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Howdy, my budding movie-producers-in-training!  I am very excited to see what you’ll come up with for this project!   I realize that many of you may not be familiar with Windows Movie Maker, so I’ve got a couple of handy-dandy links for you.  I know we’re not starting our filming until Monday, but I know that you will appreciate the opportunity to practice & prepare over the weekend. 

Following is a GREAT link – probably the most useful link I can give you for using Windows Movie Maker.  It’s an online tutorials website that’s chock-full of how-to videos.  Supreme!!

http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/moviemaker2

Some of you may not have Windows Movie Maker on your home computer.  If you don’t, it IS a free download, and I’ve included that link here for you, too.  DISCLAIMER:  Do NOT download this program onto your home computer without permission!!!

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx

Finally, here’s a quick downloadable video on how to actually PRODUCE your project into a movie file.  You won’t actually need this step until your project is finished, though:

How to Produce your Windows Movie Maker Project

You guys will also need a place to find sound effects &/or music.   The best place (IMHO) to get music that you won’t get sued for using (ie. without violating copyright laws) is

http://www.freeplaymusic.com

Also:

http://garageband.com/genre

Typically when you find a sound effect you’d like to save to your hard drive (or to a disk or flash drive, etc.)  you will need to right-click the link, select “Save File As”, then choose the location to which you’d like to download the file.

Here are some links to some free sound effects. 

http://www.flashkit.com/soundfx/

http://www.sounddogs.com/catsearch.asp?Type=1

http://stonewashed.net/sfx.html

Many of you may also think to include some of your favorite music from your iPod or your iTunes.  Legally, for educational use, you can use up to 30 seconds of a song, so you’ll need to find a way to clip the song into small increments.  Never fear!  I can help you with that, too!  Audacity is an audio-editing software that allows you to manipulate sound files in the same way you manipulate text in a Word document.  It’s a free download, and here’s the link:  (Again, DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING TO YOUR COMPUTER WITHOUT PERMISSION!!!)

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows

(You’ll also need what’s called a LAME encoder.  You can get that here: 

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3

Whoa – that’s a lot of info!  Feel free to leave me a comment or send me an email (sandhed@mansfieldisd.org) if you have questions!

Filed under: Pre-AP Language Arts Classes, Technology and tagged Audacity, commercial project, short story, Windows Moviemaker