CMV Tutorial

This is going to be a big one! The programs used for editing CMV range from what type of computer you have (Mac or Windows), along with what program you use to record your CMV. I'm going to walk you through the basic steps that I take from brainstorming to physically recording and editing.

Step 1: Find what song you want to use, find the mp3 file, along with the lyrics.

This is very simple, but sometimes it can be a pain. You don't want to have too many empty spaces in your music video consisting of just the background music. You want more lyrics. In this case I'm going to select the song Hella Good by No Doubt (this will probably be my next CMV). Once you find your song on YouTube, copy and paste the link and go to www.youtube-mp3.org. Download the MP3 and save it to your computer in a folder you'll be able to
find it easily.

Finding the lyrics:

I suggest using this site right here. It'll look like this:

Step 2: Recording.

When you're recording, you want to find a program that will NOT have a watermark over your recorded scenes, like Movavi. Do NOT use Movavi. On PC, I use Hypercam2, but I've been starting to realize that it isn't the best quality, so I'm looking for other programs. I cant find anything else for Mac that doesn't have a watermark for a free version, sadly.

So when you record, open the lyrics page, and copy the lyrics from the page and paste into the Chotopia chat. I have a tip though, when you do this, don't do everything at once. For example, sometimes the artist pauses, so you should only paste what the artist says at that time. It may be written as one line in the lyric sites, but paste it separately. That way, when people watch the videos, they wont be reading ahead of what the artist is actually saying. I hope you understand what I mean by this. I've seen a lot of people do it, and it just looks bad.

Step 3: Editing.

This varies for what program you use. I use Sony Vegas 10.0. First, I insert the music, and THEN I insert the videos/scenes. I usually work as I go, since I just prefer working that way, but recording, and then putting all the clips in is probably faster. Oh well.

Remember to add effects to make your video stand out, and keep people entertained as they watch it. Also, changing the cropping and quality to improve the viewer's perspective is a KEY to success in an amazing music video. One of my favorite CMV's from Chobots.com is this.

Step 4: Rendering.

This takes a while, and there's not really a way to avoid it.

Step 5: Uploading to Youtube.

When you upload, choose a title that isn't too long. For example, the title for a CMV to this particular song should look like "Hella Good - No Doubt [CMV]" *Without the quotation marks*. It's easy to search for, and it looks nicer.

And if there's a contest, Step 6:

Depending on how where the contest is help (i.e. Forums or Main Blog), you need to know how to ENTER the video for the contest. For the main blog, copy and paste the URL into the comment box and make sure you tell them who made it.

Your comment should look like this: