If you’ve been following the previous two parts of this article you will, by now, have a comprehensive storyboard and plenty of footage shot on your DV camera. This means you will have completed the preproduction process, filmed your music video masterpiece and be ready to move into the final part: postproduction.

1) From camera to PC
Moving your footage from the camera into your PC depends on three factors: camera storage (such as mini-DV tape or memory stick), your connection method (whether you use firewire, USB 2.0 or another port) and the software you use. Your capture card should have been given the appropriate software to connect the two, but if you’re using Linux/GNU then you can try a specialist capture tool like Kino. If you’re using Windows, try using Zwei-Stein Version 3.01, which has video capture functions.

Once you have your camera and PC linked up, you should be able to transfer over all the footage you need. Standard practice for this is to refer to your log (see part two, ‘Gathering raw footage’) and only transfer the preferred shots for the final film. Transferring over footage that you are not planning to use takes time and storage space. (There is a method of filmmaking that eschews this approach, open source filmmaking, see the boxout for more on this).

When transferring from your camera to PC the most common format for importing footage is AVI. If this format isn’t available to you use MPEG or MPG, instead. Next, rename your files to bring them in line with the storyboard and you’re ready to edit!

2) A word on editing
Before we get into the practicalities of editing, it’s worth spending a little time looking at the ideas behind this process. In its reduced state; editing is simply the cutting and pasting of footage together into a final coherent piece. However, being able to appreciate the difference between a badly or well-edited film will hopefully make your work stand out from the crowd, so here are a few pointers to consider as you get down to splicing:

Watch Your length! Here, the length of your film should be dictated by the length of the song you have chosen. But if you are considering adding intro and outro sections to the video (for example, as in the famous ‘Thriller’ video) then be wary. The most common mistake made by inexperienced filmmakers is to make the film too long, as short is sweet.

Enter the critics People are often far more critical of other people’s work than they are of their own. It’s always advisable to get another person to see the work-in-progress. A common beginners’ mistake is allowing yourself to become too attached to a particular shot, especially if it was difficult to achieve, and keep it in the final film whether it’s appropriate and works or not.

Use the rhythm method Ultimately, editing is about establishing a rhythm where the cuts between shots flow together rather than jar. This is easier with a music video, as you have the rhythm or beat of the music to work with. Television shows such as Spaced are an excellent demonstration of how it can work in narrative.

We’ve chosen VirtualDubMod Version 1.5 using the Xvid codec (this is a compression system used to export the final film) to demonstrate the editing process. This is by no means the most powerful editing tool available, indeed it’s very limited in terms of its functionality, but there’s one important reason why we are recommending this tool for the inexperienced filmmaker: it’s free (though we recommend you donate to the makers!). The application can be downloaded here and the codec is available here. If your footage was imported in the MPEG format, use VirtualDubMPEG instead. Linux users should try Avidemux rather than VirtualDubMod. Editing using the VirtualDubMod application is a linear process, that is, you have to work in the same order as the intended final film. This is considerably more restrictive than more powerful software, such as Adobe Premiere, which would enable you to be more flexible about when and where shots are added, since you can go back and change them at any time. The consequence of Premier’s greater freedom is that you won’t learn to stick rigorously to the storyboard, which is a very important discipline for a novice filmmaker to learn when starting out.

3) Practical editing
Load the first shot of your film into VirtualDubMod by going to File on the top left-side of the menu bar and selecting File | Open video file. Now play the file you have imported using the ‘Play Input’ button. To add music to your film, you’ll need to disable the existing sound track first (usually this is just a recording of your camera’s built-in microphone). To do this select, Streams | Stream List, which will open a new dialog box, select the single stream that you’ll find listed, highlight it and click on the ‘Disable’ button. Now click the ‘Add’ button and select your music track. The new sound is added when you export a file. Try this by selecting, File | Save as and accept the default save options.

Next, you’ll need to edit this clip to the required length. To do this, mark a section of the shot that isn’t needed. This is done by marking a starting point and an ending point on the timeline using the ‘In Point’ and ‘Out Point’ buttons. This will highlight a section of video, which you can now simply delete using the option, Edit | Cut. Repeat this until the clip is as you want it, then see how it looks and sounds by selecting File | Save as. Don’t close the copy of VirtualDubMod, though, keep it open. It doesn’t save the ‘project’ you’re working on – just the final film that you’ve created!

4) Append me!
To add another clip to your first section of film, open the second shot with File | Append Segment. This will add the next imported shot to the end of what you’ve done so far. Again, you may need to edit the footage, save and view the work so far. You can also experiment with visual effects by using the Video | Filters option. From here, simply repeat the process until all of the shots have been added, and then save your work. You may find that the final AVI file is quite large. To make a more web-friendly version for people who want to download your work, it needs to be saved using the Xvid codec. This is achieved by using the Video | Compression… option and by selecting the ‘Xvid MPEG4 Codec’ from the list on the left-hand side. Now, save again with a different filename and you’ll have a compressed version of your masterpiece that won’t cripple your viewers’ available bandwidth!