Using Windows Live Movie Maker

July 3, 2011

Been playing around learning Windows 7’s Windows Live Movie Maker.

Even though it is not as robust as a paid for movie maker, it is, in my opinion, sufficient for hackers (like me) up to, maybe, the intermediate movie producer. Beyond that, you will have to find something more powerful.

NOTE: Click the pictures to enlarge.

You can see from the above picture that there is a lot going on. I have not yet used all the power of this program, but, very quickly: you can add the video and audio you captured, you can cut video and audio out, you can add information (like the “Weird Weather” above, you can change the way the movie works…etc etc. Lots of stuff.

Here are some screen shots of the menu options, my suggestion: Just play with these options. They are easy to play with, and quite powerful.

Animations (hold you mouse over the transitions and see them work…cool)

Visual Effects (ditto)

Project (Dimensions / Display)

View

Video Editing Tools

To cut some video / audio from your movie, I use the “Split” tool. I run the video to where I want start to make the cut then click on “Split”. Then I run the video to the end of the cut and hit “Split” again. Then I just delete everything in between. Not sure if that is the best way, but, it works.

Text Editing Tools

Saving the Movie

There are a bunch of options for saving. I just save the movie as a large computer file then upload it to YouTube. Simple. I did not use the buttons for YouTube, I just did it the old way. A few months ago I tried the button, and it did not work, but, it may now (I now have a newer computer).

What is Lacking?

I am used to nice controls for fade in and fade out of video. Those features are not great here. I liked the timeline view of the old version of Movie Maker…this view is harder to use (but, maybe it will just take time to get used to it).

Moving Forward

I still have to spend more time with it. Overall, it is ok. Hey…it is FREE, so I can’t complain.

Anyway…check back here often, as I will be updating this blog as I use Movie Maker (or when I see a Google search related to a specific topic that I need to cover).

Practice Movie

Here is a video I made on July 3, 2011 showing our Yellow Lab, Sunny, participating in the two tasks he loves the most: Getting the morning paper (soon to be a thing of the past…sigh) and swimming.

Enjoy. (FYI…Sunny loved Carol…and she him).