I subscribe to PC Magazine and I do enjoy it. They write a number of very good and useful articles in the magazine. The latest one I have read is a story on making movies. The article can be found in the January 2005 edition and starts on page 147. You can read a story online about converting analog movies to digital as well as many product reviews here.

The story discusses making movies in a general way. It talks about capturing video, storyboards and timelines. It covers editing, transitions, special effects, titles, audio, slide shows and rendering. It then moves into DVD Authoring, that is, how to burn your new movie to a DVD and fancy it up with titles and a menu system.

The article then goes into reviewing various products. It goes all the way from free software such as Microsoft’s Movie Maker all the way up to high end products like Adobe Video Collection 2.5. I am happy to report that for serious hobbyist, they rate Pinnacle Studio Plus 9 as the editors choice. I own this piece of software and I would recommend it highly.

I have shot several home movies on a digital camcorder and used my Pinnacle 9 to edit it. I have used most of the techniques in the article, but I still found many useful tips in the article. Pinnacle also has picture in picture or you may know it as the “Ken Burns” effect. If you do not know, Ken Burns made a civil war documentary and a baseball documentary using still pictures. By panning and zooming and adding music to the pictures, these stills appear to be a movie. It is very effective when used properly.

I admit to you that I just learned to use the picture in picture technique last night. Although it could be more intuitive, it is not difficult to use once you have a little experience with using the software. If you are interested in learning how to make home movies, I highly recommend this article and the software. Let me know what software you use to make home movies. If you read the article, what did you think about it? I look forward to reading your thoughts. Take care until next time everybody.