Learnings of the Week (fourth week)

By: Sharra Mae S. Tagaro IV- Rizal
On the fourth week of our class in TLE, we were told to make a movie using either Windows SP2 or the Nero moviemaker, in our group we used the Windows SP2. We did have difficulty in making the moviemaker because we are not yet good in making movies (and it really is my first time to make a movie!). We fully exert all our effort in making the movie, with that I learned about how to use the moviemaker.
I learned that, after we download our movie from our digital video camera or cellphone cam to Windows Movie Maker, we can polish our video by adding transitions, special effects, titles, credits, background music, and narration. These special features add mood and depth to our movies, making them even more fun to watch. I also learned that, Windows Movie Maker includes about 60 transitions and 28 special effects we can easily use to add professional touches and visual interest to our movies. Transitions are how one scene switches to the next. Rather than simply ending one scene and beginning the next, you can use Movie Maker transitions to insert fades, flips, dissolves, and other dramatic shifts between scenes. Special effects change the appearance of a video clip by rotating it, slowing it down or speeding it up, or making it appear like old film footage. Like transitions, you can easily add special effects to our movie by dragging the relevant special effect icon onto our movie timeline. Transitions cause our video clips to overlap by about one second, which means we won't see all of the first or last second of our clip. So, when we're filming, it's good to start the camera a few seconds before the action starts, and to keep filming for a couple of seconds afterward so that we have time to transition between scenes. There are many video effects or special effects available in windows like ease in, ease out, film old age, sepia tone etc..I also learned that we can add more than one effect to a clip. For example, if we want to both brighten a clip and add a zoom effect, we can add Ease In and Brightness, Increase. We can also add a single effect multiple times to increase the effect. For example, add multiple Brightness, Increase effects to brighten a scene even more, or add two Speed Up Double effects to quadruple the speed of a clip.I also learned that we can use the same techniques that movies and TV shows do to begin and end their films. By using the title and credits feature in Windows Movie Maker, we can easily create an interesting title sequence at the beginning of our movie and provide a list of credits at the end. We can also place titles in between scenes of the movie. Opening titles introduce our movie to our audience and provide background information about what they're about to watch. Credits at the end of our movie provide a more satisfying ending while telling the viewer who was in the movie. This is also a great place to thank the people who helped us make the movie. We can show credits on a blank background or over our last clip. In Movie Maker, credits are considered a special type of title that can comprise many lines. We can also use titles throughout our movie to introduce scenes or describe what is happening on screen. Remember, we can add titles any time we want the viewer to know what we're showing or who someone on the screen is. There's no better way to create a mood or crank up the energy in our movies than by adding music. Movie Maker shows our song on the timeline. If the song extends beyond the end of the movie, drag the right edge of the song so that it ends at the same time as our movie. Otherwise, the song will keep playing after our movie is done. It's a nice touch to have the music stop during a quiet spot so that it doesn't just stop abruptly. If the background music is too loud or too soft in comparison to the movie, right-click the music on your timeline, and then click volume. I also learned that we can record ourself speaking over our movie. This is perfect when we need to describe what's happening on-screen or tell stories that happened off-camera. If you don't like the way your narration sounds, don't worry—nobody likes to hear their own voice. Just relax and speak in a normal tone, as if you were telling a friend on the phone about your movie. It may take you a few tries to get the timing right so that your narration doesn't go on longer than your movie. If you misspeak often, it might help to write a script that you can read during the narration.
That is all that I learned about making movies..