What Does It Take too...

What does it take to make a highlight video?

I would not calling making highlight video's a specialty of mine, but I am improving and I can share with people some idea of what goes into making them.

I am pretty sure that as a general rule each minute or two of video takes an hour or two of editing. I heard that said somewhere by somebody, and it sounds about right.

The first step to making a video is to get the video from the camera to the computer. I am pretty sure that there is an easier way to do this with better technology, but the technology that I am provided to use requires a more time consuming process. You have to log into a program, and play the tape on the camera while hitting capture on the computer. So basically you have to wait until the footage is replayed on to a computer before you can do anything with it.

Sometimes I re-edit film that I already have on my computer from previous videos and that makes allows me to avoid that first step, which is always nice.

Once you have the video you can begin editing.

I start the video one of two ways. One way, and these are usually shorter videos, but not always, starts with a theme in my head. I know the song that I want used, I know the clips and then I just have to put it together.

The other way is the way I usually do things and it requires me to first edit all of the video. I watch everything that I need to edit and cut it up so I have all the parts I want. This takes a while.

Once I have all the clips I want I try to match it to a song. The song is a really important part. Having the song always comes before I finalize editing the film. Picking a song can honestly take forever. Sometimes it's quick and easy and sometimes it can take an hour.

After I have the music I can then fit the video to the music which depending on the film and song can be easy or a pain. In order to fit music and video I look for parts of the video that match-up well with a lyric or a beat. Sometimes I slow down video for a slower song, sometimes I cut the highlights quickly for faster songs.

I enjoy making highlight videos most of the time...every once in awhile it feels like a chore, but in general I enjoy making them. I'm no expert at making them, but I am improving.