Edit & Produce Video with Movie Maker

Windows XP comes bundled with a basic video editing program called "Windows Movie Maker." It's somewhat analogous to what Wordpad is as compared to Word. As of 2003, Movie Maker 2 is available for download from Microsoft. Version 2 is much improved, but this tutorial will describe functions & procedures available in version 1.1.

There are basically 3 steps to editing video.

1. Capture
2. Edit
3. Publish

To access Movie Maker, click Start > Programs > Accessories > Windows Movie Maker.  You should see something like below.

MovieMaker1.1	MovieMaker2

 1. Capturing Video

To capture some video directly from a camera connected to your PC, click on File > Record... The below window will pop up.

Under Setting you can set the quality level you prefer. Low or medium setting would be about right for email. This will save your video in .WMV format which is playable by Windows Media Player. Use the camera controls to move to the location desired (usually on tape), then click record to begin capturing video to your hard disk drive. Click stop when you reach the desired endpoint.

Sending video as an email attachment

If all you want to do is email this video without editing its content, then merely attach the video file you just saved to an email. The default location for captured video files is C:/My Documents/My Videos/.

2. Edit

Once your video is loaded into Movie Maker, you can move clips around, split clips, add music background, add transitions, record narration, etc. If you have a video file already on your hard drive that you want to edit, then choose File > Import to open it for editing.

To add a clip to a project

1. In the collections area, click the collection that contains the clip you want to add to your project, and then click the clip you want to add.
2. On the Clip menu, click Add To Storyboard/Timeline.

Note: To add a clip to your project quickly, drag the clip to the workspace.

To create a transition

1. On the timeline, click the second of the two clips you want to create a transition between.
2. Drag the second clip so it overlaps the first clip. The shaded area indicates the transition length. The duration of a transition cannot exceed the duration of the clips adjacent to it.

The following figure displays a project with transitions. The transition length is determined by the amount of overlap between two images. The transition area is grayed.

With photo clips or previously trimmed video or audio clips, you can create transitions between clips by dragging the start or end trim handle. When you create a transition using the trim handles, the other clips in the project do not shift, unlike when you add a transition by dragging the clip. For trimmed video or audio clips, you can only drag the trim handle for the trimmed portion of the clip to create a transition. For example, if you trimmed the end of a video or audio clip, you could only drag the end trim handle to add a transition between that clip and the next clip in your project.

3. Publish or Send

When you have edited the movie to your satisfaction, save it and then publish it with the proper format and bitrate. 

To save a movie to a file

1. Once you have added clips to your project, click File > Save Movie.
2. From the Setting list, click the Quality setting you want.
3. In the Display information area, type the information you want to display when someone views your file in Windows Media Player.
4. In File name, type a name for your movie, and then click Save. The default location is the My Videos folder under the My Documents folder. Wait... It may take a while for the video file to be encoded.
5. In the Windows Movie Maker dialog box, click Yes if you would like to immediately watch your saved movie in Windows Media Player.

• See more Movie Maker info at Microsoft.
• More Video notes

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Copyright © 2007 MATC.
Revised: March 05, 2007
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