Mechanics of Movie Maker

Movie Maker Formating

Movie Maker works very well with videos formatted in a WMV format.  The problem is that most video recorders such as FLIP cameras, Bloggies and ipods are not formatted in this type.  FLIP cameras are normally formatted in a AVI format while Bloggies and ipods use mp4.  There are a few ways you can reformat your videos to work with Movie Maker.  Some schools have a program called Any Video Converter.  In this program, you select all the files that you would like to convert, select your new file type (WMV) and convert.  These converted videos will be found in you computers download folder called Any Video Converter and another file called WMV.  Make sure to save them off the computer so you know where to find them again.  Another way to convert is using a website called www.zamzar.com.  In Zamzar, click on the tab called convert file and then find the file needing converting.  In step 2, choose WMV and in step 3 add your email.  Step 4 is the convert stage.  What will happen is that Zamzar will email you your converted file in anywhere from 1 minute to 15 minutes depending on the website traffic.  When the email arrives, you need ot download the file and it is ready to use.  This process does take some time so you will want to plan ahead.

Movie Maker

When using Movie Maker, you will create your storyboard in the program.  You will want to create a hand drawn one with a template above, or one of your own first. Use the handouts on this link to help you create a movie using Movie Maker.

Movie Maker

(Used with permission from Heidi Catlin)