The Video Thread. (Making, not watching.)

I should have started this a couple of weeks ago, but didn't.

We had a family reunion this weekend. I took it upon myself to video as much as was reasonable. We did some historical tours of homes and cemeteries that are significant to the family. I wanted to get some of the stories and family history recorded, before my parent's generation passes on and it is all forgotten. I was mostly successful.

I decided that using a GoPro or like wasn't going to work, mostly because I hate my GoPro. Toward that end, I purchased a Panasonic HC-V770K. This one. I was very happy with the performance of the camera. The video was very well done. It did a decent job of recording audio even though a lot of the recording was done outside in the wind. But, it's a consumer quality camera and could use some help. As could the operator.

Now that the rest of the family is interested in getting all of this recorded, I would like to produce a better video for future family events.

One area I need help is cleaning up the audio. Some of the recording is done near roads, some with kids playing in the background. Is there a microphone that will alleviate those issues or at least reduce them. Recommendations?

I have a sample uploading now.

I was free handing this for the most part. Any pointers there would be helpful as well. I do have a tripod, but was having to chase my subject all over a cemetery. Would a monopod help? A handle of some sort?

Any post production that will help. I have Movie Maker on my laptop and have used it a couple of times. I don't necessary want movie quality, but good quality video and audio would be helpful.

Any information would be great.

One thing you could do that you haven't mentioned is try cleaning up the audio that you do have. A free program called audacity works very well and tutorials aren't hard to come by.

Your microphone options could be something dynamic, which is more sensitive in certain directions (point toward what you want to hear), or less sensitive mics closer to your target, like a pin mic on someone's collar.

Edit: using audacity would require you to separate audio from video I think. I don't know how to do it with movie maker, I use some Sony product. Vegas maybe? It's a very old version I've had for a while but it works.

In reply to Rufledt:

How would I separate the audio track from the video track?

This is straight off the SD card with no editing.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/QcTi_Bm9CsE

Yes the speaker is that tall. Yes he can be annoying. He does know an amazing amount of history.

Check if movie maker can export the video as an audio file, like a .wav. That would just give you audio, then you would add it back over the video after touching it up, and mute the original videos audio track?

Does the camera have an external microphone? Just thinking I've been seeing guys at autocross using rabbit or deer hair covers to effectively eliminate wind noise on their car recordings.

In reply to RevRico:

It has a plug in for a external mic, but I'm not sure what would be the best to get.

Rufledt,

It doesn't look like Movie Maker will separate the audio.

I have a nice external pin mic that wasn't too pricy, I'll get you the details when I get home

I got an Edutige ETM-001 pin microhpone on ebay. When i bought it, it was $23, now it seems to be slightly higher. Still sounds great, comes with the foam wind noise reducer, but i got an extra cord to plug into a pocket recorder. It is fairly sensitive, so turning down the gain on whatever you plug it into is important, but it sounds nice.

this is it on amazon i think

I use a program called Powerdirector made by cyberlink. I is a pay to play program but last time I looked it was only about $70. It is excellent for what it is. Worth way more than the sell price. One thing you could consider it to put sub titles in where the audio is less than great. I have found that this is often better than trying to manipulate the audio. The viewer will automatically "hear" what is being said if they are reading the sub titles.

I use the delux version 10 and it is more than adequate. I just looked it up and Version 14 is about $70 now

Link to Powerdirector

I use Wondershare video editor, I think I paid $69.00 for the lifetime license. To clean up the audio, play the video and have Audacity running in the background recording the audio. Once you have the audio file you can fiddle with it however you want. Plenty of Youtube videos on how to use Audacity.

When you are ready to re-introduce the new audio file to the video, you will have to detach the old audio, delete it and import the new audio.

its helpful to do all the video editing before you start messing with the audio, otherwise you will loose sync and will have to manually adjust the audio to fit.

For a cheapo editor, Wondershare has a lot of tools and features, but it takes a bit of practice to use them correctly.

To liven up the video, consider shooting some B-roll, for example when the person speaking points to a marker, you could insert a video of the marker.... then cut back to the speaker. A sequence like that would require that the audio is detached, a bit of the main video is deleted and the B-roll is inserted. Its a bit tricky at first but you'll get the hang of it. It may be helpful to watch a documentary or something and pay attention to how they cut and edit.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Bumping this for the day crowd.

I'm assuming you're using a PC and not a Mac? Back when I was a hobbyist editor using a PC, Adobe Premiere was my program of choice. It's reasonably intuitive if you're used to working with computers, though unfortunately I believe these days it's entirely on a subscription program from Adobe (like all of their software). I'm not sure if you can clean up the audio in it, but it can easily export just the audio track from a video to process in another program. Audacity is a great free audio editor- I used it heavily on the PC and still do to a limited extent on the Mac.

If you're using a Mac, Premiere is still a decent option, but iMovie is free and works pretty well too. These days I use Final Cut X, but it's probably solidly more expensive than you'd need though also a lot more powerful at the same time.

Honestly though, as long as your original footage is of a decent quality most any editor is going to be able to work with it and get you decent output. If you're worried about what the output will look like, just drop one of the videos you have into it and then see what the output options are and whether they end up looking good. Most anything these days should be able to output decent HD video, it just depends on what you're wanting to do with it.

This thread is relevant to my interests. I use a Replay Cam Prime XD, and I love the video quality. I've attempted to use iMovie and found it horribly non-intuitive and frustrating to use.

I'm just looking for a basic editing program to cut, speed up, and edit the video.....nothing fancy. So far I haven't found anything aimed at the simple-minded user like myself----I wouldn't mind more options but ease of use is my #1 priority.

Joe Gearin wrote: This thread is relevant to my interests. I use a Replay Cam Prime XD, and I love the video quality. I've attempted to use iMovie and found it horribly non-intuitive and frustrating to use. I'm just looking for a basic editing program to cut, speed up, and edit the video.....nothing fancy. So far I haven't found anything aimed at the simple-minded user like myself----I wouldn't mind more options but ease of use is my #1 priority.

IMO the older versions of Premiere would have been perfect for this (and can likely be bought quite cheaply)- but unfortunately IIRC they won't run on the newer OS's or processors without a good bit or effort. I know people who have had good luck with Sony Vegas- but that was a while ago as well, so I don't know if it's still a viable option.

In reply to Joe Gearin: I think Sony products use a different format than Adobe products, both can do basically tha same things. I like the timeline format of Sony Vegas, though the versions can get pretty expensive and complicated if you go past the basic ones. My software is many versions old, but I imagine the newer ones work similarly easy once you figure it out. The timeline set up on the Sony program is very intuitive in my opinion.

I'm a PC guy so any Mac stuff is out. Movie Maker will have do for now. It's pretty easy to use and simple.

This was done in Movie Maker.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/9z6wuHxUezE

Thanks guys! I'll look into the Sony products.