RISMEDIA, July 5, 2011—Many camcorders come with a wide variety of special effects already built in. You can put in dissolves, wipes, and editing transitions of all kinds. You may be able to record in black and white, or other unique variations, along with adding graphics. It’s a collection of exciting bells and whistles to tempt anyone’s creativity—but there is a catch. Once it’s done, it’s done—you can’t go back and change it.
A better idea is to leave the transitions and special effects to the outboard editing process, where you can experiment to find out what looks and works best. You may think shooting a friend’s wedding in black and white offers an artsy and unique approach—but later on, when you wish it was in color, you’ll be out of luck.
When recording the original footage, stick to the basics. Add the finishing touches with a good editing program later. You’ll have far more options to pick from, and the flexibility of experimenting to your heart’s content!
Stephen Schweickart is the co-founder of VScreen. For more information on this topic, visit VScreen’s blogsite at http://www.vscreen.com/blog/.
