Opinion Do-It-Yourself Hollywood By Scott T. Hards	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
「ハリウッド」をご自宅に デジタル映像の編集ソフトが安価に入手できる今、自宅のコンピューターを活用して ｢映画」作りを楽しむことをお勧めしたい。

When Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" won a record-tying 11 Oscars last month, I was cheering along with the rest of the crowd. I haven't been so thoroughly entertained since the original Star Wars a quarter-century ago.

Much of the lure of Jackson's films is the amazing reality he achieved despite portraying a world that never existed outside the imagination of an English literature professor. Of course, while thousands of costumes, weapons and intricate sets were physically created, most of the credit for bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's world to the screen so convincingly goes to computer technology.

Over the last 20 years, the role of computers in movie-making has exploded. While amazing special effects are a big part of it, computers play a large role now in the editing process, too. The film is converted to digital data - if it's not shot digitally in the first place - and computers are used to cut and splice scenes, and adjust the color, sound and other elements.

The interesting thing is that the computers and software used to do this are now very inexpensive. In fact, you may already own all the tools you need to shoot and edit your own movies! And even if you don't, if you have a computer, you can buy what you need to create a movie studio in your living room for well under ¥100,000.

Besides a computer (preferably an Apple Macintosh, but Windows will do), you need a digital video camera (called "DV"; virtually all video cameras sold these days are digital), and some editing software. If you have a Mac, you probably have software called iMovie, which is included free with all Macs now. For Windows, there's the free Moviemaker from Microsoft.

For more advanced work you can buy Final Cut Express or Pro from Apple (software that is actually used in Hollywood), or one of several other packages available for Windows.

Once you have these things, the only limit is your own imagination! You don't have to make "movies" per se, that is, something with a story; scenes of your friends or kids are just fine, too. With editing software, you can easily remove the boring or poorly shot parts, add some music, simple special effects, titles and credits to create a professional-looking "movie" with only a few hours of work. Burn that onto a CD or DVD! Upload it to a Web site! These days, "distributing" your movie is easy, too.

Making little movies like this has turned into a new hobby of mine. When my daughter was born in January, I had two video cameras in the delivery room. With a little editing and some dramatic music from "The Return of the King," I produced a five-minute movie that had all my daughter's grandparents, and many of my friends, wiping tears from their eyes.

I'm not the only person, of course, who has become excited about the ease of creating digital movies. Thousands of others are already turning out great works long and short. There are even film festivals being held all over the world just for movies shot on DV. What are you waiting for? Unleash the Peter Jackson within you, too!

Shukan ST: April 16, 2004

(C) All rights reserved