Exporting a Movie

After about the millionth preview, you’ll probably come to the realization that your movie will never be perfect: If you don’t just give up and release your movie, it will never be seen by anyone. Star Wars creator George Lucas once described this process as one of abandonment because most moviemakers almost never feel that a project is truly finished. When you decide that it’s time to “abandon” your project, you must export the movie so that others can view it. Before you export your movie, you must decide in which format you wish to export. After you’ve edited your movie in a program like Studio or iMovie, you aren’t limited to showing your work to others on your computer. You have many options with which to share your movie:

• Videotape: Almost everyone you know probably has a VCR that plays VHS tapes. Sure, the quality and gee-whiz factor of VHS tapes isn’t as high as DVD, but most of your audience really won’t care. If you have an analog capture card such as a Pinnacle AV/DV board, you can connect a VCR directly to your computer and export your movie directly to a VHS tape. Otherwise export the movie back to a tape in your digital camcorder, and then dub the movie from the camcorder tape to a VCR
• DVD: The DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) player is quickly supplanting the VCR as the home video player of choice for many people. Tens of millions of households already have DVD players in their home entertainment systems, and many modern computers can play DVD movies as well. DVD recorders are now relatively affordable, so making your own DVDs is pretty easy..
• VCD/S-VCD: If you don’t have a DVD burner yet, you can make DVD-like movie discs called VCDs (Video Compact Discs) or S-VCDs (Super VCDs) using a regular CD-R drive and blank CDs. VCDs can hold about one hour of video, and S-VCDs hold 20 minutes of higher quality video. VCDs and S-VCDs can be played in most DVD players.
  
• Internet: The Internet is a popular place to share video, but remember that video files are usually very big and most people still have relatively slow Internet connections. If you plan to export your movie for use on the Internet, use a Web-friendly format such as Apple QuickTime, RealNetworks RealVideo, or Windows Media Video. These formats usually have fairly low quality, but the trade-off is much smaller file sizes. When choosing one of these formats, make sure that your intended audience has software that can play your movies.
• Video file: Some programs allow you to simply save the movie as a file. Common video file formats include AVI and MPEG. These files can be stored on your computer, or burned onto a CD so that others can watch your movie on their computers as well. Just remember that the AVI and MPEG formats are generally too big for anyone but broadband users to access online. AVI or MPEG files are useful, however, if you plan to edit the movie further using another editing program.

Previewing on an external monitor

Your editing software has a preview window, and at first glance it probably seems to work well enough. But if you plan to record your movie on videotape or DVD, just previewing it on the computer screen can cause a couple of problems:

• TVs usually provide a bigger view. A larger TV screen reveals camera movements and other flaws that might not be obvious in the tiny preview window on your computer screen.
• Computer monitors and TVs show color differently. Colors that look right on your computer may not look the same on a TV.
• Most TVs are interlaced. TVs are usually interlaced, whereas computer monitors are progressively scanned, or non-interlaced. Titles or other graphics that have very thin lines may look fine on your computer monitor, but when viewed on a TV, those thin lines may flicker or appear to shimmer or crawl.

The cheapest option is to connect your digital camcorder to your FireWire port, and then connect the TV to the analog output on your camcorder. If you have an analog capture card in your computer, such as the Pinnacle AV/DV board, you can connect your TV (and VCR) to the analog outputs for the card.
Apple iMovie makes previewing your work on an external TV monitor very easy. In iMovie, choose iMovie ➪ Preferences. The iMovie Preferences dialog box appears as shown in Figure. Place a check mark next to Play Video Through to Camera under Advanced options. Now that this option is enabled, whenever you play the timeline, the video will be sent out to your camcorder if it is connected to your FireWire port and turned on in Player or VTR mode. If you have a TV monitor hooked up to the camcorder’s analog outputs, the video image should appear there as well.
Pinnacle Studio also allows you to preview video on an external monitor, although it’s a little more complicated. Basically, you have to export the movie as if you were done and ready to record it on tape. After the movie is exported for tape, you can play the export file and preview it on an external monitor as many times as you like without actually recording the tape.

Casting a critical eye on your project

Of course, there’s more to previewing your project than simply clicking Play. Consider carefully what you are actually previewing when you play your movie. Here are some ways to get the most out of previewing your project:

• Watch the whole program from start to finish. You may be tempted to periodically stop playback, reverse, and repeat sections, or perhaps even make tweaks to the project as you run it. This is fine, but to get a Click to play a movie fullscreen. really good “feeling” for the flow of the movie, watch the whole thing start to finish — just as your audience will. Keep a notepad handy and jot down quick notes if you must.
• Watch the program on an external TV. If you plan to record your movie on videotape or DVD, previewing on an external monitor is very helpful. (See the next section in this chapter for a more detailed explanation.)
• Have trusted third parties review the project. Moviemakers and writers are often too close to their creations to be totally objective; an “outside” point of view can help a lot. Although I worked hard to write this book (for example), my work was reviewed by various editors and their feedback was invaluable. Movie projects benefit from a similar review process. Even if you want to maintain strict creative control over your project, feedback from people who were not involved with creating it can help you see it afresh.