Home Movie Editing

So, you've created a masterpiece of a home movie? It's taken you a while and you're really proud of it. Now what?

Part of the problem with the good old videotape was the fact that it was not easy to pull it out of the box and watch a particular part which interests you. I'm probably the same as most people in that I had loads of footage on 8mm video which just sat around gathering dust. Now that I have converted it all to DVD, I find that everyone in the family picks up the discs and watches various parts of them, it's just so much easier!

If you follow the basic principle that there are three stages to making a home movie - CREATE, EDIT, SHARE - then thinking about an overall design which ties in elements at all stages will lead to a more cohesive, professional looking finished product.

After all, it seems a shame to have learnt how to use your camcorder, got some great shots, put them together into a really punchy set of short films, only to stick them on a blank DVD which just runs from start to finish, and then file it away in a paper sleeve or jewel case.

This article deals with three main points:

1. Planning a user-friendly disc

2. Creating a professional design theme

3. Making the finished article look good

Think about the following:

FONTS - using a consistent font or range of fonts for video titles, captions, DVD menus, sleeve artwork etc., will really make a difference

COLOUR - as part of your overall design, creating a colour style will really help pull everything together. This can be used in the backgrounds to titles, font colouring, and in the design of DVD packaging.

THEME PICTURES - if your DVD is covering one event, why not use a photo as the basis of the DVD sleeve and DVD menu? This can be generated from your video or better still, if you have a still photo from a dedicated camera, this would work better on the DVD sleeve as it will look sharper.

If you really want to create the best possible overall package, it's worth considering printing your artwork onto the DVD disc itself. There are a number of ways of doing this, and I'll cover some of these later in this article.

Here is an example of a personal project I made following a recent holiday. I chose two fonts, one for the artwork and menus, and one for the video titles. I used a couple of photos from my digital camera for the DVD menu, DVD disc and menus.

ON-DISC PRINTING

If you really want to create the best possible overall package, it's worth considering printing your artwork onto the DVD disc itself. There are a number of ways of doing this, including a dedicated mini printer (TDK do one for about £50, but it looks quite basic), printing on the DVD burner (Lightscribe is the most common, but it doesn't print in colour), stick-on labels (can be unreliable in some players), or an inkjet printer which can print direct to disk.

It is the latter option I would recommend, from experience. Once I have printed my disc (on a Canon ip3000), I leave it to dry for an hour or so, then spray it with SprayFix to protect the ink and give it a glossy look. It is by far the best results I have achieved, and reasonably easy to do.