Ideas on editing videos for a vlog (just getting started)

[Theycallme_Jane]

Hi everyone,

this is my first post here. I apologize if people have brought this up, there's a lot of info out there and I'm just not good at filtering at the moment. I'm basically trying to work out where to start making things better with the vlog I've started a couple of weeks ago. The sound and the fact that it's both rubbish and can't be synced to my video properly is currently my main issue. I watched a few "how to" videos on youtube to get some inpiration on what equipment to buy to get a better quality.

I have an extraordinarily low budget and I'm basically vlogging for a kind of charity project of my own, so I couldn't spend much. But, based on the tutorials on youtube, I got myself a Flip Pure Digital HD video camera and the older version of a Rode shotgun microphone, both very cheaply on Ebay. I haven't even started thinking about software, because, to be honest, I'll also be the person in front of the camera, preparing content all the time and writing blog posts. So I'm thinking: how am I supposed to take all this time off to edit each video (next to a full-time job and ...a life)?

However, as it's a language vlog and I'll be switching between the languages, I'll at least need a couple of subtitles (doing that with Movie Maker is a pain in the neck, doing it with an external software is also a pain in the neck for the whole import/export and shifting between windows kind of issue). I'm ideally aiming at a video quality and some few fancy effects like in this video by charlieissocoollike (I especially love the fonts that pop up - everything that reminds me of the movie Juni - and the outro, ideally, I'd get something like an intro, too). However, I'm not sure my camera will produce that and really, I'm simply not able to afford anything fancier for this project.

I'm also just learning how to appear more natural in front of the camera, which would involve a bit less touching my hair and a less "uhm". Being able to spot the right times to cut this out is also an issue. I'm doing a really shitty job at the moment. But I've only got limited time. I am, however,hoping I'll get this to look decent, so people feel attracted to the blog and are more inclined to donate for my charity project.

Any help would be highly appreciated!

Thank you!

[lweight]

For video content creation, look into getting a multi-track video editing software. Some of the popular ones are Adobe Premiere Elements, Corel VideoStudio and Sony Vegas. I have no experience with free alternatives for Windows. Adobe, Corel, and Sony software are fairly easy to learn and use. If 20 GBP is not too much, you could buy Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 at Amazon.co.uk. I use Premiere Elements, which is really easy to publish to Youtube and I think Sony is the same.

[Theycallme_Jane]

Thanks very much! I'll look into it!