Adding an effect to video?

[steveatesh]

I’ve never really used video much in the past but am thinking about making a short video for a FB page which involves hunting for and catching small fairies . The fairies will be put from the net into a box basically.

Now I realise fairies are in short supply, so am wondering if I went through the motions (ie acted) the hunt and capture of them, record it etc is there a way I can add some effects afterwards in simple video tools like iMovie or similar?

I was thinking of small moving lights, which I could manipulate to give me the effect I want? They would have to be able to show direction as if they are flying of course.

Is this possible in that software, or would I need something more akin to Industrial Light and Magic stuff? Hopefully if it’s something else there might be a free trial maybe, I can’t see me doing this often!

Thanks in advance.

[FurtiveFreddy]

[Simpo Two]

Dress your daughter in a fairy outfit and green-screen them?

If you've never dabbled in video before you're asking sime pretty advanced stuff! Is there a film club near you?

[singlecoil]

Do you have Photoshop or similar? One possibility might be to create an image file with a bright light on a transparent background. Bring that into your video software and place it on the layer above. Then use key frames to move the light in the required manner. Then repeat the process until you have enough lights.

I don't know if that would work but see no reason why it shouldn't.

[peter tdci]

There might be ways to do it in other apps (like Adobe After Effects), but I guess there would be a steep learning curve (unless there are templates/plug ins available) - and the software wouldn't be free.

Perhaps search for 'firefly effects'?

[steveatesh]

Ok thanks everybody I thought I was being too optimistic!

The other idea id had was dangling a light from a fishing rod or something so it gives the impression of flying, then “landing” it in a clump of grass and catching it.

Think I’ll stick to photography, adding fairies is easy with that!

[steveatesh]

Simpo Two said:

Dress your daughter in a fairy outfit and green-screen them?

If you've never dabbled in video before you're asking sime pretty advanced stuff! Is there a film club near you?

I’ve done that sort of thing for composite photography but never for video, probably beyond my skill set to make it all work, but thanks for the suggestion!