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The Video Editing Process
This section can be fun to do because you start to see things come together. It's a prociess that you'll actually keep coming back to in order to cut clips closer together. As I mentioned in Part I, there are a few different programs you can use to cut and clip video files. Some of it will depend on the video compiler you use to put the vid together; some prefer avi files (VirtualDub), others mpeg files. For the purposes of demostration, I'll be using TMPEGEnc Plus 2.5 with Windows Movie Maker. TMPEGEnc uses mpg files, but it will convert some avi files or wmv files.
[Editor's note: I apologise for the size of the images here, but when I give parameters for height & width, I get distorted images.]
If the files are already in mpeg format, you can cut and clip first without having to covert it. Open the program. Then click on File, and go down to MPEG Tools. It will look like this:
After you do that, click on the 'Merge & Cut' tab. You'll get a window like below. Where it says 'Type:' click on the bar and arrow down until you get MPEG-2 Program (VBR). VBR stands for Variable Bit Rate. To add a file from your folder, click on the 'Add' button.
I find it useful to have my media player running the file at the same time so that I can easily target the specific time frame sequence that I want to capture. To locate the time sequence, the media player has a tool bar that shows the time signiature. Take note of the start time and end time of the scene you want to capture.
Then insert that time sequence into the tmpeg program by double clicking on the file. Input the start and end times that you marked down in the Range and To windows - see image below. It doesn't matter if the scene you've captured is long at first because you can trim it further later on. You'll still have a file with an audio sequence but don't worry, I'll show you how to eliminate the sound. You'll continue to do this for each scene you want to grab. In the Output section (just under the video image window), you'll hit the browse button and choose where you want to save the clipped file, then label the file with something easy to remember. You don't need to do it the way I do, it's just something I found to locate the file easily later. For example the file in this instance comes from the Battlestar Galactica episode 211, "Resurrection Ship, Part I", so I've labelled the output file as "BSG_211_ResShipI_RoslinAdamaDiscussCain.mpg", the last part gives a general description of the scene if I'm cutting more than one scene from that episode. As I've previously mentioned, you will continue to do this for each scene or segment you want to capture. It's safer to clip a full scene if you're unsure of the timing because you can always clip further afterwards to time with the music. It will give you a little window that will say processing video stream, processing audio stream and then multiplexing, before it goes back to regular program screen.
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Audio Editing Process
This next bit involves eliminating the audio portion of the file. We'll continue to use TMPEG for this session. You'll need to exit out of the Merge & Cut window, so just click on the red 'x' at the top right corner of that panel, which will bring you back to the first panel of the TMPEG program. In the lower section of the panel there are three prompts: Video Source, Audio Source and Output File Name. At the end of each section there's a browse button. First off, in the Video Source prompt, bring up one of the files you clipped. In this instance, it's BSG_211_ResShipI_RoslinAdamaDiscussCain.mpg (you'll have your file however you saved it). You'll notice that when it's brought up the audio component also comes up.
What you want to do here is delete the string in the Audio Source prompt. You can do this by highlighting the string (drawing your mouse across the prompt holding down the left side of your mouse (or right, if you're left handed) and dragging it to the end of the string) and hit the delete key. That should cover it. In the Output File Name section, Browse to the folder where you want the file saved, then label the file. I've a tendency towards naming the file the same, but just adding '_mute' at the end. (eg. BSG_211_ResShipI_RoslinAdamaDiscussCain_mute.mpg. It makes for a long file name, but it's easier to pick out once you have a whole lot of video files to pile through.
In the right-sided section next to the one you were just working on, there's one entitled 'Stream Type'. In this section, you need to check the button marked 'System [Video Only]'. Then go just below that to where it says 'Setting' and click on that button, which will give you a window marked MPEG Setting. The only part of this window we'll be using is under the Video tab. We'll be ignoring the other tabs. Under Stream Type, you want to make sure that it reads MPEG-2 Video. Then just follow the numbers in the following image. Once that's done, click on OK. The only difference would be if you happen to be using European discs, then you want to set your video format from NTSC to PAL.
As you can see, when you clicked on 'OK' that brought you back to the previous window. Next to the 'Setting' button, there's a 'Load' button and a 'Save' button. We're going to ignore the 'Load' button and just go over to 'Save'. This will save all the settings you just entered for future use. Go up to the top of the panel where it says 'Start' and click on the button.
Continue to do this for each of the files you have clipped. If it makes things easier, you can print these pages out to help easy reference, or just bookmark them in your browser's bookmarks.
Next section: Cutting the muted clips tighter and compiling the video: WMM or SVV.
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