A Quick Start Guide to Video Editing Using Pinnacle Studio

Duncan Whitehurst ICT Advisory Teacher Pembrokeshire County Council

1. You will need to connect what is called an IEEE 1394 4pin to 4pin firewire lead to the DV out socket on your video camera.

2. Now connect the other end of the firewire lead to the firewire socket on your computer. This socket is usually labelled IEEE 1394.

3. Now, turn on your computer, set your video camera to VCR or PLAY and start Pinnacle Studio. Select file then new project. Click on the capture tab at the top of the window.

4. Find the part on your video you want to capture and transfer to your computer. You can do this by controlling your camera from the camera buttons in Pinnacle Studio.

5. Now click on the start capture button, you have to name the video clip you are going to capture, click start capture and the video will start to transfer to your computer. Click on stop capture when you want to stop. * TOP TIP: Theres usually a time delay of about 2 seconds between hitting start capture and the capturing taking place. So always cue up the film on your camera at a point a few seconds before the part you want to capture.

A Quick Start Guide to Video Editing Using Pinnacle Studio

Duncan Whitehurst ICT Advisory Teacher Pembrokeshire County Council

OTHER CLIPS YOUR CAPTURED CLIP

PREVIEW FRAME

STORYBOARD

6. Now you can edit your video. Click on the edit tab and you will see a frame from your captured clip and a storyboard below it.

7. Click on your clip and drag it onto the first frame of the storyboard.

VIDEO CLIP

ORIGINAL AUDIO ADD TITLES ADD VOICEOVER ADD SOUNDTRACK 8. To edit your clip, change to the timeline view by clicking on the timeline view tab. 9. Now you can see your clip on a timeline. This is the place where you can edit your video. I have labelled each area of the timeline in the picture above. For a simple edit we are mainly concerned with the video clip and its original audio track.

SLIDER TOOL

10. Lets edit! To trim the front off a clip, move the grey slider tool to the point where you want to make a cut and then click on the razor blade icon to split the clip into two. Next, click once on the section of the clip you want to delete so that it is highlighted, then click on the dustbin icon to delete the selected clip.

A Quick Start Guide to Video Editing Using Pinnacle Studio

Duncan Whitehurst ICT Advisory Teacher Pembrokeshire County Council

11. To trim the end off a clip, move the grey slider tool to the point where you want to make a cut and then click on the razor blade icon to split the clip into two. Next, click once on the section of the clip you want to delete so that it is highlighted, then click on the dustbin icon to delete the selected clip.

12. To cut a section from the middle of a clip, play the clip till you find the start of the place where you want to cut, click pause, then click on the razor tool which cuts your clip into two sections. Instead of using play and pause to do this, you can use the slider tool to quickly locate a part of your clip. You can move this around by clicking on it, holding down the left mouse button and dragging it.

13. Now find the end of the piece you want to cut, then click on the razor tool again. This will cut your clip into three sections.

14. Select the section you want to delete with a left click, then click on the dustbin tool. TRANSITIONS TAB 15. Now you have your video split into two sections. You could add a transition to fade between the two clips if you wanted. Do this by clicking on the transitions tab in the top left of the edit window. Here you have a choice of many useful fades, blends and wipes. Click in the transition you want, then hold and drag it in between the two sections or scenes.

A Quick Start Guide to Video Editing Using Pinnacle Studio

Duncan Whitehurst ICT Advisory Teacher Pembrokeshire County Council

16. When you let go of the left hand button the transition falls into place. Preview your video now by pressing play.

17. To add a title to your film. Move the slider tool to the start of your film. Click on Toolbox at the top of the screen, then click on Create Title.

18. The title window opens. To make a simple title click on Create Full Screen Title.

19. Choose a font style from the choices on the right of the screen.

20. Type in your title and click on OK.

21. Your title will appear at the start of the timeline. Click on Play to preview the film . 4

A Quick Start Guide to Video Editing Using Pinnacle Studio

Duncan Whitehurst ICT Advisory Teacher Pembrokeshire County Council

22. To turn up the volume on a clip, click on the clip so that it is selected, the click on Toolbox and Change Volume.

23. Click on the volume control in the sound mixer Window that opens. To turn the volume up click on the volume slider and drag it up. You will see the volume go up in the soundtrack just below the video timeline.

24. To make the sound fade out on a scene move the slider to the place where you want the fade to start and click once on the volume slider in the sound mixer.

25. Now click at the end of the soundtrack and drag the soundtrack down to the bottom of the soundtrack window.

26. To add a voice-over to a clip, make sure you have a microphone plugged into your computer then click on Toolbox and Record Voice-over.

27. The voice-over window will open. Click on Record. 5

A Quick Start Guide to Video Editing Using Pinnacle Studio

Duncan Whitehurst ICT Advisory Teacher Pembrokeshire County Council

28. The program will start to count you down with a 3, 2, 1, then you can start speaking.

29. When you have finished recording your voice-over click on Stop.

30. The recorded voice-over will appear in the voice-over window below the video and sound windows on the timeline.

31. To add a bit of instant music to your film click on the scene you want to add the music to so it is highlighted. Now click on Toolbox and Generate Smartsound Music.

32. Now choose a style, song and version of that song from the menu. Click on Preview to hear it. Click on Add to Movie if you like it.

33. The music will be automatically generated to fit the clip you selected. Amazing! 6

A Quick Start Guide to Video Editing Using Pinnacle Studio

Duncan Whitehurst ICT Advisory Teacher Pembrokeshire County Council

34. When we are satisfied with our video we need to save it as a finished video file. To do this we need to click on the Make Movie tab.

35. For most purposes, choose MPEG as the format to save your video in. Click on the MPEG tab then click on settings.

36. In the settings box you can choose the quality of your finished video from a set of presets. Choose multimedia for an acceptable quality or DVD compatible for high quality. Click on OK. To make a final video suitable for a website click on the Stream tab to make a Windows Media Player file. Click on settings and select low quality. This will produce a video with a file size small enough to play on the web.

37. Now click on Create MPEG file.

So thats the end of the quick guide to video editing using Pinnacle Studio. Think of video editing as three simple steps: Capture, Edit and Make Movie. There are many other things that I havent covered here, but this guide should have everything in it to get you started. If you would like your own copy of Pinnacle Studio, the latest version of which is Pinnacle Studio 9, an educational license for a single computer can be bought from www.pugh.co.uk for 24 ex VAT.

38. A save window appears. Type in a name for the video, click on OK, then Pinnacle Studio compresses your video and saves it onto your computer. 7