MOVIE MAKING MADE EASY

It is fun to tell a story, in images, words, sound, and video. This is a great way to showcase your work and show your friends and family. What does it take? Look for good photo opportunities, plan the story that you want to tell, think about how to you want to tell it in quotes, sounds, voices, pictures and video. This can make the difference in having a few people enjoy your work, or thousands to celebrate it.

Challenge:
Different people have different ideas about what 4-H is and the project work that we do. But most don’t know what our program is all about: connecting youth to the land grant university system, teaching life skills and promoting positive youth development. Your challenge is this…

You have up to 4 minutes of movie time to creatively get this message across to people everywhere. Understand that a movie does not need to be made up of video – it can be done with words, pictures, voice-overs – etc.

You Be the Judge:
A great way to begin and get a handle on what to do or not to do is to review the work of others. Take some time to carefully review the work of others. Write down what approaches and techniques you like and don’t like. Then remember to take the time to critique your own work as you progress and that of others.

Tools of the movie making trade:
How to create a 30 second video with Movie maker in 13 easy steps
Before you begin your real assignment – take a few minutes to get to know the software. Simple software that is available to anyone with a PC is Windows Movie Maker.

1. Have and open mind: gather video or digital camera, music and enthusiasm.
2. Open Windows Movie Maker.
3. Go to File, select “New Project”.
4. Go to Tools “Titles and Credits”, select “ add title at the beginning of the movie” (this is where you can name your movie).
5. Decide if you want pictures and titles in your storyboard.
6. If you want to add pictures: Under 1. Capture Video, select “Import Pictures”, select the appropriate drive, click import, now select and drag the clip onto the story board.
7. If you want to add text on top of that picture: select “tools, titles and credits, add title on the selected clip”, add the text, and click done.
8. If you want to add text before or after the picture: Select “tools, titles and credits, add title before the selected clip, OR add title after the selected clip”, add the text, and click done.
9. Once you have enough images and text to tell a story at least 30 seconds long; go to tools, titles and credits, “add credits at the end of the movie”, add text, and click done.
10. Now you are ready to add effects and some audio.
11. Select a frame and then go to tools, video effects, and try out the effects until there is one you think is appropriate for the frame. When you have one drag and drop it onto the frame in the storyboard.
12. Now we are ready for adding audio, Under 1. Capture video, select “Import Audio or Music”, select the appropriate drive, click import, now select and drag the audio on the storyboard. You will have to stretch the file to fit the video length.
13. Finally, try playing your movie. If it looks good – go to file, “save project as”. Congrats! You have just created a movie!

Create a team: Part of the creative fun of working on a project like this – is working with others. Find a group of friends to work with. Take your role seriously and remember to share your thoughts with your teammates as you proceed. Although it might be easier to get it done on your own, a project that has group input will likely be more powerful in the end.

Who is your target audience? What is your message? At this point you will need to start thinking about who your target audience is, and what your message will be (what do you want them to think after they watch your clip?)

Interviewing 101: Be prepared, know your questions, know who you are interviewing, ask and get their permission…take it seriously.

Creating a storyboard: Garbage in garbage out…right? Have a plan for your video. It is okay to play with things, but it can take a very long time to edit video looking for the perfect clip. Set out to take pictures and video that will get your vision across to the viewer. Remember…you are the director! Be sure to add transitions – and use the Movie Maker story board as a planning tool


Where can you show your movie? Certainly it can be posted on our blog, but it could also be posted on:
Youtube Facebook (we have a CITY Project group)
http://www.youtube.com http://www.facbeook.om