Any video is only as good as the sum of the individual elements you use to put it together.

If your video clips are crummy,  the fact that your script is fantastic probably won’t make up for it.

So, where do you get quality elements that don’t cost a fortune?   When it comes to stock video footage, I often get them from Footage Firm.

I made this video for a client who is an Oklahoma clinical psychologist. (Notice that keyword-rich back link I just gave him.)  Every single shot except two came from Footage Firm and their new collection of People Footage.  The music also came from Footage Firm.

Right now, you can get this entire collection of people shots FREE, just pay shipping and handling. That’s only $8.41 per disc.

The entire collection includes ten discs with fifteen shots per disc.  Each shot is supplied in both standard def and high def.  I used the standard def for this video since it is for online distribution and the file sizes should be as small as possible.  The resolution looks great but the whole video is only about 35 MB.

As you can tell by watching the video, each shot is superb.  I really loved the one category called “montages” that featured multiple shots on the screen at once.  The thumbnail for this video is the spectacular montage of people in magnificent landscapes.  Do you know how much time that saves in the editing room?  TONS. To do them manually, each montage would take at least an hour or two.  Footage Firm had already done all the hard work, I just laid them down.

Footage Firm is a fantastic resource for high quality low cost royalty free stock footage.  They have backgrounds, music, time lapse and activities of all types.   They have footage of all the world’s major cities and lots of incredible landscapes.  Go check ‘em out.  Really can’t beat the price!

Here are two links to other posts on this blog about Footage Firm.

Royalty Free Music from Footage Firm

Royalty Free Motion Backgrounds from Footage Firm

Video editing does not get any easier than Animoto.

Animoto is an in-the-cloud automated video editing service that allows anyone to create spectacular videos without having a clue what they are doing.

It’s push button simple, quick, and incredibly inexpensive, even free if you stick to 30-second videos.

The video in this post gives a demonstration of what you can do with Animoto and shows you just exactly how easy it really is.

Here’s an example of an Animoto video I made using pictures of my darling daughter, Ondrea. The heavy emphasis on motion with still pictures makes this a very typical animoto video.

TRUE STORY!

A lady I know wanted a video of her daughter to celebrate her high school graduation. She brought a box full of still pictures to a local video production service and asked how much it would cost to put together something about 3 minutes long using a popular song.

“$350 minimum and we can not use any music that’s not royalty free,” was the quote.

Ouch.

I suggested she try Animoto for $30.

The video production service was NOT ripping her off. Given the way they’d have to edit, using a standard video editing program and manually adding movement to the still photos, $350 is a fair price. Editing video that way is tedious and time consuming.

Creating a similar video with Animoto is extremely fast. Since everything is automated it’s not the least bit tedious.

I can’t think of a better way to illustrate the value of Animoto than that story.

Compare the two drastically different video production methods

* Manual: $350 and hours of detailed work
* Animoto:$30 to make all the videos you want for a year and it just takes a few minutes.

Which would you choose?

For further information about Animoto and to see another video demonstration I did using their system, check out this other VPT post on Animoto.

I often say that Animoto is so easy a dog could do it. One of my readers, Robert Boni of United Sound and Video in Florida sent me this adorable picture of his doggie at the edit controls. I just can’t resist posting something this cute. Thanks Robert!

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips.
Lorraine Grula

The word “free” has such a nice ring to it!

Especially when there are no strings attached.

If you are looking for cost-effective resources to build a library of  royalty-free  clips, both music and footage, for your video making, I don’t think you can beat Footage Firm.

They just put out a brand new 10-disc collection of royalty free production music they are giving away FREE if you pay shipping.  Go sign up!

Footage Firm Free Music Collection

Footage Firm is large provider of royalty free footage with a client base that includes television networks and other huge production facilities.  They have been supplying video footage for a very long time, but until now had never supplied music clips.

This is their first collection of music and was produced by a select group of composers.  Human ones at that!  Here is a quote from Joel Holland of Footage Firm.

“The music tracks are all original compositions created by actual composers, and not electronic garbage like most production music. We just partnered with a production music company to introduce music to our customers for the first time, and to celebrate that and build exposure for the new product line, we are giving away copies of the 10 CDs. We are only doing this for one more month, then then prices go up to $139 per CD, which is still a very good deal. (But at $8.41 for S&H it is a no brainer right now!)”

Footage Firm is a great resource that I have relied on and used myself for many years.  I have several more post on this blog about their products.

This post features a video made from their footage and a link to a collection of backgrounds.

This post features a link to a collection of royalty free video clips.

Even if these particular collections are no longer available, I suggest you sign up with footage firm and you will be notified on their next release.

If you are going to make any quantity of video, it ALWAYS helps to have a library of footage and clips to use.  Today, I often make whole videos out of stock footage so my library of royalty free clips is invaluable.

Nice to get something invaluable for free!

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips

Lorraine Grula

If you want to learn more about video editing, watch this free video tutorial.This tutorial demonstrates on Final Cut Express but many of the concepts it covers are universal to most video editing software packages

Final Cut Express is Apple’s mid-level video editing program.  iMoive is their beginner level, and Final Cut Pro is their top level.

FCE is very powerful.  It can do most every FCP can do.

Click the link if you’d like to see the first tutorial on Final Cut Express.

Thanks for reading VPT,

Lorraine Grula

This free video tutorial will help you learn to edit video using Final Cut Express, or any software package really.  I am demonstrating on Final Cut Express, but so much of what I show is fairly universal, no matter what program you are using.

If you are new to video editing, and particularly if you are interested in Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro, watching this ten-minute tutorial will show you how the programs are laid out and how they work.

Final Cut Express is an inexpensive option for anyone wanting to dive into professional-level editing without spending much.  FCE is now $199, compared to Final Cut Studio which is $999.

If you desire a high level of control over all the details of your video, then a program like Final Cut Express is what you want.  It’s got a fairly steep learning curve, but once you get the basics down, it’s not that hard at all. In fact, I find it a lot of fun and a very creative outlet.

I cover all the basics in this video.   I’m in the middle of editing a second tutorial on Express that will go into more detail on how you actually manipulate and change images.

Final Cut Express and its big brother Final Cut Pro are really not that different.  On a creative level, Express can do about 95% of what pro can do.  The single biggest difference in the two programs in what they come bundled with and how many file formats they work with.  Pro works with more professional formats that Express can’t handle.

Unless you are working in a professional situation, that probably won’t be an issue since Express takes the majority of common formats and Apple has already worked AVCHD into Express’ capabilities.

Final Cut Express is a great program for editing video and this free tutorial will get you started with it.  But like I already said, even if FCE is not your program of choice, this tutorial will teach you a lot about editing in general.

Here is a second, more advanced tutorial on FCE. It covers altering video through the motion tab and adding filters. Watch this after you view the first one that covers the basics.

Thanks for reading VPT

Lorraine Grula

Are you always losing your car keys; or do you know precisely where they are?  Needless to say, hunting for lost keys is a frustrating waste of time.  So is hunting for lost video files while you are editing video.

To avoid that problem, it helps to know how your program creates and stores files.  Do yourself a big favor and develop a good file management system and stay organized right from the very beginning.

An external hard drive will give you plenty of room for large media file storage.

File management when it comes to video editing is one of the basics that rarely gets talked about. Probably because it’s kind of boring, but it’s so critical let’s risk a bit of yawning.

The first thing you should do when you begin a video editing project is launch your application and create a brand new project.  Immediately do a “save as” of your empty project.   Give it a logical name that will be easy to recognize or remember.  Save it in a specific place that you have set aside for video projects.  Set yourself a clear pathway of folders that is logical so you will not want to move them later.  Some programs do this for you by default others need to be told.

It is especially important to have someplace specific on your computer where you put all your big media files.  When you capture video or audio on your computer, you need to know where it is going so you can locate it later.  As you capture, one of the decisions you make is to tell the computer where you want it saved.  Moving media files after you begin editing can create huge headaches so put it in a good place right off the top.

Let’s get some terminology down before we go any further.  In video editing, there are various types of files:

• Media Files: All video and audio clips you use in your project.
• Project files: Created by your editing program while you edit.
• Sharing files: For your finished video.

Video Files:  Project Files vs. Media Files vs. Sharing Files, What’s the Difference?

Let me explain the difference between media files, project files and sharing files. Project files are the skeleton of a video editing project.   The media files cover the skeleton so to speak.  The sharing file is what you actually upload to the web or duplicate on disc.

Media files are your actual clips of video or audio.  If you shoot ten minutes of video of at the beach then capture it into your computer, it becomes a video clip media file.  If you record some narration, it becomes an audio clip media file.  Media files are huge.  Video files are substantially larger than audio files but both need plenty of room.

The project files are what your edit program creates to tell itself all the critical information about the project settings and all of the edit decisions you make.   Project files are created and read by the program you are using.  No other program will be able to read these files.  Project files are tiny compared to media files.

Project files contain information about where the media files you are working with are located.  Project files also tell the program how you want those media files manipulated and presented, but they do not contain the media files themselves, just notes on those media files.  The project files can be thought of as a list of detailed information about where your media is stored and what to do with it so that it’s edited in the way you want.

When you save your project, you are saving all your editing decisions, the media files were saved when you captured.  Now this is important….NONE OF YOUR ORIGINAL MEDIA FILES ARE ACTUALLY ALTERED BY ANYTHING YOU EDIT.  Those media files remain exactly as they were when you captured them.  This is called “non-destructive editing,” and it is a good thing.   You ALWAYS want to keep your original video and audio.

Your editing program and all of its project files manipulate the media files and create new media files if need be.  That is what rendering is all about.  When your video editing program renders, it is creating a brand new media file that contains all the video, audio, graphics and special effects you just edited together.  The new media file is called a render file and will be located in a render folder by default.

A sharing file is the video file you create at the very end of an editing project.  Once you have everything the way you want it, you convert it all into one file that can easily be read by any one of the common video players.  Remember, project files can only be read by whatever program created them but your final video needs to be read by anybody with a computer so sharing files are used for that.  These are the common file formats you hear about like .wmv, .mov, .flv, MPEG4, and so forth.

Sharing files are for sharing your final video, but what if you want to share your project with another video editor?  If you want them to have access to your project so they can work on it on their computer, you will have to give them not only the project files but all the media files too.   If you just gave them the project files, it would just be the bare bones skeleton and they could not do anything with it.

If you want to learn the meaning of “panic” move your media files in the middle of a big video editing project and watch your project files get confused.  The project file contains the path to locate your media and if that changes, then the program has no idea where to fetch it.

Your video application will send you some kind of warning message, maybe a big red X to let you know it’s missing the media it needs.  If you know where it has been moved, reconnecting is simple.  But if you moved them without a thought to a logical file management system, then it is a lot like hunting for your lost car keys you laid down at 2 a.m. without thinking!

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips

Lorraine Grula

If you want to learn how to edit your own videos, then watch this free tutorial demonstrating Windows Movie Maker. 

WMM is similar to most other programs so no matter what program you use, this tutorial will help you.

Video editing is not terribly difficult once you learn how.  But as with anything, if you do not know what you are doing, then it can be terribly confusing.  I personally do not think video editing is intuitive at all and beginners often get so frustrated they give up.  In order to avoid that, I made this free tutorial that clearly explains the basics.

If you get the basics down, the rest comes more easily.  First, you need to fully understand the layout of a video edit program.  The user interface of video editing software is more detailed than any other genre of programs and that really confuses beginners.  This video editing lesson shows you exactly what the multiple windows do and how they are all used together in the process of video editing.

This video tutorial will show you all the basics you need to know in order to use Windows Movie Maker and other, similar programs.    Different editing programs share many similarities so even if you do not use WMM, you can learn a lot by watching this eight minute tutorial.

Thanks and Happy Editing!

Lorraine Grula