How To: Montages/Machinima Making.
Step 1: Know the basics.
[If you think you already know this, you can just scroll down to the 1st step]
First of all, you must know that Machinimas are harder to make than they look. You don’t just need a Capture Card to make a machinima. You must have a good camera-man, because people loath scenes with an static camera. Don’t believe me? Go watch any tv show, and while 2 characters are talking notice how much the camera angle/position is changed. Halo 3 only allows for 100 [25 of them being "Recent Films"] custom content, so it is advisable that you make a new account just to store the clips.
Montages are a completely different beast. They are easier to make than a Machinima, and it requires no help at all. [you still may wanna have someone help you]. The clips can be any kind of clip you want, with no standard order between them. They are also easier to film, because they don’t require many types of camera [First person is OK for most of the montage, while flying camera is better for those WTF moments].
Step 2: Equipment.
Ok, here is the list of things you will <strong>need </strong>to make this kind of videos, besides a computer and an Xbox:
-Capture Cards. A lot of people will whine about this, but its a necessity unless you want to film your TV.
I recommend either one of these:
<a href=”http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-TV-USB20-Capture-Remote-Control/dp/B0007LBMR2/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1207179906&sr=8-2″>Sabrent, economical and functional.</a> [Judge for yourself, i made <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxP0LBF5H7U">this video</a> with this capture card.]
Or
<a href=”http://www.amazon.com/ADS-Tech-Xpress-Video-Converter/dp/B000DZDMB6/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1207180030&sr=8-1″>ADS Dvd Xpress DX2, slightly more expensive but more user-friendly and with a little bit more quality.</a> [Judge for yourself, i made <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHHSt4GeGaQ">this other video</a>, with this capture card]
Both of these can be found at Amazon.com.
-Editing software
Sorry to break it to you, but Windows Movie Maker just doesn’t cut it for Machinima, but it is ok for montages. Machinimas require precise information about the video without needing to zoom-in on the timeline or the ability to cut clips quickly, the ability to create more than one audio track [believe me, this is a must], and the ability add complex animations or effects.
For Windows, I’ve found that Adobe Premiere [Not even Pro] is very adequate. You can download a free 30-day trial on <a href=”http://www.adobe.com”>www.adobe.com</a>, but I’m sure you, as a windows user, will find a way to use it, without shelling out hundreds of dollars *cough* torrents *cough*.
For Linux users, kdenlive is my personal favorite, and is available in the default repositories if your using Debian or Ubuntu.
For Mac users… I’ve got nothing, sorry i have never owned a Mac.
-The Xbox component cables [optional]
No, not for better quality, it is so you can connect your xbox to both the tv and the capture card at the same time. Why, you ask? Because most capture cards capture at about 29fps [frames per second], and it is AWFUL to interact with the halo 3 interface like that. It is ok for videos.
Step 3: Pre-editing
Plan out what you’ll do. Will you save time by just recording the whole thing [including choosing the clips, in the theater lobby] or do i just tape when the clips are running and save space? The important thing to remember is that editing clips can be easier if you just tape the clips instead of the whole thing.
Hook up your Xbox with your Capture Card and hook that up with your PC. Get off live while you record this, nothing is worse than getting a message in the middle of a Machinima recording.
Watch out for Disk Space. Manage your video capture settings to an affordable figure. You don’t want to fill 50gb of your hard drive with six no-scope videos do you?
Step 4: Editing
4.a Music
Are you gonna include music? What kind of music? Some ideas:
-Try to avoid Rap if your doing a montage, as it may seem out of place, unless you synchronize the beats with the video which can be a little tedious but the result if amazing if you pull it off.
-Please, no System of a Down, My Chemical Romance or Papa Roach. There are a shitload of montages with the EXACT same song.
-Don’t overuse music. At most you should use 2 songs per montage and thats pushing.
-If you are doing voices, don’t put the mic too close to your face.
-Eliminate background noise in voices with an audio editing program like Audacity.
4.b Video Editing
-You must remember, most of the time, there is about 2 seconds of the same frame in every clip, and the film hud at the end. Please erase those. These looks really unprofessional.
-Don’t overuse effects. Don’t put in black-and-white, zoom and distort on that triple kill medal.
-Save often, most video editing applications are known for their ability to fail/crash at the most crucial moment.
-Get more RAM, seriously, 252mb are NOT enough.
4.c Output
-<strong>Don’t output flash</strong>. I can’t stress this nearly enough. <strong>Don’t output flash.</strong>
-Don’t upload it immediately to youtube. Watch the film and then decide if there is something you want to change.
-Always aim for the best balance of quality/size. Remember youtube only allows uploads of 100mb [1gb with the multi-uploader]
Step 5: Publish it.
Upload it to Youtube and let the world enjoy your work. Post about it on bungie.net and let us know what you created.