Oh wow, is this old!!!

Someone bug me to rewrite this ok?

I get a lot of email asking me how to make videos.  So, here are some instructions on how to teach yourself for very little money.  Once you've started to get the hang of it, you can easily upgrade to better hardware and software and seriously get to work.  This is a copy of an email I sent to someone telling them how to get started.

The first challenges - Getting a song and video onto your computer in the first place.

The music - there are two common methods.
 

1) Download an mp3 from the net.  Convert it into wav format.  You can use a  little program called mp3decode or sometimes you can just use a sound editor like goldwave.  Lately, I've found the mp3decode is necessary.  Don't worry,  it's a very small download and takes no skill to use.  I will talk about goldwave a little more later.

2) Record it off a cd.  Stick a cd in your drive and I use RealJukebox to record it.  Remember to record it in wav format.

Video - Again, there are two common methods.
 

1) Download avi's off of Xena sites and then cut the sound out.  I don't recommend this method.  You'll have a limited supply to choose from since most people use rm format and you can't edit those.  You will also find that in order to make the clips web friendly, they will have been compressed causing the overall quality to go down.

2) Record the darn things yourself.  Personally, I work from a library of already captured Xena clips.  That's just how my brain works.  I can't say "oh gee, for this lyric, I want that certain clip so I'll go record it".  Instead, I go through all the episodes, record them on the computer, split them up into characters and categories (i.e.:  Both (meaning gab and xena)/hugs or Gabby/sad or tense looks).  This method requires some hardware.  The hardware to capture clips can go from anywhere from $15 to $1000.  Of course, the more you spend, the better the quality.  But when you're just starting out, go with the not so swell hardware just to figure out what you're doing and to see if more of an investment is going to be worth it in the future. 

3) (a method I would prefer you not need to use but I've done it for others so if you're willing to be patient, I'll probably do it for you)  Beg and plead and send me chocolate and I'll send you a copy of my premade, ready to go, all the crap (like prop shots and random extras) edited out clips.  Bear in mind that these cd's represent thousands of hours of work on my part (to collect the clips in the first place, not to make an extra copy of them) so I get real annoyed when people just take a copy and never say thanks.  I've only ever had one appropriate offer for a copy of my library - a women sent me $100, a 2 lb. box of chocolates, and a letter of praise and thanks. So if you would like to start making videos of your own but want to skip straight to the fun part - you can buy a copy of my clip library from me, about 4 years in the making. This library consists of the entire series taken apart into each individual camera shot with the sound removed. It's organized by character, shot type, activity, and emotion. This collection will save you thousands of hours of work and let you just do the fun part of vidding - the creative stuff. The cost is $100 for a full copy spanning several DVD's.

You go out and spend thousands of dollars on really nifty software.....no no, you're just learning.  Don't spend a whole lotta money yet.  Look on the net for some shareware video editing software.  I started out with Personal Avi Editor (pae) and would recommend that you do the same.  I think it's about $20 to register or about 30 minutes to find a crack (if you're the warez type)  As far as shareware is concerned, this program has an interface very similar to higher end kinds of software so it's a good one to learn on.  It's only got 4 transition effects so you are rather limited, but again, you're learning. Update - There are now so many different shareware and freeware editors out there that PAE probably isn't worth the trouble anymore. As much as I hate to admit that anything Microsoft includes in Windows is worth having, Windows Movie Maker really is a good starting place to learn to make videos and it will probably last you a long time in terms of how sophisticated you want to get.

As for what to do with the software, well, that's not really something I can teach you unless you're actually looking at it.  And if you're somewhat computer savvy, you'll probably figure it out by looking at it.  Remember that hitting save will not make a video file.  It will save your workspace so you can come back and do more editing later.  You have to build the project or create the file or whatever to actually make a video.

Mixing sound - This is again where I recommend you use Goldwave.  It's a little confusing at first just figuring out how to select the portion you want but you get the hang of it after a while.  This is the program you can use to mix in sound clips from the show into the music.  Play around with it and see what you can come up with.  It's pretty cool.  I don't do that a whole lot anymore, it was an experiment to see if I could.  I'm hearing impaired so I have a hard time judging if the sound really blends into the music or if I'm just choosing to believe it does.

Random tidbits that will probably make some sort of sense once you've started -

Codecs - this is where you choose how you want to compress your video.  I highly recommend the new mpeg-4 codec.  Some of the Indeo ones are also pretty good but you really do get the smallest file size and the best image quality with the mpeg-4.  You can download it off the net somewhere. Update - WMV is a really good format nowadays. You can get pretty high quality using very little disk space. Most people are on a hi-speed connection of some sort now so making the video as itty bitty as possible (which used to be one of my primary goals) is no longer as vital as it once was.

Split the music into little pieces.  It's overwhelming to try and make a 5 minute video all at once.  Cut the music into approx 30 second pieces and just deal with them one at a time.  You can glue it all together when you're ready to render the final video.

Try not to be lazy.  If the music changes, change the clip.  There's nothing more boring than watching 30 seconds of video that has no edits in it or only has the edits that were on the screen to begin with.  Personally, I consider it so lazy when people do this.  I've seen character videos that have practically none of the character in it because we're always looking at reaction shots of villagers that they were too lazy to edit out.

Less is more, also known as Just because you can - that doesn't mean you should.  My software has about 150 different transition effects to choose from.  You'll notice that I rarely use any of them and when I do, it's for a very specific reason.

Don't copy my style.  This is not me being mean, this really is advice so you will get the best quality you can get.  I've developed my own style and it tends to be very specific.  All those shots of blending in, out and back in again to a certain scene is very much a signature thing of mine and then suddenly, everybody's videos had that whether it made sense in the piece or not. Personally, I never really noticed it until my roommate was watching a video from someone else and said "Does everyone have to copy your style!  Doesn't anyone do anything original?".  Feel free to do those little signatures if that's what makes sense at that particular moment of video but don't just do it in order to do it.

Try to find original shots.  I think if I see Xena and Gab doing the seductive dance from Heart of Darkness one more time, I'm gonna scream.  Now watch, I'll probably end up using that very shot in my next video.  *sigh*

If you're not inspired, don't force it.  Wait until you're listening to the radio and you start to see it play out in your head.  That's when you know you've found the right song for the right subject matter.  That's what happened with "Killing Me Softly".  People have been after me for more than a year to make an Ares and Xena video but it wasn't until that song came on the that it finally hit me and I could make the video.

Ok, you have enough information to get started.  Once you're ready to move on and you've decided that you do like doing this, I'll give you the information for the next step.  That will probably include better hardware but it will definitely include better software.

Let me know if you have any questions along the way and I'll do what I can to answer them.

Good luck!