Recently in post-production Category

As the deadline approaches we’re, as usual, fielding lots of queries about music. I don’t know, what are you like? Reading the rules at the last minute, tsk. :-)

These two sites are terrific sources of music that you can (mostly) use. If you pick something from these, please keep a note of the page you downloaded from and the name of the track — you’ll need to tell us that information when you upload your film.

• Kevin MacLeod’s free music archive (which, unlike just about everywhere else which says ‘royalty-free’, actually means it).
• Free Music Archive (everything here is free, but make sure the specific license doesn’t include a ‘no-derivatives’ clause. If you’re in any doubt, drop us a query with a link to the track you want to use).

If you’ve read the appropriate bits of Film School, you’ll know that we’re big fans of iMovie. It’s terrific editing software, and the biggest problem is that you need a Mac to run it. Later this month, however, the somewhat anaemic iPhone/iPod touch/iPad version of iMovie is seeing a huge update, and from the snippets we’ve been shown so far it looks just as wondrous as its desktop counterpart.

We’ll do our best to find out just how good the camera in the new iPad 2 is — if it’s anywhere near the standard of a Flip or (still our favourite!) Kodak Zi8, it’ll be hard to beat. The ability to shoot, edit, and upload a film all from one device is pretty much the goal here, and it looks like we might finally have got there.

Fresh today: BBC College of Production. A hugely ambitious website that’s planning to cover the full spectrum of television programme-making skills and techniques. Which could take years, but there’s already an impressive range of material. Some of it’s way over-the-top for SciCast’s approach to video, but there are some gems in there.

We’ll be rummaging through and bringing you our picks over the next few weeks, but do let us know if you find something juicy. It’s well worth a look.

If you’re struggling away with Windows Movie Maker, you might have noticed that it’s not been updated for a while. Like: years.

Windows Live Movie Maker is now available for free download from Microsoft. There’s a catch, though, in that it’s ‘not supported’ on Windows XP. It’s not clear if this means it won’t run at all, but on the face of it you need Windows Vista or Windows 7.

We’ll be downloading it and trying it out just as soon as SciCast Orbiting World Headquarters gets its broadband back (you wouldn’t believe how hard it is for BT to run a cable up here). If you beat us to it, leave a comment to let us know how you get on.

Looking for editing software for your Windows PC? It’s worth keeping an eye on Amazon’s weekly deals, as they’ve recently featured a few of the different packages. This week, for example, they have half-price offers on Corel VideoStudio X2 Pro Ultimate (that really is what it’s called, I’m not making this up!), and Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Pro Pack.

We hear lots of conflicting reports on essentially all software packages — what works for some people seems to crash constantly for others. So our advice is to download trial versions of the various packages, and see which works with your combination of computer and camera, before you buy.

See, it’s not just us who bang on about copyright issues.

In a classroom you can usually get away with using pictures, music, and video clips without worry, since you’re in a formal education environment. However, as soon as you step outside the classroom — even for a school play — you need to be more careful about what you use.

We’ve a whole load of advice about using music, and once the handbook comes out we’ll be revamping all of that material to make it clearer, and more useful.