How-To Make Marvelous Movies with Movie Maker

By Duluth Denfeld Library Media Center

Movie Maker is a great way to present your story to an audience. The most important part is the story. The visual component is secondary. The types of movies are as follows:

  • Visual essays
  • Much like a PowerPoint (with or without narration)
  • Documentary
  • Research based
  • Digital storytelling or poetry
  • Tells a personal story or poem

Movie Maker tends to freeze up, so Save often, Save often, Save often.

  1. Setting up your folders

You will create a folder inside your “My Videos” folder, which is located in your “My Documents” folder.

  • From your desktop, open up “My Documents.”
  • Open up “My Videos” folder. Click on “Make a new folder.”
  • Call it ______Project
  • Inside this project folder, create a folder called Pictures (you will need to click on “Make a new folder).
  • Inside this project folder, create a folder called Videos (you will need to click on “Make a new folder).
  • Inside this project folder, create a folder called Music (you will need to click on “Make a new folder).
  • Every component of your movie must be saved in the Project folder and in the correct folder, or your movie will have red X’s instead of what you thought would be there. (See note at end to possibly remedy this problem.)
  1. Finding your pictures can be done several ways:
  2. You may scan pictures to use in your movie.
  3. You may download pictures from your digital camera to use in your movie – make sure your video camera will work first with our software and firewire! BRING ALL YOUR CORDS WITH YOUR CAMERA. Do a test run first before you spend a lot of time shooting stills.
  4. You may use Google Images to find pictures
  5. The frame in Moviemaker is 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels tall
  6. Try to find pictures that are at least 2/3 that size so they don’t become blurry
  7. Try to find pictures that are wider than they are tall—tall pictures will have black on the sides in you Moviemaker project
  8. Click on the picture, and then click on “See full size Image”
  9. Copy and paste the web address onto a Word document so that you can add it later to your credits
  10. Right click on the picture and choose to open it in Photo Draw
  11. Using Photo Draw
  12. You may sharpen, colorize, distort, etc.
  13. After resizing the picture in Photo Draw, save it into the Picture folder inside the your Project folder. Save as a JPEG.
  14. All pictures that you find must be imported into your project.
  15. Once imported, pictures can be dragged onto the timeline.
  1. Capturing video from a videotape. To capture from a videotape, have your videotape cued up to the appropriate place
  2. You can only use the computer connected to the scanner in the library to capture video from a tape.
  3. Choose “Capture video from a video device”
  4. Name your video
  5. When choosing a place to save, click Browse and choose the desktop at the top of the list.
  6. Follow the directions on the screen to capture your video.
  7. When you are finished capturing, open up your project folder and move your video from the desktop to your video folder in your project folder.
  8. Be sure to cite any copyrighted tape.
  9. Many videos that you find on the internet may not be able to be copied and used as they are protected by copyright, so….
  10. Use Power Media Plus instead to get videos that will be OK to use. Username isAsk at the Media Center desk.
  1. Capturing video from a digital movie camera:
  2. You may download videos from your digital movie camera to use in your movie – make sure your video camera will work first with our software and firewire! BRING ALL YOUR CORDS WITH YOUR CAMERA. Do a test run first before you spend a lot of time shooting video.
  3. You can only use the production computer in the research lab to capture video from a camera.
  4. Choose “Capture video from a video device”
  5. Name your video
  6. When choosing a place to save, click Browse and choose the desktop at the top of the list.
  7. Follow the directions on the screen to capture your video.
  8. When you are finished capturing, open up your project folder and move your video from the desktop to your video folder.
  1. Importing captured video
  • Captured video will automatically appear on your top pallet but you must import it to be able to slide it to your movie to avoid the dreaded red X’s.
  1. Setting up your title and credits
  2. Set up the beginning of the movie before you start the movie, title at the beginning. You will add credits at the end. Choose “Edit Movie/Make titles or credits.”
  3. The title can consist of several frames
  4. In the credits, cite every picture or video that is not your original work
  5. At the top of the credits frame, type “Works Cited.”
  6. For videos projects we will use an abbreviated form of “Works Cited.” For websites, in the left column, type the title of your website, i.e. Google Images; in the right-hand column type the URL. (Check the library webpage for other sources.)
  1. Doing your narration
  2. Write down what you intend to say
  3. Edit, rewrite, polish
  4. Create your clips in short segments of one or two sentences
  5. Click on the icon that looks like a microphone above the timeline
  6. Adjust the volume control so that you don’t go into the red (distortion)
  7. Modulate your voice so that none of the words jump into the red
  8. Use a microphone to direct the sound and cut out background noise. Please ask to use the microphones.
  9. MovieMaker will automatically make a Narration folder, but it will not be placed into your project folder – you will have to move this Narration folder into your Project folder
  10. When you save it, name it in logical sequence (a, b, c, or 1, 2, 3 or a key word)
  11. Drag the clips onto the timeline where you want them to be
  12. You may right click on the timeline to adjust the volume
  1. Adding music
  2. Music is the last element to add. To get music (over your narration) onto your project you must first Finalize your project – get help with this.
  3. Go to
  4. This music is copyright free
  5. Choose MP3 files – click on a song and choose a short clip
  6. Right click on the clip you want to use and “Save Target As” into your Music folder inside your project folder.
  7. In MovieMaker, import the clip (at the very end of your project). You will have to first finalize your project to add music over your narration. (See below - #10).
  8. Drag the clip onto your timeline where needed
  9. Right click on the music clip to adjust volume, fade-in/fade-out, etc.
  10. If you use copyrighted music, you may only use 30 seconds, which is considered “fair use” for education. You may “rip,”not “burn,” copyrighted music. Go to Start/Programs/Windows Media Player. Choose “Rip Music from CD by using Windows Media Player.” When you rip music, it automatically stores the file in a “My Music” folder in My Documents, not in your project folder. You will have to move the file to My Videos/My Project/Music. The program will give you clips of the music that you can drag onto your project timeline.
  11. DO NOT BREAK COPYRIGHT LAW!
  12. To get music (over your narration) onto your project you must first finalize your project – get help with this. Then you will import this newly created video and drag it to the top line of a new project and then add your music to the storyboard.
  13. If you do not get sound when finding your music clips, go to Start/Programs/Accessories/Multimedia/Volume and unclick where the sound may be muted.
  14. Cite your source for music onto your credits page.
  1. Timing the slides and prettying them up
  2. You may stretch the picture to the amount of time you want (on the timeline view)
  3. Hover until you see the double red arrow and pull it to the correct duration (the red arrow will trim or stretch pictures). Your stretched picture will then remain on the screen until your narration has ended.
  4. You may overlap the slides to make them flow better
  5. Hover until you see the hand and pull the blue line into the slide to the left (the hand will drag pictures)
  6. You may go to Video Effects to pretty up the effect
  1. Making transitions between pictures
  2. You may go to Video Transitions to drag in transitions—best done in the StoryBoard mode
  1. Finalizing your movie –GET HELP
  2. Once you finalize you will not be able to change your movie, so be sure you are completely done before finalizing (see above if you will be adding music)
  3. Make a copy of your movie (Save Project As) – call it something else, just in case something happens to your original during finalizing
  4. Under Finish Movie – click on “Save to my computer”
  5. Click Browse to save to the desktop (top of list).
  6. Click next, twice
  7. It will take about 15 minutes
  8. Go to My Computer; open up My Documents
  9. Move your finished movie from the Desktop to My Documents/MyVideos/My Project
  10. When you log off, your finalized movie (located on the desktop) will disappear, so be sure that you put it into your movie folder before logging off.
  11. The icon of your finalized movie will look like a DVD, not a movie reel – you’ll know then that it has been finalized

Important Notes:

  • If you open your project to work on it again, and it comes up with red X’s instead of pictures or videos, don’t panic…yet. Right click on the red X and select “Browse for Missing File.” When you bring in the first missing file, the rest MAY follow.
  • Do not use red text – it does not show up when viewing your projects through the Infocus projector.
  • 99.9% of your researchor writing should be completed BEFORE you even open up MovieMaker and begin – content, content, content is what is important. 99.9% of your narration (written down) also needs to be complete before starting your project.
  • A rule of thumb is that every minute of video takes two hours to complete. Allow yourself enough time to complete your project. Expect problems and mistakes that will need to be corrected, re-done, etc.
  • Your first project in MovieMaker will be learning experience! Be organized, be creative, have fun.

Your Notes:

Developed by L. Boehland, East High School & L. Vukson, Central High School