Chapter 9 summary

Chapter 9 discusses digital video in Win7.

Windows Live Movie Maker is the add-on software used to create digital video in Win7.  It also assists in importing picture, audio and  video files. (Files cannot be uploaded directly from a web cam or a similar device; they must be converted by the webcam software or by Windows Live Essentials' video importing software and then imported into WLMM.) As always, copyright issues and computer permissions will have an effect on what you can do on your computer.

In WLMM, you upload digital media files into a project onto a storyboard.  The project is a sort of bin that everything to do with your video goes into; the storyboard is like a desk or bulletin board where you create and edit your movie. Once you have edited, trimmed, added transitions and music, etc., you can preview the project to see what the finished video might look like; you can then decide if further work is needed. Finally, once the video is how you want it to be you can publish and distribute the project as a movie.

Digital video tape (DV) cameras produce files that can be imported directly to the computer via a FireWire (IEEE 1394) or a USB connection. The movies can be imported in either .AVI or .WMV formats.  The imported videos will always be placed into Windows Live Photo Gallery, from which they can be accessed by WLMM. Files imported via the IEEE 1394 port are placed in the Videos section of WLPG, while files imported via USB are placed in the Pictures section (I wonder if it's because USB started being used with still digital cameras?)  Digital files can be imported from other sources, but be careful about who holds copyright.

The Import Video dialog box will only work with a DV tape camera connected to the FireWire or USB port of your computer. Other forms of digital camera will have to use their own software (or WLE) to import their video. AutoPlay should invoke when you connect your camera to the computer; AP also gives you the option of saving and burning the video directly to DVD using Windows DVD Maker or saving and opening the video in WLPG. Importing the video from within WLMM will only give you the option of saving the video to WLPG (and recall that it also will not automatically start WLPG for you).  If your camera is in playback mode, you will import already-recorded video.  If your camera is in camera mode, you will import live video as it is recorded. You can use the Import Video dialog box to import only the portions of the video that you want.  Chapter 9 then walks us through how to import a stored video on a DV tape camera to WLMM, including how to select a particular part of the video instead of the whole thing.

Videos already on your computer will be in WLPG, Chapter 9 walks us through the process of browsing for a video and adding it to WLMM. You can preview the video before adding it to make sure it's the one you want. In a similar way, you can add pictures from WLPG's Pictures gallery to your video. Chapter 9 walks us through the process. You can also preview and add music from the Music library.

• The Title button on the ribbon permits us to add a title to our video, similar to a PowerPoint title slide.  
• The Caption button allows captions to be added to other items (such as pictures) in the video, which can be useful for identifying video segments or chapters.
• The Credits button allows a closing credit sequence to be added to the video.

After adding all the items to the project, you can start editing the video for how each item will appear (as opposed to editing the source file for the item).

• You can split a video into two or more parts to have both parts of the video in the project but something else in between.
• You can trim a video (similar to cropping a photo) to hide part of either the beginning or the end that you do not want to use.
• Having split the video, you can choose to delete a portion you do not need from the storyboard.
• Deletions can be undone!
•  You can move an item to a new position in the storyboard by clicking and dragging to the new position.
• You can zoom out to make it less necessary to scroll to see your work; you can zoom in to see a particular detail of an item.
• You can change the items on the storyboard from thumbnails to Small, Medium, Large or Extra Large icons.
• You can change the aspect ratio of your video from standard (4:3) to widescreen (16:9).

There are two ways to trim a video: play the video till you reach your desired breakpoint and set that as your start (or end) point, as desired or use the Trim tool to define the start point or end point of your clip (in time).

Sound can be modified by either using the Audio mix slider to have the music you have added to the project override all audio on the individual videos, or by editing each video individually to mute the audio.  The Options tab on the Music Tools ribbon permits the music to be faded in and/or out at slow, medium or fast speed or not at all (that is, it starts immediately at the defined time).

Title items can be edited for background color, text color, or movement effect (similar to Word or PowerPoint), as can the credits. Transitions can be added similar to PowerPoint. A still picture can have a pan and zoom effect applied to make it look like a camera is moving around the pictured item. Effects can be added to items to make them look like black and white or like they're reflected in a mirror, again similar to Word. Brightness can be adjusted if the items is slightly too dark or too bright.

Clicking the Title button to return to the start of the project, then clicking the Play button will permit you to preview the movie in the Preview Monitor.

Projects are saved by default in the My Documents folder with a .WLMP file extension. They contain information about how the items are ordered in the storyboard and can ONLY be used by WLMM. They must be published to be saved as .WMV or .AVI files that can be played by Windows Media Player or other compatible movie players.  The movie files have only the finished movie, not the information about how items are ordered in the storyboard.

Movies can be saved to the computer without burning a DVD or posting to a videolog. In order to post the movie somewhere other than YouTube it's a good idea to have the movie saved to your computer. It;'s also a good idea to encrypt the name to remind you if it's an HD format movie, widescreen or standard format.

Movies can be saved (and burned) to DVD; it's a good idea to encrypt the name to remind you that this is the DVD version of the movie, not the saved copy.

If you want the computer to decide in what order your items should be placed in a movie, you can use AutoMovie to create the movie automatically. Once the automovie is created, you can edit it just as any other project.

Chapter 9 then reminds us how to close WLMM, to delete unneeded files, and log off and turn off the computer.