How to make a DVD from your home video

It is my personal belief that digital photography has saved the holidays.
For the price of an average quality digital camera, or digital video recorder,
you can collect tons of stock footage at family gatherings in candid format,
without worrying about the cost of development or trying to get everyone together
on the stair case for that one perfect shot (which always seems to end with
Uncle Harold's toupee in someone's mulled wine).

Ninety percent
of the time I bring up the existance of OpenSource or free utilities for the
articles I write, in this case however, if you want to put together DVD's from
your collections of digital video, or digital images get a professional quality
software program with support and updates. This is not to suggest that Open
Source projects are not professional quality, there are several which surpass
anything on the commercial market. As of this writing however, there are no
projects which match the ease of use, and stability of
Sony Vegas, or Adobe
Premier.

Video editing, in
any form is a time consuming hobby. One of my personal past times is the creation
of AMV's (Anime Music Videos). When I first started this hobby back in 2002,
there were not many choices for video editing software. I started with a small
"free" package, and spent weeks of frustration trying to do simple editing tasks.
Free, it seems, is relative.

Adobe Premier is a
good package, though I have found it to be rather slow, and very resource intensive
with live playback. It also doesn't work as smoothly as I would like it to when
combining video and images of different aspect ratios and quality. 

My
preferred software package is the Sony Vegas System, and since we are talking
about making DVD's from our edited videos, this makes it an even better choice,
adding in the Sony DVD Architect. For both packages you are looking at about
420.00 Euros.

Is it worth it? If you are going to make more than two videos then my answer
is yes, simply because of the quality these tools allow, and the time you will
save. 

There are some general tips to any editing.

• Save often
  
• Use Track Markers
  
• Use Folder trees and libraries
  
• Use story boards and notes
  
• Keep paper and pen handy for timeline notes
  
• Edit and process Digital Photos outside of your video editor (before bringing
  them in)
  

I could simply repeat the
first item on that list and not say it enough. Video and sound editing is very
resource intensive no matter what type or kind of computer you have. The processing
during editing is harsh and if you are working on a video you have several layers,
transitions and effects with, while going over the live previews, your computer
could freeze up, or even shut down and reboot. What ever you didn't have saved
is now gone to the binary heavens.

Some programs have auto-save features. I don't like to use these because
they happen on timers, so that means the timer is running, and at points I'm
not functionally aware of, the program is going to add to the processing stack
an autosave. The Ctrl-s is a universal save key combination. Just about every
Windows program uses Ctrl-s for save. So, I just get in the habit of pressing
Ctrl-s periodically.

The function Save
As is your friend as well. Under the File menu of just about any Windows editing
program (including Word, WordPerfect, Excel, etc) you will find Save As. This
allows you to save versions of your project under different names. This is also
a good habit to get into when working with Video.

Windows XP does have a small, very basic Video editor, which you can put
images and pictures together with and even add a sound track. I use this quite
often when I'm putting together video clips created with images. The program
is fairly light on the computer resources, and very fast to use, because it
only does five or six things.

There is alot of drag and drop going on in video editing. Open up an image folder,
find the image you want, and drag it to the Video editor, dropping it over the
library area, or directly on the timeline. This is the typical way of putting
images into your project. Creating sub-clips from larger clips is much the same
way, select with the mouse the area you want. If this doesn't seem to work,
try placing the cursor line where you want to start, hold down the Shift key,
and use the right arrow key to advance to where you want to end. You will see
the selection indicator show up, selecting that clip segment. Then right click
to see what options you have, or just drag the sub-clip to the library or onto
the timeline.

Because of the constant use of drag and drop in these programs, most of them
have a Lock function somewhere. Vegas has it under Tools. This locks a layer
in your timeline so that it can not be accidentally moved while editing other
layers.

There are several video editing software packages on the market, but all of
them (at least the ones we want to spend any time with) are going to have a
few things in common. They might be called various names, but the basic tools
will all be there.

• Timeline
  
• Layers
  
• Transitions
  
• Effects
  

Timeline: All visual programs work on the
basis of time. The time the show starts, the time the show ends, the time that
a new scene starts, and when another begins.

Layers:
On the timeline you have layers. The two basics are Video or Visual layers,
and Audio or Sound layers. The Windows Movie Maker only has one set of layers.
Because of this they put in a layer for Transitions, Title Overlays and another
Audio layer for background music. More sophisticated video editing software
packages allow several layers.

Layers are the key to professional quality video presentations. Typically
the layers are called a Layer Stack. What is on top shows first, and then the
layers under are visible as the layers above allow. If you are allowing Alpha
(transparency) in your layers then this can produce some very nice effects.
Also they allow faster editing in time placement.

The more planning you do before hand, the better. AMV's are good to study,
even if all you are looking to do is to create a DVD of this year's family gatherings.
Watching how scenes change, when transition effects are used, and how the visual
images are lined up with the music. To see some examples, both good and bad,
go to Google
Video, or YouTube

Transitions: A transition is the effect
that occurs between the changing of a visual scene: fade in, fade out, swirl
in, blinds, etc. If you have worked with a program such as PowerPoint, then
you are probably aware of transition effects. Effects:
There are literally hundreds of effects, from blurs, to fire, to drifting snow,
to scratches and pops to make the video seem like an old movie... the list is
very long.

For
the home digital videos I like to use music tracks. The shotgun mike on cameras
tend to pick up quite a bit of ambient sound and white noise. While you can
edit the sound tracks in Vegas and other programs, using a background music
track is a easy filter. There are several other benefits to having a background
track which I'll point out as we continue.

Another rule of thumb is not to create 15 minutes of video to show 3 minutes
of actual content. This is another good reason for adding a music file to the
edited video, it helps you keep track of time allotments. The average modern
song is about 3 to 4 minutes long. This is also a good time span for most videos. 
Think of the songs as chapters or themes. We have all experienced the "home
movies that wouldn't end". There are quite enough of those, let's not add to
the carnage. After all, we do want folks to want to watch these right? I found
after a brief search two wedding videos which portray what we are trying to
achieve here.

The first video, though traditional, still keeps our interest. It changes
view points, uses many different angles, shows us the witnesses. We hear the
vows, but are even given several points of view while those are played out on
the voice overlay. The video has the feel of professionalism. Total time is
four minutes.

Then we have the more casual look and feel for our next wedding.

Historic documentation is ... well it is boring. There, I said it and I'm
glad. It is even more boring if I was there. My memory is probably much more
fun than what you were able to capture on the video anyway. A good editor knows
that, and works with it. Show the highlights, let my memory fill in the blanks
it wants to, and pass over the parts where for me, nothing was interesting.

On the second one, how long did it take you to jump ahead of the cello music?
Or want to jump ahead? The reason for that reaction was not all on the cellists.
It was the camera shot showing nothing except those two, for an extended period.
It was not a good angle ( heavy sun bleaching), and there was little to keep
our attention (even the girls bouncing on the trampoline were not really enough).
From that point however, a low key, upbeat song came on, and the editor put
in stills and short clips, covering everything we want to know. The video is
a great contrasting example of what to do, and what not to do.

The Setup

When taking your video
at the gathering, take as much footage as you can. Digital stills, and video
both. Become creative, get close-ups of silverware and place settings. Take
shots from behind wine glasses, or through molded glass. Get others to hold
the cameras and take video clips when you are too busy. The more the better.
Experiment and have fun.

Above I mentioned that you should always plan beforehand, I meant before
the editing, not before the family gathering. It has been my experience that
picking a song and then trying to orchestrate the footage you want at the gathering
never works out quite right and ruffles feathers. Gather your footage, have
a good time and then find the song, and theme of your presentation.

Ninety percent of what you take is going to wind up on the digital editing
room floor. But that ten percent of gold will make the journey worth the effort.

When
I'm going to start a new AMV, I start with the song, and the 'M' key. The M-key
in Vegas sets markers. I drag and drop the MP3 file into the time-line area,
and then play it through, paying attention to the words and tempo. On the second
play through I use the M-key to mark areas of significance. The beginning of
each verse, chorus and refrain. I mark guitar solos, and then other parts I
feel add to the song in the form of tempo changes and sound effects.

These musical cues become my storyboard map. The next step is to create my
folder tree. These will closely resemble the marks I've named in the song. I
sometimes just name them First Verse, Second Verse, Chorus, Refrain, Solo, Thrid
Verse. I then start going through the stock footage I have acquired searching
for visual scenes which related to the musical cues. With AMVs I'm working with
a very limited stock set. Working with your home movies is a little better since
there is often more available (and you can just pick up the digital camera and
go get some more if you don't have that perfect shot).

Sound Editing

From this point you can edit the sound layer seperate from the video layer.
You can delete it completely; save it to an external file for editing using
an outside editor ( we have talked about Audacity
several times); cut out some areas, leaving important audio intact; just about
anything you want to do.

File Types

The most confusing aspect of working with video is the number of different
file types. WAV, MPG, AVI, MP2, MP4, WMA, ASF the list is long and confusing.
For the purposes of this article, we are looking to make a DVD from our output
file. To this end we want to render our final export as a MainConcept MPEG-1
or MainConcept MPEG-2. I say this because every DVD video software creator I
have worked with so far, uses those two file types, and the resulting disk will
play in the computer as well as most home DVD players. I'm not an expert on
video file formats, nor do I want to be. I just want my DVD to play in the players
I put the disk in. After several experiments and stacks of messed up disks,
these are the formats I've settled on.

Near this same topic is the Burner type. You will find that some burners
are -RW and some are +RW. Some say they are both. You will also find that disks
are created to be -RW or +RW. Match up your disk with burner. If it says it
is both, buy a small amount of both and see which type works best for your burner
(or see if there is a preferance from the manufacture).  

Making the DVD

With the Sony Vegas Sony DVD Archatect combination this process is fairly
easy.

• 
  Edit your timeline to suit you
  
• 
  Go to File->Render As
  
• 
  Click the Advanced button
  
• 
  Chose Best quality, or Good Qualit, depending on your file size
  
• 
  Render your file as MainConcept MPEG-1 (or MPEG-2)
  
• 
  Close Vegas, Open Archatect
  
• 
  File->New
  
• 
  From the New Project Option box Choose Single Movie
  
• 
  Choose your rendered file from Vegas
  
• 
  Insert the correct disk type into your burner
  
• 
  Click the Make DVD button on the Menu Bar
  

Hardware suggestions

Video files tend to be very
large, so if you have the means, an external hard drive (USB types, or the kind
that connects to your router) are always good to have around. My doctor is an
avid photographer, and his collection grows, so quickly that it is difficult
to come up with backup plans and index/cataloging plans which will remain effective
with the growth rate and size of his stock footage.

My latest AMV (which you can see here on my son's
web site) has a timeline of a little over 4 minutes. This is a 64 meg file,
which took 6 gigs of video animation to create. That is quite a bit of information
to be cutting up and moving around.

The more RAM you have, as with most things, the better. This should be a
standard with any computer upgrade. Always get more RAM first. Max your RAM,
then look at other upgrades.

A video card which has a sizable amount of on-board RAM is a close second.
In this case, working with video editing, certainly a toss up. Personally I
would still go with the RAM, and then look at a fast video card.

Of course if you want to make DVDs then you need to have a DVD RW burner.
Also, save yourself a great deal of time and money, and purchase good stock
DVDs for burning on. In most computer stores you will find the large stacks
(sometimes two or three feet high) of DVD disks for some amazingly inexpensive
price ($3 a silo, get them while they are hot). It has been my experience (over
and over again because I'm a cheapskate and continue to fall for this ruse)
that these bargains are rarely good bargains. Get good, high quality disks for
your burns. If you wish, make copies of the original using the cheaper stock.
But start the original burn with a high quality master.