Entertainment For Lively Minds
Video Recording - Help Wanted
Now that Christmas is done and dusted, my thoughts are turning to my wife's 'significant' birthday at the end of February. We have friends and family who are scattered throughout the world and it's unlikely that everyone will be able to make it for the big day.
As a surprise, I thought it would be good if I could make a short video with all my wife's friends and family wishing her a happy birthday. My thinking is that I will ask each of friend and family member to record a short (no more than 90 second) video clip of themselves. They can then send it to me by e-mail and I will put them together onto a DVD.
Now, as I don't have a video camera, I have a number of questions which you my be able to help me with.
1. Is there a standard file type for video which I should be asking people to send me?
2. How big would 90 second video file be (i.e. is it going to be too big to send by e-mail)?
3. What software should I use to edit the clips together (I've got a PC)?
Any help you can give would be gratefully received.
- More from Handsome.P.Wonderful.
- Login or register to post comments
-
I would imagine
you'll end up with a ragbag of formats, as people will record videos using a variety of hardware at a variety of resolutions: webcams, mobile phones, video cameras and digital cameras.
There are better ways of sending big files than email: ShareFile, YouSendIt etc. Windows Movie Maker is fine for simple video editing.
It would be a lot less hassle to get everyone to make YouTube videos and make a playlist out of them.
yep you can set up youtube to be invite only I believe
if you don't want the world and his wife to see your films. Much easier than email big files and movie maker should work for most things.
Ask your PC
Look at what your DVD authoring software is happy to accept and make sure that everyone sends you something from the list. Any authoring software worth it's salt will be happy to mix and match. The end result will be in MPEG2 (in the form of VOB files).
If you have some tech unfriendly chums or relatives
(and there's usually one or two) you could always ask them to take a picture of themselves holding a "happy birthday" sign. They could email it to you (or post it if they don't have a digital camera) and it could be added as a still to the DVD.
Lovely idea BTW, I'm sure your wife will be thrilled.
For my sister's 30th birthday, I went through ALL the family's photos and scanned everything in, then made her a great big life-long photo book. She absolutely treasures it :-D
Good idea
The 'Happy Birthday' photo suggestion is a great idea. We're seeing lots of friends and family over the next few days, so I'll (quietly) sound them out.