So I edited together 2 hours of Mario Party 2 into 19 minutes

So I decided to learn video editing in my spare time. My background is primarily in graphic and web design but I've always been interested in video production so I thought it might be cool to experiment with some Giant Bomb videos.

Since Windows doesn't come packaged with a decent video editing program like iMovie, I started looking for a good freeware video editing suite. I wanted something where I could drop a file or files on a timeline and make some very basic linear cuts.

I came across Lightworks which seemed like a decent free suite with a relatively straightforward interface. After spending 15-20 hours doing some very basic linear editing, I'd say that it's a pretty good option.

The Mario Party 2 premium video was a joy to edit. So many great moments. I wasn't really trying to form any sort of narrative, just cut together what I thought were the best bits. The original video is 3 hours long and I managed to cut it down to about 19 minutes.

My first pass was alright. I spent most of my time scrubbing around to find where a 'bit' started and ended and then cutting out everything around until I was left with consecutive goofs. This means I had the entire 3 hour video sitting on the timeline and I was making my edits when and where I saw them, which I'm positive is the wrong way to go about things. The term 'destructive editing' comes to mind but I was more concerned with finishing this project quickly and figured I could learn how to do it 'the right way' later. Here's my timeline for that project:

In the end I was pretty pleased with how the video turned out. I realize now that if I wanted to go back and re-edit this video, it would be very time-consuming due to the way I just haphazardly sliced out parts of footage in one massive edit. I didn't mess with any of the effects and most of the clips were edited in the order they appeared (save for one or two bits).

Feeling satisfied and perhaps a little overconfident I decided that my next project should be editing together the best bits of the 96 hour extra life livestreams. I finished the Iron Galaxy portion, but I'm planning on writing a separate blog for that.

You can watch the Mario Party video below. If you guys have any hot editing tips I'd love to hear them.

@renegadedoppelganger: I never have the time to dedicate the 2-3 hours to these streams, let alone the days worth from extra life so these videos are really appreciated. Thanks! only 7 more mario party-parties for you to edit.

Mario Party 2 was truly a rollercoaster of emotions andSalty Brad was the cherry on top.

Good job, homie.

My favorite part is the plotline where Drew is our true underdog hero all along. They even alude to him being a late contender early on in the video. XD

Bravo and nicely done duder.

I have to say, what a great work you did on editing. I did watch this whole thing back when and watching your edit now really brings something new. The tempo was never slowed down and i felt like i constantly needed to catch my breath from laughing. This made my day som thank you and keep the good work up with your future endeavours.

I've always felt iffy about people doing the "best of" videos about premium content, especially when that premium content isn't even a few weeks old.

Yeah, agree. This was released only a couple of days after the archive went up. This is at least almost over what I'm comfortable with, while the 30 minute highlight of the first Mario Party stream is over that line. I have no problems with Turboman's Best Of videos, but highlight videos of just one Premium video like this...?

I was sold a premium membership by videos like these, so I've always really appreciated them. 15 minutes out of 3 hours is barely anything, even if it does "tell the story". I agree there is definitely a "line" that could be crossed but I guess I've yet to really feel that way.

Anyways thanks for putting the work into the video duder I really enjoyed it! A great suite of hilarious moments.

@geraltitude: What about the 30 minute highlight video of the first Mario Party Party that went up not long after the video on the site?

edit: Not trying to be a dick to the OP here even though I understand how I might come across as one here. But it's just an interesting conversation, and I think videos like this one are close to the line.

Top work.

Nicely done! I love how pissed they are the whole time.

I've pitched the idea to Jeff before on having some kind of monthly highlight video for premium videos since I've heard a good handful of times that "best of" videos have led people to find the site and/or pushed them over the edge into buying a premium membership. I think he agrees with me that buying premium for the site is a leap of faith and most new members are kind of unaware of what they're getting unless they already pay for it, and something like I'm thinking would be a benefit for everybody.

I don't remember where, but I think someone on the staff (Jeff maybe) said they were fine with videos like these because it's basically free advertising. I usually try to keep these sorts of videos to about 10 minutes or so when I'm making them (I still feel kind of bad about making those Vinny Soul videos, they're good but maybe I used too much footage from them). This video is fine, but I have a real problem with the 30 minute mario party highlight video, and the videos on YouTube that literally just upload a segment from UPF.

@amyggen@nightriff I totally understand the sentiment you guys are expressing.

I didn't really consider this stuff until after I'd finished editing and had posted the MP2 video. I thought about taking it down and putting up a shorter version, after all Giant Bomb is mostly funded through premium subs and the driving force behind those subs are videos like this.

Many of us are grateful that GB and CBSi have had a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to the use of their content and I hope for the sake of the community that attitude continues but I belive in order for that to happen, we -the people who post these videos- need to not be dicks.

I'm aware that there is a lot of GB premium content on Youtube and as a result people could (and probably do) get a subscription's worth of paid videos for free. I don't agree with posting full-length unedited versions of premium videos, that's not really fair to the staff or to the users who pay for access to this content. I'd like to think that seeing small bits of these videos will encourage people to become subscribers themselves but I'm not naive enough to believe those people exist in a majority.

With that in mind it's probably a good idea that any future videos I make that include premium content are kept brief both to minimize the amount of paid content I'm making available for free and also to keep the videos at a more easily digestible length.

Thanks for all your comments guys! Hearing that people are enjoying the video is encouraging.

Genuinely appreciate this, 2 hrs is just a bit too long when you've missed the fun of the livestream.

@amyggen: totally see where you are coming from and you know I actually hadn't seen that video until it was mentioned in this thread. I think the one thing about that video for me isn't the length, but when it came out plus the length, which makes it more flagrant.

Ultimately I don't think these types of highlight videos (and frankly even the full episodes of subscriber content that are out there) have ever *stopped* someone from subbing. Obviously a huge assumption! The fact that a UPF episode or a flight club or random PC episode is out there I don't think detracts from the value of subscribing. I do think some "tasteful" amount of time should pass I guess. Like if that 30 minute MPP video came out in a year or two I would honestly not bat an eye at it.

I know Turbo Man feels iffy about the amount of video in Vinny Souls, but that's literally a video (one of a handful) I sent to a friend being like DUDE SUBSCRIBE! and he did so, yeah.

Fascinating topic actually. Wonder if GB duders ever considered a community video portal for subscriber videos like these. Maybe too weird an ownership issue to host people's video, but having the highlights integrated with the site would A) clean out these problems B) meaningfully advertise Subscirber content on the site itself, which I think is kind of a huge problem on this site.

You missed a few key moments, like Drew getting the star at the start.

@geraltitude: @renegadedoppelganger: @turboman: Yeah, I think The Medic's Dove on Youtube has gone too far at times. He's the one Turboman is talking about uploading unedited segments of UPF to Youtube. Others have done the same thing, but he's probably the most prolific.

I do see the argument of this being free advertisement for GB, and this is part of the age-old argument of whether uploading something for free can actually impact the sales of the full product in a negative way or not. To my knowledge GB has never taken down anything uploaded to Youtube except for 1) a good few full QLs (there seems to be more and more of those uploaded by random users), and 2) a full UPF bizarrely uploaded uploaded by a dev to their YT channel one time (GB played their game in one segment, so they just straight up uploaded the whole UPF to YT). Maybe that's because they don't really think it's negative that someone uploads a 30 minute highlight clip of Mario Party Party 1, or maybe they don't want to be dicks about it to people of the community who care enough to actually make a 30 minute highlight video of something they made. I do remember Jeff at one point saying that he didn't mind people uploading highlights of their Premium stuff to YT because they didn't do a good enough job at promoting that stuff themselves.

As I said, I didn't mean to hijack your thread like this, Renegade, because I don't think you're over the line here. Neither are Turboman's Vinny Souls videos, which I'm a big fan of. But it's an interesting conversation.

Looking forward to reliving this. It's like a back of the book summary to a novel, which is nice sometimes.

Or like that MGS4 trailer that told you most of the story. I can see why people could get upset about this sort of thing. But I dunno, I still bought MGS4.

I watched the original, now I wish I hadn't. :P

@amyggen: yup all the way. I mean, I watch things like this as much for the experience as for the laughs, so something like this is great AFTER I've watched the original. Still, for both people who aren't subscribers or people who come across this completely randomly, it does feel... well, iffy.

6:00 - 8:00, I just keep watching. It's just the perfect summation of these Mario Party videos. It's so hilarious.

"What turn is this? GAH!"

Nice job, that was hilarious!

I became a sub because of YT videos, granted I'm not a sub now, but I plan on renewing as soon as I can.