Welcome to the .org (that's what we call it around here)! Well, first thing you're gonna want to do is get yourself an editing program. If you have Windows XP then you also have either Windows Movie Maker or Windows Movie Maker 2.0, either of which will be a good place for someone new to editing to start. Don't be intimidated by the super-technical videos out there; there are a lotta good WMM creations on the .org as well.
If you're not running on Windows XP, then you're probably going to have to go out and buy a program; a comprehensive list of available editing programs can be found
here. A good program for a newbie would probably be something like Magix Movie Edit Pro, which is relatively cheap (>$50), and (from what I hear) easy enough to pick up. There are a wealth of options, though, so take a look around, download some trial versions, and see what you like.
Once you have your program of choice, the next thing to do is to
read the guides (and
this one in particular). I cannot stress this enough; you will learn a great deal and save yourself the trouble of having to post your problems here. It's a long read, to be sure, but this guide ensures that your final video will be of the highest quality possible. I myself found the tech guide rather interesting, as well ^_^
There's no set rule of how an AMV "should" be made; some people like extremely
technical videos with a lot of effects, others (such as myself) prefer the
simpler,
more down-to-earth videos. Just make sure you have a concept before putting together your AMV; throwing a bunch of scenes together to a song you like will end up being total crap 99% of the time.
Just make sure you download as many videos as you can to get ideas and inspiration. That's the best thing you can do for yourself before starting to edit; seeing what's out there can give you an idea of what kind of videos you yourself like, and then you can start editing.
Finally, once you've edited and completed your video, you're going to want to
upload your video to the .org. Voila! Your first video is now available for the masses to download!
After that you can post a link in this forum to do what's called an "op exchange", in which you offer to give an opinion to someone else's video so that they'll leave an opinion on your video.
Hope that helped, and good luck!
