Hope Myles Scott

"Whether you’re creating a Hollywood feature film or tightening a vacation video, the challenge is to take raw footage and within the limitation of equipment and budget, transform it into something compelling and watchable (Lonquist, 1994)."

I found this quote memorable because I 'try' to edit videos of our Sunday worship services. I do try to transform what I have captured, raw video, into something compelling and watchable. This quote validates what I try to do with our worship videos.

This week I looked at several video-editing programs!  I downloaded a few that did not work on my computer, including ZS4 and VideoSpin.  And I am having trouble removing them from my computer.  One program did not allow me to chose where I wanted it to go.  It is on my c-drive which is not where I wanted it.  I have an external hard drive for programs I am not sure I want to keep or do not know how they will affect my computer.

After I looked at the many free and open-source video-editing programs I remembered I had a program on my computer I had not used!  Cyberlink DVD Suite Deluxe is free on new HP computers.  I knew it was there, but had not used it.  I purchased the program years ago and was not that impressed with it.  I also have Windows Movie Maker and Windows Live Movie Maker on my computer along with programs I have purchased to edit videos.

I like Windows Movie Maker because it is so easy to use.  I like its simple interface.  The only problem I have with Windows is that it will not open raw video all of the time.  Many times I have to publish in another program and import the file to Windows Movie Maker.  I rarely use the Windows Live Movie Maker.  It is supposed to be better than its predecessor, but I do not think so.  Windows Live has an interface that is not every easy to use.  Plus the two programs can not be used interchangeably. This is a problem.  
The program I chose to use for the video editing project is Cyberlink.  To find Cyberlink, I clicked my start icon and All Programs.  Cyberlink has many options to choose from on the opening interface.  I must confess, Cyberlink is not as easy as Windows Movie Maker, but is easier than Windows Live Movie Maker.

Back to the process, I chose the Video and Photo option from the interface with allows me to The Video & Photo menu contains functions for: capturing and importing videos and photos from a variety of sources; managing your videos and photos; editing, fixing and fine tuning your videos and photos; creating animated slideshows that move to the beat of background music; and authoring discs that contain professional looking motion menus.

The interface allows you to choose to import videos from my library or the Web using the first two icons.  I tried to overlap two videos which I can do in Windows Movie Maker and found that I was not as intuitive as I thought. I then tried the effects and transitions..  Cyberlink has a wide variety of cool effects and transitions.  I like that I can apply random effects to my production or chose an effect.  I also love the transition choices. Next I tried the Voice Over Recording Room. The Voice Over would not record over audio that is in a video clip.  When I finished playing with all applications, I could chose to publish my work or create a disc.  The formats includes DV-AVI, Windows-AVI, MPEG1 or MPEG2.  I chose to save as MPEG2 to my computer.  The final product took less than a minute because the files were so small.  The file was created and it opened in the RealPlayer.  The quality was not as sharp as I expected and not as clear as Windows Movie Maker. But I think that Cyberlink is a great program if you like cool effects, transitions, and text on your video.

Lonnquist, J. (1994, November). The art of the edit. Videomaker. Retrieved on September 1, 2010, from http://www.videomaker.com/article/1691/
HP (n.d.) Using Cyberlink DVD Suite 5. Retrieved September 5, 2010 from http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c01517407