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Creating a Video Using Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker is a free program that comes with the Windows operating system.  Movie maker will teach you all of the basic steps to create your own videos.  It is not as sophisticated as video production application that you can purchase, but is does do a good job at producing videos and will teach you the fundamental of the process.

To start Movie Maker in the classroom:

Click on the start button

Click on All Programs

Click on Accessories

Locate the MoveMaker application.

The Movie Maker window looks like the one below.

There are four main areas to the Move Maker Window;

Movie Tasks- lists the common tasks that you may need to perform when making a movie.

Collection – the area where you will place the individual items that eill make up your movie.

Monitor - Use the monitor to view individual clips or an entire project. By using the monitor, you can preview your project before saving it as a movie.

Storyboard – shows the sequence or ordering of the clips in your project and easily rearrange them.

Making Your Movie

Importing Video and Pictures

The first step in making a movie is to Import the Video.  You will see the following four options in the Capture Video task;

Capture from video device – if you have a device that contains video the program can move the video clips from the device to your PC.

Import video – imports video files saved on your PC

Import images – imports still images from our PC

Import audio – imports audio from files on your PC or CD

For this project we will use  import video and images.  The process of importing the video and images is not a difficult one.  It will be harder to find or create the materials you need to create your videos.

To import a video do the following

To import a video clip click on Import Video

The import File dialog box will open.  

Note that ti opens in the My Video folder.

Select the video clip you want to import and click the Import button.

Note: On some PC’s you can have only one video clip imported at a time.

If that is the case, before you import another video clip you will have to place the present one into the storyboard.

Importing Pictures

To import pictures do the following:

For pictures click on the Import Pictures link.

The import File dialog box will open.  

Note that ti opens in the My Pictures folder

Select the picture you want to import and click the Import button

The picture will appear in the Collections area.

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Adding Clips to the Story Board

Once you have selected your video clips and your images you add them to the storyboard in the sequence you want them to appear.  To add a video clip or image you select and drag it to the next open large white block in the story board.  Once you have your video and image clips in the story board you need to add transitions between them.

Adding Transitions to You Movie

In Edit Video click on View Video Transitions, the middle pane will change and show you the video transitions.  You can scroll down the list to see all of the available transitions.  To see how the transition looks before you select it, click on the transition and in the monitor click on the play button.

When you find one you like add it to you move. To do this select the transition and drag it to the small box between the two clips you want the transition to go between.  Once you have done this you can see what the transition looks like by playing the movie in the monitor.

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Creating Titles

To create various titles click on Make Titles and Credits.  The following list will appear

As you can see from the list there are various ways that you can add titles to the movie. When you click on any of the first four selections the following screen appears.

In the first box you can add a Major title, in the second box you can add a sub-title.

Once you have typed the title (there is no spell checker) you can change the animation of the title by clicking on Change the title animation.  A list of the available animations appears.  To see how an animation would look click on it the animation will appear in the blue pane.

To change the how the text for the title looks click on Change the text font and color link.  The following appears;

You have the ability to make all of the above changes to the title you have created.

These are the basic steps in creating your movie.  There is more that this program can do.  You can add audio to your move and you can add effects to you video clips.

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Saving Your Movie

Once you have completed your move you need to save your move as a project and as a playable file.

To save your movie as a project click on the file menu and select Save project as.  A dialog bow will open asking where you want to save the project.  You can either leave it in the My Video folder of select another location. Give you project a name and click on save.

This process saves your video in a format that can be edited again in the Movie Maker application

You also need to save it so that it can be played in applications like Widows Media player, to do the open Finish Movie, the following list will appear.

As you can see you have a number of options for saving you move so that it can be played.  In this class we will use the Save to my computer option.

When you click on that option the following will appear.

In this box you give you movie a title and select the folder to save it to, note the My videos is the default. Click on Next the following will appear.

In this box you will see one option for saving your move and at the bottom information about the file that will be saved.

Click Next the above dialog box will appear showing you the progress of the saving process.  This process can take several minutes depending on the size of your movie and the quality of your computer.  When this process completed a screen will appear asking you if you want to play the movie.  At the bottom of the box is the Finish button.  Click on that button and the process of saving your movie is complete.  If you left the Play movie when I click Finish selected your movie will play.

Once you have completed your movie you will upload it to me through the drop box on D2L.  Make sure that you send me the that has the wmn extension, it should be the one with the picture fo the first frame of your move with it

Importing Video and Pictures

Adding Clips to the Story Board

Adding Transitions to You Movie

Creating Titles

Saving Your Movie

Date modified 12-22-12

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