Creating Commercial

[Animal1234]

I am new to video editing and I was recommended to post in this forum by someone. I am currently trying to create a commercial for a final project for one of my classes. I want to get clips from videos on youtube, metacafe etc and put a commercial together. How would I go about doing this? I currently dont have any video editing software. Hopefully someone can help. I dont mind reading up on articles or guides so if you have any I can read post them so I could start learning as well.

Thank You

[edDV]

I am new to video editing and I was recommended to post in this forum by someone. I am currently trying to create a commercial for a final project for one of my classes. I want to get clips from videos on youtube, metacafe etc and put a commercial together. How would I go about doing this? I currently dont have any video editing software. Hopefully someone can help. I dont mind reading up on articles or guides so if you have any I can read post them so I could start learning as well.

Thank You

I'll assume this need not pass commercial broadcast or even community cable access tech standards? How will it be displayed?

Give us a description of the file formats you collect and we'll suggest an editor.

If you need other than simple cuts (e.g. title overlays or effects) let us know what you want to do.

Is this a video class? Don't they have an editing system?

[Animal1234]

I am new to video editing and I was recommended to post in this forum by someone. I am currently trying to create a commercial for a final project for one of my classes. I want to get clips from videos on youtube, metacafe etc and put a commercial together. How would I go about doing this? I currently dont have any video editing software. Hopefully someone can help. I dont mind reading up on articles or guides so if you have any I can read post them so I could start learning as well.

Thank You

I'll assume this need not pass commercial broadcast or even community cable access tech standards? How will it be displayed?

Give us a description of the file formats you collect and we'll suggest an editor.

If you need other than simple cuts (e.g. title overlays or effects) let us know what you want to do.

Is this a video class? Don't they have an editing system?

This is for a writing class we are talking about advertisement and one of our projects is to create an AD which is the reason why I chose to create a commercial. What do you mean by file formats? I will be getting most of the video clips off of video hosting sites such as youtube, metacafe etc. What file formats would those be? Yeah I do want to include some texts in the commercial and some audio as well. I want to mute the audio i get from the other video clips and put my own song playing in the background.

[edDV]

Tall order. A video production class should have been a prerequisite.

Try to learn Windows Movie Maker first then you will need to convert captures to a format WMM can use.

[gadgetguy]

When is this assignment due? You're looking at a great deal of time to not only make the commercial, but to learn the tools required to accomplish it.

[Animal1234]

When is this assignment due? You're looking at a great deal of time to not only make the commercial, but to learn the tools required to accomplish it.

Assignment is due in about a week.

[gadgetguy]

Realistically, I don't think you have enough time to actually make the commercial. Since this is a writing class, you might be better off to write a paper describing the commercial you want to make. Describe the elements of the clips you had planned to use and why you planned to use them. Describe how the clips communicate the message that you want to convey. Include the script for the dialog you would use. I would think this would do more to improve your grade than the actual commercial would.

[Animal1234]

Yeah I would do the essay idea by itself if I could. The project already includes an essay part with the commercial.

Anyways ive been trying to use Windows Movie Maker and ive been trying to save youtube clips on my computer with a couple different converters and all of them dont seem to work for me. I've tried zillatube and E.M. Youtube converter. For both of them i download the video and save it but when i try to look for it on Windows Movie Maker it doesnt come up. Like if I went through My computers I could easily find it but when I look at it through Windows Movie Maker it isnt available for some reason.

[zoobie]

WMM doesn't support youtoob .flv vids so it doesn't show up in the list
if you can, save it as a mpg or mpeg and then import it into WMM
if you can't, use SUPER to convert the .flv to mpg then import to WMM
should get you going

I remember some idiot professor I had in a computer 101 class eons ago
class started with 22 students
his final exam consisted of us running a whole banking program
I thought he was out of his ever lovin' mind with such a complex final exam
class finished with 7 students

[usually_quiet]

Would a script and storyboard for the commercial be acceptable? You should be doing that anyway as a prelude to editing and assembling your video and audio.

[edDV]

Would a script and storyboard for the commercial be acceptable?

I think so but you better ask the prof. You should be rewarded for creative writing in that class.

[Animal1234]

Would a script and storyboard for the commercial be acceptable? You should be doing that anyway as a prelude to editing and assembling your video and audio.

Yeah the commercial is really simple though. It is a Sea World Commercial I will put pics and clips of adventures other people have experienced and why people should visit the Amusement Park. I will use the main sea world song playing in the background. I just have to get all this editing down first then it will be pretty simple.

[edDV]

A good 30 sec commercial often has more research and creative thought than the rest of the formula written show. If this were a business class I'd be asking who is the customer? What is the product benefit? How is the customer motivated? How effective was the test commercial in changing attitude for a test audience? How was this measured?

[Animal1234]

A good 30 sec commercial often has more research and creative thought than the rest of the formula written show. If this were a business class I'd be asking who is the customer? What is the product benefit? How is the customer motivated? How effective was the test commercial in changing attitude for a test audience? How was this measured?

When making the commercial I will have to keep those questions in mind because that is what the essay is mostly about. You have to explain how this ad connects with its audience.

[Animal1234]

Ok I've tried using Windows Movie Maker but it just doesnt seem to work for me. I've used Super and converted teh file to mpg but for some reason it keeps getting an error message. Could someone recommend me another editing software that I can possibly use?

[gadgetguy]

Define what "WMM doesn't seem to work for me" means. What error message do you get (exact wording). It may be something simple to fix.

[Animal1234]

"C:\Program Files\eRightSoft\SUPER\OutPut\watch_v=11hiyv7oucu.WMV could not be imported. The selected file is not valid or is corrupted."

[poisondeathray]

What settings did you use in SUPER? It looks like you made a WMV file. Try closing SUPER and move the file to a different directory before importing into WMM.

It might be a good idea to standardize your clips first; if you downloaed from a variety of sources chances are you will have different frame sizes , fps , audio, codecs. Most software won't accept this.

If your final audio going to be completely different from the source clips? e.g. are you going to have narration, music in the background, etc... and have you already made this audio track yet?

Can you give us a rough idea of your source input clip specs (use mediainfo) ? How many clips do you have? What kind of transitions were you looking between the clips? (e.g. abrupt, fade, something fancy ,et c...)?

What is your final format goal? e.g. .flv, DVD etc...

The problem is there aren't very many free editors with a storyboard that you can overlay tracks with, and WMM isn't very good.

[Animal1234]

What settings did you use in SUPER? It looks like you made a WMV file. Try closing SUPER and move the file to a different directory before importing into WMM.

It might be a good idea to standardize your clips first; if you downloaed from a variety of sources chances are you will have different frame sizes , fps , audio, codecs. Most software won't accept this.

If your final audio going to be completely different from the source clips? e.g. are you going to have narration, music in the background, etc... and have you already made this audio track yet?

Can you give us a rough idea of your source input clip specs (use mediainfo) ? How many clips do you have? What kind of transitions were you looking between the clips? (e.g. abrupt, fade, something fancy ,et c...)?

What is your final format goal? e.g. .flv, DVD etc...

The problem is there aren't very many free editors with a storyboard that you can overlay tracks with, and WMM isn't very good.

I didnt really change anything in the setting other than choosing mpg and MPEG-II. I tried what you did and moved it into another section but I still got the same error when I tried to import the video from WMM.

I will have a background music playing which I can easily download. What do you mean by have I made the audio track yet?

I still dont know exactly how many video clips I will be able to use. I will also be using pictures as slides with the video but I would include the pictures after the video clips. I would probably go with a fade.

My final format is on a DVD

I might be able to get Sony Vegas if that helps?

[poisondeathray]

Probably the most reliable import format for WMM is WMV, so I would convert to that in SUPER. I just did a few tests and WMV from SUPER works fine importing into WMM, but MPEG2 crashed on import.

Since WMM is free and easy to use, I would spend a few minutes testing it out to see if it will meet your goals.

If your source clips are .flv, chances are they are pretty low quality to begin with. Everytime you re-encode a video (using a lossy codec) it will lose even more quality. The problem is WMM cannot export a DVD, so if your final goal is a DVD you are going to have to do another intermediate step

The music I was referring to was narration or a custom soundtrack; I just assumed you would have narration because most commercials on TV do. (e.g. a narrator telling the audience to come to Sea World or whatever...etc...). If it's just background music you could replace the original sound fairly easily.

I'm sure you could do this in Vegas, and some of the others could provide you better instruction, as I use it infrequently.

You could probably do it all with avisynth and scripts to generate elementary streams to author to DVD - although it would be free this is probably way too much to learn in 1 week.

[zoobie]

heh heh...too many chiefs and not enough indians
better reconsider writing

[Animal1234]

The WMV trick worked thanks. I am messing around with WMM so far its working pretty good.

[zoobie]

ive been trying to use Windows Movie Maker...

about all can do is edit it in wmm and save as dv-avi (for simplicities sake...not the best method)
then convert the dv-avi to a compliant mpeg for burning
you've got a DVD burner, right?

[Animal1234]

I finished my commercial on sony Vegas now how do I save it on a DVD what softwares do I need to do this? Also the videos clips I used were both in wmv and avi format will I need to convert them into the same format Or can i leave it like that?

[usually_quiet]

How do you want the DVD to be played? Using a computer exclusively, or using a DVD player? It would be best if all the clips were in the same format, and joined together in the same file, but the format you would use depends on your answer to my question.

[Animal1234]

DVD will be played on a laptop.

[usually_quiet]

I have only worked with MPEG-2 video, which is what you would need to make a DVD that can be used with a DVD player. You will need someone else's advice to convert your clips to a single file type (AVI, WMV, or other) and join them together.

As far a burning to DVD, since you only want a data file, not a playable DVD, Nero Express or BurnAware Free will be fine. Since it is less that a minute, you could probably use a CD, for that matter.

[Animal1234]

Ok I am going to burn my commercial on a DVD + RW. Will that work on any laptop that has a DVD player?

[edDV]

Ok I am going to burn my commercial on a DVD + RW. Will that work on any laptop that has a DVD player?

Burn how? You need to have a writer to burn. Laptops differ for playback. Always rehearse with the same equipment that will be used on the day.

[Animal1234]

Ok I am going to burn my commercial on a DVD + RW. Will that work on any laptop that has a DVD player?

Burn how? You need to have a writer to burn. Laptops differ for playback. Always rehearse with the same equipment that will be used on the day.

I am pretty sure my laptop comes with a burner. I will burn it from my laptop and try to play it on another laptop to turn my project in tomorrow. I have no way of rehearsing.