Create a Digital Story With Windows MovieMaker ®

Magnolia Independent School District

Table of Contents First Things First ……………………………………… 1-2 Saving Your Project ………………..…………….………3-4 Importing Pictures …………….…..…………….………5-6 2 Different Views in MovieMaker……….………...……7-8 Adding Pictures to Timeline or Storyboard..…...…9-10 Titles & Credits………………………………....…...…11-14 Transitions……………………………………....…...…15-16 Narrating Your Project…………………........…...…16-20 Saving Your Project As A Movie File…........…...…20-23 Common Errors…........…………………………………...…24

Creating a Digital Story in Windows MovieMaker The very first thing you should do when starting a digital story project is

create a folder where all of your files will be stored. This includes any pictures, video clips, or sound files that you plan to use.

It is

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT

that everything for this project

be stored in this one folder, not spread out (i.e. the pictures in one folder, the narration files in another, and the MovieMaker project file in still another). When saving during your project, you have to watch out and make sure you navigate to this new folder you just created. By default, MovieMaker will suggest you save things (narration, project file, etc..) in different locations.

You have to change the location to your new folder that you created. 1

BEFORE you even start your project in Windows MovieMaker, you need to collect all of the pictures and video that you will use in your project and save them to the folder you just created. Do that

NOW before you proceed to the next step.

When you are ready to start your project, double click the Windows MovieMaker icon.

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SAVE, SAVE, SAVE ! ! ! When you start MovieMaker, the VERY FIRST thing you must do is SAVE YOUR PROJECT. Windows MovieMaker is notorious for freezing up and if you haven’t saved your project recently, any work you have done since the last save will be lost.

To save your project, click on File, then on Save Project

Movie Maker suggest Movie Maker will will suggest save project youyou save youryour project file file in the My Videos Folder in the My Videos Folder – –

don’t that . don’t dodo that

.

Instead, click the green arrow to go up one level.

After clicking the green arrow to go up one level, double click on project folder. Once you are in your project folder, change the name of your project from “Untitled” to something else and click the Save button.

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The good news is that once you go through the above process to save, all you have to do from then on is click the Save button OR simply press the “Ctrl” key and “S”

Remember to save and save often!!! 4

Adding Pictures to your Project Before you can add pictures to your project, you need to import them first. It is best to have collected all of your

photos/images BEFORE you do this step. If you need to add more pictures at a later date, that’s fine – just import those individually.

Importing pictures to use in your project: Click on Import Pictures Windows will want you to look in the My Pictures folder. Instead, click the green arrow to go up one level and then open your project folder and import your pictures from there.

If you have not already saved them to the project folder in your F: Drive,

STOP NOW and do that before continuing. 5

Once you have navigated to your project folder, select all of the picture files (hold down the CTRL key and press “A”) and click Import.

All of your pictures will now appear here in this window. 6

There are 2 different views for MovieMaker:

1. Storyboard

2. Timeline

It does not matter which view you choose to use while creating/editing your project. You can switch back and forth between the two. The only time you HAVE to use the Timeline view is when recording your narration – MovieMaker will not allow you to record your narration while in Storyboard view.

Storyboard View

To switch to the Timeline View, click here

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Timeline View

To switch to the Storyboard View, click here

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Adding pictures to the Timeline or Storyboard Once you have imported your pictures, you can begin adding them to the Timeline/Storyboard. For the example below, the Timeline view will be used. To add pictures to the timeline, simply click on a picture and drag it to the timeline. You can also add pictures the same way in the Storyboard View. If you get the pictures out of order or just want to rearrange, you can click and drag a picture to rearrange right there on the timeline.

If you want to delete a picture, click once on the picture and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

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Lengthen or shorten the duration of a photo To lengthen or shorten the duration of a photo, click on it in the timeline and when you have the double sided red arrow, you can click and drag to the left to shorten the duration and to the right to lengthen it.

Zooming in:

If you are having trouble seeing your pictures on the timeline, you can zoom in by clicking these buttons. Click the “ - “ sign to zoom back out. NOTE: Zooming in does not change the duration of your pictures.

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Inserting Titles & Credits Titles & Credits are a very important part of your project. A Title Slide is the first slide and introduces your project and a Credits Slide is the last slide.

No project is complete without BOTH of these slides. In addition to the beginning slide, you can also add a Title on top of a picture or video clip or a separate Title before a picture or video clip. For example, if you have an important picture or video clip in your project that has a special significance, you can preface or introduce the picture or video with a Title Slide.

To insert Titles or Credits, click

here on “Make titles or credits”.

After clicking on “Make titles or credits,” you will see this on your screen:

Click the appropriate choice. If you choose one of the middle 3 (i.e. you want to add a title before, after or on a selected photo), you will need to have clicked on the picture on the timeline before you click on Make titles or credits. 11

Editing your title Type in these boxes to create your title.

Click here to change how your title animates, or moves. Click here to change the font, the font color, and the background color.

Title Animation When you change the Title Animation, you are changing the way the title appears and goes away on a slide, or if you just want the title to stay there. To change the animation, click on “Change

the title animation” (above)

Animation Choices

There are many, many, different animations to choose from. Simply click once on the animation and a preview will appear in the window to the right.

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Preview Window

Title Background Color and Font Color You can change the font color of a title, as well as change the background color. To do this, click on “Change the text font and color” (See screenshot on previous page).

Click here to change the font.

Click here to change the font color.

Click here to change the background color.

Adding Credits Inserting credits at the end of your project is an important way to give credit where credit is due (bibliography) as well as put your names. You could even have fun with it and instead of putting your name, you could make up the name of a production company and put that instead. Remember – NO PROJECT at the end.

IS COMPLETE without credits

To insert a credits slide, simply click on “Make titles or credits”

After clicking on “Make titles or credits,” you will see this on your screen: Click here to add Credits to the end of your project. 13

Adding Credits – Cont’d. Once you click on “Add credits at the end of the movie,” you will be taken to this screen:

NOTE: The steps/procedure for Changing the animation, font, and background color is the same as it was for adding Title Slides – please see those instructions on the previous pages if you want to change the animation, font, or background color on your Credits Slide. You can add some pretty cool effects to your photos & video clips.

Adding Video Effects

Click on View Video Effects Next, just click and drag an effect to the timeline and drop it in front of the picture you want to add the effect to. You will see this blue line in front of the picture when you drag an effect to the timeline.

The effect will be added to the picture AFTER the blue line. 14

Adding Transitions Transitions are a very important part of your project. To add transitions, click on View Video Transitions.

To preview a transition, click once on it, then press the Spacebar on your keyboard. The preview of the transition will appear here. Once you have found a transition you like, click once and drag and drop it on the timeline between the two pictures that you want to use the transition. You can add transitions in the Storyboard View the same way.

You will see a blue line in between the pictures – that is where the transition will be added. 15

Lengthen, Shorten, or Delete a Transition

To lengthen or shorten the duration of a transition, click once on it. You will get a double-sided red arrow. Click and drag to either shorten or lengthen the duration. To delete a transition, click once on it and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

Narrating Your Project Narrating a project in Windows MovieMaker tends to be the most time consuming part of a project. Narration Tips: The microphone needs to remain absolutely still – DO NOT pick it up and move it. Write your script ahead of time or at least have an outline to go by. Like the microphone, your papers need to remain absolutely still – DO NOT hold them in your hands or pick them up. Make sure your mouth is about 6-8 inches from the microphone – do not get too close or too far. Speak with confidence in a nice, loud voice – but do not yell into the microphone. Talking too softly or too low is a common problem – it makes it very difficult to hear you! Also speak slowly (not too slow) and deliberately – don’t rush through it because you are nervous. It’s best to try and record in a quiet setting, without a lot of interference. Don’t get discouraged if you have to start over several times – lots of people have to start over many times!!! If you are really satisfied with your narration and you get interrupted before you can finish it (maybe the bell rings), you can save what you have done so far and record narration for the remainder of the project at a later date. All this means is that you will have 2 separatenarration recordings – one for the first part of your project and one for the last part.

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MovieMaker will only allow you to record your narration while using the Timeline View. You cannot record your narration in Storyboard View.

To begin recording your narration, click the microphone icon

When you are ready, click Start Narration.

If you mess up and want to start over, click Stop Narration and CANCEL on the next window that pops up.

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When you finish, click Stop Narration. A save window will pop up:

MAKE SURE you change the save location and

save your narration file to your project folder on your F: Drive. Clicking the green arrow once will take you to the My Videos folder. You will need to click the green arrow

To make sure you save your narration in the correct folder (your project folder), click the green arrow to go up one level:

AGAIN to go up one more level to your F: Drive to access your project folder.

Don’t click the Save button UNTIL you have opened your project folder.

Once you get to your F: Drive, double click on your project folder and save your narration inside your project folder. 18

Once you save your narration to the correct folder, it will automatically appear on the timeline.

You will likely need to trim either the beginning and/or the end of your narration. Sometimes the microphone picks up the rustling of papers before you start speaking or maybe a sigh of relief when you are finished. To trim, simply click once on the narration and move your mouse over the part you want to trim (beginning or end) and click and drag. You will likely need to do this several times so that you won’t accidentally trim off part of your speaking. You will need to preview it to make sure the narration was trimmed properly. Notice how the narration below does not go all the way to the end of the project. In this example, this person got interrupted and wasn’t able to finish. They trimmed their narration and saved what they had done up to the point of the interruption. The reason for doing this is maybe you have started over many times and have been doing really well on your current recording and then the bell rings before you were able to finish! All you would have to do now is record the narration for the remaining pictures.

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What happens if you are able to completely record your entire narration but it still doesn’t fit all the way to the end of the project?

OR maybe your narration is too long – goes past the end of your pictures? If your narration does not go all the way to the end of your project, that means you have either talked too fast or the duration of your pictures is too short. If your narration extends past the end of your project, that means you have either talked too long or too slow or the duration of your pictures is too long. If this happens to you, you have two choices: 1. You can re-record your narration in an effort to make it fit your pictures

OR 2. You can shrink or increase the duration of your pictures to fit the existing narration.

It’s much easier to do #2 that than to keep re-recording your narration!

HOORAY! LAST STEP: Save your project as a movie file. First, make sure you have saved your project file one last time before saving it as a movie file. Next, click on File, then on Save Movie File

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Click My Computer and then Next:

Name your movie file here Click Browse and navigate to your project folder on your F: Drive

Once you have selected your Project Folder, click OK

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Once the window looks like it does below, you may click Next.

Your project folder in your F: Drive must show here.

Click Next

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You will see this window as the movie is being created:

When your movie is finished, you will see the window below. If you want to view your movie now, leave this box checked and click Finish. If not, uncheck it and click Finish.

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VERY IMPORTANT: The file extension for MovieMaker projects is .MSWMM. Occasionally, the last 2 M’s will not be there and all you will see is .MSW. If you ever see just the .MSW, it is imperative that you add the 2 M’s to make it .MSWMM. You will know there is a problem if you go to open your project from within MovieMaker and go to your Project Folder and the project file appears to not be there. What you will have to do is go to your F: Drive by clicking on the Drives icon in the Novell window. From there, double click your F: Drive and go to your project folder. You may see a file there with the extension .MSW. If you do, change the extension to .MSWMM.

GOT RED X’S ? ? ? ? If you ever open your project and have these red X’s, that means that either a picture has been deleted after you inserted it or you moved your project file. THIS IS WHY IT’S SO IMPORTANT TO KEEP EVERYTHING IN YOUR PROJECT FOLDER AND NOT MOVE ANYTHING AFTER YOU START!!!

If you start your MovieMaker project working out of the one Project Folder and save EVERYTHING there, you won’t ever run into this problem. 24