

Preproduction

Capturing

Basic Editing

Effects

Output

Terms & Tools
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In preproduction, you get ready to make the movie. You
might create a loose script and storyboard as guidelines. You also
collect the raw material you will capture with your workstation, such
as video tapes and audio recordings.
In preproduction for a desktop movie, it is also
important to decide how the final movie will be displayed.
This is called the output. It is important because it helps you
determine recording parameters such as movie length, frame size, frame rate, and compression.
These parameters are decided by two issues: quality and file size. For
example, movies that will be played over the Web have to be limited by
file and frame size because most people surfing the Web do not have a
lot of spare disk space for downloading movies. File size, image and
sound quality, frame size, and movie length are related: higher
quality, bigger frame size, and longer movie length each translate to a
larger file size. (Fortunately, the capturing tool Media Recorder,
can choose quality settings, compression schemes, and frame size for
you, as long as you know what the movie output form will be.)
You don't need more than pen and paper to write out a storyboard. A
storyboard typically consists of pencil thumbnail sketches of each
scene, underneath which you write notes on the scene's action,
narration, and sound (if applicable).
Identifies the Output
His goal: a movie about making ramen with an espresso machine, to be
displayed on a Web page. (Hey, why ask why?) Because it will be viewed
over the Web, he chooses to restrict the size of the movie to 5
megabytes or less, and the frame size to 160 x 120 pixels.
Creates Informal Storyboard
Kam plots out an informal storyboard. The information in the storyboard
breaks down like this:
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The steps in making the ramen: break ramen, stick in container, add
water, etc.
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Establishing the shots: What's going on in each step? Show the ramen,
the bowl, the container, and so on.
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If you are going to be videotaping, Kam suggests writing each scene
number and title on different pieces of paper, so that you can hold the
information up to the camera before each shot. This helps you out later
as you try to assemble the raw footage, which may not have been taped
in the order you wish to display it.
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Another tip for filming, from Kam: if you have a portable audio tape
recorder, and you are taping the video somewhere other than where you
will be assembling the tape, you may wish to capture some sound effects
separately on audio tape, in case the sounds don't turn out (or aren't
audible enough) on the videotape.
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