Video editing 2018 - Basics advise please

[geeman237]

Quick background. I want to film and edit some short car videos to aid the sales of a couple of my classic cars. Videos will be about 3-5 mins long and posted to YouTube.

I just did one, but it was a struggle with the editing. Here's the result https://youtu.be/jMaCAtPfluo
Quick background on it.
Colleague did the filming using a DSLR. We got about 10 segments of raw footage. File sizes of that were from a few meg to around 1.5GB. I have no idea if these are large files sizes to edit with these days?
I tried to edit them together using Windows Movie Maker on my desktop with 4GB of RAM and Windows 7. It just couldn't process it. Bad transitions with blocky/black screens/large "pixels" etc. Ended up downloading a 30 day trial of Pinnacle Studio but it leaves a "watermark" on the exported final clip. (see link above)

So, with what I want to do, per the above, and just add simple transitions/fades, titles, trim/cut etc what are some recommendations guidelines for

1) What editing software (I don't mind buying rather than a free download, but free can have some caveats)
2) Computer memory (I store the raw footage files on a separate hard drive and run the editing software on the desktop PC as I heard that helps with memory)
3) Good formats to shoot the raw footage in, and what files size limits might be a guideline
4) Output/final video file format and file size to duration for posting on YouTube or Facebook car groups.

I have a hand held Sony video camera but its 2007 so surely way out of date technology today?
I have no clue about these fps rates, 1080 HD etc and how important they are. Yep, totally numpty.

Thanks for any pointers.

[singlecoil]

Whatever software you end up with, I suggest you do something about the sound. It makes the car sound very loud, and there was dreadful wind noise in the later sections.

Some narration would help too.

Any of the less expensive software packages will do, and they all have plenty of tutorials on line. Vegas and Premiere Elements are two to start with.

[StevieBee]

Firstly, the video isn't too bad for a first go. Will come back to this in a moment.

If you have the budget, personally, I would buy a MacBookPro or iMac and use the iMovie software that come with it. I work with several professional videographers and filmmakers and all use this combo - even for some broadcast spec stuff. That said, I know that PCs offer equally good options but Mac does tend to be the 'industry norm'.

Video sucks up a huge amount of memory and also needs a lot of RAM to allow the editing software to operate properly. So if you don't go the Mac route, buy an external HD and dump all you can on that.

Editing is what makes a video. Most people can shoot decent footage but making it into something watchable is an art. A couple of pointers for you:

Most of the scenes on your video are too long. You've over a minute of the dashboard scene alone. Two to five seconds per scene is the max you should aim for.

Invest in a steady cam to smooth the handheld shots and in the editing, crop out the window frame of the car that the moving shots were shot from.

I agree with the comment above about the sound but as this is a sales video, some engine noise would be good (sounds lovely by the way!) but rather than any narration, some music would be good - plenty or royalty free stuff out there.

HTH

[Derek Smith]

There's a magazine/book on video-making in WH Smith. It comes as a freebie with Digital Camera.

I'd suggest looking on the 'How to' videos on YouTube. Most are aimed at beginners.

Don't get hung up on photographic hardware. All you are buying is posing authority.

Don't get hung up on software either. I use Power Director - £50+ - in the main but use MoviePlus for some of the stuff I produce. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_t... There's little difference in the result.

You can learn a lot from how the professionals do it, from filming to the editing.

Beware though. It is a fascinating hobby and you can spend hours on producing something which, a month or so later, you wish you could do again.

[singlecoil]

StevieBee said:

...but rather than any narration, some music would be good - plenty or royalty free stuff out there....

I disagree. If I want music I will watch a music video. When I'm watching a video made by somebody who wants to sell me something then I want him to tell me about it, in words.

When I click on a video and hear the music start, I choose something else to watch instead.

Edited by singlecoil on Thursday 30th August 21:47

[silentbrown]

Editing software : Try DaVinci Resolve - https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk/products/davin...

It's free, and will do more things than you will ever need.

The learning curve with most of these is horrendously steep,
I tried Premiere elements, Lightworks, Openshot and Shotcut as well. I found Resolve easier and surprisingly intuitive given it's capabilities. It was also a lot less flaky.

[Phunk]

Just to throw a spanner in the works, you'll be surprised how good the video quality and editing apps on modern mobile phones are.

With a tripod mount and a Rode microphone, they can be great tools.

Don't get too hung up on the quality, content is king. (See Doug DeMuro or Harry's Garage YouTube channels)

Get someone on camera talking about the car, showing off the details, talking passionately about it. This is what will sell the car and your business as a trustworthy dealer.

(Corporate video has been my career for the last 10 years, or which most of it has been in creating video to sell cars )


Edit:

In answer to question 4, export MP4 or MOV formats, Square format for social media channels, landscape for YouTube. I also strongly advise that you add subtitles to any video you create (Only takes two minutes on YouTube)

Edited by Phunk on Thursday 30th August 22:28

[geeman237]

Thanks all for the comments. All taken on board. I am actually in the US so popping down to WH Smiths may be a challenge, but plenty of books available here.

I'm with the no music camp for the most part. I like to hear the sound of the car, the exhaust note in particular. I avoid footage of the engine bay with the engine running as it just sounds too clattery on video.

The Scimitar has quite a rorty exhaust and on my car the middle silencers have been removed. I'm in the land of V8's so my "little V6" needs all the help it can get. We had the rear hatch open for the interior (agreed, a bit too long those, but I wanted to try and get across it has a good gear change, and no untoward noises in the car) shots so the exhaust note could be picked up.

The guy doing the filming is used to photography so this was his first go at videoing. I was driving and I did the editing with the best of the footage.

I am not too comfortable in front of the camera, but may give it a go. See myself as more of the writer/director/producer type.

Its also bloody hard work driving and trying to stay with the camera car moving along too. Yes, agreed on the wind noise too. I knew that would be a problem.

So, more memory and try some other editing software might be next. And get the camera work sorted!

[mikeveal]

Is no one a fan of Lightworks?

[SCEtoAUX]

I'd have thought that having your media on an external disk was a bad idea, I doubt the transfer rates will be anything like fast enough. Test things by having the media on your machine's hard drive and see if that helps.

Chuck some more RAM into your machine too.

Any video editing package should do as long as it's happy with the format you're importing and it can export to a format you want. All most people will ever need is the ability to do cuts or mixes (other transitions went out of fashion in 1988), plus a bit of colour correction and some captions.

[silentbrown]

mikeveal said:

Is no one a fan of Lightworks?

It's history and reputation are excellent. But it wouldn't even start up on my machine, so I just moved on to looking at other free alternatives.

[StevieBee]

singlecoil said:

StevieBee said:

...but rather than any narration, some music would be good - plenty or royalty free stuff out there....

I disagree. If I want music I will watch a music video. When I'm watching a video made by somebody who wants to sell me something then I want him to tell me about it, in words.

When I click on a video and hear the music start, I choose something else to watch instead.

Edited by singlecoil on Thursday 30th August 21:47

You can do both. And much depends on the quality of the voice you hear.

I'm not suggesting making a music video, just adding a layer of music to the audio. It's called sync-music and done well, can add a great deal to a video. But is very easy to get wrong!

[mikeveal]

SCEtoAUX said:

I'd have thought that having your media on an external disk was a bad idea, I doubt the transfer rates will be anything like fast enough. Test things by having the media on your machine's hard drive and see if that helps.

Chuck some more RAM into your machine too.

USB 3.0 will outpace a spinning disk. If you have spinning media putting it inside the box with SATA is no faster than USB 3.0 outside the box.

If you have an SSD, you'll get marginal benefits attaching via 6Gb SATA inside the box, compared to USB 3.0 outside*

If you have a mix of SSD and spinning media, save your video files on the SSD.

If you don't have an SSD, buy one and save your video on it.

(I'm assuming no one needing this advice has SAS attached drives in their home PCs.)

*USB 3.0 is 5Gb/s, SATA is 6Gb/s.

[SCEtoAUX]

mikeveal said:

SCEtoAUX said:

I'd have thought that having your media on an external disk was a bad idea, I doubt the transfer rates will be anything like fast enough. Test things by having the media on your machine's hard drive and see if that helps.

Chuck some more RAM into your machine too.

USB 3.0 will outpace a spinning disk. If you have spinning media putting it inside the box with SATA is no faster than USB 3.0 outside the box.

If you have an SSD, you'll get marginal benefits attaching via 6Gb SATA inside the box, compared to USB 3.0 outside*

If you have a mix of SSD and spinning media, save your video files on the SSD.

If you don't have an SSD, buy one and save your video on it.

(I'm assuming no one needing this advice has SAS attached drives in their home PCs.)

*USB 3.0 is 5Gb/s, SATA is 6Gb/s.

Yes, and had the OP said that he was using a USB 3 drive I wouldn't have made the suggestion. He didn't, hence why I wrote that he should try it. Nothing to lose.