The Best Tools to Digitally Edit Movies with Your Students: Windows Movie Maker

Over the course of the next few weeks, I would like to discuss a few sources for programs that can be used to edit film and for your students to create forms of digital storytelling in your classroom. Going back to my previous career of an independent film maker, I have used programs such as Windows Movie Maker, Flip Share, IMovie, FinalCut Pro, Ulead Media Studio, Dell Movie Studio, Picasa, Quicktime Pro and there are also some great sites out there such as Jaycut.com and Animoto.com. You can use a variety of software and/or hardware for this project, but for the sake of argument, I have four Flip Cameras, which I purchased through the great web site of www.digitalwish.com, which has one of the best deals to buy two Flip Cameras for the price of one.

I initially created a lesson plan that involved writing, shooting a film and then editing it into a movie that can be shared on the internet, but looking back, I think there are so many capabilities that can be done with video editing software, and it is the sharing of that knowledge that is going to allow this to happen. Which is why I wanted to start this series of reviews by focusing on probably one of the most comfortable and accessible programs from this list, as Windows Movie Maker seems to be a default program that comes with your Windows machine.

What is great about this program, as that it is free, and it is more than likely already on your computer. It is fairly simple to use and pick up from the start, and Microsoft offers a great deal of support on their web site to get you going. Something important to mention is that my review is for the older versions of Windows Movie Maker, not for Windows 7 or Windows Live Movie Maker, for more on those, you can view their site here: But with the older version, I have used Movie Maker to make movies from scratch, and I have used it to modify movies that I already had.

From working with scratch, it is important to constantly inform your students that all media that they will be using for the project must all be stored in the same location, within that computers saved Windows Movie Maker Library. I have seen students working on Movie Maker projects that switch computers, or did not store their work properly, and then at the last minute, find out that there are missing media files in their presentation. Also, editing with the program is a pain in the butt, because if you have to insert a clip, you will need to move EVERY other clip down the line. So, I would heavily encourage that your students use a lot of planning and even storyboards prior to the film editing stage.

But I have also been able to take a clip where my sister held the camera sideways, which made the whole screen tilted on a ninety degree angle. Luckily, Movie Maker had some great options to rotate the screen, and some other fun, quick and simple filters, titles and transitions that could be added to some of my older clips that I wanted to "clean up." You can also create animations through Movie Maker, by importing each individual drawing into the timeline of the film and add music or your own narration. When you are done, you can save your clip for a variety of sources, whether to be played on tv, streamed over the internet or for a portable media device.

What I do not like about Movie Maker is just how often it crashes, or how long it takes to render a clip to see if your special effect or transition had been applied. If you plan to use this program with your students, be sure to SAVE FREQUENTLY. Trust me, you will be really ticked off and impatient with this program each time you save, as just waiting for everything to save is quite slow. And also, be sure to really instruct the students on WHERE they are saving their Movie Maker project file, and where they are saving all of the different sources of media for their project. They also seem to have a hard time understanding the difference between the completed movie and a Movie Maker project. If you want to edit it something quick and simple, then I think this could be the program for you. I also like how you can insert pictures and video and turn it into a movie. If you are making a movie just out of still pictures, I would encourage you to look into Picasa, which also has the feature to combine images and videos into a movie and post it right into your You Tube account. But until you make your decision on which video editing program that you would like to do with your students to create a piece of digital storytelling / film making, you can read my final thoughts below.

Final Run Down:

Pros -

Easily edit pre-existing clips

Can save a file for a variety of sizes

Program is more than likely already on your computer

Students can make animations from drawn images or photographs to make stop motion animation

Cons-

Difficulty with the Movie Maker library (especially when going to different computers)

Frequent crashes

Will not accept MP4 (cannot use Flip Cam clips unless they have been converted by 3^rd party software)

References:

http://www.microsoft.com/education/teachers/guides/windows_movie_maker.aspx?WT.mc_id=moviemakerguide_google

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-movie-maker?os=other