Here's a great place to start:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/trainingvids.asp?prod=vegaspro

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/trainingvids-stroud.asp

Lots of free tutorials on youtube. Here's a couple of links:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=VASST+Training&search_type=&aq=f

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=26B776988BE5FC23&search_query=VASST+Training

Of course you can buy DVD's/books that will be very helpful. Vegas has some helpful tutorials in the help file too. I learned from lots of different sources but the better experiences were from demonstration/performance sessions (besides the personal help I've gotten from Pro's). There are several sites with newsletters/tutorials/.veg sample files that are out there for free. Search this forum for Vegas Tutorials as most of them have been talked about here.

Hope that helps.

Randy

> "My videos are pretty boring compared to a lot I've seen . . "

Ah-hah! You are already asking of yourself the best question. Many "editors" could do with asking the very same question of themselves.

Without getting involved in the "HOW" we do something - go down the route of getting more of a grip on the "WHY". Why do you think when you compare to others that output is boring? Watch video with the sound off. Get a paper and pencil and WRITE down what you are seeing; pause the media; analyse and re-analyse.

You are asking the BEST questions of yourself.

Grazie

I'm not a pro, but watching movies with an eye on the cuts is where I started looking for guidance. Then I watched some old movies to see how the old masters like Hitchcock did things.

Then I watched the "Art:21" series to get some idea what "art" actually is. The truth is that art is NOT more of the same. Every great photographer like Stieglitz and Ansel Adams broke all the "conventional wisdom". Good art is never recognized right away, it has to "soak in" first. And art doesn't "mean" anything, there's no message, it "just works".

Develop you're own art and style early on, and you'll be way ahead of the game.

Once you grasp some of the basic concepts like "compositing", the tools in Vegas will just work for you intuitively. REALLY!

There's a lot of raw tools in Vegas that seem too simple to be of much use, and many people gravitate towards the preset transitions, but I highly recommend you avoid that impulse and play with the basic building blocks.

Try to think what a solid color square would be good for. Placed behind transparent text and then put in motion to reveal the text in ANY way you want is one of a 1000 uses.

Little by little, your mind will open up like flower blossoming, and you'll get excited about the power you can wield. It's absolutely limitless. The only limit is you.

You will catch the bug eventually, and then NEVER be able to give it up.

Bud

I'm still learning too, just like you.

If you're shooting home videos, start thinking about the finished edited product. Pro editors have a lot of choices to cut to because pro directors shoot a lot of "coverage" and different angles. So mix up your shots when shooting home video. Shot wide, medium and close shots and vary your angle. Don't just stand in the same spot. Nothing will improve your home videos faster than better shooting.

As for becoming a better editor, look at TV and start to ask yourself how did they do that.
and try to figure it out. If you can't then ask on the forum. When you understand the power of layers in video editing, your skills will take a leap. Also look into how to keyframe a video effects.

Here's a simple editing assignment.

Track 1 -- some white text
Track 2 -- a colored bar beneath the white text. (Hint. You can make this track from "Generated Media in Vegas" and then you can use the Pan and Crop controls to make just a bar, not a full frame."
Track 3 -- video of the family

Next assignment, same as above except make the text move in from the left and the colored bar move in from the right and when they are in place, stop the movement.

This is "sometin'" outta "nuttin". Some stills I took long ago, put to Cinescore music and a music/text message trailing.



Credit: Jeff Beck Group

I agree with Grazie.

Here is an exercise that helped me hugely and you already have all the tools you need. Find a scene in a film that you like and try to recreate it EXACTLY with the resources you have. Try and copy the shots as close as possible, the lighting, the camera movement, the action. This may work better with a more actor focused scene of course - Avatar may be a little ambitious, but you get the idea. For some reason this seems to work best with genre stuff like horror or mystery.

I imagine your not going to nail an exact recreation out of the gate but this can be a great learning exercise. It helps deconstruct the "How come when Spielberg points a camera at some people talking in a room it's genius and when I do it it's boring" question.

You really get to see why their choices are so good and it gets you behind the camera to get the angles that they spent a bunch of time deciding to shoot.

Good luck

I would start buy separating your projects into

1 concept / storyboarding = intro then body then conclusion or ending
2 filming
3 editing
4 titling

Then try improving a little on each of these aspects

On the no 1 :Maybe before you were just filming and editing so now think of adding concepts and good intros, for example if you are filming your kids playing a game of football
Start the project with a cupboard door opening and then to the kids rummaging in the cupboard …and end the project with them throwing the ball back into the cupboard and the cupboard closing as an ending

The Intro sets the scene for the whole project

If you are going on holiday and you are filming different things on different days look for a common thread to tie all the clips together

On the no 3
Start cutting to the beat if you aren’t already choose your audio and listen to it a few times then cut to the feel of the audio
This way the audio will become part of the visual and add emotion to the visual
At beat shifts try slowing some pieces

On no 4
Keep it simple, don’t mix type faces. Stick to one or two faces throughout your project .there is a difference between titling and branding,if you want to treat your family name as a brand that’s ok
But I am talking about titling in this case

and have fun with it

Here's a tip that I've used over the years for home movies that has seemed to help: Cut, cut, and cut again.

Remember that you are trying to tell a story, so cut out the fat and get to the point. If you find it hard to toss all the precious footage (and sometimes it can be) then make one dvd that has all the footage and another "Readers Digest condensed version" that tells a story that moves along.

I've done dvd's for people who've gone on vacations to exotic locals (like Hawaii or a Holy Land tour) and did both types of dvd's for them because they didn't want to lose all that footage, one or more dvd's with everything (basically unedited) and another with editing, titles, effects, transitions. Guess which ones they watch all the time and show to their friends and want extra copies of? Yes, the much shorter edited ones.

If the kids are playing with their toys be sure to get a long shot of the scene and then close ups of their faces and their hands on the toys. Ask them questions up close about what they're doing. If you're trying to get the baby to smile and you have to film for 20 minutes to finally get the shot you want, cut out the first 19 minutes. Adding fast motion or slow motion to certain parts can increase viewing enjoyment as well as adding some fun music (see SmartSound.com).

Look for opportunites to enhance the action. In one scene the T-baller was in the outfield and was bored so he started waving his glove around and then kind of hopping around and going sideways and acting like he was swinging a bat and stuff. It was not too bad as it was but it got a lot better when I added some Latin flavored dance music to that part. That became one of the most favorite parts of the video.

Natural actions are better than trying to script the actions for home movies or trying to tell family members to do this or that because it'll be really funny for our home movie. Trying to be funny usually ends up not being so funny (unless something truly funny happens to the person when they are trying to be funny).

Some other things to watch for: Work on getting good sound (100% volume of the cameraman's voice and only 10% volume of the subject's voice is not good. Solution: directional mic), watch your lighting (backlit subjects = bad), and keep your camera as steady as possible (I hate watching the picture jump all around and it actually makes my wife nauseous as she get motion sick real easy).

Good luck!

Vegas can be used to conform existing footage into broadcast standards or to fit some pre-canned commercial "box". If I had to label that, it would be called "Industrial" editing because it's industry specific.

BUT, Vegas can also be a powerful creative workspace where you can originate source material, just like a word processor can be used to produce memos or poetry.

The industrial editors are focused on getting the work product in and out fast and don't have time to fool around, according to what I've picked up on, or been told here in this forum.

Those wanting to make art with Vegas are underrepresented here, because art people tend to shrink away from technical debates.

Try to keep "loose" and free-thinking while you learn the technical stuff otherwise you'll get pigeon-holed mentally and lose some of the creativeness.

Editing your home footage makes it really hard to be ruthless. How do you decide what is the 'fat' and what is the 'meat'? You shot everything because it was special to you...

Remember, your mind doesn't have to see everything. Watch any film, and pay attention to what you DON'T see - you will discover there are some glaring holes, but your mind fills them in.

Anyway, as a practical (but crude) demonstration of how to edit your home videos, download a demo of Magix Movie Edit Pro, and run your footage through the Movie Maker wizard. You will be surprised how much you can cut out without losing anything.

Another tip that I find useful is to ensure that every time you record something on your camera, make a note of what you've recorded - date, time, subject, summary of events. When you come to edit, you'll know WHY the scene is special.

Good luck.

Yeah! LTD has it spot on.

The "fat" is lingering moments of little johnny. A pinch of "little johnny" goes a long way.

More fat is "showcasing" yourself.

Another is long intros.

See next post