Movie Magic

Come to think of it, video is a tool that you can use with potent effect to make your point, be it in the midst of a presentation, or in stand-alone form.






Three powerful things make video possible for almost anyone with the will to do it. The first is powerful PCs. Today’s powerful, but inexpensive, PCs make it possible to set up editing tables at a fraction of what it would cost otherwise. On the other side, you can play full-screen video on today’s PCs without effort. Then there are powerful editing and effects software that make it possible to add effects similar to the ones found in commercial movies. And finally there is digital video
(DV). Inexpensive DV cameras provide crystal clear quality, good enough for most needs. Also, DV cameras, coupled with

Firewire, eliminates the need for costly capture cards to move the video from tape to

PC

	Which Format? From professional to home, video signals to aspect ratios, there’s a minefield of video formats
	The Three-headed Monster What a simple digital video editing station looks like
	Mobikes, Mutual Funds, Magic Ad-filmmaking is perhaps a bigger craft than any other filmmaking, as it generates interest and conveys your message within a strict time constraint. Here’s a peek into how an ad film is made
	Editing with Adobe Premiere Premier lets you bring in video and audio directly from a DV camera
	Final Cut Pro 3.0 A versatile and cost effective package for editors who prefer a Mac
	Editing with Main Actor A useful package, but lacks the finesse and capabilities of other packages. Good for non-professional use
	On the Sets of Sansaar’s Editing How Avid Xpress churns out the story of Sansaar, the TV soap
	An Entire DVD Movie on a CD! Video compression lets you compress DVD movies into much smaller DivX files
	Convert to Other Formats Today a number of formats are available for different purposes. Here’s how to go about converting from one format to another
	Ramayan Katha BR Films’ Ramayan gets final form on Matrox hardware
	Real-time Video Streaming Using two tools to stream live content over the LAN or Internet
	Pinnacle MP20 A capture card for desktops that connects up to three video sources simultaneously
	Marvel G450 eTV An AGP display, capture-cum-TV Tuner combo with good performance
	Pinnacle DC2000 This professional solution lets you do video encoding and editing of MPEG2 in realtime
	Free Capture Software Some handy software which can do much more than just dump the video on your hard-disk
	Professional Editing Cards They have specialized hardware for quick and efficient editing
	Multimedia Storage Different options available and their advantages

Good script + editing = good video



If your video goes beyond a quick shot of your office, for example, then it is time that you sat down to write a good script, and get a good editor to get the end product ready.

A script in its simplest form puts down in words what the camera will show, and what the sound track will be at that time. Having a script will help you sharpen your thoughts and do a far better job than would be possible otherwise.

The shoot is the most visible and exciting part of all that goes into creating a video. But it is the editing that takes even more time and is as crucial to the creation of a successful video. Take the example of this month’s PCQuest TV (on this month’s CD). We spent about eight hours shooting the episode. But for editing, we took about five to six times as much!

How much does it cost?



All of us have heard of the billions spent on each Hollywood movie, and the many crores spent on every production from this side of the seas. If you go to an ad agency and ask them to make a corporate video, their quote would set you back by double digit

lakhs.

So, are all videos costly to make? No way! Take the case of our own PCQuest TV. If you want to make one of the segments in it (say, the one on video conferencing, or the one on motherboards), your budget need be just in the thousands.

If your shooting and editing needs are simple, and if you have the major equipment (camera, editing software) in house, then you will find that for every additional small video that you do, your costs are almost negligible.

Krishna Kumar with inputs from Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Sharad Varma and Alok Kapur