Working with models #33
This is one of many articles I’ll post for those of you interested in producing your own content. My focus will be more on working with the models and equipment, than dealing with the legal (2257) stuff.
NOTE: This article assumes you are using Windows XP.
After you have finished shooting a video, it needs to be transferred to a computer for editing and production. A fast computer with a good video card and lots of RAM are a must have. Otherwise the best you can hope for is a miserable experience. You also need lots of contiguous hard disk space. Video does not like being scattered all over the place on a drive. Ideal is to have a separate drive dedicated to video production, and run the defrag utility on it regularly.
A special video capture card is needed to receive video from the camera. If you are shooting with 8mm, Hi-8, VHS, or S-VHS, you will need an analog video capture card. This card converts the analog video to digital as it is being transferred to the computer. There will be some unavoidable degradation of video quality during the transfer. If you are shooting with a digital video (DV) camera or mini-DV camera you will need an IEEE 1394 capture card. With this combination you’ll enjoy the highest-quality video that is possible with a consumer video camera. You can transfer digital video through an analog card, but there will be some loss of video quality. External capture devises are also available that connect via USB2 or FireWire. Video capturing hardware pricing starts at around $50. Packages are also available that bundle the required hardware with video editing software.
Software is needed for the transfer, editing, and final creation of your videos. Microsoft Movie Maker is a good software package, but its features are limited. On a properly configured computer it works well and is reasonably stable. Most important, it’s free. I find it very useful in a lot of situations, but too limiting for everything I might want to do. Some of the more popular, feature rich, software packages are:
Video editing software packages love to eat up as much RAM as you can feed them, so shut down all other applications when editing videos. Video editing software tends to be a little unstable, so save your work after each change you make. I have found you can avoid stability problems if you pay attention to what the software is doing. Don’t get ahead of the software. Let it complete one task before giving it another. If you start moving too fast, the software will crash.
Video editing packages come with a fairly steep learning curve, so plan on several days of trial and error.
