Pinnacle Studio provides the Make Movie mode as your central location for exporting a finished movie project, whether you’re exporting to tape, DVD, the Internet, or carrier pigeon. (Just kidding: Export to Carrier Pigeon won’t be available until the next version of Studio, if not later.) To open the Make Movie mode, choose View ➪ Make Movie.
If any of the clips in your movie were captured at Preview, you’ll be prompted to insert the tapes containing the original source clips at full quality. Make sure you have those tapes handy, and follow the instructions on-screen to recapture the footage.
You’re ready to start exporting your movie to tape. Follow these steps:
1. In the Make Movie mode, click Tape at the left side of the Make Movie window.
Basic video settings will appear in the Make Movie window, as well as the estimated file size for the exported file. Studio needs to export the movie as a file before it can be recorded onto tape, and that file is probably going to be big. As you can see in Figure 15-5, I have a movie that is only about 50 seconds long and yet it will create a file that is over 157MB (megabytes). This is why I always recommend you buy the very biggest hard disk you can afford.
2. Click the Settings button.
The Make Tape tab of the Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog appears.
As described earlier in this chapter, make sure that the correct output
source is selected in the Video menu. In Figure 15-6, you can see that I
am preparing to expo
3. If you’re exporting to a DV camcorder, place a check mark next to the
Automatically Start and Stop Recording option.
With this option enabled, Studio will automatically control your camcorder for you, meaning you won’t have to manually press Record on the camcorder. If you’re exporting to a video converter such as the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge, do not enable this option. If you do enable automatic control of your DV camera This gives the camcorder’s tape mechanism enough time to spool up to the proper speed for recording.
4. Click OK to close the Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box.
5. Back in the Make Movie window, click Create at the bottom of the export control.
Studio creates a file for your movie. The process may take several minutes, especially if your movie is long and has a lot of effects and transitions. When the file is created, the export control tells you that your project is ready for output.
6. Click Play under the preview window.
If you chose to give Studio automatic control of your DV camcorder (Step 3), Studio automatically starts the recording feature on your camcorder, stopping when the movie is completely exported. If you’re exporting through an analog output (such as a Pinnacle AV/DV card), you have to press Record on your analog VCR a few seconds before you click Play in the Studio preview window. One nice thing about Studio is that while it’s waiting for you to click Play, the software sends out a black video signal through the analog outputs. This means that you can press Record on your analog VCR and let it record that black video for 30 seconds or so before you play your movie in the export process. Presto — you eliminate the need to add black video clips to the beginning and end of the timeline. When the movie is done being exported, Studio reverts to outputting black video through the analog outputs. I suggest you record 20 or 30 seconds of this black video on the VHS tape before you press Stop.
