PROBLEM:
I enjoy recording many of my little learners’ activities during the year, and use my digital camera, for the most part. Several of my colleagues are sharing my same interest, and have asked me for help on numerous occasions.
Since Windows’ Movie Maker is difficult to use, I thought of creating a Trouble-Shooting Guide for myself and to help other PreK. teachers to edit movies so that parents could enjoy them at the end of the school year.
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IMPORTANT TERMS:
Timeline: This interface enables authors to lay a video project out in a linear fashion. Timelines are a standard feature in most video editing programs.
Interface: Two independent systems meet and act on, or communicate with each other. One example is how an end-user moves a mouse and types on a keyboard to select menu items in a computer application.
Video clip: Is a media segment containing video or video and audio.
AVI: AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave File. It is a video container or wrapper format created by Microsoft, which stores video data that may be encoded in a variety of codecs. The AVI format typically uses less compression than similar formats such as .MPEG and .MOV.
Codec: a device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. MPEG: Popular video format standardized by the Moving Picture Experts Group; often used for creating movies that are distributed over the Internet. MPEG movies are typically saved with an .MPG extension.
MOV: Common multimedia format often used for saving movies and other video files; it uses a proprietary compression algorithm developed by Apple which is compatible with both Apple and Windows platforms.
MP3: Is a very popular compressed audio file format which is small in size but surprisingly high in its fidelity to the original uncompressed audio file.
WINDOWS MAKER MOVIE PROGRAM: It is a free video editing program that works with the windows operating system. Movie Maker 2.1 is available for download with Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). You can download SP2, Movie Maker 2.1, and all future critical updates automatically by turning on the Automatic Updates feature in Windows XP.
Here
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REQUIREMENTS FOR WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER:
Processor: Personal or multimedia computer with a 600-megahertz (MHz) or higher processor.
Operation System:XP2 for Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional.
Memory: 128 Megabytes(MB) of RAM.
Hard Disk: 2.0 GB of available hard-disk space.
Drive: CD-ROM or DVD drive.
Display:
• Super VGA (800x600) or higher resolution monitor
• 256-color video card
• 3-D graphics acceleration
• Video adapter must be compatible with Windows XP
• DirectX 7.1 or later graphics support
Audio: Windows XP-compatible sound card and speakers or headphones.
Mouse: Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device.
Capture Hardware:
• Digital video (DV) camera.
• Digital camera with MPEGMovie VX
Other Devices: Internet connection may be required for some features.
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STEPS TO FOLLOW:
Part One: Transferring the Files
1.Make the video using your camera.
2.Transfer the images from your camera to your PC using a meter mini plug (shown below).
3. Connect the big side of the meter mini plug to the USB in your computer, and the small side to your camera (as shown below).
4. Turn your camera on.
5. Locate the folder containing your camera’s pictures on your PC. Double click the folder to open it. Minimize the folder.
6. Create a new folder in your PC, give it a name you will understand, such as G:/ “filmfolder”.
7. Open the folder from the camera and the new empty folder you just created. Put them side by side on your windows desktop.
8. Click inside of your camera’s folder (with all of the pictures) and hit ctrl A on your keyboard to select all of the photos.
9. Click on “Edit”, then click on “Copy”
10. Click inside of the new empty folder (filmfolder)
11. Click on “Edit”
12. Click on “Paste”
13. Close the camera’s window, and turn off your camera. Leave the new G:/“filmfolder” window open.
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STEPS TO FOLLOW:
Part Two: Making the Movie
1. Click on your PC’s Start Icon
2. Click on “All programs”
3. Go to “Accessories”
4. Click on “Windows Movie Maker” (An untitled Windows Movie Maker window should appear)
A. Capture video
1. Click on import video
Look in: your “Filmfolder”
Select the clip that you want to import.
Click on import (it takes a few seconds to import the clip selected)
All the clips that you imported will appear in the film clip.
Drag the clips; one by one clip and drop them on the timeline.
B. Edit Movie
1. Click on view video transitions Drag a video transition that you selected and drop it between two video clips on the timeline below.
C. Finish Movie
1. Click on “Save to my Computer”
Enter information for you saved movie file: type a file name for your saved movie (e.g. outdoordecoration)
Choose a place to save your movie. For example, G:/filmfolder
2. Click on “Next”
3. A window appears “Movie setting” Which determines the quality and file size of your saved movie.
Click on best quality for playback on my computer.
4. Click on “Next. It takes a few minutes to save. “be patient”.
5. A window appears “Completing the save Movie Wizard”.
Click on “Finish”
6. Your movie starts to play. Enjoy it!
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PROVIDE MAINTENANCE TIPS FOR AVOIDING PROBLEMS IN THE FUTURE:
Be sure to record your videos in your camera.
Have the Meter Mini Plug at hand.
Plug the Meter Mini Plug in right way.
Do not delete the videos from your camera until you finish making the movie, in case you need to transfer any video again.
Follow all the steps one by one.
