Erstellt am: 3. 8. 2013 - 19:24 Uhr
Cut!
In the beginning there was the camera.
And it was good. People still ooh and ahh over a video of cats doing silly things or groan in empathy at massive fails. But capturing the moment makes you dependent on that moment.
Creating something from scratch takes a bit more work.
Humans are good at recognising structure. Not just good at it, we need it. Demand it. We have a habit of finding structure everywhere, sometimes even forcing it onto things or situations that don't really have it. We then tell ourselves stories to describe the structure.
You can make your videos more appealing by giving them a structure. It doesn't have to be much more then a beginning, middle and end; but it probably shouldn't be much less.
Getting the image is still the basic building block of any video you might want to make. But getting the image is not the same as getting the story, so taking your movie making skills to the next level will either require excellent planning or using a video editor.
Or both.
In Camera Edits
The cheapest, most convenient method of assembling a collection of moving images is in-camera editing. You can do hard edits by simply starting and stopping the recording process. It works great with old analog formats, but if you are recording with a phone and want to get a complete story in one file without editing, you are going to have to try something else.
A single shot take.
Basically, plan out your story, know where your action is going to be, choose a path for your camera movement and then press record. The results can be amazing.
Nyle "Let The Beat Build" from Nyle on Vimeo.
Cutting It Old School
When most people think of editing videos, they probably think of classic desktop editing suites. Sitting down in front of a computer, copying (or playing in) your clips, selecting, trimming and then ordering them in an editor like Final Cut, Premiere, Movie Maker or iMovie is a great way to work. It makes it easier to work with found footage, allows you to be a lot more slack in your planning and gives you a chance to include material from multiple cameras.
Using an editing software is the only way to go if you want to give form to chaos.
It does have it's drawbacks though. The big boy editors are expensive and will require a lot of practice. Movie Maker and iMovie should be available to most people who have paid for their respective platforms, but they both have their issues and can easily leave you googling all over the place to try to get from point A to point B. That said, anyone with access to them should give them a shot. A little bit of time with them can pay off quite well.
I have spent ages looking for a good, cheap, cross-platform video editor that would provide a decent starting point for people who might want to get serious about their filming. I had hoped Lightworks might be the answer, but I am beginning to suspect that was just some wishful thinking.
Right now there are better alternatives for those who want to dip their feet in the waters. And I'm still amazed at what they are...
Cheap And Easy Online
In 1999 I was working on a web-video project. Final Cut was still in beta, YouTube was nowhere to be seen and Real Player was a favourite method of video distribution. Just viewing video online was still pretty difficult, and people across the planet were trying to figure out how to make it better.
The transition to desktop video production on consumer hardware was just getting started, and finding ways to optimise video production for online viewing took more time than the filming did. We actually had one person whose sole job was to go through the steps I had defined to encode and upload video. Despite being heavily automated it was still a full-time job.
I couldn't have imagined that it would ever be possible to shoot, edit, encode and upload video from a phone.
Or that you could actually do fairly complex edits online.
Now, it's not just possible, it's probably the best alternative for people who are working with digital cameras but don't feel the need to go pro. There are multiple sites for online editing, and many of them actually offer a more comfortable solution than most of the free desktop software that is available.
There are only two that I would be willing to suggest though.
Shotclip is a site focused on video storytelling. They have a nice sized selection of story templates available that guide you through the process of your video creation. Pet videos, Skydiving trips, pitch videos and of course vacation videos are just a few of the templates you can work with and learn from.
The one I like the best so far has to be YouTube. Their online video editor has most of the bases covered, and they even have a few available that no desktop solution can match. Although you don't have the fine control over audio editing that I would prefer, they do have an easy way for you to find soundtrack songs that you can use legally. No more need to worry about the whole copyright jungle and waking up to find that your video has been muted because of your choice of tracks. An added bonus is access to other YouTube videos that have been licensed with CreativeCommons. A great way to get some practice even if you can't get out to get some shots yourself.
The YouTube editor also has a selection of those nifty image filters that let you pretend you actually shot everything on ancient analog devices. That means you don't need to shoot with your phone to look like you are all Hipstamatic.
Those who do want to do everything on their phone should be happy though. It's a perfect solution for the impatient or disorganized. But that, kiddies, is another story...