MovieStudio provides a simple three-step process for creating, editing and then sharing video movies. Step one is capturing the video and audio, step two is editing, and step three is sharing via burning to DVD, copying to a storage medium, or via the Internet.

The video and audio tracks make up the top half of the editing window. The bottom left quarter is taken up with the content library. Separate tabbed windows are then used to store and access your captured video and audio files, the transitions, effects and titles. 

There is also a Windows Explorer tab that is perfect for locating video, audio and still image clips to bring into your production. As it is a standard Windows Explorer window, it "should" be familiar to most users and can search across multiple drives, networks and connected storage devices.

The right lower right hand corner of the Movie Studio window is the preview and play window with a stereo volume control alongside. The window also includes several sophisticated controls including seven Sonic Foundry audio editing plug-ins, video output effects, and timeline snapshots.

To make the program even easier to master, Sony has packed in a nice printed manual, as well as a bunch of video tutorials. The online Screen blast site also has several tutorial and help sections, as well as a gallery that demonstrates how others have used Movie Studio to create.

Capture

Movie Studio is targeted to digital video camcorders but will also work with captured analog video as well as a wide variety of other video, still image and audio files and formats. The capture process is simple - attach your DV camcorder to your computer's 1394 connector and turn it on. You can capture individual video scenes or you can set up Movie Studio 3.0 to capture your entire tape and then automatically cut the scenes into individual clips by using Automatic DV Scene Detection. 

Oddly though, Movie Studio will not capture or control any of Sony's new MicroMV camcorders. However, you can use the MicroMV software application to capture the MicroMV videos to your hard drive, and then use Movie Studio to import and edit them. Movie Studio does work with Digital 8 camcorders.

Creating Your Movie

Once you have captured your video to your hard drive, the fun part begins. The editing process begins with simply dragging and dropping the video clips from the media pool and then laying them down on the time line in the order you choose. Like most other nonlinear editing software tools, you can mix and match and move them around to your heart's content.

Trimming the clips is done on the timeline by clicking on either end of the clip and moving backwards and forward until you get it right. You can also re-trim the clip later in the editing process if you decide to make more changes.

Once you got the order right, you can start adding in transitions, effects, titles, music and other special effects. Movie Studio 3.0 includes 170 customizable video transitions and over 125 video special effects. To add transitions and effects, you simply select one from the appropriate bin and then drop it at either end of a video clip on the timeline, between two overlapping video clips, or between two adjacent video clips. As you would expect, you can also adjust the intensity, speed and other parameters of effects and transitions. Of course, you can delete the effects and transitions 

As you create your movie, you can preview edits, effects, and transitions in real time. Even better, the program includes an unlimited number of levels of undo and redo. You can use pan and crop tools to rotate, zoom, and animate stills and video, do slow-mo and fast motion video and audio, and do "Hollywood" style chromakey effects to additional layers to your videos. 

Output and Sharing

When video is finished, you can share it in a variety of ways. If you camcorder supports it, you can play the video back to tape or convert it one of many standard video files for distribution. 

If you have a DVD burner, you can use it to author and create DVD movies. MovieStudio's DVD authoring capabilities include over 40 different pre-created menu themes. You can even create bonus DVD features like behind-the-scenes clips, special "director's cuts", subtitles, out-takes, bloopers, etc.

MovieStudio supports the most common Internet streaming formats including QuickTime, RealVideo, Windows Media 9, or even Macromedia Flash. 

MovieStudio offers a range of different compression and quality options for outputting your movies as a streaming video file. Oddly though, this command is hidden under Output to e-mail. Not quite the same but available. You can also use Movie Studio to compress, upload and publish it directly to your Screenblast account if you have one.  You can also use the output menu to create an html page with your video embedded.

In addition, Sony's online Screenblast service provides free online access to hundreds of extra film and TV clips, sound effects and graphics that you can import into your production. In addition, Screenblast provides an inexpensive service for hosting your videos and sharing them with your friends and family throughout the world. For about $40 per year, you get 128 MB of video storage, your own video web site, and access to over 1000 video and audio effects.