Lesson Plans L e s s o n 4 : Put It Together! Combining Pictures with Words to Create Your Movie National Language Arts Standard 3: Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on prior experiences, interactions with other readers and writers, knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, word-identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics, etc.). Objective Students will: Apply critical-thinking skills to analyze information. Compare, contrast, and evaluate their own digital stories, and others for details such as visual and auditory effectiveness, clarity of voice, and emotional expression. Watch digital stories from diverse cultural, economic, and historical backgrounds that can be used as an analytical tool for exploring diverse perspectives. Learn to use Movie Maker 2 effectively to create a multimedia personal story. Preparation v Prepare computer for viewing and discussion of movie sample ( Setting Up Your Computer/ Classroom, Teacher Resources). v Copy and distribute the Reproducibles below. v Open Movie Maker 2 program on all classroom computers. Reproducibles Activity 11: Importing Images into Movie Maker 2 Activity 12: Creating the Movie Activity 13: Movie-Making Guidelines Activity 14: Creating a Track for Your Music Inspire! Show movie sample and observe the relations between images and voice narration. (For digital stories to view, see Digital Storytelling Overview, Activity 1.) Directions Now that the teams have their voices recorded and their images selected, they can import their images into Movie Maker 2 and sequence all the components in the timeline. This process creates a rough draft of the movie.
Lesson Plans Import all images into Movie Maker 2. 1. Demonstrate the process of Importing Images into Movie Maker 2 (Activity 11). 2. Have teams work independently to import their enhanced images into the Movie Maker 2 folder, as you go around the class assisting as needed. Work with images in the timeline. 1. Demonstrate dragging images into the timeline ( Creating the Movie, Activity 12). Have the teams work independently as you go around the class, assisting as needed. 2. Review the Movie-Making Guidelines (Activity 13) for ideas on how to assemble their movie. Have teams work independently on sequencing the images with the voice narration, as you go around the class assisting as needed. Prepare the audio/music track. 1. Once students have their images in sync with the voice narration, they are ready to prepare their audio/music track. The voice narration files must be merged with the video track in order to make room for the music soundtrack. Demonstrate the steps in Creating a Track for Your Music (Activity 14), then have the teams work independently as you go around the class, assisting as needed. 2. Now students can see what it looks like as a Media Player file. It s a good idea for students to try this out early in the editing process to help visualize the remaining steps adding transitions and laying the soundtrack! Homework: Have students bring in CDs with music that they may want to use for their movies. Have them search online for their favorite digital story.
Importing Images into Movie Maker 2 O nce your images have been enhanced and sized, you will need to bring them into the timeline so that you can sequence them and synchronize them with your voice narration files. Import Your Images into the Collection Folder 1. Click on TASKS to begin. 2. Click on IMPORT PICTURES. 3. Browse for your IMAGE folder, or SIZED IMAGES folder if working with sized images. 4. SELECT ALL and click IMPORT. 5. All of your images should appear in the collection folder. 6. To save your data, click FILE > SAVE PROJECT AS, then name your project. 7. Save regularly! For Importing Video Select the Import Video option and follow the instructions above.
Creating the Movie This is the exciting part! In this section, you will drag your images into the timeline, add transitions and video effects, and synchronize all the elements so that they start to look like a movie. Here you will set the mood and communicate the emotion behind your story. To do this, you will be working with the timeline. Drag Your Images into the Timeline 1. Go to COLLECTIONS. You should see all of your images. 2. Using your storyboard as a reference, drag your first image into the VIDEO track. 3. Click on the play button to view the image and listen to your audio. You will first be doing a preliminary placement of images, in sequence, according to your storyboard. You should not be fine-tuning the relationship between audio and image at this point, as that will change when you add transitions. 4. Most important to remember is not to change your voice narration files, which you have already fine-tuned. Only work with image placement at this point. 5. To increase the duration of the image on the screen, place the mouse over the right side of the image and you will see a red double arrow. Drag this red arrow to the right to increase duration. 6. Continue until all images are set in the timeline.
Creating the Movie Once you have placed all your images in the timeline and completed the preliminary placement of images in relation to the audio/music track, you are ready to add transitions. Transitions are visual elements that create movement between images, allowing a continuous flow. Drag Transitions into the Timeline 1. Click on TASKS to see all menu options again. 2. Click on VIEW VIDEO TRANSITIONS. 3. Review all the possible transitions. 4. When you select one, the preview box on the right will display the transition. 5. Select one and drag it into the TRANSITION track between two images. 6. You must have two adjacent images for the transition to be placed. 7. Lay in all your transitions and click play to preview as needed. 8. To increase the duration of the transition, place your mouse on the left side of the transition box and drag it to the left.
Creating the Movie Video effects are placed on top of images to create special effects, such as zoom in and zoom out. Zooms are particularly important because the forward and backward movement can create a threedimensional space, making flat photographic images look like live video. These effects can create mood and emotion: for example, when zooming in on the eyes of a child, you can show wonder. Adding Video Effects to Your Images 1. Click on TASKS to see all menu options again. 2. Click on VIEW VIDEO EFFECTS. 3. Preview effects. 4. Select the desired effect and drag it directly on top of your image. Several effects can be placed on one image. 5. If you do not like it, click on edit and then UNDO VIDEO EFFECT. 6. To remove more than one effect, right-click on the image. Select VIDEO EFFECT from the pulldown menu. Then click on REMOVE and select the video effect you wish to remove. Ease In/Ease Out 1. Select the EASE IN and drag it directly on top of your image. 2. This feature creates a zoom effect. You can drag several of the same effects on top of each other to create a closer zoom.
Movie-Making Guidelines Once you have all the pieces to the puzzle the story, the images and the music it is time to put it all together into a movie. This process requires a creative touch and sensitivity to detail. Here are are some guidelines that might help you with the process: 1. Get online and search for digital stories. View as many examples as possible for ideas. Compare and contrast styles, quality and emotional impact. 2. Watch commercials closely. Observe transitions, effects, words used, etc., and notice how they create a mood or feel. 3. Choose two of your favorite commercials and count the number of images used in each one. Compare and contrast the effect created by those with many images versus those with few. 4. Read the book Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community for ideas and inspiration. The book can be found at http://www.storycenter.org/resources.html. 5. Transitions and video effects are key to the digital story, which contains mostly static images. The goal is to take your imported photos and graphics and give them the feeling of movement. For example, zooming in on one photo followed by zooming in on the next photo and then a soft transition to the next can create an effect similar to live video. 6. When using transitions and video effects, remember that too many can make the viewer dizzy and/or distract from the story. Use them with purpose and not just because they look cool. 7. The process of saving the movie to video format, and previewing it early on in the process, helps to see little mistakes and areas that need improvement. 8. You and your team are the directors! Enjoy the power and wonder of telling your story through this exciting new medium. Have fun!
Creating a Track for Your Music When planning the soundtrack, it is important to know that Movie Maker 2 provides only one track for both audio and music. When you recorded your voice, Movie Maker 2 automatically placed your narration files into this audio/music track. The only other available audio track is the one associated with video files, and Movie Maker will not let you drag a separate audio file into this track. So where do you put your soundtrack? Luckily, someone thought of a way around this limitation. You have to Render your project (the narration files with all your images and transitions in the timeline) to an intermediate video file that you immediately re-import back into a new project. When you re-import your new video file, your voice narration files appear in the audio track associated with videos, and the audio/music track is now free for placing music. Steps to the Rendering Process 1. Click on TASKS to see all options again. 2. Click on FINISH MOVIE/SAVE TO MY COMPUTER. 3. The SAVE MOVIE WIZARD will appear. 4. Name your movie in option #1. In #2, browse and find the folder where it will be saved (Project folder). 5. Click NEXT and then choose OTHER SETTINGS, and then select DV-AVI (NTSC). This will render your movie at the highest possible quality. Then, when you render your final movie with the music included, you will go through this process again and select the actual settings for output. 6. Click NEXT, and Movie Maker 2 will render your movie. 7. Open a new Movie Maker 2 project file. 8. Click IMPORT VIDEO to browse for your new rendered file and import to your collection folder. 9. SELECT ALL your files using the shift key and drag the movie file into the Video Track. 10. You will see all your images appear in the timeline, and your narration files will appear in the Audio Track. 11. The Audio/Music Track is now free to place your music files.