LESSON 7: STORY PLANNING

So we have a basic understanding of how you could start a simple project.  If you are reading through the first lesson and wondering why so basic? The point is to introduce someone into the idea of film making. I have talked to numerous people that have no idea how to start.  Of course throughout this blog things will become more advance. I will share great websites to get free content for your films and offer some technical help if you need it.

Since the point of film making is telling a story its really important to get a knack for this so the next thing we will go over is planning a story.

When you are writing a story you need to think of how it will effect your audience.  So you need to create likable characters to catch audience attention.   script writing we will get into later but I want explain something before you start writing,  typically 1 page of script = 1 min of video. A movie that is 1 hr 30 minutes=  90 pages of script. This is not a rule but something to follow so you will have structure to your script.  Later when you write your script, you will want to keep this in mind. 

A 90 page script is broken into 3 sections, of course the beginning, middle and end. When writing your script the first section should introduce the characters then about 20 pages into the story, you can have a twist to put the characters into a bad situation. this should last most of the story, finally the last 20 pages will be how the story concludes

The best way to start writing a story is to create what is called a A story This is basically a list of scenes titles. Of course you will name them whatever you want to identify what the scene are about, example: 

1. Diner (girl chokes on food)
2. Hospital (rushed to hospital)

So you will continue this list until you reach the end of the story. This method will help you organise writing your script later. if we have 30 scenes, this doesn't mean you will have 30 pages. each scene can run over a few pages depending on the length of the scene, this is just a way to create a structure to your script and it may change once you start writing it.

So you have your list completed and now you want to get into writing your script. Just remember your script might not be great the first draft. It will take some time to make it great.  Just make the characters interesting and make them have real problems to capture a audience.

The next lesson I will get into script writing.

LESSON 6: SAVING YOUR PROJECT!

We will complete this project by saving it. 

We need to go "File" then "Render as"

On this screen you will see many different options. First thing we will title our project then find Windows Media Video V11 .wmv in the list and choose the highest quality possible which in this case is 8 MBPS HD 1080p. Once you have done this hit Render at the bottom (As shown below)

Your video will now saved and can be viewed later.

Next lesson we will go through how to write a script

LESSON 5: FINAL TOUCHES TO VIDEO

We will complete this video we just need to do some final touches.


On the previous lesson you were shown how to fade in and fade out your video text. Now we need to do the same thing with the beginning and the ending of your video. (shown below)

This project is completed. Next we will save it.

LESSON 4: ADD TEXT TO YOUR VIDEO

Continuing from the previous lesson we ended off with a short video. the next thing we need to do before we complete it would be to add a title.

If you have your project opened the next thing we need to do is click the Media Generator tab on the left panel then choose Titles and Text ( See below)

Then you will need to choose the type of title that we will need.

choose default and drag this to you time line. you will see a dialog box pop up once the title is added. this will give you the option to edit your text. (as shown below)

You can now enter your text. we will call it "The Evil Inside" After you named it you can change font size, colour or style. then close the dialog box.  There are obviously more advanced options here but we will keep it simple for now.

You have your text added but if you play it back you can see it doesn't fade in. so doesn't look quite right. Next step we need to do a fade in and fade out.  If you put your cursor next to the top right corner of the text clip you will see a piece of pie show that will allow you to fade the track. (as shown below)

Once you have completed this on the left you will need to the same on the right
(as shown below)

That looks much better!

Next lesson we will make some final adjustment before saving!

LESSON 3: SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC

If you followed the previous tutorial you should have a video that consist of 4 clips but still needs some work. next thing we want to add is sound effects and music.

Where do you get this?? I have several site that I use. See below

Music: http://incompetech.com/music/

Sound effects: http://www.soundjay.com/

http://soundbible.com

These site offer free sound effects and music but you need give credit to the owner in your videos. You can also google royalty free music and sound effect to list more. just keep in mind to read through the site to confirm if its OK to use their work. most site have copyright music that cannot be used without permission from the owner.

Next step you wanna choose the music that best fit your video for this video we could use something suspense or Erie.

So you have your sound effects and music ready and you want to add it to the video. If you preview your video again you can probably hear the sound is horrible, so we need to clear the audio in the video that was recorded with the video. There is 2 ways of doing this. You could deleted the current audio or mute the audio, In this lesson we will mute to make things easy.

On the left of the audio track you see the volume track. just push the bar to the left (see below)

OK next step is to add the music you downloaded.  Go back to your explorer menu and drag the track into the time line.

Once you drag your music track in, make sure its at the beginning of the time line. if there is a gap in the track you can click and slide it to the left so the music plays when the video starts. (See below)



You can try and preview this to see how it looks.... Much better?

Next step we are going to add the sound effects. for this particular video you can use sounds effect like:  knocking, footsteps

Next go back to your explorer and drag in your sound effects (see below)

You will need to line up the sound effect to the video, Example.  the noise that wakes you up while sleeping (bang) drag the sound to that part of the video and when see your reaction should be a good place to make it believable.

You can continue to add your other sound tracks. example: when it shows the clip of the door. you can have the knocking sound effect. and finally the last sound effect would be, as you walk out of the room. place the footstep sound.

So now you can see how music and sound really adds to a video. it completely change the mood and makes it look music more believable.

Once you have completed this project to your satisfaction. the next step is add text to your video.

LESSON 2: THE BASICS OF EDITING

WHAT YOU NEED

1. Editing Software

2. Patience

3. Time

There's a lot of debate on the best software that will produce the best work when editing. From my experience working with different software it doesn't really matter what you use. Most programs today have HD capability and work really well.

The bottom line to the best editing is the user and knowing what you looking for as the end result. typically with editing software the point of it is to piece together a series of clips to produce one scene. (If you are looking for crazy effects then you need a special effects program. Which we will talk about later.)

There are many video editing programs. Some high end software that's used in Hollywood films would be:  Final Cut Pro (for Mac) or Avid Media Composer & Adobe Premiere (for PC & Mac).  These programs you may want to wait till your more familiar with the concept behind editing. Like I said I don't feel you will ever need any of these programs to create Hollywood looking films.  Either your a great film maker or your not.  A great program to start with would be Sony Vegas Pro. It has all the capability as the others. or if you are using a Mac computer. iMovie would be the best choice.  For me I started with Sony Vegas Pro. 

If you are familiar with  computer programs in general you will catch on quite easily. If not there are a lot of tutorial on Youtube that would guide you through. Don't expect to jump into this as a professional. I've been doing this for quite a while and you will always learning something new. since your starting out you will just need to know how to put a scene together.  The other stuff will come later.

All of these program aren't free but you can get a trial version online that works fully for 30 days.  Just google it!

So getting into the editing part, See below image for how Sony Vegas Pro looks when you open it.  (for this tutorial I am using Sony Vegas Verison 12.0)

So click explorer on the top left and choose your files that you recorded. You can select them all and drag them into the timeline.

Once you have dragged the videos in the timeline you will see this.

So while you are working on the first clip you can move the others aside. by just dragging them to the right of the screen.  (as shown)

So if you put your mouse next to the end of the first clip your cursor will change and you will get a box pull up next to it like this.

If you click and move your cursor to the left you will cut off the end of the clip, this works the same at the beginning of the clip if you click and move to the right.  You will see the preview in the top right corner showing how much you will cut off of that current clip. This method will allow you to tight up your clips and cut off what you don't need. once you have trimmed your first clip you can move the next clip over and work on that one the same.  Ok So you have worked on all of these clips, now you can drag each clip next the the clip before it without leaving any space. Be careful not to dragged to far so they don't overlap. this will cause a transition. which we don't want for this project.

So once you have dragged all the clips together, You can preview the whole thing by hitting space bar.  So you watched it and it looks awlful. its because it has no decent music or sound effects. Next tutorial is adding sound....

LESSON 1 : THE BEGINNING.

WHAT YOU NEED!

1. Camera

2. Tripod

3. Editing software

4. A story

5. Time

So if your new to film making or just making video in general then you probably wont know where to start,  so I decided to put together a blog on how to get started. I know everyone has their own way of making videos but this is my way when I started. If you have some experience in film making this blog isn't for you. This is for the people that have no idea what to do or what they need to get started.

First thing you will obviously need is a camera,  it doesn't have to be expensive just something that will give you decent video quality. You can even use your mobile phone. I started out digital but it wasn't HD by any means. so anything will work at this point.

So now you have your camera but don't know where to start. For me I am a very visual person so the first thing that came to mind were difference scenes and camera positions. Be creative and just sit and think about a way you can do this. Example: sit your camera on the floor under the bed showing characters feet as they get out of bed and walk out of the room. This especially great for horror films.

OK, so you don't have a story. Of course the story is the most important part of any film. it doesn't matter what tricks you pull, If the story sucks then nobody will wanna watch it, but for a beginner you just need to focus on learning the technical part, this will come later.

So you have a idea in mind and don't have anyone to be in the film and your probably embarrassed to ask a friend because your new and don't really know what your doing. Well my first film. I was the star!

I understand if you don't like to be in front of the camera. but this part doesn't require you to speak at all. just react as you normally would. Your first film doesn't even need to make sense. It's just to get the concept on how the whole thing works.

OK so the next step consist of different clips put together so we need to film them separately.  This first project consist of 4 clips. you will need a tripod for this project. If you don't have one. You could put your camera on a table or shelf of some sort.

Clip 1.  Sit your camera up near your bed. Film yourself pretend sleeping. Your not an actor? Well that's OK just pretend for now u are.  you will get actors later when you get better at it. Right now your the actor.  So your laying there and pretend sleeping and then you wake up quickly to the sound of someone knocking on the door.  You leave the room. OK that's a cut!  Most of these scenes are gonna be really short so don't think you need to make them long. Just a few seconds.

Clip 2. You will film the door as if someone is turning the knob. Focus on the door knob shaking. Again. this clip is probably 4 secs. 

Clip 3.  Next scene your gonna film is your feet as you leave the room, you will recreate the same as clip 1. but camera view will be from under your bed.

Clip 4.  Final clip will show you walking towards the door. So set your tripod next to the door and film yourself walking towards it.

I know this doesn't end the scene very well so if you wanna add more to this

thats fine. I just wanted to get you started.

Ok so now you have all 4 clips and want to know how to put it together. Next tutorial I will show you how to put this together and begin editing.