Where to start?

[Aquarius]

Okay, I'm a total noob who doesn't even know enough to know what she DOESN'T know, so don't be afraid to talk to me like I'm four here.

I've recently become interested in making fanvids, but I don't have the first idea of where to begin. What do I need? Where do I get it? How much will it cost me? And how hard is it to do? And what kind of requirements should my computer meet?

Are there any tutorials out there?

I'd appreciate any advice for beginners that the more wise and experienced have.

Thanks.

[Escriba]

Well, there are some tips I can give you. There are much better video makers, but I think they'll agree with me in these things.

First of all, you need the idea. You have to know what you want to do, what message or idea you want to transmit, or what's the story you want to tell. Then you'll have to chose the song. Usually one has the song and the idea that goes along with it and it is then when one thinks "and now?".

OK, so if you have those things, you need the software. This is easy. If you have Windows (any version) there is this program called "Windows Movie Maker". It'll do. No really fancy things like two superimposed images or the chance to put music and sound, but for the beginners it works. If you really, really, wants something with more options I'd recommend "Sony Vegas Movie Studio" (but you have to pay for it or... errr... download it and don't pay for it ) The "Windows Movie Maker" works fine, especially if it's your first video, it makes you realize things and all.

OK, about the videos. I don't know if you have "Enterprise" in AVI or in DVD. If you have them in AVI, no problem, the video program can automatically read them (although in Windows Video Maker it takes some time). If you have them in DVD, you have to pass them to AVI. There are programs that can do that, like "DVD ripper" by Xilisoft or "DVD2AVI" (which is very rough and simple, but it's free and it really works for me). Again, have a good idea of what you want, because this way you could take the parts that really interest you and you will gain time.

About the requirements. I have a Pentium 4 with 512 of RAM and I can do videos, so I don't know if it helps you (I could make them even with 256 of RAM, but it took more time).

The time you will require for each video depends on your skills, your idea, the amount of shots or scenes you want to use, the timing you are going to use... I don't know, ¿from 6 hours to 3 days? It depends a lot on you. If your video have big and long not cut scenes it would be easier, and the beginners usually do that (I know, I was one of them, I still am in some ways ), but I usually try to match images and song and try to offer different scenes, even if they are very short, for every line in the lyrics and such. When your song has some kind of percussion part, trying to match each beat with a new image is cool, but I warn you, it's a pain in the ass to get it.

So, I don't know, that's what I can tell you. If you want any specific piece of advice or something, please, tell me. I'll gladly help if I can.

[Aquarius]

Hey, thanks for replying! This is a great place to start. The ideas and the songs are no problem--plenty of those, in fact, so many that I finally had to ask the question!

This is probably something I won't undertake right away. Age is starting to tell on my computer, but if I'm not bankrupt from Christmas, I plan on investing on a laptop that will in theory outperform my desktop and let me do all this nifty stuff.

Thanks again! If I have more questions I'll post or PM.

[Alelou]

I'm glad to see anything that gets posted here. JadziaKathryn had some good advice for me a way back but I'm not sure where it is -- if it's in my PMs I'll ask her if I can put it here.

Of course I haven't actually tried to do anything yet...!

[Aquarius]

Well good, maybe this thread can also become a support group for beginners.

I did think of one more question after I walked away from this earlier this morning: Can you also edit the music with these movie maker programs? Like say if the song was too long and you wanted to shorten it down a bit?

[tennisgirl]

Yes, you can edit the music as well. As Escriba already said, the better the software you use, the better options you'll have. WMM allows you to cut/shorten the song. I know Nero has some video editting software as well. And Mac users have other options too.

A friend once told me he used several different programs: WMM for editting, some other for the transitions, and so on, so there are tons of ways to play around with this video business. I guess the most important part is that you have fun in the process. It's all about trial and error.