Most people have the tools they need to shoot and edit simple movies. With a smartphone or tablet and access to a computer, you can get the job done without even checking out equipment, much less hiring a key grip.
A laptop isn’t the best tool to shoot a movie–that would be pretty awkward–a smartphone or tablet is easier to use.
This discussion is for people with access to an Android smartphone and a PC. iPhone, iPad, and Mac users will have a different workflow, simplified by the iMovie app, see below.
Smartphones generally default to shooting video at a very high Quality setting, which takes up a lot of memory and results in large file sizes. Most likely you will want to reduce the resolution that you shoot. In a full-featured Android phone running the Lollipop version family, it is possible to control the video recording quality. First, open the Camera app and touch the gear icon in the viewfinder. A Camera Settings page opens:
Touch Video Size (Front), which controls the front-facing camera.
and select a lower-resolution setting like HD or VGA.
At this point you have two choices, based on where you need to save your video. If you can (1) simply share the video from YouTube, you can upload (Share) all your video clips to YouTube, edit them there, and Save the finished video in any of three ways: Private, Unlisted, or Public, or (2) if you must be able to show the video offline and archive it, you can Export all your video clips to a laptop and edit and save them there.
Method (1): After you shoot your video clips, Share them with YouTube by finding the Share symbol .
If necessary, sign in to your YouTube account (everyone at Mary Baldwin has one, use your Google user and password). In YouTube, click on the Upload button at the upper right. Then in Create Videos, click on Edit Videos. This will take you to the editing window:
Click on the Video Editor button (1).In Select Videos (2), drag the clips that you want to use into the timeline (3). (In order to get more clips, click on the Back arrow at the top left to return to the clips you’ve uploaded, then click the Video Editor button again.) Arrange and trim the video clips in the timeline until you are satisfied with the result. Click on Create Video (4), and you’ll go to a page where you can look at your video. It isn’t viewable immediately–it takes a few minutes to process. To set the permissions for who can view the video, click on the pencil icon under the video window after it is processed.
Method (2): After you shoot some video, send (or Share) it to your Google Drive (because movie clips can be over the size limit for email attachments) and then download the clip from Drive to the desktop, or use a cable to connect your phone to the PC where you will be editing. After you plug in the cable from your computer to your phone, you have to choose whether you want to upload files to the phone from the computer or vice versa. Choose the option that allows you to transfer your photos and videos from the phone to the computer.
You can edit the video clips you shot with Windows Live Moviemaker. If you don’t have it, you can download Windows Live Moviemaker to your PC free from here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/movie-maker
It’s part of the Windows Essentials 2012. After you click the Download button on the page above,select “Choose the programs you want to install” then uncheck everything but Photo Gallery and Movie Maker and OK the installation. It will show up in All Programs under Movie Maker.
Open Moviemaker, browse for the clip in the Desktop (if you used the Google Drive method), My Pictures or My Videos, and drop it into the Moviemaker timeline.
There’s more about editing and exporting the project in our documentation here:
https://go.marybaldwin.edu/oit/editing-recorded-lectures/
Shooting and editing a video using an iPhone and your PC
Most people have the tools they need to shoot and edit simple movies. With a smartphone or tablet and access to a computer, you can get the job done without even checking out equipment, much less hiring a key grip.
A laptop isn’t the best tool to shoot a movie–that would be pretty awkward. Smartphone or tablet is easier to use. This discussion is for people with access to an iPhone and a PC. Android, iPad, and Mac users will have a different workflow.
Smartphones and tablets generally default to shooting video at a very high Quality setting, which takes up a lot of memory and results in large file sizes. Most likely you will want to reduce the resolution that you shoot.
To change the video resolution on your device running iOS 9, click on Settings, then Photos and Camera. Under Camera look at Record Video. The default may be set to 1080p at 30fps, but you can reduce the resolution to 720p at 30fps.
If your video clips are short, you can install the iMovie App and edit your video using your iPhone or iPad, then upload the edited movie from Projects to YouTube. If you are shooting long clips, you may need to upload them one-by-one to YouTube and edit them together there. After you shoot some video, you can send it straight to YouTube, by clicking on the video, then Next, then choosing YoutTube. You will need to log into YouTube, and you can use your Mary Baldwin Gmail credentials.
After you shoot your video clips, Share them with YouTube by finding the Share symbol . If necessary, sign in to your YouTube account (everyone at Mary Baldwin has one, use your Google user and password). In YouTube, click on the Upload button at the upper right. Then in Create Videos, click on Edit Videos. This will take you to the editing window:
Click on the Video Editor button (1).In Select Videos (2), drag the clips that you want to use into the timeline (3). (In order to get more clips, click on the Back arrow at the top left to return to the clips you’ve uploaded, then click the Video Editor button again.) Arrange and trim the video clips in the timeline until you are satisfied with the result. Click on Create Video (4), and you’ll go to a page where you can look at your video. It isn’t viewable immediately–it takes a few minutes to process. To set the permissions for who can view the video, click on the pencil icon under the video window after it is processed.