Windows Live Movie Maker: Project Organization Before starting a project in Windows Live Movie Maker, make sure you have the organization structure in place to support it. I have found it very important to create an overall project file folder for each project, and then under that folder at least two other folders, one to store project assets and another to store the final wlmp project file. Step 1: Start Windows Explorer To create this structure using Windows 7 use the Windows Explorer. If you don t already have a shortcut to this program on your taskbar or/and Start menu, make one now. Click Start and type explorer in the search box. You will see a shortcut to the program, probably first, in the results list. Drag this shortcut to your taskbar and choose Pin to Taskbar. Now you will have a handy shortcut to launch the program whenever you need it. When Explorer starts, if you do not see a list of files and folders on the left of the Explorer window, click the Organize drop-down, hover over Layout, and choose Navigation Pane. A list of your folders, files, favorites and libraries will appear in a navigation pane at the left of the window. Palomar College Academic Technology http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/ (760) 744-1150 ext. 2862 1
Step 2: Create a folder for your project Open (i.e., click the arrow head, if necessary, next to Libraries, next to Videos, and then next to My Videos (if necessary). Click on the My Videos folder and create a new subfolder named for your project. In our case we are going to create a project called Campus Tour so that is what we will name the folder. Palomar College Academic Technology http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/ (760) 744-1150 ext. 2862 2
Within the Campus Tour folder we will create two sub-folders. You may want more, but I recommend that you create a single sub-folder for your project assets. You can call it Assets, or Resources, or Clips-Photos-Music, or whatever you want. Just be sure to give it a descriptive name. For each subsequent project you do I would recommend following this same naming convention. Being consistent always makes things easier later. Step 3: Copy all your assets into a single folder Now copy all of the assets you will be using in this project into your Assets folder (that s what I will call it, since that is my own naming convention). I have noticed that when you pull together lots of files (video, music, photos, self-recorded audio files) from various file locations into Movie Maker itself, it tends to get confused, and may even report to you later that it cannot find project assets or even refuse to produce your project. If however, you copy everything into a single folder location, this will not happen. It also makes your project more portable, if you need to edit it on multiple computers. Finally, it gives you the peace of mind to know that you are not working with original assets, but only copies. Windows Live Movie Maker is a non-destructive editor, and will not delete content from your assets, still, during file operations accidents can happen (and they happen to some people with much more regularity than others, I have noticed) so if you are working with copies none of your original content can possible be lost. After copying assets into this folder, give them meaningful names so that you can identify them easily later. Most video and still cameras will give your assets very Palomar College Academic Technology http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/ (760) 744-1150 ext. 2862 3
obscure names. Even if you have modified the way your device names files, assigning dates or other serials numbers, it is still useful to add some english-language description in the file name itself. I can t tell you how much time this has saved me when returning to a past project after the passage of time. The fact that you are using a single folder does not mean that you have to have assembled all your assets before the project begins. It means that you will have a location to copy them all as you develop them. Step 4: Create a folder to save your project file Now create a second sub-folder under your main project folder to store a single file, the.wlmp file that you will create from movie maker. I call mine!project, placing an exclamation point before it to make sure it sorts as the first folder in my list of folders. Step 5: Load assets into movie maker, arrange, edit and save project Now, in the normal course of Movie Maker workflow you will open Movie Maker, load your assets, arrange them as you wish, edit them as desired (we will come to the howtos of this in future lessons), and SAVE YOUR PROJECT. In fact, after any significant change like adding a new asset or making an edit you should always save your project. There are three ways: 1. Click the picture of the disk in the Quick Access toolbar; 2. Press Ctrl-S, the keyboard shortcut; or 3. Click on the File tab (the dark blue tab to the left of the Home tab), and choose Save Project. Be sure to name the project file with a meaningful name (I prefer NOT to include spaces in file names, but they are permitted). Do not save any other file in this project folder. After the name you give it it will have a.wlmp file extension. After you close Movie Maker, to quickly open your project again for future editing, simply double click this file. Palomar College Academic Technology http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/ (760) 744-1150 ext. 2862 4
What is a project file? It is a list of project asset locations and edits that you have made to them. It is, being a list, a very small file. It does not contain the assets themselves. Palomar College Academic Technology http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/ (760) 744-1150 ext. 2862 5