Movie Making Movie Making WorkshopWorkshop

August 17-18, 2009

Movie Making Workshop• What is a Movie?• Why are Movies made?• Music Videos• Tips and Techniques• Windows Movie Maker

– User Interface• How To Start Making Your Movie• Importing a Video Clip• The Storyboard• The Timeline

– The Video Track– Using Video Effects– The Transition Track– Using Video Transitions– The Audio Track– The Audio/Music Track– The Title Overlay Track– Using Titles and Credits

• Trimming Clips• Splitting Clips• Things to Remember• Saving Your Movie• Advanced Settings• Advanced Movie Makers

First of all, what is a MOVIE?

• A movie is a sequence of photographs projected onto a screen with sufficient rapidity as to create the illusion of motion and continuity.

• It is a form of entertainment that enacts a story by a sequence of images giving the illusion of continuous movement; film.

Why are MOVIES made?

• Movies are used to entertain, inform, and inspire people, or express emotions, thoughts, and ideas to viewers.

• Mini movies, on the other hand, are, as implied, small-scale movies, such as music videos, short movies, and the like, and serve the same purpose as any other movie.

REMINDER: A MOVIE IS NOT A MOVIE WITHOUT A STORY.

The common mistake of the average movie maker is making movies which include clips that he finds wonderful, and because of his awe he forgets that a movie should not merely be continuous flashing of videos and images, but instead should be a SEQUENCE of videos

and images which MAKE UP A STORY

“A great film is like LIFE itself: it possesses a sense of being born new, young and naïve, and then over the

course of the “life” of the film, it grows up, faces decisions and responsibilities, learns hard lessons and then confronts death. This is why with great films we

derive a sense of a circle being completed, of the journey mirroring life in a satisfying manner.”

MUSIC VIDEOS

• Why make a music video?– To get experience in moviemaking, making a music

video may be useful before you try making a feature film.

– Music videos are a way of exploring visuals and styles in an abstract or surreal way without being confined by narrative restrictions. True expression can be found in these visuals, instead of trying to get a message across through actors and dialogue in a scripted environment.

TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

• It is a good habit to make an outline or a plan about your movie before actually making it.

• Keep it simple yet meaningful.• Plan and make the movie in such a way

that your purpose is achieved, and make sure that it is not only you who is satisfied. You should always think of your target audience.

WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER

• It is the most common software used by ordinary people to create movies that show their emotions, their way of life, interests, talents, ideas and opinion.

WINDOWS MOVIE MAKERTo open Windows Movie Maker, click on the Start menu, go to Programs, and click Windows Movie Maker.

Windows Movie Maker has a very friendly user interface.

This is where the media that you import can be seen.

This is the storyboard where you can drag the media to make your movie.

This is where a preview of your movie can be seen.

Menu BarToolbar

Movie Tasks Pane

How to Start Making Your Movie

• First, click File under the Menu Bar and choose “New Project”, or press Ctrl+N.

• Import media (media pertains to images, audio, and video files). This can be done by clicking the corresponding links under “Capture Video” in the Movie Tasks pane (left part of the screen).

Importing a Video Clip

• When a video that you import is too long, Windows Movie Maker automatically cuts the video into several clips.

• To combine parts of a video into one single clip, select the desired parts, right-click the selected videos, and choose “Combine”. The shortcut for this is to select the desired parts and press Ctrl+M.

Importing a Video Clip

• Try this: Import Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 into your Windows Movie Maker collections.

• Notice that the video is cut into several clips.

• Combine the first 3 clips of the entire video.

• Now that it is combined into 1 clip, cut it into three clips again.

How to Start Making Your Movie

• Drag the media into the storyboard/timeline.• The storyboard is the default view in Windows

Movie Maker.• To switch to the storyboard view, just click the

“Show Storyboard” button above the timeline. The same can be done to switch from storyboard view to timeline view. The keyboard shortcut for switching between these two views is Ctrl+T.

The Storyboard

• You can use the storyboard to look at the sequence or ordering of the clips in your project and easily rearrange them, if necessary.

• This view also lets you see any video effects or video transitions that have been added.

• You can also preview all of the clips in your current project.

• Audio clips that you have added to a project are not displayed on the storyboard; however, they are displayed in the timeline.

The Timeline

• You can use the timeline to review or modify the timing of clips in your project.

• Use the timeline buttons to perform tasks such as changing the view of your project, zooming in or out on details of your project, recording narration, or adjusting the audio levels.

The Timeline

• The timeline displays the following tracks to indicate what types of files you have added to your current project:– Video– Transition– Audio– Audio/Music– Title Overlay

The Timeline – Video Track

• The Video track lets you see what video clips, pictures, or titles you have added to the project.

• You can expand the Video track to show the corresponding audio accompanying the video, as well as any video transitions you have added.

• After a clip is added to the timeline, the name of the source file appears on that clip.

• If you add any video effects to the picture, video, or title, a small icon (a star) appears on the clips to indicate that a video effect has been added to that clip.

Using Video Effects to Enhance Your Movies

• A video effect determines how a video clip, picture, or title displays in your project and final movie. Video effects let you add special effects to your movie. A video effect is applied for the entire duration that the video clip, picture, or title displays in your movie. You can add any of the video effects that appear in the Video Effects folder in the Collections pane.

The Timeline – Transition Track

• The Transition track lets you see any video transitions you have added to the timeline.

• This track only appears if you have expanded the Video track.

• When a transition is added to the timeline, the name of the transition is shown. You can drag the start trim handle that appears when the transition is selected to increase or decrease its duration.

Using Video Transitions to Enhance Your Movies

• A video transition controls how your movie plays from one video clip or picture to the next. You can add a transition between two pictures, video clips, or titles, in any combination, on the storyboard/timeline. The transition plays before one clip ends and while the other clip starts to play. Windows Movie Maker contains various transitions you can add to your project. Transitions are stored in the Video Transitions folder in the Collections pane.

The Timeline – Audio Track

• The Audio track lets you see the audio that is included in any video clips you have added to the project.

• Like the Transition track, you can only see the Audio track if you have expanded the Video track.

• Warning: If you select the audio clip on this track and delete it, the video portion is also removed from the Video track.

The Timeline – Audio/Music Track

• The Audio/Music track lets you see any audio clips that you have added to the project. The name of the audio clip appears on the clip.

• You can also add video clips to this track if you want the audio, but not the video, to play in your project and final movie.

SIMPLE MOVIE MAKING ACTIVITY 1

• VIDEO CLIP: Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2• AUDIO CLIP: Croatian Rhapsody• EXPECTED OUTPUT: The video of Rachmaninov

Piano Concerto No. 2 is played, but not with its corresponding audio. Instead, it is simultaneously played with the audio clip Croatian Rhapsody.

• Save as “SMMA1” Project File and Movie File.• You are given 5 minutes to finish the activity.

The Timeline – Title Overlay Track

• The Title Overlay track lets you see any titles or credits that you have added to the timeline.

• You can add multiple titles to this track at different points in your movie.

• The titles overlay the video that is displayed. • You can drag the start or end trim handle that

appears when the title is selected to increase or decrease its duration.

Using Titles and Credits to Enhance Your Movies

• Titles and credits let you enhance your movie by adding text-based information to your movie. You can add whatever text you want, but you may want to include information such as the title of your movie, your name, the date, and so forth. You can change the appearance of the title or credit, in addition to changing the title animation, which determines how your title or credit displays in your movie.

Using Titles and Credits to Enhance Your Movies

• When adding titles or credits to a movie, do the following: – Select where you want your title to appear in your

movie. You can put titles at the beginning of the movie, before, after, or on a selected clip of the movie, or at the end of the movie.

– Enter text for the title. – Select an animation style for the title. – Select the font and colors for your title. – Add the title to your movie.

Using Titles and Credits to Enhance Your Movies

• To edit existing titles, select and right-click the title clip, and choose Edit Title.

• To edit the duration of the title, drag the clip to the left or to the right, just like what you would do to edit the duration of other clips such as images.

• To remove a title, select the title clip and press Delete.

Trimming Clips

• To trim unwanted portions of your clip, use the trim handles, which appear when you select a clip. This can be done when you are in the timeline view.

• You can also make the duration of an image longer by dragging the trim handles to the right.

• You can also make two clips overlap with each other by using the trim handles and dragging it to the left/right until you see the two clips overlap. Doing this will give the two clips a cross-fade transition by default.

Splitting Clips

• To split clips, go to the Timeline view and select the entire clip which you want to split. Place the play head in the exact position you want, and click the split button, which can be found at the lower right part of Windows Movie Maker’s monitor.

Things to Remember:• To increase the duration, drag the end of the

clip/transition towards the end of the timeline.• To decrease the duration, drag the end of the

clip/transition towards the beginning of the timeline.• If you want the audio of the video, but not the video itself,

add the video clip to the Audio/Music track instead of the Video Track.

• If you want the video, but not its audio, right click the audio of the Video (in the Audio Track of the timeline) and select MUTE. You will then be able to put another audio file that you want to play simultaneously with the video by putting the desired audio file in the Audio/Music part of the timeline.

• Deleting the audio part of the Video in the Audio Track will automatically delete the Video as well.

Things to Remember:

• Deleting a clip, a transition, title, and other elements of the movie is very easy. All you have to do is select the clip and press Delete.

• The Movie Maker Project File is not yet the final movie. You will still have to save its Movie File.

Saving Your Movie

• To save your movie, select File, “Save Movie File”. The Save Movie Wizard will then appear.

• The Save Movie Wizard lets you quickly save your project as a final movie. The timing, layout, and contents of the project are saved as one complete movie. You can save and store the movie on your computer or on a recordable CD, or you can send it as an attachment in an e-mail message or to a video hosting provider on the Web.

• After choosing where you want your movie to be stored, specify the movie file name, and wait for your movie to be saved. The file type of your movie is WMV (Windows Media Video). You can convert this into other file types using Video Converter programs.

Advanced Settings• Go to the Tools menu and select Options. In the

Advanced tab, you can change Picture durations.• Picture durations specify the default amount of time you

want pictures to display in your project when added to the Video track of the timeline or to the storyboard.

• The default duration is determined by the current setting when the clip is added to the storyboard/timeline.

• For example, if you imported several pictures and then added them to the storyboard/timeline with the Picture duration option set to five seconds, the pictures added to the Video track would display for five seconds. However, if you changed the default duration to 10 seconds and then added pictures to the storyboard/timeline, the newly added pictures would display for 10 seconds.

Advanced Movie Makers

• Some advanced movie makers have developed lots of new things for Windows Movie Maker by manipulating XML codes.

• PapaJohn.org is one of the many websites which offer free and safe downloads for Windows Movie Maker. They offer custom overlay, transitions, effects, and a lot more, so that you have more choices when you are enhancing your movies.

• There are many more techniques that you can use to enhance your movies. YouTube.com has a lot of video tutorials that teach both basic and advanced Movie Making.

MOVIE MAKING ACTIVITY 1

• Make a simple music video using your own video, image, and audio clips.

• Make use of trimming and splitting techniques.• Use the following:

– Video Transitions– Video Effects– Titles and Credits

• Title Overlay

• Save as “Movie Making Activity 1” Project File and Movie File.

• You are given 15 minutes to finish the activity.

THANK YOU & GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR

MOVIE MAKING CAREER!

“…What’s worst about watching a bad movie is being in one.”

- Elvis Presley