The easiest, least expensive way to edit your performance videos is to invest in Pinnacle Systems' Studio 9. This comprehensive video-editing program costs less than $100 and is easy to use. And compared to the last version 8, which was prone to crashing, Studio 9 is more stable, which alone is worth the price of an upgrade.
As in earlier versions, Studio 9 is a first rate program for editing video, adding transitions and titles and burning video onto DVD or CDs. The software makes it easy to edit video by simply dragging and dropping scenes onto a visual Timeline or Storyboard. I prefer the Timeline view that shows the position and duration of clips on a relative timescale, and lets you zoom into a scene and accurately edit its length as you view it.
New Features
Version 9 comes with improvements. None are “gotta-haves,” but give you additional control when editing video and applying effects. New audio and video restoration tools let you improve the look of video, and an image stabilization filter can improve shaky handheld shots. An automatic color correction feature improves poorly lit shots and acts much like a camcorder’s white balance function. Analog cleaning filters can help restore video that was obtained from fading, old videotapes, while a noise reduction filter removes wind noise, hiss and camcorder whine.
While image filters that simulate an old time movie and add ripples, lens flare and other visual effects are fun to experiment with, they have almost no real utility. The “SmartMovie” tool lets you select and arrange video segments, define titles, choose a song from your hard drive and select an editing style that includes music video and others. And with a single click, the program creates an edited movie that has titles, transitions and special effects. This feature is a novelty with limited usefulness. Evolving with the times, the software now captures, edits and outputs 16 x 9 widescreen video and creates surround sound soundtracks.
As in previous versions, the program offers tracks to accept and arrange video, audio, transitions, titles, sound effects, and background music, and independently edit sound and video. You may easily apply transitions that include cuts, fades, wipes, slides, dissolves, and pushes, and 3-D animated transitions that include spinning balls, page turns, breaking glass and more. The program comes with a generous collection of transitions. Be warned, however, that some transitions are displayed as options, but are only available at an extra cost-a sneaky way to sell an upgrade.
Studio 9 gives you good audio control. For your videos you may record voice overs; rip wave or MP3 files, change volume levels and add music from a CD. The program's music generator adds adequate background music that’s based on a style that you choose. The music isn’t fantastic and sounds like it comes from a computer, but it’s decent for creating background music.
Video Formats
When you’ve finished editing your video, the program lets you save movies in various formats that include MPEG1 & MPEG2, AVI, RealVideo8 and Windows Streaming Media, and burn video onto a DVD disc-complete with interactive menus (you’ll need a DVD burner). Documentation is thorough and fairly easy to understand.
If you own a MiniDV camcorder, have a Firewire port installed on your PC and own an appropriate Firewire cable, you can immediately use Studio 9 to capture video from a MiniDV camcorder and save it as a video file. If you own an older analog camcorder or conventional VCR, you may still capture video, but you’ll have to rely on other capture hardware that is available from Pinnacle and other sources.
In all, Studio 9 is a well-designed, competitively priced program that is versatile and complete. It delivers the basic directorial goods to magicians who want to edit their performance videos. And if you’ve struggled with the last version, it’s well worth the upgrade.
-Wayne Kawamoto
