How To Make A Movie Without A Camcorder
If you can't get a video camera but you have a computer set-up, some technical knowledge, and a still camera, you can make movies. Come up with a simple concept. Make a storyboard. Number each shot. Write a short script if there's any talking. Open a folder in your computer to collect the images you need for your story.
Take a series of still photos of your actors doing each action that helps tell the story. If you used a digital camera, then load the images to your hard drive. If you used film, get it processed at a place that provides digital images on a CD, or scan your prints to create digital files of the shots you want.
Use existing photos, magazine pages, drawings, or anything else, and scan them into your computer. If you don't have a scanner, use a simple drawing or painting program to whip up the images you want for your story. Now they're ready to go. For audio, hook a microphone to the computer. You can record the script. Save these lines of dialog onto your hard drive as a series of audio files.
Organize and file the image and audio files, use the same number to match your storyboard frames. This keeps your files in order when editing. Select the dialog files you want to keep. Edit your photos or storyboard images. You can crop, change the colors, or add cool special effects.
Import the edited dialog and images into the video editing software. You can also add music along with the dialog. Sound goes first, with the editing software; arrange all the sound elements in a timeline until you're happy. Then arrange the visual images in your editing timeline to match up with the soundtrack. View and listen, tweak until you have a movie you are proud of.
When you are done editing, output your masterpiece to a digital video file. You can post it on your website or, with the right equipment, burn a DVD or make a videotape. All with no video camera. Professional moviemakers use this technique to explore a movie idea before they shoot it. It's called an animatic, which is basically a storyboard on video with a soundtrack. All big budget special effects features start out as animatics.
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