Dave's Favorites: Make Music Videos With Muvee AutoProducer
I hear it all the time: "I'd love to connect my camcorder to the PC to make my own movies, but it sounds like a lot of work. Who has time?"
It's really not that hard to edit and produce your own home movies on DVD, but I will admit that you do need something of a passion for movie making. Otherwise, it's just a lot of drudgery: editing clips, putting them in the right order, adding transitions, titles, and music, and rendering the whole thing into a coherent film. And that does, indeed, take time ... as well as a talent for filmmaking, which not everyone has.
Here's an attractive alternative: Use a program called Muvee AutoProducer to automate the whole process. Just load a bunch of video clips and add some still images, if you want. Specify digital music for the soundtrack, choose a style for your movie, then let it rip. The application analyzes the music and the images, then assembles it all in a surprisingly compelling way. What you get is a tightly edited music video that cuts between scenes at just the right moments to stay in sync with the beat of the music. In other words, you get a professionally edited music video.
Don't think that I'm exaggerating, either--the results are simply amazing. The Muvee application intelligently emphasizes scenes with human faces and keeps the feel of your production in line with both the musical selection and whatever style you chose. Some styles are tempo related, while others give your movie a certain look, such as sepia, black and white, or television. Styles can play with colors--a cinematic style punches up the color saturation while delivering the movie in wide-screen, for instance--and even vary the playback speed. The application also uses slow motion to particularly good effect. When you're done, you can burn your video to DVD, CD, or save it for playback on your PC.
You can try Muvee for free, but the full version of Muvee AutoProducer is a very affordable $50. If you'd like to do something interesting with your digital videos but don't want to master a video editor, this program is for you.
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