Using Windows Live Movie Maker Handout

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Using Windows Live Movie Maker 2011

Learning Objectives Our leaning objectives today will include learning how to:

Download and install Windows Live Movie Maker and Photo Gallery from live.com; Understand the file types supported by Movie Maker; Understand photo and video resolutions in Windows; Navigate the user interface of Movie Maker; Organize a project in Movie Maker; Save a project file; Understand and set project aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9); Understand project view; Understand project preview; Add photos and videos to Movie Maker; Rearrange photo order in Movie Maker; Duplicate photos in Movie Maker; Modify the duration of photos in Movie Maker; Create titles, captions and credits in Movie Maker; Apply transitions between photos; Apply pan and zoom effects to photos; Apply visual effects to photos; Select multiple photos for animations, pan and zoom, or effects; Add music to a photo project; Create music end points; Add music from current point; Fade in/fade out music; Control music volume; Work with video in Movie Maker; Trim beginning and end of video clips; Split video and trim split end; Insert one video within another; Rotate video from a cell phone; Publish a brief movie to YouTube, SkyDrive and Facebook; Save a movie for re-use; Understand resolution options in Movie Maker; Create custom resolution for a saved movie; Understand DVD burning options; Understand the basics of Windows DVD maker; Understand file formats and upload/link options to Blackboard.

While there are a large number of objectives, they are very specific. We will be doing a photo and a video project and learning these skills as we proceed.


How to Download and Install Windows Live Movie Maker 2011 Get Movie Maker from live.com. You will note that when you download the Windows Live Essentials package you will have the option of selecting which products you want to download. If you already have one of the products installed, your option will be to upgrade it. Note also that you cannot download Movie Maker without also downloading Photo Gallery. Photo Gallery can be used to trim photos you place into Movie Maker to the correct aspect ratio.

Movie Maker File Types Movie Maker supports many video, audio and photo formats. Please see the workshop handout “Movie Maker File Types” for details.

Photo and Video Resolution and Aspect Ratio To determine photo or video file resolution before importing them into Movie Maker, in the Windows Explorer, right-click the photo or video file and choose “Properties.” On the Details tab you will find the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the photo or video stated in pixels. Here are some examples:

A photo file:


Most digital cameras will take pictures in a 3:2 aspect ratio. Photos can be trimmed in Photo Gallery to a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio. If you do not trim them before inserting them into Movie Maker, you will see black bars either on the side (pillar bars) or the top/bottom (letterbox bars) of your finished video because Movie Maker only supports 4:3 or 16:9 projects.

A video file:

1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720 are 16:9 aspect ratio resolutions. 640 x 480 is a typical 4:3 aspect ratio.

In addition to understanding aspect ratio, you must be cognizant of the screen resolution of the device on which your movie will be displayed. If it is a computer monitor not set to 16:9 or 4:3 some distortion will occur as pixels are modified to fit the display settings.

The UI in Movie Maker The Movie Maker user interface uses a modified ribbon, just like the Office 2010 programs. Click a command on the ribbon to perform an action. When you select a photo, video, music or text object in the program the tab to edit that object will appear above the ribbon, such as Video Tools, Music Tools or Text


Tools. There are no “photo tools” because the point of Movie Maker is to take still photos and make them into a movie. Photos and movies are really, in this respect, considered alike.

Movie Maker also uses, to a limited extent, the gallery interface familiar from the Office 2010 products. To see all the presets in a gallery, click its drop-down at the bottom of the scroll bar to the right of each gallery.

There are tabs for Home (most common commands), Animations (transitions and pan & zoom effects), Visual Effects (colorization or other partially animated effects or multiple effects), Project (aspect ratio), View, and Edit (when objects are selected).

The Movie Maker tab (what is called the “File Tab” or “Backstage View” in the Office 2010 programs) is to the far left, top of screen in the program. When selected, it contains the file manipulation commands.

Project Organization, Aspect Ratio, and Save You will find it very useful to have a rigorous organization scheme in place before beginning a project. Create folders for photos, videos, music, and any other resources you need within a project folder. Save the project itself in this folder. A project file is different than the movie file you will create after manipulating your resource in Movie Maker. The project file is a list of project resources and editorial actions you have taken on them. Double-clicking a project file will open the project including all your edits.

Projects are either 4:3 or 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio. You must choose one when you begin a project. Most older video cameras shoot in 4:3 aspect ratio. Most modern ones use 16:9. Depending on which aspect ratio you choose, you will need to trim your pictures to 4:3 or 16:9 because most digital SLR cameras shoot in a 3:2 aspect ratio.

Set project aspect ratio on the Project tab.

Save a project on the Movie Maker tab. Project file extensions are “.wlmp.”


Project View Use the View tab or the zoom/thumbnail controls at the lower right of the screen to set the size of thumbnails and video previews in the edit window.

The Preview Window The preview window is in the upper left of the screen. Under it the duration of the play head and the total duration of the movie are displayed, along with the position of the play head (the “scrubber” control) and a play/pause/jump control. As the scrubber control moves under the preview window, you will see a black vertical line move in the edit windows. This is a representation of the position of the play head also.


How to Add Photos and Videos When adding initial resources to a project, click the “Click here to browser for videos and photos” link in the edit window.

For subsequent additions, click there Add videos and photos command on the Home tab.

To delete video or photo resources, click them in the edit window in order to select them and press the delete key. You can select a contiguous range by clicking one, holding down shift, and clicking another. You can select a non-contiguous range by holding down Ctrl and clicking.

Rearranging Photos and Videos To rearrange photos and videos simply drag them. You can drag individual or group-selected assets. Holding down Ctrl when dragging will duplicate assets.

Photo Duration The default duration of a photo in Movie Maker is 7 seconds. To modify the duration of a single photo select it, click “Video Tools” (this tab will appear when you select a photo—it is called video tools because the photos are considered 7 seconds worth of video when you add them to Movie Maker). Click the Duration drop down and select another value, or simply type another value. Fractional seconds can be applied. You cannot similarly modify the duration of a video clip. It is what it is.

Title, Captions and Credits Add a title frame to your video by clicking the Title command on the Home tab.


A title slide with (by default) black background will be added. Sample text will appear in a text container (My Movie). Select the sample text and type your own title. Note that you can change duration, background color, font, font effects, transparency, and apply a large number of title effects from the Text Tools tab once you have inserted a title.

Captioning works the same way. Click the Caption command and type your text in the caption container. The same sorts of textual edits and effects apply to captions as apply to titles. Note that the background of the caption container is transparent. It cannot be made opaque, unfortunately. It is sometimes difficult to find a suitable color that will be visible as a transparent background caption. Multiple captions can be added at various points throughout a video clip.

Credits are added by clicking the Credits command. Credits by default will roll up the screen, but the effect can be changed.

Transitions Add transitions by selecting one from the Transitions gallery on the Animations tab. Remove a transition by selecting “None” on the transitions gallery with the slide(s) selected from which you wish to remove them. There are a wide variety of transitions available. We will experiment with several in the workshop.

Pan & Zoom Pan and zoom effects are applied using the Pan and zoom gallery. The procedure is the same as with transitions, except that there is a “magic wand” effect available that will apply a random effect, rather than you having to choose a specific effect. Often any movement is OK, and no specific movement is necessary.

Visual Effects Use the visual effects gallery to apply visual effects. Some are pretty weird, others more interesting. An effective use of effects might be to apply a sepia or edge effect to a copy of a photo, and then blur transition into a full-color copy.

Music Add background music to your movie using the Add music command on the Home tab. Note that you can add music or add music from the current point. The Music Tools tab will allow you to set end points, fade in and fade out, and set music volume. Music will play along with the audio track on video clips, so you may want to control volume in these circumstances. From the video tools tab it is also possible to control the volume of the audio on your video clips. At some points you might want to emphasize background music, at others lower background music and increase video soundtrack.


Editing Video The only video editing possible in Movie Maker is trimming and splitting, though these tools will probably be adequate for most video editing needs.

Trimming to Start and Stop Points To start the Trim operation, select the video clip by clicking it, click Video Tools, and then Trim tool.

While it is possible to drag the start and stop controls on the scrubber line under the preview window, it is more effective to play a video until you reach the point at which you wish it to start (this will probably require more than a couple of attempts) and then click Set start point. Play the video to where you wish to trim its end and click Set end point. After start and stop points have been identified, click Save trim.


You will be returned to the Video Tools tab. Note the new start/stop times. Note also the ability to control video soundtrack volume among this command set.

Splitting video Rather than trim the beginning and end of a clip, you may wish to remove a segment from the middle of a clip, or split a clip in order to insert a still photo or another video clip. To perform these operations use the Split too on the Video tools tab. Play your clip until you reach the point where you want to split it and then click Split on the Video Tools tab, or simply press the M key (M for middle).

After splitting, you may wish to trim the new clip in order to remove part of it.

Increasing/Decreasing Video Speed The Video Tools tab also contains a control to decrease (slo mo) or increase video playback speed. This is usually a bad idea, but there are a couple things you should know about it. First, adjusting video speed in Movie Maker suppresses the video clip soundtrack. Second, if background music is playing it is not affected by the speed change. Speed adjustments should be made before applying music. Playback quality of slowed or speeded video will be better after the movie is saved and it is played back on the computer of TV screen than when you see it in the preview window in Movie Maker. The preview of slowed or speeded video will appear jerky, but Movie Maker will smooth this when it produces final, higher quality video.


Rotate Video or Photos Rotation controls can be found on the Home tab. This comes in handy when you have photos taken while holding the camera sideways or when videos have been created on a cell phone need to be turned to landscape perspective.

Publishing a Video to an Online Service Movie Maker makes it easy to publish to YouTube, SkyDrive, Facebook, Live Groups, or Flickr. In addition to having an account with the appropriate service with which you will have to login in order to publish, you also must have a live.com account. All publish operations start by logging into your live.com account, and then to the service to which you wish to publish. Live.com accounts come with 25GB of free storage, called SkyDrive storage, along with many other advantages. Part of the publish operation will involve selecting a screen resolution, as discussed earlier (and below). Shortcuts to the publish operation are on the home tab.

Publishing to a service can also be accomplished from the Movie Maker tab.

Saving Your Movie Publishing your movie is not the same as saving your movie. It simply transfers your edited movie to YouTube, Facebook, etc. It is not the same as saving your project, either, as discussed above. A project file is simply a list of resources and edits performed on them. Saving your movie actually encodes the


movie into Windows Media Video format at a resolution you pick during the save process. Do it from the Movie Maker tab.

Movie Maker will make a recommended resolution setting for your project, but you will do better to choose one based on the media on which you expect to display the movie. If you are making a movie to be displayed on a large screen LCD display, choose “For high-definition display.” If you intend to display it on a computer monitor and display it through a projector in class, “For computer” is probably appropriate. You can see the other choices indicated above. Note that it is possible to define custom save resolutions, if you have special purposes for the video. The following chart may help understand these resolution choices.

Project Aspect Ratio 16:9 4:3 High-definition display 1920 x 1080 1440 x 1080 Computer 854 x 480 640 x 480 DVD 720 x 480 720 x 480 Email 426 x 240 320 x 240

Depending on the resolution you wish to end up with, you can burn a DVD directly from within Movie Maker, or first save the movie and then use Windows DVD maker to transcode it to DVD. This can be a very time consuming process.


Upload to Blackboard If you have produced an educational video you wish to use in Blackboard, rather than publishing it to an online service, you can a) convert it to mp4 format using Any Video Converter and upload it directly or embed it in an item as a quicktime object; upload it directly as a file and provide a link for Mac user to the Windows Media Components for Quicktime (see the Academic Technology Software pages), or if you wish to use wmv format, upload it to your Palomar college web space and create a URL link to it within Blackboard. Whether you convert it to mp4 or use the wmv file, this is the recommended procedure. Placing large video files in Blackboard is not a good idea.

Accessing Our Blackboard Training Class To access the Academic Technology Blackboard training course, do the following:

Start your browser and go to http://bbsandbox.palomar.edu Login with your Palomar email username (without the “@palomar.edu” part) and email password In the “My Courses” area scroll down until you see the heading “Courses in which you are enrolled.” Click the link for “Academic Technology Training”. Click the “Enroll in Workshops” menu choice, and click the group enroll button for the PowerPoint 1 workshop.

Click Sign Up Now click the “Workshops” menu choice and click on the PowerPoint 1 folder. You will now be able to see the workshop materials.

Contact Information and Help Contact me at the information given in the footer to this document and in our Blackboard workshop course.

If you need Blackboard or other technical assistance:

Enter a support request ticket at http://palomaratrc.helpserve.com/ Send email to [email protected] Or call (760) 744-1150 ext. 2862

For more information, visit our web site at http://www.palomar.edu/atrc.

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Using Windows Live Movie Maker Handout

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