Operating cutscenes suggestions?

Hey people,
on my project on a game I'm creating with BlitzMax, I was planning on adding cutscenes into it. Although, before I do that, I wanted to get some pointers.

First off is the runtime. I wanted to make sure that the music and video are synchronized and playing at an appropriate rate. In other words, making it friend for those with slower computers. Any suggestions to be able to do that?

Last is how to create a cutscene. My plans is just creating it into BlitzMAX with the usual coding, without any extensions or plug-ins. I was about to use a Flash Animation file (even though there is a module for it), I don't want to put too much cost or effort since I don't have very good experience in hardcore programming. Otherwise, is there any suggestions for what I should use or build cutscene in BlitzMAX?

Do you want these cut scenes to use an external movie file, or for it to be using 'normal' ingame graphics and sounds (by scripting game events)?

I think there is some kind of movie file (bik?) which runs as an external executable. You can in just a line open up an executable file which displays and pauses your Blitzmax exe until it's done, then resumes your code where it left off. The only problem with this is it may result in the monitor changing resolution every cutscene which is annoying for regular cutscenes!

It is using in-game graphics and sounds.

The easiest way will be to hardcode it. Stop getting player input, put the screen where you want, hardcode your things doing stuff with time delays, then let the player resume control.