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So, you want to make a great Video Matsuri Contest entry?
This page will explain some filming and editing tips and tricks that will help you to make a great short film. |
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Filming |
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| It is not necessary to have expensive gear. The best investment you can make if you want to make a great film, is to arm yourself with knowledge! With a bit of know how of the fundamentals of film making, you can avoid the usual pitfalls, and use a few well known “techniques” that will really help to make your film look great. |
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 Shooting Basics
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| Note: The Video Matsuri Contest website displays videos best in 16:9 aspect ratio. Do you know what ratio you are filming in?
Watch the following video to find out more. |
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| Hint: Film your video with the right ratio using your camera, that way you wont have to edit it later using the “Letterbox” or “Pillarbox” techniques mentioned above, which results in lost image. |
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Audio Basics
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Try a number of different takes and make sure you are getting enough audio so that you can hear the speakers’ voices. As you will discover, the main thing you need to think about is the distance of the microphone to the source of the sound.
Whether you are recording the voices of a number of people, or one person will make a difference to your approach. Here is a video that explains a great way to get excellent sound from a single source. |
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If you are recording more than one person's voice at the same time, you might need to start delving into the world of microphones. The website Vimeo.com has a great introduction to the topic. Check it out! |
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Copyright |
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Understanding Copyright
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Whenever you create something it is automatically protected as your intellectual property by copyright law. You don't even have to register the creation for the copyright to take effect. It's yours!
When you make your video, by default, your work will be copyrighted, and no-one will be able to use it for any purpose except with your permission*.
But this goes for others work too, so when you are selecting material for to use when creating your videos, you have to be careful not to break copyright law.
Checkout what Mayer and Bettle have to say on the topic of copyright for information and inspiration. |
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Mayer and Bettle by Creative Commons Australia and BlackBrow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. https://creativecommons.org/videos/mayer-and-bettle
These Mayer and Beattle videos were really helpful for making this page. And because they were licensed with a Creative Commons license, they were free to use. Subarashii! The only condition, according to their license, is “Attribution” which means that we have to state who made the videos, just like we did above. Maybe you could give your video a Creative Commons licence, so that other people can use it too!
Remember, with a Creative Commons Licence you can decide HOW you want to let others use your work. AND you can get a cool little CC License button which matches your licence type to stick next to your work. |
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Music
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Due to Copyright laws, you cannot use other people’s music for your video. The Japan Foundation has to be very strict with this rule to comply with the law.
Think of it as a creative challenge!
If there are any talented or aspiring musicians amongst your film making group you can try creating your own music. You could draw inspiration from the wide variety of music of Japan, from traditional to contemporary, underground to popular.
Alternatively, the internet provides as a huge resource bank of music and interesting sound effects which are free to use, sample, remix etc. |
creativecommons.org/legalmusicforvideos (A list of links compiled by Creative Commons)
ubu.com
magnatune.com
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| If you have any recommendations to add to this list, let us know! videomatsuri@jpf.org.au |
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Images
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As with music, we have to be very strict about the images that you put in your video. Every single image that you use for your Video Matsuri entry needs to be original, or unrestricted for your use by copyright. Again, this can be seen as a creative challenge for budding photographers or alternatively, you can turn to the web.
Here's a list of creative commons and royalty free site from which you find loads of goodies: |
Flikr.com (search The Commons)
Picasa.com (Search Creative Commons)
gettyimmages.com.au (Search Creative Commons)
istockphoto.com
sxc.hu
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| If you have any recommendations to add to this list, let us know! videomatsuri@jpf.org.au |
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Editing |
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After you have gone out into the field and recorded all your film and audio, its time to upload it all to your computer and begin the editing process.
The wonderful folks at Vimeo Video School have prepared excellent introductory information on how to edit your videos using I-Movie and Windows Movie Maker, the editing programs that come installed as standard on both Mac and PC. |
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There's a lot of other powerful editing programs out there, so if you have access to different software, have a look around the web for tutorials... there's plenty of information available!
HINT: While you are editing, save, save, save, and make back-ups, for example on a portable hard drive, or somewhere on “the cloud”. A wise guru once said “digital information does not exist unless you have three copies of it” [presses save].
So you've finished editing your masterpiece and it's all ready to go. There's just a few last important steps you need to take to make your video ready for the web.
IMPORTANT - When saving your final copy to be submitted...
you need to save it as a Flash Video File (.flv). The other important point when saving is to limit the file size to under 25MB.
UPDATE - Competition organizers have decided to allow other file formats and sizes as some people have had difficulty converting files. You will now have two options.
- If sending by upload – You will still need to convert your file to reduce the size of your video, however you may now use either .flv or .mp4 formats. A file size of approximately 25Mb is recommended.
- If sending by post – Converting to .flv is no longer compulsorily if submitting by post. If your file fits on a DVD we will be able to convert files on your behalf.
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File conversion |
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The last thing you will need to do to your file before submitting it is to convert it to the right format. Due to competing interests, there are so many file formats that not all of them can be read by all computers, so we need to make the files ready for the web. Converting your file also makes it small enough to upload.
Although converting files may at first sound a bit daunting, it’s actually not so difficult when you have the right tools. So first, you will need to download a video converter.
Although there are many software solutions available with which to convert files, you may find the following, freeware solution helpful. |
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| How to convert files using a PC |
- Go to http://www.freemake.com
- Download the Freemake Video Converter
- Install
- Follow the instructions outlined in this video
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| How to convert files using a Mac |
- Go to http://www.ffmpegx.com
- Download the version of Ffmpegx appropriate to your browser
- Install
- Follow the instructions outlined in this video
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| The above are two free options that will convert almost all file types. This software is not officially endorsed by the Japan Foundation, and you may use any conversion software you like. |
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