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I am not the kind of father who believes in videotaping his children’s every last sneeze. I don’t even own a video camera. I borrow one now and then to record choice events, like last weekend when toddler Clementine finally deigned to take her first E.T.-like steps. But this time, rather than record 90 minutes of raw, uncut video–which, let’s not pull any sentimental punches here, would be unwatchable beyond the first two minutes–I decided to make a real movie. I had in mind something that was edited–with transitions, a sound track and a voice-over; something that would be amusing to watch even for people who are not Clembo’s grandparents. And I wanted to make it on my PC.

It’s a good time to be in the market for computer-based video-editing gear; you can find plenty of devices for under $300. I tried the Matrox Marvel G200-TV ($299), and I highly recommend it for the home videomaker. It’s a Swiss Army Knife kind of thing, with a video and graphics accelerator (which makes everything from spreadsheets to games look better on your monitor), 2-D and 3-D accelerator, and even a TV tuner (you can watch television on your PC if you attach your cable). Best of all, it has a chip that quickly compresses video using the high-quality MJPEG format, making editing a snap.

You’ll need at least a Pentium-level PC running at 166 megahertz, plus a sound card, a CD-ROM drive and 2 gigabytes of free space. Storage is especially critical because the Marvel chews up 90 megabytes for each minute of video. Another hurdle: to install the Marvel card, you have to open the computer case, an experience I relish as much as home brain surgery. Truthfully, though, setup was pretty painless. I was in and out in less than 10 minutes.

If this opening-up-your-PC hurdle seems insurmountable, I recommend Dazzle Multimedia’s Digital Video Creator ($249), a Walkman-size device that attaches externally. It doesn’t have the extras of the Marvel (graphics card, TV tuner), and it uses the MPEG standard of compression, which delivers half the resolution of the MJPEG. Still, some people may prefer MPEG, since it consumes far less storage space.

Anyway, after installing my Marvel card, I connected a small purple box to my PC. This is what you plug your VCR, video camera or TV into. The device comes with Avid Cinema for Windows, software made by Avid Technology, a company renowned for the high-end video-editing stuff the pros use. It’s exceptional, with a great tutorial that showed me how to make a movie in 10 minutes. An editing screen lets you drag and drop color-coded video, music and voice-over clips onto a storyboard, where you assemble them. Avid also provides dozens of dissolves and fadeaways for making the transitions between scenes, as well as a tool for creating scrolling credits and titles. The whole process, from installation to previewing my first minute-long masterpiece, titled The Walker, took about four hours. You can save your movie on videotape or slim it down into a lower grade, streaming video format for the Web. (The premiere of The Walker can be seen on our website at timedigital.com. Only one problem: now I want a video camera.

Watch The Walker at timedigital.com send raves to jquit@well.com See Anita on CNNfn’s Digital Jam, 7:30 p.m. E.T. Wednesdays.