Making a promo?

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Does anyone have experience making promotional videos?
Without trying to sound stupid ... Is it hard to do?
Can it be done with just computer software? What's needed?

I have commentary, but I need to shoot B roll and scenery.

My current employer tried to do this two years ago .. they spent $20K and got six people to sit down for an hour worth of raw interviews and shot three minutes of B roll on the inside of funeral parlor sitting rooming.

Thoughts?

 

[SFIND]

Not hard to do at all. I make promos, edit video interviews, and shoot highlight videos for my shop. I just use Windows Movie Maker on my Windows 8 laptop. Works fine and is very easy to use. It sounds like all you need is to place video clips into the editor and trim them, and add your commentary. There is plenty of "freeware" out there for what you need to do. I wouldn't sweat it. And certainly no need to spend 20K -- tell them you'll do it for them for 1/20 the cost!

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I might be the only one to have thought this, but I thought the thread title asked about making pornos.

 

[spikechiquet]

I might be the only one to have thought this, but I thought the thread title asked about making pornos.

I think I know more people that could help make a porNo more than a proMo.

 

[expendable]

I might be the only one to have thought this, but I thought the thread title asked about making pornos.

You weren't. I was hoping for pics of Elizabeth Banks.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I might be the only one to have thought this, but I thought the thread title asked about making pornos.

PM me.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Not hard to do at all. I make promos, edit video interviews, and shoot highlight videos for my shop. I just use Windows Movie Maker on my Windows 8 laptop. Works fine and is very easy to use. It sounds like all you need is to place video clips into the editor and trim them, and add your commentary. There is plenty of "freeware" out there for what you need to do. I wouldn't sweat it. And certainly no need to spend 20K -- tell them you'll do it for them for 1/20 the cost!

Is Windows Movie maker free?

 

[heyabbott]

Porno is better

 

[SFIND]

Not hard to do at all. I make promos, edit video interviews, and shoot highlight videos for my shop. I just use Windows Movie Maker on my Windows 8 laptop. Works fine and is very easy to use. It sounds like all you need is to place video clips into the editor and trim them, and add your commentary. There is plenty of "freeware" out there for what you need to do. I wouldn't sweat it. And certainly no need to spend 20K -- tell them you'll do it for them for 1/20 the cost!

Is Windows Movie maker free?

Yes it is. Here's the download site: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/movie-maker

There is some info about it on there. Also there are tutorials on how to use it on Youtube. This looks like a good one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGUvnsF6wyA

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Not hard to do at all. I make promos, edit video interviews, and shoot highlight videos for my shop. I just use Windows Movie Maker on my Windows 8 laptop. Works fine and is very easy to use. It sounds like all you need is to place video clips into the editor and trim them, and add your commentary. There is plenty of "freeware" out there for what you need to do. I wouldn't sweat it. And certainly no need to spend 20K -- tell them you'll do it for them for 1/20 the cost!

Is Windows Movie maker free?

Yes it is. Here's the download site: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-live/movie-maker

There is some info about it on there. Also there are tutorials on how to use it on Youtube. This looks like a good one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGUvnsF6wyA

THANKS!!!!!

Can I edit the existing video?
For instance, the video interviews have a black time bar at the bottom, can I crop the video to edit that out of the frames? How?

 

[PCLoadLetter]

What is the promo video for? What is the end format going to be?

Yes, you can probably do it yourself virtually for free. If you have no experience with this sort of thing it will look like you did it yourself for free. That may be fine for your purposes, but if you need it to look good I would get professional help.

With the proper equipment the black time bar can be switched off. Not sure you'll be able to do that with free editing software, but you might. You could crop it out, but you'll reduce the resolution and throw off the composition of the shot.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

What is the promo video for? What is the end format going to be?

Yes, you can probably do it yourself virtually for free. If you have no experience with this sort of thing it will look like you did it yourself for free. That may be fine for your purposes, but if you need it to look good I would get professional help.

With the proper equipment the black time bar can be switched off. Not sure you'll be able to do that with free editing software, but you might. You could crop it out, but you'll reduce the resolution and throw off the composition of the shot.

Not sure yet what I'll do with it.
Looking at splicing together material for a 2-minute promo.
If it looks anything close to bad, I'll scrap it. Period.
I am worried I will get what I pay for ... But I'd also like to learn how to do it.

 

[godshammgod]

In what format is your footage? On a tape? Or do you already have it on a hard drive? If it's on a tape you'll need a deck (a camera would work for this purpose) so you can "capture" your footage.

Is that black bar for timecode (like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Burnt-in_timecode.jpg), or just a plain black bar? If it's timecode and on tape, like PCLoadLetter said you can easily switch that off when capturing from a deck. It's possible digitally, but it's a bit harder.

Also, in terms of software, if you're looking for something to do more projects on, you could invest in Final Cut X for about $300. Personally, I HATE it, but that's largely because it's not designed for professional video editors (for reference, I've edited for years on Avid and Final Cut Pro, and earlier via tape to tape, but those are much more complex and expensive than you would need). I've heard great things about it from newer editors who really enjoy the simplicity of it, so that might be something to consider.

In terms of paying someone, it's sometimes worth it. At my college, we do 90% of our own video production work (profiles, promos, development productions), but every couple of years we'll outsource a job for $15,000. It's worth it, because we save 100+ man hours, and also generally get a product with a very good shelf life.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

In what format is your footage? On a tape? Or do you already have it on a hard drive? If it's on a tape you'll need a deck (a camera would work for this purpose) so you can "capture" your footage.

Is that black bar for timecode (like this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Burnt-in_timecode.jpg), or just a plain black bar? If it's timecode and on tape, like PCLoadLetter said you can easily switch that off when capturing from a deck. It's possible digitally, but it's a bit harder.

Also, in terms of software, if you're looking for something to do more projects on, you could invest in Final Cut X for about $300. Personally, I HATE it, but that's largely because it's not designed for professional video editors (for reference, I've edited for years on Avid and Final Cut Pro, and earlier via tape to tape, but those are much more complex and expensive than you would need). I've heard great things about it from newer editors who really enjoy the simplicity of it, so that might be something to consider.

In terms of paying someone, it's sometimes worth it. At my college, we do 90% of our own video production work (profiles, promos, development productions), but every couple of years we'll outsource a job for $15,000. It's worth it, because we save 100+ man hours, and also generally get a product with a very good shelf life.

The footage is one my hard drive.