Special Event Videography - Choosing the Right Editing Software for You

So, you turned up to film the special event early, you were well dressed, professional, spookily coordinated and sober, you remembered all your equipment and you did some of your best camera work to date. In fact if the Academy Awards had a category for Best Camera Work in a Bah Mitzvah, ‘Journey to Manhood’, you’d be legless at a post Awards party swinging your Oscar round your head while snogging Paris Hilton/ Lindsay Lohan.

But what now? You have the impressive footage now you’ve got to put it all together. You have to tell a story, put the right bits in the right place. You’ve watched TV before, seen the odd film, how hard can it be, right? Well, actually, it’s quite difficult, otherwise everyone would do it. But you can simplify matters by having the right software, the right technology and being organized.

Digital film is manipulated using a nonlinear editor. You can make changes to your Bah Mitzvah footage simply by clicking and dragging clips or segments around on a timeline. You can work non-sequentially, back to front, (interesting for Bris films) audio first vision later, multiple media layers, import, export and enhance various types of assets, your options are endless as are your choices in editing suites.

But how do you choose the right one for you. Well, it all depends on a number of factors. If you have trouble using an electric kettle, you may be better off contracting out the editing part, if however, you are reasonably comfortable using a computer then Google the info and make an informed decision.

Firstly though, you need a good computer with oodles of RAM, a good individually powered graphics card, a large sized monitor or two, plenty of memory (preferably external hard drives) and a good back up system. If you don’t have the RAM or minimum duo or preferably quad core processor then you might as well take out your digital video tape and with scissors and sticky tape physically edit it all together. (Just to be clear…this will NOT work!)

Now based upon your computer specs we can look at what software is available to you, factoring into this is also your budget. You can spend anywhere from a hundred dollars to a couple of thousand and remember, you will get what you pay for. Also if you are charging your client a couple of grand for a special event film, you really should not edit it using the stock standard, Windows Movie Maker. If your client has a better NLE and can not only operate the kettle but there is cappuccino machine on the breakfast bar, do not take the job because they will have the ability and manual dexterity to make a better movie than you. Refund their deposit immediately.

Lastly let’s look at what you want to do with the software. Do you want to use multiple cameras? Matrix special effects? Or do you want to use simply transitions and one layer of audio at a time (really? Do you have a Fisher & Price camera to go with that?). Aim your software requirements at roughly double your current editing skill. You will learn with necessity and it is nice to discover you have a tool available to you that you didn’t know or need to know how to use at the time. Don’t be overwhelmed. A cheap way to learn and make a good purchasing decision is with trial software. You will find most well known NLE manufacturers will give you a trial software download option. Use it and practice and eventually you will find the NLE that suits you and in no time you will be producing quality work and also a pretty impressive café latte.

Amanda Nella is a professional videographer who operates her own special event video business in Perth WA. She provides quality documentary style films for parents about their children. She is trained in the field of investigative interviewing. She holds Diplomas in Investigations, SCAn,Stage Production, Computer Programming & Business. Visit her site at Bump2babyFilms for more tips or just a stickybeak.