This Blog describes the ongoing development of a 16mm scale 45mm gauge garden railway situated in the North West of England, UK from 2004 to the present day.
A question I have been asked several times is, "How do you put together your videos?". I certainly don't regard myself as an expert videographer but, over the
years, I have picked up a few tips and shortcuts which might be helpful if you
are just beginning to feel your way.
I have explained my approach as a series of ten steps:
The editing package I use is Corel VideoStudio. It's not cheap, but
I've grown used to it over the years. When I first started, I used Windows
MovieMaker which was installed free of charge with Windows. Most video
editors work in more or less the same way and so I will use the default video
editor which comes with Windows 10 (and 11). To my mind, it's not as good as
MovieMaker but it does enable you to do some basic editing. It's part
of the Photos package but the easiest way to get it up and running is
to type Video Editor into the search pane on the bottom right of the
TaskBar and then click on the link.
If you have an Apple computer then you will have the far more powerful
iMovie package - you lucky thing!
Step 2 - Shoot some video footage
You can use your phone, stills camera or a video camera to record a few
different shots of your railway and then transfer them to your computer. You
can also incorporate still images into your video - or use the video editor to
create a slide show.
I either use a compact still camera or my old and trusty video camera. I like
to get shots which are at ground level to add to the realism and also to avoid
getting too much unwanted clutter (wheelie bins, sheds, washing on the line)
in the background. I use a Gorilla Pod tripod which has bendy legs
enabling me to park the camera almost anywhere.
Step 3 - Transfer the video and/or photo files to your computer
Transferring the video and/or photo files can be done in various ways,
by using cloud storage such as Google Photos;
by wifi, if your camera supports wifi transfer;
by connecting your camera to your computer via a cable link;
by removing the memory card from your camera and inserting it into your
computer's card reader.
I use a cheap USB card reader as my laptop doesn't have a built-in card
reader. This enables me to transfer files from SD cards, micro SD cards and
Olympus memory cards - all of which I use with my various cameras.
Step 4 - Open up your Video Editor and import the video and/or photo files
you want to use
Assuming you have already opened your video editor, the first thing you need
to do is create a new project or video and give it a name.
You can then upload the files you want in your video to the editor. With the
Windows Video Editor, this is achieved by clicking on the
+Add button in the Project Library section of the screen.
Step 5 - Drag the video files from the library to the timeline
Now we have gathered together a library of photos and/or video clips for the video we can
start to put them together in the order we want them to appear. This is done
by dragging each one, in turn, from the Library to the
Timeline or the Storyboard as it is called in
Windows Video Editor.
If you put a clip or photo in the wrong place, you can either click on it and
press the delete key to remove it, or click on it and drag it to its right
place in the Storyboard or Timeline.
I have placed a photo as my first clip and then three video clips - the first
showing the train departing Beeston Market station, the second showing the
train en route and the third showing the train arriving at Bickerton station.
Step 6 - Trim each clip to the best length
Most of my clips need to be topped and tailed - ie the start and ends of the
clips need to be removed. Maybe the camera wobbled when I pressed the
record button or it might be that I left the camera running too long before
the train moved into or out of the shot.
I always shoot far more video clips than I need and also allow for an extra
few seconds at the start and finish of a shot to allow the camera to settle
down as I know I can edit these bits out later. You may have noticed from my
videos that there is very rarely any time when nothing is happening.
Video editors vary slightly as to how a clip can be trimmed, but the principle
is always the same. With Windows Video Editor, right-click on a
clip and then select Trim,
or ......
...... left-click on the clip and then select Trim from
the menu just above the StoryBoard.
The grey handles can then be dragged to where you want that
particular clip to start (left handle) and finish (right handle). Once you are
happy, then click Done.
Step 7 - Add titles
Using a title card
The easiest way to add a title in Windows 10 Video Editor is to
left-click the clip adjacent to where the title will be inserted and then
left-click the Add title card button.
I've decideed to put a title card at the finish of my video - you'll see
why later. So, I clicked the final video clip and then the Add title card button.
By default, the Title card is added before the selected clip, .....
... so I clicked on it and dragged it to the end of the Storyboard.
The next job is to add the text to the Title card. Making sure the
Title card is selected (by clicking on it), I clicked the
Text button/
We can now type in the required text in the text pane and then click the
Done button.
I have used the default "Simple" animated text style, you could click on any of the others to find the one
which best suits your needs. Similarly, I have positioned the text in the
centre of the screen - I could have positioned it to the top, bottom or sides
of the screen using the buttons just above the 'Done' button.
Adding a title to a background video clip or photo
Instead of using a plain background for the opening title, I decided to
use the photo which I had inserted first in my storyboard as the
background. Firstly I clicked on the photo at the start of the
Storyboard to select it and then I clicked on the
Text button.
As previously, I typed in my title but this time selected the
Cartoon style of animation.
With the titles added, I now previewed my video to check all was well by
dragging the 'Seek' blob to the left below the preview screen and then pressing the
Play button.
I was now ready to add the soundtrack
8 - Adding sound
Adding background music to the whole video
The simplest way to add sound is to click on the 'Background Music'
button ....
..... and selecting a tune from the list (the tunes can be previewed by
clicking on the triangular Play button beside each title).
However, this simply plays the same tune through the whole video and doesn't
give an opportunity for you to add voiceover narration.
Adding your own music track
You can exert more control over when music or voiceover narration appears by
clicking on the Custom audio button.
Firstly, I wanted to add a short music clip to play behind the title at the
start of the video. To do this I clicked on the
+Add the audio file button and then navigated through to the
folder where I had stored some Royalty Free music (downloaded from
incompetech.com).
NOTE: You must be very careful about using music without the copyright holder's
permission. At best you will get a warning when you upload the video to
YouTube - at worst you could be fined for copyright infringement. I always
use Royalty Free music and make certain I give the required credit to the
composer.
Once the audio file has been loaded, it appears below the
+Add audio file button and also on the slider beneath the video preview
screen. The grey handles can now be moved to where you want this
music file to play in the video.
Adding voiceover narration
Before adding your voiceover narration, you must first record the file.
The simplest way to do this is to use the Voice Recorder app
which comes with Windows 10.
Type Voice into the search pane on the left of the
taskbar and Voice Recorder should be shown. Click on
Voice Recorder to open it.
Provided the microphone has been properly set-up, all we need to do is
click on the microphone icon in the centre of the
Voice Recorder window and record our narration. I usually jot
down a couple of appropriate sentences on a sheet of paper to guide what
I want to say.
Pressing the icon again will stop the recording. You can then listen to
your recording and delete it if you are not happy, or change its name to
something more memorable.
Clicking the three dots in the bottom right corner of the
window gives you the additional option of finding out where the sound file
has been saved. I usually drag it from there to another folder so I can
find it more easily.
The recording(s) can now be added to the video in the same way we added
the music file - by clicking on the +Add the audio file button in
the Custom audio section. As with the music file, the voiceover
files can be placed on the storyboard by dragging the grey sections into
the desired places. Click Done when you have finished.
Adjusting the volume levels
You will probably find that the soundtrack on the video clips drowns out
the sound of any added music or voiceover files. It's easy to adjust the
volume on any of the video clips. Click on the little loudspeaker icon in
the bottom right corner of any video clip on the Storyboard and adjust the
slider to the required volume level.
9 Rendering the Video
Once everything has been done and we've watched our video in the editor
a couple of times to make sure all the sound levels are correct, it's
time to export the video and have it rendered into movie file.
Click on the Finish video button ......
.... and select the format the video will be rendered into. This
will depend on the quality of the video clips imported into the video.
It's best to use the format recommended by the program.
We will then be asked where we want the video to be saved and, after a few
minutes, if all is well, we are given the opportunity to check that the
video is what we were expecting to see and, if so, we can close down the video
editor.
10. Sharing the video with the world at large
I tend to share all my videos on
YouTube
where I have signed-up for an account. You could use
Vimeo or
Facebookor whichever online platform is your preference.
10 comments:
Craig Veitch
said...
Thanks for this brief but comprehensive introduction to video editing. Having struggled, with minimal success, for the past week with a different video editor, thanks to your instructions I have now been able to produce a nice little 2 minute video inside half an hour (now to re-shoot the footage with a view to better transitions between clips). I really enjoy watching your videos. They are a source of great inspiration. Please keep them coming. Thanks again.
Thanks Rik for another in a fascinating set of blogs and posts.
Your summary of video editing is brilliant and I hope to practice you guidance in the next few weeks as I begin to lay track on a Filcris bed - SWMBO degreed no concrete in the garden so we have an approximately ground level track bed.
Thanks Ian. Good luck with your tracklaying. I've not tried it myself but I know some who have used it comment on how it expands and contracts according to temperature. You'll need to take account of that with rail joints. If you are on the gardenrails.org forum then I'm sure Andrew (Soar Valley) will be more than happy to share his experiences of Filcris with you.
Thanks Rik. i have registered with the GardenRails.com and looked at the comments on Filcris. I have made up some 3d printed clips for the track to allow for differential movement between the ladder bed and LGB. When I get started on laying the track, I’ll add some pictures and info on experience. Thanks for the steer towards Andrew et al. Best Ianm
Thanks Ian You'll see I've responded to your post on the forum. I look forward to seeing the photos and hearing how your track-laying goes with Filcris. I've mentioned Filcris in my beginners' guide to garden railways and incuded a couple of stock photos but it would be good to get some more specific photos to illustrate how it looks.
Handy post Rik, thankyou. I've had issues with Windows Movie Maker where on exporting a video of sort of ten minutes or so, the sound and the video gets out of sync. Any ideas on how to solve this problem?
Hi Jim Not experienced this myself as I've not used MovieMaker for long videos. With VideoStudio you can extract the sound from a video clip and put it on a separate track and so it is possible to resync the sound and pictures manually. Easier to render and export the complete edited video and then resync the whole thing rather than trying to do it clip by clip. Not sure if this is possible with MM, though.
Hi Ian, best of luck with your tracklaying project. While I haven't personally tried it, others who have used it mention that Filcris expands and contracts with temperature changes. Make sure to consider this when working with rail joints. If you're on the gardenrails.org forum, Andrew (Soar Valley) would be a great person to connect with for insights into using Filcris.
Hi Jack most of the WIRl filcris bed and track has been down for a couple of years now. It does move about a bit and I have relaid some of the track where it had crept too much, to the extent that the rail connectors had completely opened during the winter. But the filcris bed itself is solid enough. I am using it more or less at ground level (SWMBO decreed ‘no trains on sticks in her garden’)
I am in the process of building a second passing loop. I’ll take some pictures and put it on the GardenRails.org forum to show how its going.
10 comments:
Thanks for this brief but comprehensive introduction to video editing. Having struggled, with minimal success, for the past week with a different video editor, thanks to your instructions I have now been able to produce a nice little 2 minute video inside half an hour (now to re-shoot the footage with a view to better transitions between clips). I really enjoy watching your videos. They are a source of great inspiration. Please keep them coming. Thanks again.
Thanks Craig. I'm glad it was timely for you. Good luck with the next video.
Rik
Thanks Rik for another in a fascinating set of blogs and posts.
Your summary of video editing is brilliant and I hope to practice you guidance in the next few weeks as I begin to lay track on a Filcris bed - SWMBO degreed no concrete in the garden so we have an approximately ground level track bed.
Cheers
Ian M
Thanks Ian. Good luck with your tracklaying. I've not tried it myself but I know some who have used it comment on how it expands and contracts according to temperature. You'll need to take account of that with rail joints. If you are on the gardenrails.org forum then I'm sure Andrew (Soar Valley) will be more than happy to share his experiences of Filcris with you.
Rik
Thanks Rik. i have registered with the GardenRails.com and looked at the comments on Filcris. I have made up some 3d printed clips for the track to allow for differential movement between the ladder bed and LGB. When I get started on laying the track, I’ll add some pictures and info on experience. Thanks for the steer towards Andrew et al.
Best
Ianm
Thanks Ian
You'll see I've responded to your post on the forum. I look forward to seeing the photos and hearing how your track-laying goes with Filcris. I've mentioned Filcris in my beginners' guide to garden railways and incuded a couple of stock photos but it would be good to get some more specific photos to illustrate how it looks.
Rik
Handy post Rik, thankyou. I've had issues with Windows Movie Maker where on exporting a video of sort of ten minutes or so, the sound and the video gets out of sync. Any ideas on how to solve this problem?
Hi Jim
Not experienced this myself as I've not used MovieMaker for long videos. With VideoStudio you can extract the sound from a video clip and put it on a separate track and so it is possible to resync the sound and pictures manually. Easier to render and export the complete edited video and then resync the whole thing rather than trying to do it clip by clip. Not sure if this is possible with MM, though.
Sorry, I'm not sure that helps.
Rik
Hi Ian, best of luck with your tracklaying project. While I haven't personally tried it, others who have used it mention that Filcris expands and contracts with temperature changes. Make sure to consider this when working with rail joints. If you're on the gardenrails.org forum, Andrew (Soar Valley) would be a great person to connect with for insights into using Filcris.
Hi Jack most of the WIRl filcris bed and track has been down for a couple of years now. It does move about a bit and I have relaid some of the track where it had crept too much, to the extent that the rail connectors had completely opened during the winter. But the filcris bed itself is solid enough. I am using it more or less at ground level (SWMBO decreed ‘no trains on sticks in her garden’)
I am in the process of building a second passing loop. I’ll take some pictures and put it on the GardenRails.org forum to show how its going.
Cheers
Ian M
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