Saving Your Movie

You save your project by selecting File, Save Project. This does not save a movie file, however it only saves the component parts of your project.

When your project is absolutely, positively finished is when you actually make the movie. Select File, Save Movie and the Save Movie Wizard launches. From here you select where to save the movie file (your computer, a CD-R disc, an e-mail attachment, the Web, or to a tape in your DV camcorder), the name for the movie file, and the quality of the saved file. When you finish the wizard, WMM creates your movie and saves it as a WMV-format file. (Be patient creating a movie can take some time!)

Choosing the right quality level is important. The higher the quality, the larger the file size. (And movie files can get really big, really fast!) You can create smaller files by lowering the quality, but if the quality is too low, viewers might not be able to fully enjoy the movie.

That's why it's important to match the playback quality to the intended use. For most of us, it's easier to let WMM choose the right quality, by selecting the Best Quality for Playback on My Computer option. If you want total control over the final output quality, choose the Other Settings option and select from one of the 18 different formats available. The highest-quality formats are High Quality Video (NTSC), which is good for making DVDs and VHS-format tapes, and DV-AVI (NTSC), which is good for making DV tapes. Choose one of the other available formats for Internet-based transmission.

After you've saved your movie, you can use Windows Media Player to watch it. Just open the My Videos folder and click the movie you want to watch. WMP automatically launches and begins playing the movie.