Have you always secretly dreamt of making blockbuster movies? Would you like to be a cross between David Lean and Steven Spielberg?
The good news is that you don't have to catch the next flight to Hollywood or for that matter even to Bollywood.
Take a cue from teacher Rosy Gandhi of Tagore International School in New Delhi. Gandhi has taken a leaf from the book of one of her pupils, Aniruddh Gautam, who won the Apple Inter-School iMovie Competition earlier this year.
Gandhi regularly captures footage of school functions and makes movies out of them using Apple's iMovie software.
She has also learnt to make teaching sessions in physics a whole new experience using a Sony DVCam and an iMac. Not surprisingly, her ratings amongst her students have suddenly soared.
Your local videographer will tell you how easy it is to make a home movie. Armed with an annoying sun-gun (portable light) he'll be following the birthday boy or the bride and groom, giving them near blindness, and then will charge you a fee for making you sit through tapes of boring unedited footage.
But all that is changing now. PC penetration has increased in urban households and so has the desire to capture special moments on video.
So all you need to become a movie maker is a camcorder (camera plus recorder) and a computer to do the 'post-production' or package the film, put in background music if desired and bring out the film on a CD/DVD.
So what do you need first to make a film? Obviously, the camera. And while Sony's range of digital camcorders rule the market the Korean electronic major Samsung too has launched five models.
In the DVCam space, Sony's DCR DRV22E priced at Rs 59,990 has a 6.5 colour LCD screen, world renowned Carl Zeill lens and an in-built editing software Imagemixer.
Sony's analogue range starts at Rs 29,990, but it cannot be connected to the computer.
Samsung's MiniDVs priced in the Rs 39,990 to the Rs 59,990 bracket, have LCD screens, a built in digital still camera, digital image stabilizer, digital special effects and power night capture which enables shooting even in scarce light.
Samsung's analogue range of camcorders are priced between Rs 20,990 and Rs 28,990. These models come with unique features like image stabilizer, picture in picture, zoom, backlight compensation, et cetera.
The VP-L870 model comes with a 2.5" LCD Screen and can be hooked to a PC via the buil- in USB, a feature that analogue camcorders from Sony do not have.
So now that you've chosen your camera, what next? Quite simply the movie maker or the editing software that allows you to let your movie 'look' like a movie rather than a series of handheld movements!
One of the simplest solutions, is to settle for the Apple range of products. Apple desktops in the iMac range have in-built ready to use iMovie software.
All you need to do is plug the camcorder to the Mac via a firewire cable and start editing. A mouse click enables you to transfer footage automatically from the camera onto the Mac.
Thereafter, one can view individual clips, control their duration, edit them and arrange them on a 'timeline' which is where one sequences the clips.
One can also add effects like slow-motion, change the colour tone of the footage and incorporate special effects like soft focus, water ripple and introduce wipes to connect scenes with each other.
Once this is done it is time to think about the audio tracks. There are two audio tracks so one can have the live ambient sound (sound recorded during shooting) and the other can be used for background music that can be included from any MP3 file on the computer.
To give the movie a professional look, it's also possible to use menu and titles for the film credits. And once you've given all the devils who assisted you, their due, the film is all set to be viewed.
And if you want to add it to the home video library then burn a copy directly using a CD writer, to be viewed as a VCD or even as a DVD using the DVD burner.
While the CD writer comes with all standard Macs priced at Rs 65,000, the DVD burner enabled eMac with a G4 processor is priced at Rs 90,000. All Macs come with built in software like iMovie and iTunes.
But not all of us are Mac users. Can't we perform simple home movie editing functions on the normal computer? Sure, we can. With inexpensive under Rs 30,000 computers galore, all one would need is Pinnacle's Movie Box.
At Rs 17,000 the box connects the camera and the computer and captures video, while the Pinnacle Studio software loaded onto the computer, edits the footage using two layers of video, one graphics layer, two sound tracks, one music track and numerous 2D and 3D effects.
What's more, if you weren't able to connect your old analogue handycam to the computer for editing, you can do that now, via the MovieBox.
Moreover, the output after editing can not only go into a CD writer but also to a VCR where the film can be taped, or even directly viewed on the television screen.
And to specifically cater to Indian tastes and demands, Pinnacle has launched a special wedding version of its software titled Wedding Pro targeted at wedding videographers.
Apart from the usual effects, the software has multiple video layering options (which enable you to see as many as four simultaneous videos in separate windows on a single screen, much like a multiple picture in picture format).
However this more advanced software is priced a little steeply at Rs 59,000.
While the software and tools are great creative fun at home to make home movies, Krishnan Sanghi, Country Manager at Pinnacle feels that the next big use of the software will be in the corporate world, where professionals will use live footage to communicate rather than boring powerpoint presentations.
So who knows -- your skills at shooting and editing your son's fifth birthday party may well be the training ground for the next boardroom presentation.
