Working with Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker works by dividing your home movie into scene segments it calls clips. You can then rearrange and delete specific clips to edit the flow of your movie.

The basic WMM window is divided into four main parts, as shown in Figure 34.1.

Figure 34.1. Editing home movies with Windows Movie Maker.

Recording from a Camcorder

Each movie you create with WMM is called a project. For most WMM projects, your main source material will be your original videotape(s). You use Windows Movie Maker to record the tape as you play it back on your VCR or camcorder.

note

WMM can display either the Tasks or Collections pane, but not both. Switch between them by using the Tasks and Collections buttons on the WMM toolbar.

After you have the camcorder or VCR connected and turned on, select File, Capture Video. This launches the Video Capture Wizard. Follow the onscreen instructions to select the capture device you want to use, specify where you want the captured video (and audio) file to be saved, and choose the video setting (the level of recording quality).

After you click the Record button in the wizard, press the Play button on your camcorder or VCR. WMM now automatically records the playback from your input device. (Recording will stop when you press the Stop button, or after two hours, whichever comes first.) The new clips you create will now appear in the Collections area of the Movie Maker window.

tip

When you're capturing raw video into WMM, always use the highest possible quality level. For digital video, that's the DV AVI format.

Editing Your Video

You create your movie in the Storyboard area at the bottom of the Movie Maker window. You create a movie by dragging clips down into the Storyboard. You can insert clips in any order, and more than once if you want to. After the clips are in the Storyboard, you can drag them around in a different order. This is how you edit the flow of your movie.

When you get the basic flow of your movie in place, you can switch from Storyboard to Timeline view, shown in Figure 34.2. You switch views by clicking the Show Timeline/Show Storyboard button just above the Storyboard/Timeline. In the Timeline view, you see the timing of each segment, and can overlay background music and narration.

Figure 34.2. Displaying your clips in Timeline view.

Working with Movie Maker's clips is fairly intuitive. Just drag things into place and move them around as you like, and you have 90% of it mastered. The major operations are described in Table 34.1.

Table 34.1. Windows Movie Maker Clip Operations

Operation	Instructions
Add a clip	Use your mouse to drag the new clip from the Contents pane into position in the Storyboard/Timeline.
Move a clip	Grab the clip with your mouse and drag it to the new position.
Remove a clip	Select the clip and select Edit, Delete.
Trim a clip	Set the clip's start and end trim points; everything outside these two points will be trimmed.
Split a clip	Begin playing the clip in the monitor; when you reach the point where you want to make the split, click the Pause button, and then select Clip, Split.
Combine two or more clips	Select the clips (by holding down Ctrl while clicking each clip) and then select Clip, Combine.

Titles, Transitions, and Other Options

WMM 2 also lets you add some neat bells and whistles to your video movies. For example, you can add

tip

As you work, you can preview your project-in-process with the Movie Maker Monitor. Just select one or more clips in the Storyboard/Timeline, and then click the Play button on the Monitor.

• Titles and credits (select Tools, Titles and Credits)

• Transitions between clips (select Tools, Video Transitions)

• Special effects, such as blurs, fades, film-aging, sepia tones, and double-speed and half-speed effects (select Tools, Video Effects)

• Background music (insert an audio clip the same way you insert a video clip)

• Narration (select Tools, Narrate Timeline)

Savingand WatchingYour Movie

When you're done editing, you save your project by selecting File, Save Project. This does not save a movie file, howeverit only saves the component parts of your project.

When your project is absolutely, positively finished, you actually make the movie. Select File, Save Movie to launch the Save Movie Wizard. From here, you select where to save the movie file, 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 either an AVI- or WMV-format file. (AVI is the preferred format if you'll be burning the movie to DVD.) Be patientcreating a movie can take some time!

Burning Your Movie to DVD

Once you've created your final movie file, you can use third-party software to burn the file to DVD so that it can be viewed by anyone with a DVD player. Learn more about DVD-burning software, such as Sonic MyDVD, in Chapter 35, "Burning and Copying DVDs."

The Absolute Minimum

Here are the key points to remember from this chapter:

• For the best results, stay all-digital throughout the entire video editing process; this means recording your original movie in Digital8 or MiniDV format.

• Windows Movie Maker is a digital video editing program, included with Windows XP, that you can use to edit your home movies originally recorded on videotape.

• The bits and pieces of your project are called clips; you put together your movie by dragging clips into the Workspace area at the bottom of the Movie Maker window.

• Windows Movie Maker saves your movie in a WMV-format file; you can then use a DVD-burning program to copy the movie to DVD for playback.