In this section overview, you’ll watch how I put together a movie from start to finish. Just get the big picture, don’t worry about details like what buttons I’m pressing, etc. The in-depth tutorials on video editing will cover each Widows Movie Maker topic in depth. For right now, just enjoy, ok?



Notes &Tips
I keep my movies short, under 3 minutes and very rarely over 5 minutes. Yes, even for 2 week Florida 8-Theme Park vacations. There are several reasons I stick with that time limit:

3-minute movies are faster to edit and save. I’m a harried, time-pressed mother with young children. If making movies is not fast, it’s not sustainable. I’ll end up with one Golden Globe Award movie and be so burnt out by the experience I won’t do another one the rest of the year.

People have very short time spans. Yes, even the grandparents, aunts/uncles and cousins may not sit through long drawn out movies. It’s a sin to bore people. Keep your movies short and sweet.
Do you want to share your movie on the web? Long movies take long to upload and eat up bandwidth. Don’t make your viewers wait. Shoot for 3 minutes or under.

Ok, now for that 2-week Florida 8-Theme Park vacation. You come home with two 60-minute mini-DV tape and 75 pictures. Some tips to help you stick with the 3 minute rule.

• Break it up into several movies. A DisneyWorld movie, a Universal Studios movie, a Busch Garden movie.
• Do less video and more pictures. A series of 10 pictures takes about 30 seconds (3 seconds a picture). That series of 10 snapshots may cover more story than a 30 second video clip. I use this technique a lot. Sometimes, the last third of my movie is just still pictures. Accompanied by nice music of course.
• Use Video Effects Ease In and Ease out to give your pictures some perception of motion if you have a lot of still pictures in your movie.
• Get a scrapbook. Yes, go to A.C. Moore and get a scrapbook where you can put more pictures and journals of your wonderful family vacation. There are other ways of cherishing precious memories other than home movies. Spread it out. Don’t stuff it all into your home movies.

You are going to have so much fun. When you hit glitches and frustration with your first movie, just remember: Learning how to make a home movie is one of those things where after you go through the process once, subsequent ones are so much easier.

Stick with it.

Who else is going to capture and preserve these memories of your your family?

Homework

1. Start thinking what you want to do for your first home movie.
2. Make a list of the family and friends you want to share this home movie with.
3. Email them and tell them to expect it by _________ (christmas, their birthday, end of Summer?)
4. Now you can’t turn back. Seriously, you can do this, I know it!