[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by ekkie

I was VERY VERY impressed at some of the cool effects he could apply to his own home videos as well as some of the unbelievably small sizes he could compress some of them to.

Yeah, it's a sweet app. :-) One of my favourite settings is the "Charlie Chaplin" preset - it speeds up the video by about 25%, adds sepia and noise filters, and you end up with a video that looks like it's straight out of the 1920's.

The newest version (comes out next week) also adds MPEG2 encoding, so you can prep right for DVD/VCD/SVCD (I haven't tried that version yet).

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by ekkie

I was VERY VERY impressed at some of the cool effects he could apply to his own home videos as well as some of the unbelievably small sizes he could compress some of them to.

Yeah, it's a sweet app. :-) One of my favourite settings is the "Charlie Chaplin" preset - it speeds up the video by about 25%, adds sepia and noise filters, and you end up with a video that looks like it's straight out of the 1920's.

The newest version (comes out next week) also adds MPEG2 encoding, so you can prep right for DVD/VCD/SVCD (I haven't tried that version yet).

[Don't Panic!]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

I think you're misunderstanding what muvee does - it's not a video-recording program. It takes pre-recorded video, edits it automatically with minimal input from the user, then spits out a nicely edited video. That video can be saved to an source, including a CF card, but you seem to be asking for real-time automatic video editing and recording...which is something I've never heard of. 8O :wink:

I was thinking of something along the lines of Snapstream except for the Pocket PC. It was worth a shot asking though. When's the next Boston Pocket PC Fanfest?

Don't Panic!
Bobby

[sambeckett]

MovieMaker 2 has the same feature, and it’s free (windowsupdate.microsoft.com). I've used it and it works really well, not to mention the built in support for wmv.

[ux4484]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

Microsoft Press owns the electronic rights to the book, and they aren't really into magic eVersions. I've asked them if I could take individual chapters and sell them, but I doubt they'll say yes.

bummer :?

too many filled bookshelves at our house already :roll:. Your's would be a sure ebook sale, just to have it handy while editing (for a different point of view). Killed enough trees in my lifetime already *sigh*

[ptolemyx]

More like "automated music video-creation software". Don't confuse 'creating something' with 'being creative'. Muvee has nothing to do with video editing (an art unto itself): it simply appeals to a certain demographic's insatiable desire for more of That Which Has Been Done Many Times Before. Why would someone want to make a video worthy of VH1, anyway? Whatever happened to originality? Next we'll see greeting cards with pre-written messages. Oh, wait...

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by sambeckett

MovieMaker 2 has the same feature, and it’s free (windowsupdate.microsoft.com). I've used it and it works really well, not to mention the built in support for wmv.

No offense Sam, but I don't think you've tried muvee then. The Microsoft version of "auto editing" is, well, not all that great. I'd really encourage you to take muvee for a spin and compare the two - there really is no comparison in my opinion...

[Bob Anderson]

Originally Posted by Jason Dunn

When Digital Media Thoughts launches, I'll do a full-blown review, but for now

For the love of God, Jason, PLEASE get that site up and running. I'm contemplating jumping into digital media (Buying the miniDV camcorder, editing software, et. al.) but I've been waiting for your site to help me navigate and learn what is a good expenditure vs. silly spending!

I've learned SOOOO MUUUUCCHH from this site... that I can't wait to learn as much about digital video from digitalmediathoughts!!!

Thanks!

[Jason Dunn]

Heh. I knew my post would draw out the video editing purists... :lol: Intellectual snobbery in any form is always fun to poke at! :wink:

Originally Posted by ptolemyx

More like "automated music video-creation software".

FWIW, you can retain the original audio track and not add music, so it's not just "music video making software". I suggest you try it.

Originally Posted by ptolemyx

Don't confuse 'creating something' with 'being creative'. Muvee has nothing to do with video editing (an art unto itself): it simply appeals to a certain demographic's insatiable desire for more of That Which Has Been Done Many Times Before.

If software only has one button, you're right, there's no creativity involved.

But as soon as there are two of more options, there's creativity. When I use muvee, I typically do 5-10 passes, selecting different templates, different music, and different lengths. muvee will often come up with a completely different edit based on 90 seconds vs. 80 seconds. I feel very much that the end product is something that I had input into, and I can feel proud of my work. Not the same type of craftsmanship pride that comes from manually editing a video, but I still feel it's an outlet for my creativity.

The wedding video I mentioned was edited into a 60 minute version manually as well, complete with titles, transitions, and everything else you feel is necessary to achieve "true editing".

Originally Posted by ptolemyx

Why would someone want to make a video worthy of VH1, anyway? Whatever happened to originality?

Why? Because it's cool, that's why! It's thrilling to see a series of memories turned into something exciting, dynamic, and professional looking. I've been editing video for several years, and I can honestly say that none of my work is as good as what muvee can produce. 8O That's a hard admission, but it's true - muvee has been programmed with the intelligence of people who are much better at editing video than I am.

Not everyone is an artist. Not everyone has the creative flair to make art from nothing. Not everyone has the weeks of time it takes to learn how to use Premier properly, then the hours of time it takes to edit the video. Most video sits unedited on the original tapes, because the task of video editing is so daunting.

Look at interior decorating - when someone decorates their home, have they created everything in it? Do they hand-craft the furniture, paint the wall hangings, and crop down the tree for the hardwood floor? No, probably not. But when you enter into a home that is well decorated, do you insult your host by claiming that because they didn't make everything themselves they are not creative?

muvee is not the end-all and be-all of video editing. I'm not suggesting that it's appropriate for all circumstances, but for 80% of the people out there with old footage sitting on a tape, muvee is a wonderful solution that will encourage them to archive those memories on DVD or VCD with minimal effort.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Bob Anderson

For the love of God, Jason, PLEASE get that site up and running. I'm contemplating jumping into digital media (Buying the miniDV camcorder, editing software, et. al.) but I've been waiting for your site to help me navigate and learn what is a good expenditure vs. silly spending!

Yeah, we've had some delays - we're still working on finishing key elements of the back-end system, and until that's done, we can't launch a new site (since they're based on the same engine). And we may in fact launch a new site before DMT...it's a budget thing. I was hoping that by Feb it would be launched, but several things have conspired against that launch, which is part of the reason why I kept it "2003".

Did you buy Faster Smarter Digital Video? That's pretty much a direct cortex dump from me, so if you read that, you'll get a good handle on what I think - and that will be a mirror of what DMT will be for the first while anyway. :wink:

[Gordo]

After reading Jason's book, I went out and purchased the product. I had used Movie Maker 2 from Microsoft, but was not satisfied with the results. After running some video through AutoProducer the improvement was considerable:
- Music video transition synchronization was amazing;
- Scene selection was perfect.
I showed one of my friends my first output from the product, and their comment was: “Wow, that could be a commercial for the restaurant”. That was the first time anyone has complemented me on video footage.

In the thread, I notice that it was mentioned a number of times that getting the “important” clip included was not part of the core product. Until this feature is available (Hopefully the next version) one of the tricks that I read about but haven’t tried was the following:
Make multiple copies of the important clip and this will increase the odds that AutoProducer includes the clip in the final product.

Looking forward to the next version.