Filmmaking magic made possible by Pinnacle Studio

Have you got lots of video footage recorded from family birthdays, past holidays or special occasions, but don't know how to edit it into something presentable? Pinnacle Studio 12 is a simple and effective tool to produce high-quality videos in a very short time.

Video-editing has traditionally been the work of professionals, but Pinnacle Studio has made a name for itself as the market-leading software for amateur filmmakers. Its latest release, Pinnacle Studio 12, has a range of new features - but we've taken you through some simple steps to edit your first video down to size. All you need is a camcorder or digital camera with video capabilities, and a copy of Pinnacle Studio 12.

Step 1. Video capture

First things first - you need to have some video footage ready to edit. Maybe it's a video you shot of your friend's birthday that you want to put together, or it's a montage of your family holiday. Connect your camcorder/camera to your computer and open Pinnacle Studio 12. You'll quickly notice that there are three main tabs running along the top, giving you an easy, three-step process.

Click on ‘1 Capture'. If you device is connected, it will show you the files you can drag into the program. In the bottom-right, a pie-chart will show you how much hard disk space is free and how much is used.

Toggle between ‘DV Capture' or MPEG capture' depending what format your camera uses. Note how the pie-chart changes - capturing a file to DV is much more of a drain on your free space.

Press ‘Settings' for further options - including codecs, background rendering, previews and TV standard, whether it's NTSC, PAL or SECAM. If you're doing an MPEG capture, you can set the quality level accordingly.

Under Settings>Capture Format tab, ensure MPEG-1/2 is marked in ‘Presets' and choose whether you want to record a DVD quality video (High quality) or lower. If you're not fussed about quality and want to save space, you could opt for a VCD quality (low quality) or SVCD setting (medium quality).

Step 2. Drag and drop

When the video capturing is complete, it's time to begin the main exercise of editing your video content. Click on ‘2 Edit' - and you'll notice icons running down the left side of your screen. The bottom half of your screen will display a timeline of your video, with the separate tracks of video, audio, music, sound effects and text in different rows, designated by an icon.

Pinnacle Studio 12 breaks your footage into sizeable chunks based on major variations of light. If you click on a particular scene, you'll notice that a player in the top-right allows you to preview the scene at any time. All you need to do is drag and drop the scenes into the video track below, in any order you wish. If you're not happy with the order, experiment a little.

Step 3. Cutting scenes

Once you've got all your scenes into a general sequence of events for your final cut, you might find there are bits that you don't want - this is inevitable, no matter how good with the camera you are. It's time to cut out the unwanted bits.

Cropping each scene is easy and painless. Double-click on the scene in the video track, and a window will expand out to show you the first and last frames of that scene, along with a control bar.

To crop the scene, simply drag the drop the blade icons at the beginning and end of the scene track to the preferred spot. Use the preview player to see the edited clip.

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