllers ...... 309 Video Converters ...... 310 Table of Contents xix
Graphical Video Background Elements ...... 312 Helmet Cams ...... 313 Video Decks ...... 313 Chapter 19: Comparing Ten Video-Editing Programs ...... 315 Reviewing the Basics ...... 316 Importing Media ...... 317 Editing Your Movies ...... 319 Exporting Your Movies ...... 323
Part VI: Appendixes...... 325
Appendix A: About the CD ...... 327 System Requirements ...... 327 Using the CD with Microsoft Windows ...... 328 Using the CD with Mac OS ...... 329 What You’ll Find on the CD ...... 330 Sample video clips ...... 330 Pinnacle Studio ...... 330 Links Page...... 331 Troubleshooting ...... 331 Appendix B: Glossary ...... 333
Appendix C: Installing Apple iMovie ...... 341 Installing and Upgrading iMovie ...... 341 Enhancing iMovie with Plug-ins ...... 343 Appendix D: Using Pinnacle Studio ...... 345 Updating Studio ...... 345 Using Hollywood FX Plug-ins for Pinnacle Studio ...... 347 Appendix E: Using Windows Movie Maker ...... 349 Why Isn’t Movie Maker Featured in This Book? ...... 349 Upgrading Windows Movie Maker ...... 350 Getting Acquainted with Windows Movie Maker ...... 351 Index...... 353 xx Digital Video For Dummies, 3rd Edition Introduction
f marketing folks want to breathe new life into an existing technology, the Imethod du jour is to tack “digital” onto the name. Today we have digital cable, digital cell phones, digital fuel injection, and now, digital video. But unlike some other technologies that have recently earned the digital prefix, digital video isn’t just a minor improvement over the old way of doing things. Digital video is a revolution that is changing the way we think about and use moving pictures.
Regular folks have had the capability to record their own video for many years now. Affordable film movie cameras have been available since the 1950s, and video cameras that record directly onto videotape have been with us for over two decades. But after you recorded some video or film with one of these old cameras, you couldn’t do much else with it. You could show your movies to friends and family in raw, unedited form, but there was no confusing your rough home movie with a professional Hollywood production.
Digital camcorders provide a slight quality improvement over older cam- corders, but the real advantage of digital video is that you can now easily edit your video on a computer. I don’t have to tell you how far computer technology has progressed over the last few years, and you know that modern Macs and PCs can now do some pretty amazing things. In a matter of seconds, you can import video from your digital camcorder into your computer, cut out the scenes you don’t want, add some special effects, and then instantly send your movies to friends over the Internet — or burn them to a DVD. The capability to easily edit your own movies adds a whole new level of creativity that was — just five years ago — the exclusive realm of broadcast and movie professionals.
In a culture so accustomed to and influenced by video images, it’s actually kind of surprising that personal moviemaking hasn’t burgeoned sooner. Video is the art of our time, and now — at last — you have the power to use this art for your own expression. What will you draw on your digital-video canvas?
Why This Book? Digital video is a big, highly technical subject, so you need a guide to help you understand and use this technology. But you don’t need a big book that is so highly technical that it just gathers dust on your bookshelf. You need easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions for the most important tasks, and you need tips and tricks to make your movies more successful. You need Digital Video For Dummies, Third Edition. 2 Digital Video For Dummies, 3rd Edition
Needless to say, you’re no “dummy.” If you were, you wouldn’t be reading this book and trying to figure out how to use digital video. Thanks to digital video, high-quality moviemaking has never been easier or more affordable. I have included instructions on performing the most important video-editing tasks, including lots of graphics so you can better visualize what I’m talking about. You’ll also find tips and other ideas in this book that you wouldn’t find in the documentation that comes with your editing software.
Digital Video For Dummies doesn’t just help you use software or understand a new technology. It’s about the art of moviemaking, and how you can apply this exciting new technology to make movies of your very own. I have designed this book to serve as a primer to moviemaking in general. Sections of this book will help you choose a good camcorder, shoot better video, publish movies online, and speak the industry technobabble like a Hollywood pro.
Foolish Assumptions I’ve made a few basic assumptions about you as I have written this book. First, I assume that you have an intermediate knowledge of how to use a com- puter. Movie editing is one of the more technically advanced things you can do with a computer, so I assume that if you’re ready to edit video, you already know how to locate and move files around on hard drives, open and close programs, and perform other such tasks. I assume that you are using either a Macintosh or a PC. In writing this book, I used both Mac and Windows soft- ware, and this book will be of use to you no matter which platform you use.
Another basic assumption I made is that you are not an experienced, profes- sional moviemaker or video editor. I explain the fundamentals of videography and editing in ways that help you immediately get to work on your movie projects. Most of this book is based on the assumption that you are produc- ing movies for fun or as a hobby. I also assume that you’re not yet ready to spend many hundreds of dollars on highly advanced editing programs. In this book, I show you how to make amazing movies using software that is already installed on your computer (or that you can purchase for a modest sum). I have elected to show how to perform editing tasks primarily using Apple iMovie and Pinnacle Studio. iMovie is free for all Mac users, and Studio is a powerful yet affordable video-editing program for Windows. A trial version of Pinnacle Studio is included on the CD-ROM that accompanies this book.
Even if you are working in a professional environment and have just been tasked with creating your first company training or kiosk video, this book will help you grasp the fundamentals of digital video. Not only will this help you get to work quickly and efficiently, but I also include information to help you make an educated decision when your company gives you a budget to buy fancier editing software. Introduction 3 Conventions Used in This Book Digital Video For Dummies helps you get started with moviemaking quickly and efficiently. Much of this book shows you how to perform tasks on your computer, which means you will find that this book is a bit different from other kinds of texts you have read. The following are some unusual conven- tions that you will encounter in this book: