Creating Movies with Windows Live Movie Maker (part 1) - Creating and Editing Your Live Storyboard

1. Getting Started with Windows Live Movie Maker

When you are working with Windows Live Photo Gallery, you can select the initial pictures and videos you want to work with, click Make and then click “Make a Movie” to open Windows Live Movie Maker with these items selected. Otherwise, you can start Windows Live Movie Maker by clicking Start→All Programs→Windows Live→Windows Live Movie Maker.

As Table 1 shows, Windows Live Movie Maker works with a wide variety of image, sound, and video formats. This list is different from the formats supported by Windows DVD Maker. The key change is that Windows Live Movie Maker supports AIFF and AU sound formats, and Windows DVD Maker does not.

Windows Live Movie Maker works with files that are already in the proper formats and doesn’t include features for converting formats. When you start working with Windows Live Movie Maker, shown in Figure 1, you’ll see that it has these key features:

A menu ribbon

Has Home, Animations, Visual Effects panes with options for the common tasks that you may need to perform when making a movie as well as View, Edit and Options panes for preview, editing and configuring additional settings. These panes are accessed by selecting the related tab. The menu button to the right of the Home tab is referred to as the Movie Maker button.

A Preview pane

Allows you to preview the video.

A work area

Allows you to manage the media items you’ve added to the video.

Using the options provided in the main window, you create movies by following a series of prescribed steps. The basic steps are as follows:

I discuss tasks related to each step in the sections that follow.

2. Creating and Editing Your Live Storyboard

In Windows Live Movie Maker, each video you are producing is created as a video project with a live storyboard. The live storyboard provides a representation of each media item you’ve added to the video in the order the items are played. In this way, the live storyboard not only serves as an outline for the presentation, but it also lets you visualize the project in a way you otherwise would not be able to. At a glance, you can see the work from start to finish, and this is extremely important in the way you conceptualize the project.

As you add media items to your video, you build the live storyboard and set the play order for each item you are including. To your live storyboard, you can add text, effects, and transitions. Unlike Windows DVD Maker, Windows Live Movie Maker doesn’t put pictures into a separate folder. Instead, all media items are added to the same storyboard.

As with Windows DVD Maker, you can select all the pictures and videos you want to use in Windows Live Photo Gallery first, and then add the selected items automatically to Windows Live Movie Maker.

In Windows Live Movie Maker, you can select the items to add to your video by completing the following steps:

As you add media items to the storyboard, Windows Live Movie Maker lists the runtime of the video as the second time entry in the preview area. This runtime may change if you modify the transitions and effects applied.

After you add items, you can fine-tune the play order. To change the play order of an item or a group of items, select the item or items and then drag left, right, up or down until you reach the desired position. To remove an item, right-click it and then select Remove. Removing an item removes it from the storyboard but does not delete it from your computer.

While you are optimizing the play order, you may want to preview the video. As Figure 3 shows, the Preview pane provides the following button controls:

Play/Pause

If you click the Play button, the video plays from the current position in the storyboard. Clicking the Play button again pauses playback.

Previous Frame

Rewinds to the previous frame of the video.

Next Frame

Advances to the next frame of the video.

Timeline

Tracks the video timeline and the current frame position within the video. If you click and drag the Current Frame button on the end of the timeline slider, you can fast-forward or rewind through a video. If you click a specific part of the timeline, you can go to that time in the video.

By default, each picture in the slideshow is displayed for 3 seconds, and transitions last for a portion of the display time. You can change the display time for a selected picture or pictures by clicking Edit on the toolbar to display the Edit bar and then entering a new display time in the Duration text box (see Figure 4).

When deciding the length of time to display pictures, keep in mind the prospective audience and the tempo of your soundtrack. If the music in your soundtrack has a relatively fast beat, you may want to use a shorter display duration. If the music in your soundtrack has a slower beat, you might want to use a longer display duration. In most cases, you’ll want pictures to be displayed for between 3 and 10 seconds.

Anytime you are working with a video clip, you have several editing options. To view these options, click Edit on the toolbar to display the Edit bar. On the Video panel of the Edit bar, you have sound and video editing options. To control the sound in the video, you can:

• Click Video Volume and then change the volume or mute the sound of the video.

• Click in the Fade In list to use the Slow, Medium, or Fast fade in options for the sound.

• Click in the Fade Out list to use the Slow, Medium, or Fast fade out options for the sound.

You can click the Split button to split the video into two clips at the current position. You also can click Trim to access the Trim bar, which is shown in Figure 5. While working with the Trim bar, you can:

• Trim the beginning of the video clip by clicking and dragging the Trim Beginning slider

• Trim the ending of the video clip by clicking and dragging the Trim Ending slider

• Save the trimmed values and exit the Trim bar by clicking Save Trim

• Exit the trim bar without saving by clicking Cancel

While you are fixing your storyboard, you can use the Undo button (Ctrl-Z) to undo any changes you don’t like, or the Redo button (Ctrl-Y) to redo changes you previously undid.