Free Video School
at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church
Want to Edit Your Video Program On Your Own?
Our volunteer editors are set up to edit your program on a state of the art Apple G5 computer at the church, using Apple Final Cut Pro HD and some really spiffy tools to accompany it. That does not mean, however, that you can't edit your own program.
Any PC using Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 installed has an excellent little program called Windows Movie Maker. You can use Windows Movie Maker and handle your entire project from start to finish if you'd like. Just go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Windows Movie Maker. When Movie Maker opens, select Help, and Windows Movie Maker on the Web. Then click on Get Started with Windows Movie Maker, which has a nice introduction to making videos using Movie Maker.
Even better, if you have access to an Apple computer, you can use a program that comes with every Apple called iMovie. It's more stable and more versatile than Windows Movie Maker. For reasons we can't understand, Windows Movie Maker causes a degradation in the quality of your signal. iMovie doesn't.
The easiest way to connect your camera to the computer is by using a FireWire cable (sometimes called a 1394 connector). If your computer won't accept a FireWire cable, you can usually use the USB port.
| You can buy a six-foot FireWire cable at Best Buy or CompUSA for $20-25. There are two types of FireWire connections, 6-pin and 4-pin. The plug on the left is a 6-pin, and the one on the right is a 4-pin. |
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Most DV cameras have a 4-pin FireWire connection. Most computers have 4-pin as well. To the right is what a 4-pin connection looks like on a computer, and to the left is what it looks like on a camcorder. |
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| Some computers (including many Apple computers) use 6-pin. The connection on the bottom is a 6-pin FireWire connection (the one on the top is a USB, if that helps you know how big it is). Make sure you know which connections you have before you buy the cable. The easy way to make sure you buy the right thing is to take the camera and the computer to the store with you. |  |
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