Your thoughts on video editing equipment, software, tips and tricks for a noob?

In My Humble Opinion
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So I’m the parent of two boys in Cub / Boy Scouts. The troop has asked me if I’d be willing to take on a new project they want to do, namely create video montages of various camp-outs, troop meetings, courts of honor, etc. I told them I’d try to give it a whirl.

The problem is I have no idea how to do any video editing. Their vision, such as it is, is to create old MTV-style videos made from numerous, 5-10 second clips of camp-outs, meetings, and the like with a soundtrack of songs sung at camp-outs, speeches the boys give, and bits of music. These will be burned onto DVDs or put on flash drives and given to parents and the boys themselves as little mementos of their yearly activities.

The troop doesn’t have a video camera, but will be purchasing one that fits our requirements. Similarly, I need determine what good, not prohibitively expensive software that will do what I need.

So, questions:

  1. What kind of video camera would work best for these kind of things? I assume a 1080p, HD camera would give the best picture, do I need to look for anything specific so I can upload the videos to my computer for editing? Anything else specific to look for?

  2. Software. I know nothing about this, so all info is appreciated.

  3. System requirements. I have an old Toshiba laptop running Win7 with 4GB of RAM and an AMD E-300 APU 1.3GHz processor that I can use exclusively for this project. Will this suffice? Do I need to make any changes to the machine itself to be able to what I want it to do?

  4. Finally, how hard is this to do? This will be more involved than just trimming bits off the beginning and end of a 10-minute video. It will involve going through hours of video, cutting and splicing from different individual shots, and putting them together as seamlessly as possible. I’d like to be able to create fade-ins and outs, fast speeds (time-lapse-type stuff), and a few other neat effects. Is this doable for a noob with a simple home setup?

Clearly, there will be a huge learning curve with this. However, it’s essentially a hobby and I’m not particularly on a time limit, so I have time to play around and learn. The video camera and software shouldn’t be too expensive; I think ~$500 for a camera (a bit more if necessary) and ~$150 for the software is about the budget. Is this doable?

Any other pointers, ideas, criticisms? Should I just wash my hands of this now? I want to be able to do this, but not if it’s going takes months of full-time work.

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Anyone?

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Not a video expert by any means, but I’ve used Adobe Premier Elements in the past and have been pleased with the way it works. It’s available on Amazon for $99. Version 14 is the latest.

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I used to do it for a living but I’m not up on the technical standards for HD. I can say that my 2.4 GHz processor has a tough time handling HD video so I use my son’s gaming computer for my little home made projects.

Editing software can be monstrous, and the resulting files you create will be huge. You’ll need a sizable hard drive for all that data, and all the RAM you can stuff into your computer. Otherwise, I can’t say if you can refit your current computer or if you’ll need a more powerful machine.

I learned editing when it was still linear, so you at least have the advantage of starting in non-linear. It’s a lot easier to correct mistakes or change your mind about the order of shots. The most important advice I can give is to practice, practice, practice. If your still camera can shoot video, use it for some small projects at home and get used to the process before you tackle a large job like the Scout video. And good luck. If you’re like me, you’ll get a lot of satisfaction from making something sensible out of random footage.