Movie on the timeline: video music and voiceovers
Music
Music taps on the viewer’s emotions.
Pick historically appropriate music that goes with the type of family story being told. Ragtime works well
for 20’s era stories, classical for pre 1880’s. Most
recorded music is copyrighted. As long as you do not intend to sell your video,
you can safely use whatever music is available.
Import music from CDs, MP3s, the
internet, or record your own using a video camera and microphone. Music files
for Movie Maker—MP3, WAV, WMA
Underscores—music that plays
under dialogue. Look for music with no vocal, no percussion, and no dynamic peaks
to go under your interviews and voiceovers.
Edit to the beat—using the
beat or phrases of music to determine edit points (where you insert a clip).
This works especially well for slideshows. Although interview-based video must
accommodate the storyteller’s tempo and story, you can edit to the music as a
secondary technique with non-narrative portions. Use the audio waveform as your
guide.
In your video editing program, lay
the music on the timeline as your first timeline insert. Select view waveform,
if necessary. In Windows Movie Maker, grab the top of the timeline window with
your mouse and drag it up. The waveform, along with the rest of the timeline,
will enlarge. The beat and beginning of phrases will be indicated with peaks in
the waveform.
Drop a few clips on the timeline at
phrase beginnings or on the beat and experiment with clip duration. You may
need to insert on every other beat or so. Clips of less than 1 second are
just a blur. Family history clips should be no less than 2 seconds. Each clip
should be about the same length. Remove your test clips and begin editing.
Voiceovers
Video
narration, where the speaker is not seen, goes under photos and other video. Often
used in documentaries. To edit in a voiceover, you will need a third audio
track—one for the audio synched to the video, one for music, and one for
voiceover.
Programs
with only 2 audio tracks, like Movie Maker and iMovie, have a narration
feature. For a better voiceover,
put the voiceover in the music track, add your video and photos, then export as
a movie. Import the movie back in and add the music.
Working with audio
With many video editing programs, you
can lay a music track under your voice audio. Don’t create competition between
your storyteller’s voice and the lyrics of a song. Allow one or the other to
play at any given point in the video. You can play instrumental background
music behind the interview, but ramp it down so the voice is clearly
understood.
You don't necessarily have to use entire songs. Where you join two songs together put in an audio cross dissolve to gradually lower the audio level of one piece of music while the other is gradually increasing. Most programs have this feature. This will make nice smooth audio level changes.
When you’ve finished editing your
video, check to make sure the audio is even throughout the program. Adjust
accordingly. Also make sure it is not over-saturated. This is when the audio is
too loud and becomes a bit warped because of it. You can lower this in your
audio controls. It doesn’t work to simply lower the volume of your speakers.
The level has to be adjusted within the editing program.
If you have a waveform monitor, the
levels should be between 9 & 12. Don’t allow it to go into the red zone.
For Windows Movie Maker, select normalize as part of your finishing steps. That
will insure that all audio is within the proper limits.
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