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DIGITAL CAMCORDER TRAINING

PA R T I C I PA N T S G U I D E

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DIGITAL CAMCORDER TRAINING

In Geek Squads never ending goal of world domination, and the fact that we still have nothing better to do because we cant get dates,
are going to market to new solution. And unless your not paying attention it is Digital Camcorder Training. This might be new for a few,
but dont fret. Take a look at this handy guide and download the free 30-day trial and give it a whirl.
This will be a two hour session of face-to-face training.
+MINIMUM SPECIFICATIONS
The client needs to have a computer that meets the minimum specs of the software, if they dont advise your client of the steps necessary
to update their computer.
Processor: 1.5 GHz, Intel or AMD based
RAM: 512 MB RAM
Hard drive: 2 GB free disk space
DVD-R(RW): we need this to have the ability to create a DVD disc that will play in a set top box.
Internet connection to register and unlock codec (REQUIRED for and .mpeg output)
Firewire ports on the computer (some Sony Camcorders will use USB 2.0 instead of Firewire
4-pin to 6-pin cable rewire cable.
Blank DVD (or CD if not available)
+INVENTORY ADDED TO THE BUG
Firewire (IEEE-1394) card
Firewire (IEEE-1394) cable
DVD-RW blank media
+SOME GENERAL POINTERS:
Tell client that they need to practice their skills or they will not retain some of the knowledge that they have learned. If a person
spends 30 minutes three or four times the rst week after their training they are more likely to remember what you talked about a
month from now.

Dont Try to make an hour video during training. All of this takes time, try to keep the nal video that you create during this session
to about a minute. This will take about 7-10 minutes to render and burn depending on the clients hardware at the end of the
session. If your video is 20 minutes long you will end up running over the 2 hour time fame.

Even if this is new, prepare before your rst session and be condent. Most people that train for a living dont just say, oh, I think
Ill just talk about something today. They have gone through it in their head and ran through a demo. Consider doing the same.

We wish we could give all the Agents in middle earth a digital camcorder. Actually we did try, but it ended up being a bit too
expensive. Dare we say it, dont be afraid to crack the clients m-a-n-u-a-l for their camcorder. Its ok really, just be careful for the
hidden cameras!

+OTHER STUFF
There is a really neat step-by-step walkthrough of the Pinnacle software that has been posted on the forums. Look for the link in the
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES section at the end of this document.
Sony DVD camcorders required a different capture step that is not talked about in this document. Please consult the clients manual
for instructions.

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+BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Lets start out by making sure we have everything we need to complete the training: Pinnacle, Camcorder (Charged), Firewire card, and
Computer (meeting specs).
Start the installation of the software it, this will take approximately 20 min with project registration.
While the installation is running start talking to your client and try to understand what are their main uses of their camcorder are and what
they want to try to do with video editing. Try to incorporate any of the points you discover into your training session.
Provide a quick overview on the subjects your training will cover.
We want to have the client shoot a little video, we will use this later in the project but we want to give the client a few good pointers during
the shooting of video. Bring up the following points to your client:
Panning slowly - when moving the camcorder from side-to-side move slowly so not to blur the picture and make the viewers sick
Steady camera - use a tripod whenever available, substitute a table or chair if necessary
Using different angles an different perspectives and give you less of the amateur look.
Add a little video to the front and end of each scene (called the lead-in and lead-out)
Too much video is never a bad thing - you can always edit it out later and sometimes you catch the best footage
Have the customer shoot a little video of an agreed upon subject. Many might what to lm their house or their pet. The best suggestion we can
provide is to remake the Geek Squad commercial.
Show a few pans of an Agent from black shoe and white sock to sunglasses.
Agent jumping into a Geekmobile (please no dropping your Geekmobile from 8 stores up) and driving away
Arriving on the scene
Knocking on the door
Shaking the clients hand
Saving the day!
Hopefully by now the install has completed, jump online and register the product. This is necessary to register the MPEG codec.
+THE INTERFACE
Before we get started lets take a look at the interface so that we can make navigation a little easier.
These buttons are the three main functions that we will go through during this process: Capture, Edit, and Make Movie.

These buttons give a different views of the time line. This is a preference of the editor.

This menu found on the right side of the Edit tools are the different video edit tools. From top to bottom they are: Photo Album, Transitions/
Fades, Text options, Still Photo Options, Sound Effects and Sounds, and DVD menu.

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+CAPTURE CLIPS
Plug in the clients camcorder, turn the camcorder on to the VCR option, and let it be recognized by Windows.
Select the Capture button from the menu at the top of the screen.
Use the camcorder controls (play and rewind) to rewind the tape and nd the content what you wish to capture. When you nd the
beginning of the content you want to capture, click the Start Capture button. Click the stop button when the video is complete.

After the video has been captured there is a handy little tool you should run. Flip to the Edit menu. Select the Album drop down menu
and select Detect scenes by Video Content. This will cut all the video that you just captured based on when the recording button on the
camcorder what used. This saves a ton of time in the editing process.

+BRING CLIPS TO THE TIMELINE

Now you have the scenes in the album. What we want to do next is to move all of the scenes that we want to use onto the timeline in the order
we want to use them.
Select a clip in the album with and single left click-and-hold and drag it onto the timeline below. Repeat this as necessary and use all the
clips you want to incorporate into your video.

+CROP CLIPS
Now that we have our video on the timeline we want to crop the beginning and ends of each clip to get rid of any unwanted footage.
Double-click on the rst clip on the time line. This will bring up an new menu. Play and preview the clip and move the large razor like
sliders in from the front and end of the clip. Make sure that you remove any lead-in and lead-out footage. This will give you a much more
professional look to the video. When you think you have what you want preview the clip by clicking the play button. When you are happy
with the edits to the clip click on the X in the upper right hand corner of the menu. Repeat this step for each clip.

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+ADD TRANSITIONS/FADES
This is where the fun begins.
While on the Edit menu select the Album drop down menu and choose Transitions. You can also select the Transitions menu
from the left vertical graphical menu bar. This will replace the clips in the album with options for transitions.
Select a desired transition and drag it to the timeline between two clips, much like you did when placing clips onto the timeline.
Double-click on the transition to see the options for the transition. You can also right-click on the transition and select Clip
Properties. The one option you should call out is the duration of the transition. By changing this time you can make the transition
take more or less time to complete. Be aware that the transition will overlap the ending of the clip before and the beginning of the
clip after the transition. You might nd after adding some transitions you will want to revisit how you cropped the video clip. See
the step above to correct this.

Repeat this process between every clip as desired. You dont need to add a transition if you do not want to. This decision will tap
into the video editors creative desires.

+ADD A TITLE TO THE BEGINNING

We now have the base of our video complete. Lets add a title to be beginning of the video.
Select the Album drop down menu and choose Titles. You can also select the Title menu from the left vertical graphical menu bar.
This will bring up a selection of pre-made title options.
Drag and drop a desired title from the menu onto the timeline.
Double-click on the title clip in the timeline to edit its options. You can select the text and change the words that are displayed. As
with the transitions you can also change the duration that this title will display on-screen.

+ADD TEXT TO A CLIP

The same process above can be used to add text to a clip on the time line. Double-click on the clip in the timeline.
Select the Title menu.
Select the Title Overlay options.
Select the text options that ts the video and click on the video to add text. Type any on screen messaging you desire.

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+ADD CREDITS TO THE END

You add credits the same way that you added the titles. If you ip through the pages of the pre-made titles you will see some that have
text in them like produced by and starring
Drag and drop them onto the end of the timeline.
Double-click on each credit clip on the timeline to change the text and duration

+ADD SOUND EFFECTS

Now its time to add some audio to our video.
The original audio that was recorded with the video is still present but we can make the presentation much more interesting by
complementing the video with some extra content.
Select the Album drop down menu and select Sound Effects. You can also select the speaker icon from the left vertical graphical
menu bar.

You will get a load of options to choose from. You can preview the sound effect by clicking on the icon next to the text. If you nd
one you like drag it onto the timeline.
Double-click on the sound effect on the timeline and you end edit the beginning and ending points of the sound, similar to how we
cropped the video earlier. Make the sound effect ts an event or the action in the video.

+ADD MUSIC
Select the Toolbox drop down menu and choose Generate Background Music.
This will give you a bunch of options to overlay onto the timeline. Select the style, song, and version options and the duration of the
audio.
Click the Preview button to hear what the music sample will sound like.
When you are happy with the music you selected choose Add to Movie to add this to your timeline. You can double-click on this
audio track and again cut the beginning and end of the sound track similar to how we cropped the video.
If you want you can also add audio from the clients MP3 or CD collection. The steps are the same as adding Background Music.
Check the Toolbox drop down menu for these options.

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You can now change the volume of the sound as it play during the video. Using the mouse you can manipulate the blue line in all of
the different audio tracks. Click and drag the blue line, the further up in the box the louder the sound. Preview the changes to the
sound and make sure that you do not cover up any sounds that you want to hear.

+CREATE A DVD MENU

At this point we have our movie complete from start to nish. If the client has a DVD burner and a blank disc available, well create a menu
that will be displayed when the DVD is placed into a standard set top DVD player. If the client does not have a DVD player and wished to
have normal .mpeg video to show on the computer skip this step.
From the Album drop down menu choose Disc menus or the Disc Menu option from the vertical graphical menu bar.
Scan through the pre-made menu options and nd one that you like the look and feel.
Drag and drop it onto the beginning of you video. You will be prompted if you would like Studio to automatically add the chapter
placements. For our purposes all Studio to do this. This will become more applicable with the video is longer and has more scenes.
You will see the C1 and C2 marks on the time line, these represent the beginning of new chapters. You can move these and delete
them as you feel necessary. You can also double-click on the menu clip and change the text and/or add audio to the menu clip.

+BURN A DVD (if available)

Now that we have a menu we are ready to export our video.
Select the Make Movie button on the top of the screen.
On the left of the screen select what format would want to export the video to. If the client just wants the video clip on their computer
choose AVI or MPEG. To burn a DVD select Disc.
Choose the Settings button and make sure that you are set to burn a DVD disc not a VCD. Explain this to your customer to ensure that
they are getting the correct video output.
When your are ready to go insert a blank DVD and click on the Create button. This step will take a while. The video created during
this training was made on a Pentium 4 2.2 GHz with 512 MB of RAM. It was 35 seconds long and took 2 minute to render and 3 minute
to burn. Take this in to account during the training. The longer you make your training video the longer it will take to kick out on disc.

+SHOW IN A DVD PLAYER

Take the newly created disc that has your video on it and have the client re up their home entertainment system. Preview the feature lm
and all of its glory.
+NEXT STEPS
We are now done with the basic training. Turn the tables on your client. Make them sit down in front of the computer and have them start
their own project. Watch the clock and make know when you need to wrap up your session. Answer every question that your client comes
up with.

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SERVICE SOLUTION: DIGITAL CAMCORDER TRAINING

ESTIMATED SERVICE TIME (h:mm)

2:00

SERVICE SOP:
Install of Pinnacle Studio
Installation of a firewire (IEEE-1394) card, if necessary
Face-to-face training on how to shoot, capture, and edit video

SKU: 7067274

SOLUTION BENEFITS:
Clients can take advantage of a new offer that allow them to have someone who is not afraid of the computer get them
started in the wonderful world of video editing.

CARE+:
CONTACT
ASK
RECOMMEND
ENCOURAGE

Hello, welcome to the Geek Squad. Im Agent (your name here) what can I do for you
today?
Have you every wanted to learn how to turn you home movies into productions that
even your kids will want to watch?
We can have an Agent come out to your house and teach you how to edit videos on
your own computer and answer your video editing questions.
Getting started in the crazy world of video editing can be confusing to understand. An
Agent can help you get your creative juices started.

COMPLETE SOLUTION:
Anti-Spyware Installation
Anti-Virus Installation

OTHER RESOURCES AND INFORMATION:

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ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Free 30-day trail of Pinnacle Studio 9
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/docloader_n.asp?templ=10&doclink=/WebVideo/studioavdvdeluxeversion9/English(US)/doc/
Download_StudioPLUS_US.htm&Product_ID=1883&Langue_ID=7&loc=doc173&division_id=
geeksquadforums.com
Their is a ash based step-by-step guides that will run your through all the editing steps, take a look, its really cool!
Forum Index --> For Ofcial Release --> Guides for new Training Offers
http://geeksquadforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=3322
Pinnacle.com on-line support.

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