As digital media and video becomes more and more prevalent people are being called upon to submit pictures and videos online. With the invention of photo and video sharing sites, it seems like everyone is expected to know how it is done. Submitting photographs seems to be a task that people with very little tech experience can overcome but when it comes to submitting a video, it seems somewhat daunting.



The first time that I uploaded video footage, I proceeded with worry and caution, trying hard to focus on the instructions that were prompted by my video recorder and computer. To my great surprise, the footage was very easy to transfer from my camera to the computer. I can assure you that it is not as scary as it seems and it really is as easy as hooking up the connection from the camera to the USB port.

As a first timer, I turned to what was free and easily available. The two most popular options seem to be iMovie for Mac and Windows Movie Maker for a PC. I was delighted to find that Windows Movie Maker came loaded on my PC and all I had to do was double click on the program from my start menu. If the programs are not on your computer, both are available for free download. When the program opened up, the instructions were easy to follow with a three step process starting with capturing video, pictures and music.

I naturally moved on to step 2 which was the edit process. The edit features took a little bit of time to figure out but it was mostly fun just trying out all the neat things that I could do with the program. While I was playing around with the software I could not resist thinking about how impressed my friends and family would be with my finished video. They would definitely wonder how I learned all of those amazing, creative skills but the truth is the program does it for you.

After I had the video just the way that I wanted it, I moved on to step 3 which gave me the option to save to my computer, save on a cd/dvd, send in an email, send to the web or send it back to my video camera. It was literally as easy as clicking on one of the options and it before I knew it, the video was finished and uploaded to the web for my friends and family to view.

My experience with this project showed me that the brilliant folks who create these video editing programs make it very easy for people who have absolutely no skills. If you have been thinking about giving the video project a try, I would definitely move forward. I wish that I would have had the gumption to start earlier because I missed out on a lot of adorable baby video opportunities when my children were toddling around. It is true when people say “there is no better time like the present”.