Enhancing your Videos

Now that you have shot and edited you video footage, it is time to spruce it up and turn it into a worthwhile production.

As you would cook a meal and serve it to your friends, you would add condiments to enhance the flavour before you'd serve it up. You wouldn't want them to eat a bland meal as you wouldn't want them to watch a boring video.

1 - VIDEO QUALITY

Whichever formt your video editor compiles your project into, convert it to MP4, using H.264 Codec. H.264 was created to provide good video quality at substantially lower bitrates than previous standards. Consequently it uses less memory but provides good quality video.

Most likely your video editing software can or will already compile your vide into H.264 format. If not, there are free or inexpensive video format converters on the market that let you do that.

2 - TITLES

All editing software has the capability to let you add titles and sub-titles to your videos. BE CREATIVE. Don't just use the first title that is available to you. To really make a title stand out, pick a complementary piece of music just for the title sequence.

Here are some basic titles available from most editing software

3 - Subtitles

Don't be afraid to use subtitles to point out events, locations or important information. Your editing software has ready-made templates of subtitles. But if you really want to be unique, create your own templates with your graphics software. Your limit is your imagination. here is one I created with Photoshop.

How about creating your own, using a graphics program, such as Photoshop, Gimp etc.

Title created in Photoshop

How to do this:

In Photoshop create the title behind a 'Green Screen'

In your editor, place the 'Green Screen' above the timeline containing the scene that will carry the title.

Then 'key' in the green title, and the text will be displayed in your scene.

4 - Sound and Sound Effects

Your sound track is very important. Research your music. Use upbeat music in fast paced videos, and slower tracks when the action is subdued. Add appropriate Sound Effects to enhance your video quality. Sound can totally transform a video. Check this out. Here is a simple title scene modified with spooky music and a few SFXs.