Hello David, Joey & Gerry,
Thanks for the comments. This is my 1st vid. but I'll outline how I fumbled it together.
I downloaded old ITN footage (hopefully open source now but I noted the source in all descriptions anyway) from Youtube as mp4s using Keepvid & converted them to wmv using Super - both free. Keepvid runs online that lets you downlaod as FLV or MP4 & Super is a download.
I then converted the audio to MP3.
Step 1 was to import the audio into windows movie maker (wmm) and drag it to the audio track.
OHHH, when I converted these I switched the audio options off - I didn't want to battle with extraneous sounds etc. All sound effects of choppers were added well before I decided to do a vid. I had to find & edit clips/scenes to match the recorded sound effects - that was a bit of a hassle - particularly the cannon fire near the beginning.
I then imported the 1/2 doz vids from Youtube into a "collection" in wmm - in doing this the program breaks each clip down into scenes based on percieved edits - very handy.
I then dragged the scenes to the time frame as I wanted them & did some shuffling around etc to get a close 1st fit.
I imported the still images as (JPEGs of old snaps & CD covers etc) and dropped them where I wanted.
I then used the inbuilt title maker to drop some text on the bundle.
Fiddled and fussed about synchs etc for a while then saved it as a project (should have done that every 5 mins shouldn't I?) and then as a movie for play back on a computer.
After LOTS of stuffing about trying to upload to youtube & soundclick I saw the error of my ways (not shown in any of the how to's) & converted a copy of the movie to a flash flick (flv) using super so that it'd be smaller & therefore easier to upload.
I Uploaded to youtube with single word title, description & link word set for private viewing as this speeds up the process.
I used the Upload link at the top right of most Utub pages.
I went into My Videos in my account page (oh, you have to sign up to upload so do that 1st really- free & easy) at youtube and changed all the single word stuff to what I really wanted & set the viewing to public/worldwide.
I was able to copy the embedding script & link for the vid straight away & dropped an embedded version into Myspace & a link at HR. I then uploaded to Soundclick & there you have it.
Took me about three nights to teach myself all of this by trial & error - being a meathead means I took longer than you would/should.
You can import vid from your phone or camera easily too & splice it in.
Oh, I had to download EZ WMV to RM Converter, again free and easy, to change the WMV to RM so I could play the vid on my little MP3/wave player - the quality declines quite a bit with that extra conversion.
As the original saved movie it'll play fullscreen on the computer with quite reasonable quality being that they were MP4s to begin with.
Give it a whirl.
I just wish I had some snaps of Terry & I when we were in a gigging band. The snaps I included were from around the time of the original recording - no need to scare the punters with my aged mug as it currently is.
