The best book on video editing, bar none, is Walter Murch's "In the Blink of an Eye" so, get that and read it like 20 times. Then get yourself a copy of FCP and

The best book on video editing, bar none, is Walter Murch's "In the Blink of an Eye" so, get that and read it like 20 times. Then get yourself a copy of FCP and use export for web. To shoot good video, the choice of camera (at least, prosumer) is not as important as lighting technique, I recommend getting a film production textbook from eBay(they're all pretty good really) and a trip to home depot to buy materials for a green screen, and make yourself a cheap lighting kit. For compositing and effects software, I can't really recommend after effects, but that's what I've used before. (eagerly awaiting an open source JavaScript replacement :( #wildestdreams That should leave you in good shape. as for actors, yeah, it's worth budgeting for. Some folks can do multiple voices. That's how you can tell the good ones. Plenty of talent in any city though, just go to a local theater show and ask around.