Easy Digital Home Movies

Author: Jake Ludington
ISBN: 0789731142
Published: Jun 11, 2004
Copyright 2004
Pages: 224
Edition: 1st.

Note: Easy Digital Home Movies is no longer in print. This page is here as a historic reference. You can still find used copies on Amazon.

With a digital camcorder, Windows XP, and Easy Digital Home Movies, any user can be making movies in a matter of hours.

Consumer digital video cameras are available for prices starting below $300, and Windows XP includes a full-featured non-linear video editing application, Movie Maker. These two significant developments in consumer digital media mean home movie making is available to virtually everyone with a DV camera and a computer.

While Windows XP does offer users a great application for editing home movies, it doesn’t come with a clear explanation of how to do it. This book provides detailed instruction on how to capture and edit home movies using Windows Movie Maker 2. In addition to the editing process, the book demonstrates how to e-mail movies, stream movies on the Web, and transfer movies to DVD for archiving and later viewing.

Table of Contents:

  1. Digital Camcorder Basics.

Identifying “Can’t Live Without” Camcorder Features. Picking the Right Tripod. Using the Zoom Feature. Using the DV Camcorder LCD. Using an External Monitor. Extending Battery Life. CCDs Matter.

2. Shooting Digital Movies: Basics.

Planning Your Shot. Positioning the Camcorder. Properly Framing Headroom. Properly Framing Nose Room. Shooting a Wide Shot. Shooting a Medium Close-up Shot. Shooting a Close-up Shot. Creating an Over-the-Shoulder Shot. Creating an Establishing Shot. Creating a Cutaway Shot. Shooting Video in 16:9 Format. Shooting Video in 4:3 Format.

3. Shooting Digital Movies: Advanced.

Achieving Proper Lighting. Using an External Microphone. Using an External Clip-on Microphone. Monitoring Audio with Headphones. Connecting a Digital8 Camcorder to Your PC with FireWire. Recording 8mm (Super8) Projection Movies with a DV Camera.

4. Importing Video.

Connecting a DV Camcorder to Your PC with FireWire. Connecting a DV Camcorder to Your PC with S-Video. Creating a New Project in Windows Movie Maker. Capturing an Entire DV Tape. Capturing a Movie Segment. Organizing Your Video Files. Importing Still Photos. Importing VHS Movies with a DV Camera. Importing VHS Movies with a USB Device. Capturing Live Video.

5. Exporting Video to Tape or CD.

Preparing Your DV Camera to Save a Movie. Saving a Movie to Your DV Camera. Connecting a DV Camera and VCR for Recording to VCR. Saving a Movie from DV Tape to VHS. Saving a Movie to CD.

6. Editing Video with Windows Movie Maker.

Adding Movie Clips to a Project. Removing Clips from a Project. Adding and Removing Clips on the Storyboard. Removing Collections from a Project. Copying a Clip on the Storyboard. Using the Timeline. Adding a Clip to the Timeline. Removing a Clip from the Timeline. Preparing an AutoMovie. Customizing an AutoMovie. Saving an AutoMovie. Splitting a Movie Clip. Combining Two or More Movie Clips. Trimming Movie Clips.

7. Effects, Transitions, and Titles.

Insert a Transition Between Clips. Adding Dissolves Between Clips. Adding Fades Between Clips. Adding Titles to the Beginning of the Movie. Adding a Title Between Movie Clips. Adding a Title to a Movie Clip. Adding Credits to Your Movie. Creating Custom Titles in Microsoft Paint. Creating Title Slides with PowerPoint. Adding Custom Titles to the Movie. Adding Effects to Movie Clips. Converting Your Movie to Black and White. Enhancing the Brightness of the Movie. Adjusting Contrast with Pixelan Effects. Applying Color Correction with Pixelan Effects.

8. Adding Audio to Your Video.

Narrating a Video. Adjusting Audio Volume. Setting Audio Levels. Adding Audio Effects. Muting Audio Tracks. Extracting Music from CD with Windows Media Player. Importing Music in Windows Movie Maker. Adding Music to the Timeline. Trimming Audio Clips. Making an Audio J-Cut. Making an Audio L-Cut. Preparing the Soundtrack for Normalization. Normalizing Audio with Roxio Easy Media Creator. Adding the Normalized Soundtrack to Your Movie.

9. Still Photos and Video.

Connecting Your DV Camera via USB. Using a Flash Card Reader. Importing Still Photos. Creating a Still Photo from Video. Make a Photo Slideshow. Adding Motion to a Still Image.

10. Making DVDs with Sonic MyDVD.

Starting Sonic MyDVD. Inserting Movies in a DVD Project. Changing the Main Menu Text. Changing the Main Menu Style. Customizing Menu Buttons. Adding a Custom Menu Soundtrack. Creating Chapters in a Movie. Editing Chapter Titles. Adding Submenus. Adding a Slideshow. Burning a DVD. Burning a VCD.

11. Sharing Movies with Streaming Video.

Saving a Movie for Sharing Via Email. Saving a Movie for the Web. Uploading a Movie to the Web Using SmartFTP. Saving Movies for
Pocket PC Playback. Transferring Movies to a Pocket PC.