Need help editing video

[fireshot91]

For school, I'm supposed to do this interview with certain people that our teacher assigned us. I, unfortunately, got a person that's dead. I was thinking of recording a video of me and an empty chair, and then editing in a figure of him. I could also do that for the first five seconds when introducing him, and then whenever somebody's talking, zoom into (mine or his) face.
I never edited a video before in my life, or anything like that, so yeah, I need a lot of help.


For one, I'm on a Windows PC, so I can't use iMovie. I just need to know where to start, and end, and...everything in between.

 

[SilentPanda]

Is it a famous person or a relative or what? If you have some older footage of them being interviewed you could always splice it together that way.

 

[fireshot91]

Err no. My topic is Alfred Lord Tennyson. He was a poet during The Renaissance. So yeah, he is a famous person that wasn't alive during video cameras.

 

[KeithPratt]

My topic is Alfred Lord Tennyson. He was a poet during The Renaissance.

Was he? Not the Renaissance as the English think of it.

There are plenty of ways you could do this. It's ambitious to do anything computer-generated if you've never edited before. Know anyone who knows anything about green screen? If not you could Google for a painting of Tennyson, cut him out in Photoshop or Gimp and pop him into some video footage of you asking the questions. If you were really feeling adventurous you could even go a little South Park on his mouth when he's talking. But all this adds up to a lot of work. Alternatively, get your granddad to dress up as him.

 

[fireshot91]

Well, I know this will take lots of work.

And yes, I figured he wasn't part of The Renaissance. But still, old enough.
I don't have a green screen access anywhere. I think the only way to do it would be to do it South Park style, but I still need help with that. I don't know how to do that stuff. The closest thing I've done to animation was make a gif that lasted about 3 seconds in Photoshop by making it move little by little.

 

[KeithPratt]

I'm not much of an animator, so best to let someone else chime in on that one. A lot of what you can realistically do will be down to what software and hardware you have access to and what you know/are willing to learn how to use. So you're probably best giving a run-down of that before people start getting specific.

 

[demarcopbl]

Sounds like an odd assignment, but here goes. If you knew how to use after effects this would be much easier, but here's a workaround. First off, set up the shot of you delivering the dialogue. This is probably easier if you standing. Make sure any background items you want are in the shot. Stay really still. This means your legs too. Film yourself giving the speech. This will become your lip synch. Then, as another poster mentioned, cut out an image of your poet in photoshop and cut out the mouth. Scale and layer it over your footage with your mouth poking through the lip space. You might want to color your lips/mouth with some sort of makeup to try and match the image. Do 1-2 animations on the eyes if you want to accent something. Like I said this is a pretty rudimentary way of going about it, but it'll work and should only take a couple hours.

 

[eleven2brett]

You could print out a picture of him. and then cut out the picture's mouth. Have a friend stick his lips through the picture and wah-la!

 

[fireshot91]

Thats....not a bad idea!

 

[MrLatte23]

Use images...

Keep it simple and use images of him that you can find on the web or scan. Then scan anything else that you can find on him, poems, scenic images from the period of his life and things that would support the answers you'd imagine he would say. Lay it all out in the timeline in the order that supports your interview and apply some "Ken Burns" type effects to the images.

Focus on the content (questions and answers) more than the special effects. They'll wear thin long before you can create enough to hold anyone's attention. Watch a few minutes of any Ken Burns style documentary and you'll have some great suggestions on how to do it.

 

[mcpryon2]

Does it have to be animated or effects, or can you use an actor or play the part yourself?

 

[puckhead193]

this is definitely up there on the weird assignment list. I think content/facts are more important then effects for this project. Is this for high school or college? I think maybe u can do this single camera with no editing and having someone older/dress up read off the answers to your questions. (Just have the note cards hidden.) Get a tripod and someone who is fairly competent who can zoom in and out of you and "your guest". make the seats close together as it will help with the panning/zooming.
Another idea is use images/artwork. maybe some famous quotes and move them around the screen and do a news type package where your not interviewing just stating facts.

 

[dalvin200]

Does it have to be animated or effects, or can you use an actor or play the part yourself?

You could print out a picture of him. and then cut out the picture's mouth. Have a friend stick his lips through the picture and wah-la!

Alternatively, get your granddad to dress up as him.

Either of the above 3 options should be in your interest.. as learning how to do various video editing techniques will obviously take time, which I assume you don't have much of.
Concentrate on the content and you should be good