Exporting the movie

Pinnacle Studio provides the Make Movie mode as your central location for exporting a finished movie project, whether you’re exporting to tape, DVD, the Internet, or carrier pigeon. (Just kidding: Export to Carrier Pigeon won’t be available until the next version of Studio, if not later.) To open the Make Movie mode, choose View ➪ Make Movie.
If any of the clips in your movie were captured at Preview, you’ll be prompted to insert the tapes containing the original source clips at full quality. Make sure you have those tapes handy, and follow the instructions on-screen to recapture the footage.
You’re ready to start exporting your movie to tape. Follow these steps:

1. In the Make Movie mode, click Tape at the left side of the Make Movie window.
Basic video settings will appear in the Make Movie window, as well as the estimated file size for the exported file. Studio needs to export the movie as a file before it can be recorded onto tape, and that file is probably going to be big. As you can see in Figure 15-5, I have a movie that is only about 50 seconds long and yet it will create a file that is over 157MB (megabytes). This is why I always recommend you buy the very biggest hard disk you can afford.
2. Click the Settings button.
The Make Tape tab of the Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog appears.
As described earlier in this chapter, make sure that the correct output
source is selected in the Video menu. In Figure 15-6, you can see that I
am preparing to expo
3. If you’re exporting to a DV camcorder, place a check mark next to the
Automatically Start and Stop Recording option.
With this option enabled, Studio will automatically control your camcorder for you, meaning you won’t have to manually press Record on the camcorder. If you’re exporting to a video converter such as the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge, do not enable this option. If you do enable automatic control of your DV camera This gives the camcorder’s tape mechanism enough time to spool up to the proper speed for recording.
4. Click OK to close the Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box.
5. Back in the Make Movie window, click Create at the bottom of the export control.
Studio creates a file for your movie. The process may take several minutes, especially if your movie is long and has a lot of effects and transitions. When the file is created, the export control tells you that your project is ready for output.
6. Click Play under the preview window.
If you chose to give Studio automatic control of your DV camcorder (Step 3), Studio automatically starts the recording feature on your camcorder, stopping when the movie is completely exported. If you’re exporting through an analog output (such as a Pinnacle AV/DV card), you have to press Record on your analog VCR a few seconds before you click Play in the Studio preview window. One nice thing about Studio is that while it’s waiting for you to click Play, the software sends out a black video signal through the analog outputs. This means that you can press Record on your analog VCR and let it record that black video for 30 seconds or so before you play your movie in the export process. Presto — you eliminate the need to add black video clips to the beginning and end of the timeline. When the movie is done being exported, Studio reverts to outputting black video through the analog outputs. I suggest you record 20 or 30 seconds of this black video on the VHS tape before you press Stop.

Adding black video to your timeline

If you plan to export your Pinnacle Studio movie project to tape in a digital camcorder, you’ll need to add some black video clips to the beginning and end of the timeline. To add a black video clip to the beginning of your project, follow these steps:

1. In the Edit mode, click the Titles tab on the left side of the album. A selection of titles appears in the album.
2. If any tracks in the timeline are currently locked, click the track headers on the left side of the timeline to unlock them. When a track is locked, a tiny lock icon appears on the track header and a zebra-stripe pattern appears across the track. Unlocking all tracks is an important step because you’re going to insert a title clip at the very beginning of the timeline. If all tracks are unlocked, they all shift over automatically when you insert the title. This keeps all your narration, music, and title overlays properly synchronized with your video.
3. Click-and-drag any title to the very beginning of the video track on your timeline.
4. Double-click the title to open the title editor
5. Select the text in the title and press Delete on your keyboard to delete all the title text.
6. Adjust the duration of the title using the Duration field in the upperright corner of the title editor. I recommend a duration of 30 seconds.
7. Close the title editor. The blank title will appear at the beginning of the timeline.
8. Click the blank title once to select it, and then choose Edit➪Copy.
9. Move the play head to the end of the timeline.
10. Choose Edit➪Paste.

A copy of the blank title will now appear at the end of the movie as well. Another thing I often like to do is add a Dissolve transition between the initial black video clip and the first actual clip of the movie. This technique makes the beginning of the movie a little easier on the eyes as it fades in. In Figure 15-4, I have done this by dragging a Dissolve transition to the timeline from the Transitions tab of the Studio album.

Exporting to tape in Windows Movie Maker

You can export to tape from Windows Movie Maker, but I really don’t recommend it if you have another option. Even if you use Movie Maker’s very highest-quality capture option, your video is still compressed by Windows Movie Maker when it’s first captured into your computer. This means that the quality of the source footage stored on your computer is somewhat reduced right from the start. If you don’t have any other choice but to use Windows Movie Maker, here’s how to do it: First connect your digital camcorder to the computer’s FireWire port. I also strongly recommend that you use Movie Maker’s titling tool to create a blank title with no words and a black background. Place this title at the beginning of your project and make it 30 seconds long. Copy the title and place it at the end of the project as well. When you’re ready to send your movie to tape, click Send to DV Camera under the Finish Movie step in Movie Maker (remember, I recommend using Windows Movie Maker version 2 or later; see Appendix E for information on downloading the latest version). Put a blank tape in your camcorder and follow the instructions on-screen to export your movie to tape.