Making a YouTube movie (seeking advice)

[bryan_kilco]

Hey all, me and a few friends have decided to film a movie or mini-series for Youtube and, more importantly, a shitload of laughs.

I'm racking my brain a bit the past 2 days on some stuff.

Basically, we'll have 3-4 digital cameras, still working on a cast and crew, and the things I'm pondering are this:

1) What would be a good way to capture audio? I was thinking grab an SM58 and some condensers from the jam pad and run a laptop with a USB powered interface to capture the dialogue and whatnot. But that's a pain to have to lug a computer around....

2) Key elements of a plot/storyline....I've got enough material for, say, 1 episode, but I'm already getting stuck. How would you keep things fresh and interesting and funny?

3) What's a good (if not free) video editing program? I've only used Windows Movie Maker before and it's very limited but I dont need to get too crazy.

 

[massacred]

Sony Vegas is my choice of video editing software. There's probably better software out there. I've tried a whole bunch of them but Sony Vegas is the one I'm sticking with.
About recording the sound, is this a super serious project? I haven't done this kind of thing, but if it is you probably would want to dub/record the dialog in post-production.

 

[pifos_2]

premiere pro rocks and is really easy to learn, especially the basics.
the demo is 100% fonctional for a month i think.

 

[LeSedna]

For non-mega/top/pro work, Final Cut Pro X is actually a very, very nice software, don't base your judgement only on what you read online. It makes everything very easy and intuitive, the problem it poses to pros is mostly due to the drastic change of workflow and the lack of very specific features (coming in the near future). You can only enjoy it if you embrace it as it is and don't try to find ways to make it work like Final Cut Pro 7 or another classic software. I'm very pleased by it.

Premiere pro is very nice too and if you are used to the Adobe workflow and philosophy, I know Sony Vegas is a classic as well.

For 1), don't think as an audio engineer trying to record with your Sm57 into a laptop + interface and all that shit, I would recommend using one of those portable recorders (I think the popular one atm is a Zoom, but can't be 100% sure about it). Chose a stereo one, of course. The result is really decent and the ease of use is a big, big plus. You can probably hide it or put it at your actors feet and use your audio skills to uniformize the audio between the takes. I don't have one myself but it's very clear it suits this kind of projects. Don't forget to use a clap or any equivalent to make the sync easier later on. It really is a pain in the ass to do it manually if the waveform is not clear and the image is not either. Final Cut Pro X does all sync automatically between the master audio and all the recorded video if all of them have their own audio track (it analyses the different audio tracks and finds the similarities in transients and then aligns all videos to the first audio track thanks to this). It works well and saves so much time cause it really is all about selecting all files, using a shortcut, done. In a project like yours, it really is a nice feature. I see many people using a Zoom recorder with 3 or 4 video cameras and synchronize everything to the Zoom, then make it the only audio track, and then using the implemented multicam function to edit the video, which is actually a pleasure.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Thanks guys!! It's not a serious project by any means. Mostly for fun and laughs, but also something to be proud of afterwards. I'll look into these programs and the Zoom thing.