I decided that I would finally do my little film experiment and try out some things with my camera and editor. I decided to "sing" a song by Billy Joel and work on cutting it all together. This means I used an existing soundtrack and had to sync every cut of the video up to it, and in Windows Movie Maker, that is no small task. I also messed with multiples of me. Here's the result:  

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2758796

Wow that's amazing! What program did you use to do that?

Sean

George,

That is freaking impressive.  Very well done bit of camera and cutting work.  

Don

nb: The vid will only be embedded this side for a short time as I have enabled html code on the site.  Don't go crazy as I will disable it very soon.

Hey George,

That was way too cool!  ;D Get down with your bad self!

Your hard work on this experiment paid off. I, for one, enjoyed it, and I know a lot of others will too. Very professional looking.  

Cindy  

That’s extremely awesome George. The multiples of you was really neat. Oh yeah, how old are you? You look just like the left guard on my high school football team. Anyway good stuff.  

-Zavier

Wow! That was amazing how you did the multiple you's...wow. How'd you do that?

-Chris

Here's the specs:

Camera: Canon Elura 80
Medium: Mini-DV
Editor: Windows Movie Maker

That's right. WMM and a lot of elbow grease. Shooting took about two hours since part of the experiment was getting three of me to fit within WMM's transition parameters. It took me three tries (at at least three passes per try, and no checking to see if it worked before all three passes since I had to keep the camera in one spot without touching; my camera has a remote). My bedroom is barely big enough to do it. Editing was another 6 hours.

I only used default transitions that came with Moviemaker and ripped the WMA file in Real Player. Both free programs. Not even any extra programming.

I cut together and synced the audio on all the passes first and finished those. Then I used those cuts to cut together the various views. Once I had that all together, I overlayed the complete song on he video to ensure there were no hiccups.

Nothing expensive. Just some enginuity. And thanks for the temporary embedding, Don. That's cool.

Oh yeah. I'm 31.

Windows Movie Maker?! Aww it seems much cooler than iMovie. The closest I can get to having more than one of me is either Mirror Image or N-Square. I could really use the technique that you used to where I could put more of the same me for a great zombie movie. I could try and do it on my dad's old laptop, though...

Sean

That was hilarious.

Windows Movie Maker?  Damn!  So did you just have a transition going for the entire thing which allowed you to use the multiple George's?  Which transition was it? Did you have to slow it down? I want to know everything. I gotta try that!  That was gnarley!

I did use a transition through the entire cuts where there was more than one of me. SPLIT: Center, Vertical for the threesome and SPLIT: Vertical, Soft for the twosome. You have to set the camera and know where your boundaries are for both the edge and the splits. I used a remote to start and stop the filming so I didn't risk moving the tripod.

For the threesome, I combine the edges first, finished it, and then ran that one through again for the middle. The one thing I could do better is locking the light control so the middle has the same exposure as the edges. The vertical soft transition blurs the line between the takes so it isn't as obvious.

No slow downs necessary, just a lot of patience lining up the two takes so they matched. Since the sound I used was prerecorded, I didn't have to worry about timing. I figure if I acted opposite myself, I would prerecord the dialogue and use that to film off of and overlay that once completed.

My wife just thinks I'm crazy. Thought at the least, it would give me an idea of what I can and might make a neat little calling card for directing. I really should have used one of my own songs. Maybe I will for messing with keeping the light control steady.

...hm, I misspelled aspect at the end...I really should proofread...

George do you have a new version of WMM?  The only Split transitions I see are "Split, Horizontal" and "Split, Vertical."  Are those supposed to go between the cuts and then you combine or something?

Ahhh

I have WMM 2.1. The only transition I have that didn't come with the computer is the Bluescreen one that I made using some online instructions. I have yet to use it.

What you do is make sure the two takes are roughly the same length and place the transition between them. You drag one end of the transition to the length of the video, and then go little bits at a time from there to line them up.

Oh, and I did actually have to use the Slow video effect a couple of time. WMM 2.1 nudges the video 2 frames at a time, but occasionally, I needed one frame. What did I do? Apply the half speed efffect, cut two frames out of it (which is one frame is regular speed), and remove the effect.

Hey George,

Pretty neat short you got here.  It's always great to see people from here in a more "mobile" state.

Nice job!

I'm really impressed. I can't make heads or tails of movie maker. I guess I'll have to read into it. But yeah this definately did pay off. Wow seems you have the lip-syncing down to an art.

Well, this is certainly worthy of a bump for those who might have missed it.  This was great, George.

Did everyone notice how George (ever the "artiste") tried to give his three guys individual personalities?  There is the hard-rocking yellow guy, the laid-back, finger-snappin' black guy, and of course, the dreamy frontman.

If forced to criticize, I might suggest that you find yourself a cinematographer.  I realize we are working with a limited budget here, but tacking up a few sheets would have made a big difference, I think.

Very, very amusing, though.  And it is just -- interesting -- to see you like that.

Quoted from bert Did everyone notice how George (ever the "artiste") tried to give his three guys individual personalities?  There is the hard-rocking yellow guy, the laid-back, finger-snappin' black guy, and of course, the dreamy frontman. If forced to criticize, I might suggest that you find yourself a cinematographer.  I realize we are working with a limited budget here, but tacking up a few sheets would have made a big difference, I think.

Thank Bert (and everyone else). I was wondering if anyone noticed the personality thing. It was as spur of the moment as everything else. And I'm sure anything would have made a better background than my computer desk (where I now sit), but again, my excuse is "spur of the moment." I had some time on my hands and opted to use it like so. So it's not necessarily limited budget as no budget at all.

I have another "multi-me" idea that I might put some more work into (and actually has a storyline and a script that no one on here has read), but that'll happen when I get some more free time on my hands since it will take alot longer.

WOW! Hey, may you three can play next Smoke gets in your eyes for me?

Definitly, between the three the best one was the guy in black t-shit!

Congrats GW!

By the way my sixteen dear daugther did something also on WMM, however infinitly inferior to yours George.