Hello everybody,

This is one of my first post in the Producers lounge. This is because I need your help. I want to make my own download store because it is something I wish to do for a few months now. I am still shooting videos of myself, but since I am using quite a old and cheap camera, the film material that comes out isn't very good quality. As a matter of fact: It is better to call it very bad quality.

I want to change this of course, before I put the videos up for sale(I am not planning to make a profit out of it, more like very cheap prices to cover my own expenses). I have done a low-quality IT course of 3 years, so I understand programs very fast. But as far as editing videos goes... I'm as excelent as a donkey(No, not the donkey from Shrek).

Could any of you please recommend (free) software that is good for making videos less gritty, compressing videos so the file sizes shrink, and to be able to cut scenes out of the movies. I tried using windows movie maker, but for some reason it ALWAYS crashes. I use a Windows 7 X64 computer, with a Core2Duo 2.4 Ghz processor, 4 GB of RAM and a Nvidia videocard of 2 GB. The videos that my camera produces are in a .AVI filetype.

Thank you for reading, and thank you even more for replying! =)

Greetings,

Mark

I have always used Final Cut Pro, excellent video editing software but its not cheap and it only runs on Apple hardware, but it never crashes. Even Adobe's editor crashes once in a while. Windows sucks!

Phil

I know Apple is better for editing etc.
But since this is more of a hobby for me and meant to limit my expenses in instead of making profit, Buying Apple hardware will be way to expensive

Still, thanks for the tip =)

90% of application crashes on Windows are the result of bad video drivers. Go to the Nvidia website and download the latest drivers for your card and operating system. Avoid using the ones available from Windows Update. Those are for corporate office computers.

I can't give you any tips on free editing software. Movie Maker on Windows and iMovie on Mac are probably as good as you're going to get. If you decide to spend some money and get a decent editor, I highly recommend Sony Vegas (either Pro or Movie Studio editions). For a novice, the work flow is far superior to Premier, Final Cut, or Avid.

The key to creating good footage that doesn't need to be "fixed in editing" is having sufficient light on the subject. Cheap cameras will not work decently in normal room light. In a decent sized room, you need at least 300-400 watts of direct light or 600-800 watts of "bounced" light to give low-end cameras enough to work with. Make sure the light sources are all the same color temperature too. Do not mix incandescent, halogen, and florescent lights together. If you are also using natural sunlight to light the scene, you'll need to use "daylight" bulbs in the 5000 to 6000 degrees Kelvin range. These are easiest to find among florescent bulbs. Most manufacturers include the color temperature on the packaging these days. you can get perfectly useable "made in china" studio lighting kits on eBay for around 60 bucks that include a couple of stands, light fixtures, and either unbrellas or soft boxes.

Unless you are making a zombie movie, avoid putting the light sources near the floor pointing up. Slightly above head height pointing down will work pretty well. If you have enough individual sources, you can put one or two about chest height as well.

Most importantly, do some experimental shooting with different lighting techniques before you start shooting for real. Subtle changes in brightness and placement can have a large impact.

soundguy, that's a great post. Exactly the kind of info I'll need if I ever decide to start dabbling in making videos.

Thank you Soundguy for the great advice!

I will certaintly look into Sony Vegas. The advice in lighting is also very helpful. This is one of the things I didn't have any specific knowledge about, and I also didn't know what things are important. Now that I know what to look for I can search the web for good equipment =)

Thank you very much!

That's what I was going to say. If you don't have enough light, then your camera's picture will be noisy and grainy, as it's trying its best internally to make the image bright enough. For starters, just grab every lamp you have in the house and plug them all in in the same room. The camera will be able to switch to a lower ISO, and the footage will be clearer.

When I started out (and was doing shoots in the bathroom), I just went to home depot and grabbed like 3 of those fluorescent light sticks. I stuck one on the ceiling and two on the side walls. It worked great! The resultant image wasn't very flattering or artistic--it was just flat. But it was very clear, didn't have any shadows, and wasn't grainy.

I use Canopus Edius pretty regularly and have never had a crash. Windows works fine if you aren't thick...