EASY DIY AUTOCUE/TELEPROMPTER

When doing a piece to camera, you can save yourself a lot of time, grief and video footage (not to mention the neccessity of learning lines), by using an autocue/teleprompter. "But aren't they massively expensive"?  I hear you cry!  Well professional ones certainly are, but if you own a smartphone or tablet computer, then there are apps available that will turn your device into something very similar to an autocue/teleprompter.

If when using these apps, you place your device just above the camera lens, the it is very difficult for your audience to detect that you are looking at the device and not at the camera. The problem, of course is, how do you get your device to hover in that sweet-spot above your camera lens?

This video will show you an easy an inexpensive solution to that problem. Build one yourself and never again be lost for words in front of a camera.

How to use Windows LIVE Movie Maker - Easy Tutorial

It's not like most other video editors, and maybe it's not well liked, but it's the only video editor that some people have. If you're not sure whether you are going to like video editing or not, and you just want to try it out to see, you're not going to be willing to shell out a small fortune for a top-end video editor.

If you already have a video editor provided free with your Windows, then that's the one you are going to use as a tryout. This is the situation many people find themselves in as they try to get to grips with Windows LIVE movie maker.

Unlike the original style Movie Maker, the LIVE version doesn't look much like a video editor as we know them and at first can seem somewhat incomprehenisible but a little perseverance reveals a program that is perfectly capable of all the basic editorial functions, and providing that your planned movie is not too ambitious, can provide some pleasing results

It's certainly an excellent way of easing your way into the art of video editing and giving you a glimps of what's possible even with basic editing. So if you have been thinking of trying out editing and Windows LIVE Movie Maker is what you have on your computer, then wait no longer. Watch this easy tutorial and make yourself a movie.

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If you like this sort of stuff, then why not subscribe to Meejah's Youtube channel - It's free!

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Everything you wanted to know about Windows Movie Maker

Most of the messages I receive at The Meejah Channel tend to be questions about how to use the basic functions of Windows Movie Maker. It would seem that there are a lot of would-be video editors out there who are struggling with the technicalities of Microsoft's free video editor.

So I thought "why not produce a basic how-to guide for Windows Movie Maker"? A guide that covered everything from getting your video clips into the editor, right through to rendering the finished edit into a movie.

This was not such a quick 'n easy job as I had at first thought and I ended up producing a series of seven videos explaining all the various aspects of using WMM in a quick no-nonsense way.

The videos (and these are links by the way - click on them to see the videos), cover these topics:
Importing your Video
Editing your Video
Editing your Sound
Video Transitions
Video Effects
Editing Titles and Credits
Rendering your Edit into a Movie

You can also access the whole playlist Here:
You can subscribe to Meejah's Youtube channel Here

So if Windows Movie Maker has ever confounded you, or if you're just curious as to what it's capable of, then check out this series - It may just surprise you.

Watermarking with Windows Movie Maker - The Easy Way.

Watermarking on video. - In case you don't know what "Watermarking" a video means, it is the addition of a name, or a channel identification logo to a video. It is usually quite small  and unintrusive - frequently semi-transparent - and more often as not, lives in one of the corners of the screen, where it remains for the entire length of the video.

What's it's point? - Well it's not just an excercise in vanity, a "Look what I made" statement. It's actually a security measure. The internet is replete with "bad'uns" who are happy to download videos they have taken a liking to from places like Youtube and then re-upload them elsewhere as their own work. This is of course ruined if the true owner of the video has their name or channel indelibly marked into the very fabric of the video.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of nascent video-makers use Windows Movie Maker as their video editor of choice and being a somewhat basic program, has no facility for producing true video watermarks - So does this mean that WMM users will just have to do without Watermarking.

Actually, No. Because although standard watermarking as we know it cannot be produced by WMM, we can nevertheless produce something mightily similar by tweaking the "Titles" options. It's quick, It's easy and It WORKS, and you can find out how by checking out this video:

How to do Jump Cuts

Do your Vlogs lack snap and pazazz? Do they ramble on a bit? - Then you need to discover Jump Cuts! 

What are Jump Cuts? Jump cuts is a rough 'n ready video editing technique, the sole purpose of which is to cut out all the rubbishy content of your Vlogs, such as ummms, aahhs  and pregnant pauses, and to stitch together the rest of the content into a fast pacey Vlog.

Check out the vlogscape on and around Youtube and you will see that this video editing technique has become the de facto way to edit Vlogs as it provides pace and zing to even the most mundane videos. 

This video transition technique is quick and easy to do and can be done with even the most basic of Video editors - in fact the demo here is done with Windows Movie Maker ( don't have a copy? No problem  you can download it free from the link at www.meejah.co.uk)

Zero budget DIY Camera Slider - Easy and Instant!

How we all love those sexy slow slider camera shots that we see on the movies and TV. 

The way that the camera seems to effortlessly and smoothly float past the array of ingredients on your favourite cookery program, the smooth segue of the camera as it displays the dazzling flowers on those gardening programs and the slow considered change of point of view on those sumptuous period dramas.

Of course the equipment to carry out this feat of cinematographic splendour - a camera slider - are not cheap bits of kit. 

But despair not people, you can produce similar sexy smoothness with very little in the way of equipment. In fact you may already have everything you need to do this

So check out the video below, This incredibly quick and simple DIY hack will allow you to take those sexy smooth slider shots that you've seen on the movies and TV with virtually nothing in the way of equipment and cost. 

For something so quick and easy, the results of this DIY slider are remarkably good. Try it yourself.

Make a Pro Video Intro with WMM

Do you find the standard titling options in Windows Movie Maker (WMM) a bit Mnnahhh...? Do you long for something with a bit more gravitas that will bestow an aura  of high technology jiggery-pokery?

Alas, we all know that this kind of intro requires high octane (and costly) programs like "After effects". There is no way you could even come close to producing such video eye-candy by using something as basic as the free editor "Windows Movie Maker" 

Well,  my friends you have been informed. Impressively cool intros can indeed be created using nothing more complicated that your free copy of WWM.

Fancy having a go at making some cool pro-looking intros? This tutorial will show you how. It's easier than you think and loads of fun.So if all you've got to edit on is Windows Movie Maker (WMM) here is the tutorial you have been waiting for.

How to fake your own UFO clips - Easy!

We have all seen them - the slightly suspect UFO videos that abound on the internet. The ones where you think "Hmmm.... is that real"? No doubt there are real UFO clips available at any number of places all over the interweb, but there are also a helluva lot more fake ones.

Now in these days of sophisticated computer graphics and awesome computer power, it is not unusual to see perfect videos of alien craft wafting through the skies. The problem is their perfection - These special effects are too perfect. We immediately suspect them of being fake because of their perfection.

The clips we really believe are the ones that appear to have been snatched by chance, recorded on a flip camera or iphone when the opportunity presented itself - No fancy camera work, but simple visual documentation of something that actually happened. - Er... it did actually happen didn't it?

But surely such gritty and "of the moment" video documentary must be real mustn't it? Well, no. Not necessarily.

Fake footage like this is incredibly easy to create and it uses the simplest of equipment. If you own a video camera or iphone, then you too can fake your own UFO's. No special skills or fancy editing programs needed.

So if you have always yearned to create  a "UFO flap" in your home town, just grab your video camera and take a look at this video - and may the force be with you.