Digitizing Materials (Movies/Pictures/Sounds)

Movie Maker

Movie Maker is free with Windows XP and allows you to create, edit, and share the movies that are created. You can build movies with simple drag-and-drops and delete bad shots to include only the best scenes. Four basic steps include:

·  Digitizing materials (movies/pictures/sounds)

·  Importing into Movie Maker collections

·  Editing by arranging video clips, pictures, and audio files in the order you wish and apply transitions, titles and narration

·  Saving the movie

It is very important to create a folder that will contain all the materials you will use for your movie. Movie Maker points to the resource files instead of putting them into a Movie Maker file so all movie, sound, and picture files must be in one folder on your desktop before you add them in the movie you are creating.

Importing Video

·  Click on Import Video to import your video file.

·  Windows Movie Maker (WMM) will automatically break your video files into video clips if you choose the option Import Video however; you have the option of disabling it if you choose to capture it from an external digital camera or if you are importing an edited video.

·  Once you have imported your video to your collection, you can drag and drop the clips into the storyboard.

Build a Storyboard
To build a storyboard, import video to your PC. You will see your clips in the Collections view. Double click on each clip to see how it looks in the preview window.

While creating the movie, you will be viewing either the Timeline or Storyboard.

Once you have decided which clips you want to put in your movie click and drag the clips to the Storyboard in the order in which you would like them to appear in your final movie. To rearrange your clips on the storyboard, drag and drop them to a different location.

If you do not want to put any transitions between your clips, you may want to combine all your clips into one video by selecting the clips you want to combine (you can hold down the Ctrl key then select the clips) and right click then choose option Combine (Ctrl+ M).

Editing

Trim your clips to get exactly the footage you need.

A clip is a smaller segment of a larger video file. Movie Maker provides several options for editing clips.

·  Splitting a clip. You can split a video clip into two clips. This is useful if you want to insert either a picture or a video transition in the middle of a clip. You can split a clip that appears on the storyboard/timeline of a current project, or you can split the clip in the Contents pane.

·  Combining clips. You can combine two or more contiguous video clips. Contiguous means the clips were captured consecutively so that the end of one clip is immediately followed by the beginning of the next. Combining clips is useful if you have several short clips and want to view them as one clip on the storyboard/timeline. You can combine contiguous clips in the Contents pane or on the storyboard/timeline.

·  Trimming a clip. You can hide the parts of a clip that you do not want to appear in your project. Trimming does not remove the information from the source material; you can restore the clip to its original length at any time. Clips can only be trimmed after they have been added to the storyboard/timeline. You cannot trim clips in the Contents pane. To trim a clip: Drag the trim handles to remove the unwanted portions of the clip.

To edit clips:

·  In the Timeline view, click on the clip you’d like to trim.

·  In the Preview window, drag the scroll bar slowly and watch as the video progresses.

·  Stop at the point where you want to trim the clip.

·  On the Clip menu, click Set Start Trim Point.

·  Now continue to drag the progress indicator until you reach the desired end point of clip.

·  On the Clip menu, click Set End Trim Point and you will have a trimmed clip.

·  You can also create clips from any video any time after it has been imported or captured in Movie Maker. By separating longer pieces of video into smaller clips, you will make it easier to find a specific shot to use in your movie.

·  To change the duration of your still clips, you can stretch your clip. This MUST be done in Timeline mode. (Use the Zoom In/Out function to better judge the length of the clip)

Special Effects

·  To add video effects, switch to the Storyboard mode. To add video effects, select the View video effects option from the Edit Movie menu. Then select the effect you want to add, and then drag it to the desired clip. The effect can be viewed in a preview window. The star in the lower left corner turns blue when an effect has been added.

·  To add transitions between clips, switch into the Storyboard mode. From the Edit Movie menu, select the View Video Transitions option. Select the transition you want to add, and then drag it to the transition panel between the clips.

To add audio:

To add audio/music, you first have to import your audio/music files and you must switch to the Timeline mode. Then click the Show collections from the Edit Movie menu. Select the audio/music file you want to add, and then drag it to the Audio/Music slot.

·  In the Taskpane, click on Import audio or music.

·  Navigate to the music track you would like to add to the movie.

·  Click on Import.

·  The music track will appear in your Collection view.

·  Click on Show Timeline button in the Storyboard section of your screen.

·  Drag your music track to the Audio/Music level of the Timeline.

·  Import clips and then drag them to the timeline.

Adding Text

To add text, select the clip you want to add text then select Make titles or Credits from the Edit Movie menu.

·  To add a title, select the first clip and then click Make titles or credits from the Edit menu. Then select Add title at the beginning of the movie. Enter the title.

·  To add animation to your title, select Change the title animation then select the animation you want to add. You can also change your text font size, style, and color by selecting Change the text font and color option. Once you made your choice, click Done, add title to movie.

·  To add the credits at the end of your production, select Make titles or credits from the Edit menu, select Add credits at the end of the movie, and add credits for your production. You can may edit your text and add animations as well. When you are finished, click Done, add title to movie.

Finalizing the Movie

Movie Maker files must be saved as movie files after they are completed so they can be viewed using a media player.

·  To finalize your movie, you must choose one of the following options:

o  Save to my computer

o  Save to CD

o  Send an email

o  Send to the Web

o  Send to DV camera

·  Save Movie Wizard makes it easy to save your project as a final movie. Timing, layout, and content are all saved as one complete movie. You can save and store the movie on your computer, portable drive, or CD/DVD. You can send it as an attachment in an e-mail message or upload it on the Web. You can also choose to record your movie on a tape in a digital video camera. You will need to balance quality against file size: the better the quality, the larger the resulting file size.

·  Select, Save to my computer, name your movie, and then click Next.

·  You can stay with the default setting, or if you wish to change it, click on Show more choices option. Then it will give you more option to choose from. Once you made your selection, click Next.

·  Once it has finished recording, click Finish.