Green horn needs help please. « Videomaker Community Forums

cappiejoe
Member

I've been reading posts for about 1.5 hours and haven't come across an answer to my question, so if it's already out there I apologize for posting the question again.

First, I've made one movie with a home camcorder and did it in one day. It was a while ago but now I want to make much better ones. I say this to let it be known I really don't know what I'm doing so when explaining something to me please explain in detail:)

My question is this. How do I change camera angles and keep the sound continuous? Example, say I'm recording a person speaking and I switch the camera to record the person being spoken to, how do I do that say in the middle of a sentence or word without it being choppy. I realize i could just wait for a pause between words from the speaker but I don't want to disrupt the flow or feeling of the scene. When I watch movies I see it's done all the time and it's so smooth I don't notice unless I'm paying attention. I want to be able to switch camera angels as much as I want independent of the sound. I'm not even sure if I'm expressing my question correctly, that's how much about this I don't know.

I'm would gladly buy an instructional video if I knew it would answer my question. Do i need to record audio to a seperate device other than the camcorder or do i need more than one camcorder, I hope not.

Anyway, thanks very much in advance to all who respond.
Thomas

Posted 5 years ago #
birdcat
Moderator

Hi Thomas -

What video editing software are you using - In Vegas (as I would expect all other NLE's - Non-Linear Editors) it is a piece of cake, as you just need to put a video only clip of the "cut to" above the main video clip. It's a tiny bit more work if you want to use transitions rather than cuts (like wipes, disolves, etc...).
Bruce Paul
7Squared Productions
http://www.7squared.com

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Thomas,

Either you need to keep the camera rolling, then in post separate the tracks and insert b-roll to cover your camera repositioning - or..

Get a 2nd camcorder. Use this on a tripod to shoot wide and catch your audio. When you're repositioning camera #1, you have this wide shot to go to as well as continual sound. Or..

Get a digital recorder, etc. and catch your audio with it. This still leaves the question of what will be on your video track when you reposition your video camera.

Posted 5 years ago #
elderban
Member

Go ahead and shoot all your angles.

Then get just about a minute or so of background noise only (no talking) which you can loop and lay down as your bed audio (on its own track)

Then when you edit in your other scenes, the audio should flow together and you shouldn't notice any drop outs between cuts.

And, like the others said, if the person in the other shot isn't talking, but you want to cut to them, only cut to the video and leave out the audio. You can also do this on a separate track as well.

If you want some good tutorial DVD's, I would check out this site:
http://www.totaltraining.com/

Those guys make some good tutorials.

Posted 5 years ago #
cappiejoe
Member

Hi Birdcat, I'm not using any programs as I've bought nothing yet. I want to understand how to do everything before I buy stuff only to say later, damn, if only I had known this then I would have bought that instead. So I want to learn as much as I can first. I hope that doesn't mean I'm wasting your time by perhaps asking stupid questions that might have obvious answers if only I already had the equipment. Thanks for your response as well as to everyone else. I'm hoping my budget will be between 2k and 3k but that will have to include everything such as a tripod, lighting, etc. I already have a computer.

Compusolver, when you mentioned a digital recorder are you speaking of recording audio seperate from video. If so how would I sync. the words with the lips? Is that why i sometimes see movies that are older have the audio off a little from the video even though I'm sure that when it was first released the two were in sync?

Elderban, Thanks for the advice. I will go now after I post this reply and look at the link you provided.

Thanks everyone,
Thomas

Posted 5 years ago #
cappiejoe
Member

Elderban, that tutorial is a little too much for me. Can you suggest something around the $50 (give or take) neighborhood?

Thanks friend,
Thomas

Posted 5 years ago #
compusolver
Member

Compusolver, when you mentioned a digital recorder are you speaking of recording audio seperate from video. If so how would I sync. the words with the lips? Is that why i sometimes see movies that are older have the audio off a little from the video even though I'm sure that when it was first released the two were in sync?

It's easy to synch. I do it all the time with wedding videos. The times you've seen things not syched well is when people were sloppy or relied on automated processes.

Posted 5 years ago #
birdcat
Moderator

cappiejoe Wrote:
Hi Birdcat, I'm not using any programs as I've bought nothing yet. I want to understand how to do everything before I buy stuff only to say later, damn, if only I had known this then I would have bought that instead. So I want to learn as much as I can first. I hope that doesn't mean I'm wasting your time by perhaps asking stupid questions that might have obvious answers if only I already had the equipment. Thanks for your response as well as to everyone else. I'm hoping my budget will be between 2k and 3k but that will have to include everything such as a tripod, lighting, etc. I already have a computer.

Hi Thomas -

I too work under severe budget constraints. I would have to say that I've ONLY spent around $5,000 over the past two or so years on my camera (around $500), accesorries (around $500), software (around $2,500) and video/audio assets (royalty free stuff - around $1,500).

If money is such a serious issue, I would suggest your looking at Sony's Vegas Movie Studio+DVD. It is almost as functional as their full blown product but at a fraction of the price (you can get it for around $70). If nothing else, it will give you some very good functionality at a bargain price. I started with the equivalent of that (they used to call it Screenblast Movie Studio) and I have since moved on to the full Vegas+DVD product. It's easy to learn, intuitive and powerful.

I have other money saving tips if you're interested - Lemme know.

Bruce

Posted 5 years ago #
elderban
Member

cappiejoe Wrote:
Elderban, that tutorial is a little too much for me. Can you suggest something around the $50 (give or take) neighborhood?

Thanks friend,
Thomas

Videomaker has some tutorial videos here:
http://www.videomaker.com/store/home.php?cat=6

Posted 5 years ago #
cappiejoe
Member

Birdcat, yes please, I really enjoy saving money:) Also, you said $500 on a camera, which one did you get?

Thanks elderban, I will probably get one and if i like it I will but a set.
Thomas

Posted 5 years ago #
birdcat
Moderator

cappiejoe Wrote:
Birdcat, yes please, I really enjoy saving money:) Also, you said $500 on a camera, which one did you get?

Hi Thomas -

I will be at an offiste meeting today with limited access to emails (not my regular desk) so I will get a list to you over the weekend. Just lemme say that Digital Juice has had some killer deals since December that have allowed me to get several thousand dollars worth of video, photo and audio assets for about three hundred bucks! Top quality stuff too!

As for my camera, I only use a Sony HC-40 (no longer made). I don't like the newer versions of it - I have capability for external mic, LANC, and some other goodies they no longer include.

I'll get a better response off to you tomorrow.

Bruce

Posted 5 years ago #
birdcat
Moderator

OK - Some of my less expensive but very useful tools:

Sonic Fire Pro and/or Sony Cinsescore - Very good royalty free music at just the lengths you need. I have both and use both on a regular basis. They're both a bit pricey right now but both companies have had great upgrade deals. (I paid $300 for SFP 3 but was able to upgrade to V4 for only $99 including two new music libraries - I was also able to get Cinescore for basically free when I upgraded to Vegas 7).

As previously mentioned, Digital Juice has had some phenomenal deals - I have spent around $300 inclusive for Editors Toolkits, 1 & 2, six volumes of Jump Backs, Season 1 of DJTV, Presenter's Toolkit (look on their website for descriptions of each).

On2 Technology's Flix Standard - For $39 it's a very good FLV & SWF encoder (from almost any form of video).

Bluff Titler is a very powerful and reasonably priced program to create animated titles for your productions.

Xara 3D can also be used for titling - While not as powerful Bluff, it is better for just static text with simple animations and can export as AVI as well. It's also reasonably priced.

For plain oldbuyout music (royalty free) I have found some pretty good stuff at reasonable prices on eBay - Particularly the Impact Music Library and Tracks Now collections. Twisted Tracks (twistedtracks.com) offers $50 worth of free downloads for registering. Kevin MacLeod offers free use of his music if you credit him (http://www.incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/).

You can get free stock video at the Prelinger Archives (http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger). Artbeats (www.artbeats.com) also offers a free video clip each month.

I have more free/cheap resouces bookmarked at work - I'll add them next week.

Enjoy.

Posted 5 years ago #
Liza Trainer
Member

cappiejoe Wrote:
Elderban, that tutorial is a little too much for me. Can you suggest something around the $50 (give or take) neighborhood?

Thanks friend,
Thomas

If you have a PC, it comes with Windows Movie Maker free, and once you learn how to use it, the dam thing is not bad at all. ;-)

Posted 5 years ago #
elderban
Member

Yeah...Windows MovieMaker is nice. I use it for basic videos that I just want to throw up on the web.

Posted 5 years ago #
birdcat
Moderator

As promised - Othe free/cheap resources:

Free stock video clips: http://www.footagefirm.com/freeclips.asp

Reasonable priced video backgrounds: http://www.rchv.com/store/index

Free still backgrounds: http://www.mayang.com/textures/

Excellent prices on PC stuff: http://www.newegg.com

Excellent prices on audio equipment: http://www.musiciansfriend.com

Enjoy!

Posted 5 years ago #