Book Trailer Video…Part 3
So, I’m back. Thanks for visiting on Monday and leaving supportive notes…I appreciate it.
We talked in Part 1 about the need for a credible script to accompany your video. In Part 2, we talked about video creation software and looked at five different options. Today, we’ll briefly discuss some optional software you might find useful.
Let’s make a couple of assumptions. Your video creation software of choice is Windows Movie Maker. You’ve also decided that, in addition to still pictures, you want to use sections of other movies–clips–to augment those still pictures and enhance your video. Great idea.
Uh, so where do you get these videos? A rich video source is YouTube—one of the future homes for your book trailer. So, you run over to YouTube, find the perfect video, and download it for manipulation inside Windows Movie Maker.
Uh, oh, there’s a problem. While YouTube videos are easily inserted into your blog, they are not so easily broken down and used inside Windows Movie Maker. That’s because Windows Movie Maker looks for video clips with the .WMV or .AVI extension. Downloaded YouTube videos don’t have either of those extensions. There’s the rub. Square peg, round hole. Sigh.
Enter, Any Video Converter. Its task? Take you to YouTube, allow you to select and download a YouTube video of your choice, then convert it to…you guessed it, good old WMV or AVI format. Once the video has a Windows Movie Maker compatible extension, you’ve got a round peg and round hole. Whoooo Hooooo!
Think about that for a minute. This software takes you to YouTube, downloads the video and converts it. Pretty impressive. Of course, as its name indicates it will convert any video, so it does a lot. It’s cost? Free! It’s even attractive. (Only I would call software, “attractive.”) The interface is below…
Please note the YouTube specific button immediately above and to the right of the large, downward-pointing arrow. That’s your first step to finding and converting videos. Once the file is imported, the conversation steps are few and intuitive.
So, how can you get your anxious little hands on this great, free software? Download it at the Any Video Converter website—where you’ll find they claim to have 25 million happy users. (Note: There’s a “Professional” version of this software that does cost a few bucks. Make sure you get the free version. If you wander their website and get lost, come back here and use my link…it takes you to the free software.)
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again on Monday.
Themocracy
Also be sure you are not downloading anything for which you could be sued for using since a book trailer is a commercial product.
Welcome back, Galen. This looks idiot-proof enough even I could do it.
This is good stuff. I can USE this.
The Old Silly
Glad you’re back, Galen! I can’t imagine being offline for as long as you were…I’d go through major withdrawal!
I’m mulling over making a book trailer..now that you’ve shown how easy it can be. Thanks so much for the information!
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen
Lovely idea! I’ve used Windows Movie Maker in the past to make little narratives-with-pictures movies before, but it’s a very cheap and exhausting enterprise.
Welcome back! So ok–I went to that site and wow–I think I am not smart enough to figure it out! But I probably will have to some day:) Good thing I have a techie friend now;)
This is great information. I’m a techie and using these programs are fun. I have used Windows photo story and Windows Moviemaker for personal projects. Using these suggestions will indeed provide favorable results.
You made it seem so easy. Thanks for the great info.
Glad you’re back, Galen! Great post, too! Here’s a potentially silly question but should you be someone who hates Windows *cough* is there something else you could use? Or is that just another can of worms altogether?