Tim Stack (801) 585-3054 tim@uen.org www.uen.org Digital Video Projects (Creating) OVERVIEW: Explore educational uses for digital video and gain skills necessary to teach students to film, capture, edit and present digital video projects. OBJECTIVES: Establish a clear understanding of educational uses for digital video in all forms. View samples of student projects. Discuss and understand digital video cameras. Knowledge of images and copyright. Preparation and storyboarding. Computer based, non-linear editing in a hands-on instructional workshop. EXAMPLES: http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/movie/fire.html - We Didn t Start the Fire View the following sites and browse for ideas for using digital video in your classroom. http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/movie/ http://www.people.memphis.edu/~aimlab/imovie/handout.htm What are some great uses for digital video in the classroom setting? How can video help children learn? Why do children like movies? DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA: Most digital video cameras serve two functions a video camera and a video player. A switch that is usually located where your thumb rests when you are holding the camera toggles between these two features. As you take your shots for your video you can switch between video camera and video player and see how the video looks. Following are some links to helpful hints on Digital Cameras and video techniques: http://www.apple.com/education/ilife/howto/pdfs/filmingwithyourvideocamera.pdf http://www.digitaljournalist.org/digitalfilmmaker/dvtips/dvtips.html http://www.jellypie.co.uk/basic_filming_tips/basic_filming_tips.htm http://www.digitalcamera-guide.com/www/digital_video_cameras.htm 1
STORYBOARDING: Just as you plan an essay and prepare for a speech, a video must also be planned. Think of this step as outlining your film. You need to know what your story is and how you will tell it. Every story has three parts (acts). An easy way to think of this is a BEGINNING, MIDDLE and an END. Get used to the idea of preparing images in your mind as you decide how to tell your story. Look at some of the following sites to see how professional storyboard artists tell their stories. Remember, you don t need to be a professional artist to create a storyboard. You can do an effective job using stick figures! http://www.thestoryboardartist.com/ http://www.anthonyzierhut.com http://www.ulrichzeidler.com/ Practice telling a quick visual story using these storyboard boxes. With images I want you to tell the story of a person walking down the street and falling. Use the lines under the boxes to explain any necessary details. 2
DIGITAL VIDEO STORYBOARD 3
DIGITAL VIDEO STORYBOARD 4
COMPUTER BASED EDITING: There are many products on the market which range in price from free (with certain operating systems: imovie with Macs and Windows Movie Maker 2 with PC computers that work with windows XP) to tens of thousands of dollars. For educational purposes the free systems work wonderfully well. Following is a tutorial on the use of Movie Maker 2. If your computer uses Windows XP then go to this site and download the software for Movie Maker 2 to your computer: www.microsoft.com click on downloads, then search for moviemaker 2. Follow the instructions to download. Movie Maker 2 organizes the steps to creating a movie very well. On the top, left corner of your screen is a box called Movie Tasks. This box displays, in order, the steps to make your movie. We will follow these steps. Press on the circle with the small arrow next to the steps and a menu appears that gives more options. The first section we will work with is Capture Video. 5
CAPTURE VIDEO: To capture video means to take it from your camera and put it on your computer. In order to do this you must first connect your camera to the computer. This is done with a firewire cord. Once your camera is connected to the computer, you can control the camera with the computer. 1. Connect your camera then press Capture from video device. This opens a screen that allows you to name the clip you are capturing and where you want it saved on your computer. 2. Enter the required information and press continue (generally you can let the computer save your video in the file it chooses by default). 3. A screen opens that gives you the choice of how you want your video footage to be captured. The choice here depends on how you want to view it later. If you want to view it on computer follow select the computer s recommendation. If you want to save it on tape or CD later, then choose Digital device format then press next. 4. You are then asked if you want the entire tape captured or if you want to capture selected parts manually. If you have a lot of footage that you want to cut out choose the manual option. Video footage takes up a lot of space on a computer. 5. From this point you can control your camera with the DV camera controls and capture as many clips as you would like. When you have captured as many as you want then press finish. 6
EDIT MOVIE: To edit is to put your scenes in the order you want and to cut out any unnecessary video portions. It also is a way to add different transitions, titles and to work with the sound. SELECT, VIEW AND ARRANGE CLIPS: 1. When you click on a clip in the Collection window, that clip will appear in the video screen to the right where you can view it. 2. To edit the clips, click on the clip and drag it down to the Timeline below. Bring down as many clips as you would like and don t worry too much about getting them in the right order yet. 3. Clips can be arranged in the timeline by clicking on the clip and holding it, then dragging it to the point where you would like to place it. A line will appear between each clip in the timeline and when you release the clip it will fall into the new place. 7
USE THE TIMELINE: The timeline is a very helpful tool in editing your video. Think of it as laying your clips in a row and having the choice of altering or changing your clips in any way you would like. The scrub bar, a blue bar that goes through the timeline allows you to watch your video in the display to the top right. You can grab the scrub bar and pull it across your video. Set audio levels helps you get the sound distributed well. On the timeline you will find several helpful buttons in the top left corner. These buttons help you to make the most use of the timeline and create your video very easily. You can narrate your timeline by using this tool. A window appears that allows you to record. Zoom in or out of your timeline for easier control of your video. Play or rewind the timeline to the beginning. View the timeline in a simple storyboard format. TRIM SCENES: To trim your scenes means to remove any parts that you do not want to see in your final video. 1. Click on a clip, then place your mouse near the beginning of the clip and it will turn into a red arrow. Click down and move the arrow to the right and you will start to trim the scene, removing what you do not want. 2. You can trim from the beginning or the end of a clip. If you have taken too much you can add it back on again by doing the reverse. 3. To split a clip into two sections move the scrub bar to the place you want to split it and then press the Split Clip button found on the video display. 8
ADD VIDEO EFFECTS: Video effects are effects you can add to a clip to change the appearance. To access these effects click on View video effects. The Video Effects screen appears and to add an effect you simply click and hold one of the effects and drag it onto the clip you wish to enhance. To remove effects from a clip, right click on the clip and a screen appears which allows you to add and remove effects. ADD TRANSITIONS: Transitions are effects that move you from one clip to another such as a fade or a dissolve. If you do not add a transition your scenes will have a clean cut from one to another. To add transitions click View video transitions. To add a transition click and hold the transition and drag it down to the line between two clips and let go. You can then watch it in the viewer and see if you like how it moves from one clip to another. To delete a transition, right click on the transition and select Delete from the menu. 9
ADD TITLES: Titles are words on the screen. You can use words as an introductory title, to lay captions or phrases over the video or as credits for the ending. To add titles click Make titles or credits. You must choose where you would like to add your title. Choose whichever option is appropriate for your desired title. Type the words you want to use in the box and a demonstration of your final result appears in the view screen on the right. The More options section allows you to add animation effects to your titles and change the fonts and colors. Play around with these tools, you will love them. ADD SOUND: Music or sound files can be imported into the collection box by selecting Import audio or music. Click and hold music files just like all other files and drag them down to the timeline. Place them on the track labeled Audio/Music. 10
FINISH MOVIE: This is the part where you take our movie out of Movie Maker 2 and make it viewable to the world. You must choose the format in which you want it viewed. Choose the format in which would like your video displayed and follow the instructions on the screen. Enjoy your video! 11