Tools

I use three or four completely free pieces of software for editing my movies.

Of course, you could buy Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premier from Adobe for around $1448, or you could just use the free photo editing software created by gimp.org. 

This software that I use, called The Gimp, allows you to edit photos without breaking the bank. I use the lightsaber Scriptfu from BaudAlign (also free) to rotoscope the blades into the movie.

I also use a program called Virtual Dub for decompiling the movies, and a program published by DebugMode called Wax for special transitions and such.

However, before you can start rotoscoping, you have to decompile the movie. And, before you can decompile the movie, you have to have a movie.

So, go find a video camera that you can hook up to your computer. Or you could use a digital camera that has a video capture mode. Once you have the camera, make sure that you can put movies onto your computer with it. I once spent a whole afternoon recording movies using a camera that would not connect to my computer. Please, save yourself a lot of trouble and shoot a short test movie and make sure that you can put it on your computer. 

Once you have a video camera (and have tested it ), it is time to make a lightsaber. No, we are not going to be dealing with hot plasma here, your lightsaber can be almost anything. For my first movie, I used a length of broomstick that I wrapped in electrical tape.

As I said above, almost anything will work for a lightsaber the first time around, although if you continue doing movies you probably will want to get something that looks a little bit better for closeups. Hasbro has some nice sabers for around $25 that work great.

Now, you have the video camera, you have a lightsaber, now grab either a friend or a tripod to hold the camera, and start shooting film.