Preparing to Produce a Movie

Windows Movie Maker is an excellent tool to use if you want to turn multimedia files into a movie. The first thing you need to do is assemble your files. You can also modify your video files by snipping them into two or more clips or combining two or more files into a single file.

Gather Your Files

Start Movie Maker from the Start menu.

Click the Show Or Hide Collections button to show the Collections pane if it isn't displayed.

Choose New Collection Folder from the File menu. Name the new folder.

With the new folder selected, click Import Media to display the Import Media Items dialog box, locate and select the video file or files you want, and click Import. Continue importing video files until you have all the items you want for your movie.

Click Import Media again, and use the Import Media Items dialog box to import any photos or audio files you want to use in your movie.

Press F12, or choose Save Project from the File menu, and save the project.

Tip

You can drag photos or videos from Windows Photo Gallery onto your Movie Maker Collections folder to quickly add them to your collection.

Create Clips

Double-click a video file that you want to split into one or more clips to start playing it.

Click the Next Frame and the Previous Frame buttons to pause the video and locate the exact frame at which you want to split the clip in two.

Click the Split button.

Combine Clips

Select two or more of the clips you want to combine.

Choose Combine from the Clip menu.

Save the project, and use the Movie Maker tools to create your movie.

See Also

"Editing Your Movie Layout" on page 167 for information about modifying your clips after you've placed them in your movie.