Lost Video Island

[BlasterBoy]

Hi, I'm new so sorry if this is the wrong place to post this or something.

Uhm, I use Windows Movie Maker which is, I know, I know, not that good and all but I don't really have the resources to get anything better at the moment. But I've been trying to do as much as I physically can with WMM, and I've been trying to add color but I don't really know how to. For my last video, I used the brighten tool for all my clips but it doesn't add that much color to the clips, unfortunately. And if I don't just wanna make it a Sepia tone or B&W, then...how can I add colors with WMM? Or can I at all? Does anyone have any tricks to do with that? Please?

[thefilmchick]

You're in the right place. Which version of WMM are you using? There are tons of free filters, etc., but they will vary depending on whether you're using XP, Vista, or 7. I've made most of my stuff in WMM and switched to Vegas only very recently, so I still have a lot of those resources lying around.
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I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.

[BlasterBoy]

I'm using Windows Vista.

[thefilmchick]

Blainsville (some Vista, some XP)
Vista Effects Forum (check the pinned post; scroll through for "color" or similar terms.)

There was a site that hosted bundles of of free, legal effects somewhere; I'll see if I can find it again.
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I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.

[thefilmchick]

Found that site linked off WMM forums. It's The FX Archive, but for Vista Effects it refers back to the forum I sent you to before. You should be set for a while with all that, though! If there is a specific effect you're after, let me know. I may either know it or be able to tell you what to change in the XML (I've adjusted a couple of XML effects for use in my videos, and gotten splitscreens and borders out of WMM to reasonably decent effect.)
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I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.

[BlasterBoy]

Thanks a ton! This is really, really helpful. Yeah, I wasn't looking for anything in particular at the moment, just something to change the colors and look of the clips, and now I can play with these. Thanks again

[thefilmchick]

Happy to help! If you'd like a beta (someone to look it over and suggest fixes before you submit), feel free to hit me up via PM, since I know WMM pretty well. I'm critical, but it's (I think) a good kind of critical. But only if you'd like, of course!

Out of curiosity, what were you thinking of doing (hint: you know you want to make a Sayid video )?
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I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.

[BlasterBoy]

Thanks! I'll probably have to take you up on that offer once I finally get around to finishing a video, ha.

Hmm, I'm not entirely sure what I'm gonna vid yet and to be honest, I've never done a LOST video before so I still need to rip all of the clips off of my S1-S5 dvds, but I might just start out with a short cast video to get me started. oh, and yes, of course: Sayid, haha!

[thefilmchick]

Always a good idea to start out small and build from there. I'd encourage you to rip the season finales first, as they'll have the most amount of people doing the most things (whereas something like, say, SOS or Expose may not provide you too much material.)

Try to find a song that inspires you, if you intend to use a song, whether it's via beat or via lyrics (I have a couple of musicians whom I use from time to time because they have absolutely perfect songs, even if the songs are sometimes older than I am.)

The cast vid will generally do better if it has some sort of twist or theme to it that unifies it, rather than just random shots of the cast doing different things, since there are already a lot of 'random shot' style videos. Songs help to unify, but are not entirely necessary: Using similar effects/transitions/etc. can achieve the same purpose. Also note that the more obvious transitions (stars zooming out, whatever) are ones that you want to avoid; subtler is generally better unless your intent is to be cheesy.

Hope that helps somewhat!
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I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.

[BlasterBoy]

I'm gonna get more clips from the season finales, but my plan at the moment is to to just go through my DVDs and rip the bigger episodes "Pilot", "Walkabout", etc. through all the seasons

I find that most transitions on WMM are ridiculously annoying and cheesy and I tend to just stick with the sharp cuts or fade out to black/white, y'know? I mean, I might sometimes find a new one I like but for the most part, I think they are really out there and annoying.

And since I'm not sure on the exact focus of my first LOST video yet, I'm just gonna put my iTunes on shuffle hoping to find a song that makes me go, "oh! [insert subject here!]" haha.

[BlasterBoy]

Okay, this may sound stupid, but how do you install these effects?

[thefilmchick]

Blaine's effects come with installers.

For those that don't, follow the instructions here (note the caveat about XP versus Vista.)

You seem to have a solid plan of attack for the episodes, then. Note I'm just a random someone's opinion, but I'm pretty technical when I vid, so I do tend to think about those things a fair amount.

There are transitions at that same forum site too--and for things like splitscreens that are transitions, not effects, you can use them as effects by saving the section with the splitscreened transition as its own clip, cutting off the beginning and end that have only one side on them (before the transition starts and after it ends), and importing it as a clip in the main video. That's how I got the splitscreens in Turn on Me as faked-out effects, anyway!
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I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.

[BlasterBoy]

Woo, thank you!

Yeah, I'm gonna try to make Sayid in S6 vidlet first cause I have downloaded a lot of S6 Sayid clips in here anyways, so....yeah, haha. And thanks for that info, I've always wondered about the split screen thing!

[thefilmchick]

You have good taste. Best of luck! Let me know if you want a beta on it.
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I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's. His hair was perfect.