Talk about your setbacks.

If you’ve been following my Twitter saga then you’re aware I had run into some issues getting all the footage I’ve captured the past few months ready for editing. I discovered that the problem lies in Elgato’s capture software. At least, that’s the best I could conclude. Evidently some video editors have issue with the variable framerate that Elgato captures at, which can cause crashes or other errors.

No matter what video converter I ran this stuff through, I couldn’t get it to work. Not in Windows Movie Maker 6, at least.

Ah, yes. Windows Movie Maker 6. An ancient piece of software from the days of Windows XP, no longer supported after the shift to Windows Vista and the complete redesign to Windows Live Movie Maker. Oddly enough, Movie Maker 6 contains more features than the later iterations, and thus continues to have a surprising following to this day. It’s incredibly limited compared to what other video editing software can do, but it has one useful feature for me.

I’ve never been able to wrap my head around how other content creators could take two-or-more hour-long video files, scrub them, trim them, and start over in order to craft their works. If all you’re doing is a Let’s Play then you have minimal work to do in comparison, but for a video essay it just seems like you’re asking for a bad time. Windows Movie Maker 6, on the other hand, will take that video file and separate it into “Clips”.

As you can see in the above screenshot, I’ve separated one of my many videos I’ll be using into several of these clips. Even better, all the older videos I made into clips somehow retain this data and can be reused with ease.

Now, there are a couple of complications, but first I’ll note that DaVinci Resolve has similar functionality. The option to move on to new software was available, but I was hesitant to do so. If you look at the above screenshot again, you’ll notice just how many folders I’ll be pulling from for this video. I’d no doubt be in over my head were I to try cutting this together while learning a new editing program.

This left me with Windows Movie Maker 6. In order to get the video files working as I required, though, I needed drop the videos into the timeline, save them as new videos on my hard drive, and then import them back so they could successfully become clips.

I imagine many of you think this is the dumbest possible scenario. You may be correct. I’d have to convert all the video files regardless, however, and the only converter I found capable of getting Elgato’s converted clips to work in Resolve was Handbrake. Handbrake does not take WMV files, and I could not find a method to perhaps add a plug-in or other functionality to do so. This means I’d have needed to convert all of my files – already converted for Windows Movie Maker (by the way, did I mention I’m running with limited hard-drive space as I’m still restricted to just my laptop and thus needed to delete the original MP4 recordings?) – which would then need to be converted again in Handbrake, and then be split in Resolve.

The method I chose required fewer steps and allowed me to tackle a big project with familiar software. Unfortunately, this took many days just to figure out. I’ve also finally recorded the audio, but have yet to cut it and am contemplating whether I want to rerecord it now that I’m not sick. Yes, the first day I had available to record the audio was a day that I was sick.

Nonetheless, the video files are all prepared, I managed to jab together a script I was happy with, and I’m certain the audio will be fine. I did not begin editing by the end of February, but it’s too late to push on to another video, nor would it be practical to do so.

Whether I can work on that video or not I am uncertain. I may find myself restricted to Windows Movie Maker again as Resolve seems to dislike my laptop’s finnicky graphics driver hiccups. I yearn for the days I can have a desktop computer again, but that doesn’t mean I will not try my hardest to get these videos out more regularly.

I feel confident that you can expect my Metroid Prime: Echoes video in March.