Video Editing As Easy As 1, 2, 3

Whether You Want To Influence An Election Or Just Have Some Fun, Editing Video Is Easier Than Ever

(CBS) 
About the hardest part of video editing is trimming and splitting, which you'll need to do to break up long video sequences or chop off unwanted material. Often you'll have to hunt around for a good place to start and stop the scene, and sometimes you'll want to be able to split a cut to take out material you don't need. One of the best ways to bore an audience is to create an overly long video that only parents, grandparents, and loyal employees would ever dream of watching.

When you do cut, it's sometimes impossible to get a smooth transition between scenes — but like the pros, you can make rough cuts invisible to the viewer by adding transitions between them that distract the viewer's attention during scene shifts. Movie Maker, for example, has dozens of available transitions including "wipes" in various directions that help to merge two disparate scenes.

Most programs also have special effects that can distort or enhance scenes. One of my favorite effects in Movie Maker, called "Ease in," makes it look as if the camera operator zoomed in on the shot. You can also "ease out" and pan so that it looks as if the camera was moving from side to side.

Some of these effects can not only enhance moving images but do wonders for slide shows. I've been using Movie Maker to create slide shows for both personal and professional use. The beauty here is that you don't have to own a camcorder. You can import photographs, add an audio sound track, and use some of the special effects to make it look as if your photos were almost videos. Use of the "ease in," "ease out" and pan, for example, create a cinematic effect with still pictures that can be quite impressive.

Movie Maker lets you add an audio track to your video, so one option is to drag a number of digital pictures to the program's timeline and then import a piece of music or your own audio narration. If you plan to post your creation to the Internet, be aware that you're not supposed to use copyrighted music on any video that you share with the public.

What I like doing is to create my own narration, which I do by plugging a microphone into my PC's sound card and just talking about the pictures. With a little finesse, I'm able to get the sound track to follow exactly with the changes in the photos so it can have a very nice effect. I did one that chronicled my trip to Lake Louise in Canada, where the photos roughly illustrated the narration. If you have access to an audio-editing program such as Audacity, which you can download for free, or Adobe Audition, you can use that to create and edit your sound track. You can also use Movie Maker's Narrate Timeline feature to add a narration to the show from within the program. iMovie has its own audio recording feature in Macs, or you could use GarageBand to create and edit an audio narration.

While it's unlikely that your creation will win you an Academy Award, it might be eligible for a YouTube Video Award. On March 25 the video-sharing site owned by Google will honor some of the more creative contributors to its service. It's too late to enter for this year's award — but there's always next year.

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A syndicated technology columnist for more than two decades, Larry Magid serves as on air Technology Analyst for CBS Radio News. His technology reports can be heard several times a week on the CBS Radio Network. Magid is the author of several books including "The Little PC Book."