PE3_iMovie

Lynda.com’s iMovie Tutorial Certificate of Completion

One of the great features of using Lynda.com for learning is the ability to obtain a Certificate of Completion upon finishing all tutorials. This certificate enhances and helps highlight a users professional skills and credentials after establishing  proficiency with using applications such as iMovie.

Brief highlights off key elements that I practiced and found easy and fun to use during my final stages of learning iMovie with Garrick Chow at Lynda.com  included

• Working with Effects
• Storyboarding
• Transitions
• Title and text integration into clips
• Green Screen
• Working with Audio
• Advantages & tips for how and when to add Music and Sound effectively
• Adding Background Music
• Voice Overs & Narration
• Use of Beat Markers for integrating music with Photo’s for dramatic slideshow movie effects
• Extracting Audio from other clips
• Sharing and compressing movies effectively in various technically appropriate ways

My Reflective Experience: Making Connections Learning iMovie By Doing

My resistance of learning how to edit effectively and create a entire movie has been a part of my challenge since the beginning of the EMDT program. I had no desire to learn all the technical aspects to video making because I have relied on keeping my other videos on DVD or Tapes. Additionally, photography has been my main focus so I  didn’t see how I was going to engage myself during this process. However I have learned to LOVE what I have experienced with editing and audio that enables me to apply myself creatively in so many ways now I am excited to start using more often to apply, teach, and show others what I have learned. Pushing pass resistance has helped me see that taking a risk and being open to what may be possible in my own learning,  even when it is out of my comfort zone, can bring many rewards intrinsically and for others! Finally, after revisiting the last parts of the tutorial, which are the most important aspects to learn for applying and adding your own creativity to any project, I’m ready to make my own movies and show others my first iMovie creation!

The following iMovie I created demonstrates a sample of  how I created a dramatized movies that displays a progression of change with photography. I believe this first example will be helpful when I teach my students how to use photography to document growth and changes over time for learning.

During the making of this movie I learned and applied these specific elements:

• how to create Beat Markers before photo’s imported into iMovie to best make slideshows with music to create a specific tone and mood
• how to add automatic transitions between clips
• how to add background music and audio for my movie
• how to trim clips to specific time measures
• how to add themes and titles into my clips by simply dragging and dropping right over photos and between transitions
• how to use the Ken Burns effect to fade in and out to add a dramatic effect using photo’s and music to make movies

I will continue to practice using other aspects of iMovie such as Trailers and various Themes for movies in the future. But most of all I enjoyed being able to integrate photography easily into iMovie.

Enjoy the show!

PE2_iMovie

 Editing made easy with iMovie

Although editing is one of the most important aspects of creating enjoyable family or educational movie tutorials, it is the part I have been procrastinating  to start because the clips and tools can appear daunting to use from a novice users perspective. With a quick glance at the overwhelming amount of  footage I  imported, starting  to edit my own always footage seemed to be another task placed on my “future project  to do list”.   However, after viewing Garrick Chow’s easy step by step process of editing located within Chapter 5 of his narrated  tutorial called Editing Video.

A brief overview of the key terms and post-production processes and tips I learned about in this section include:

• Creating a new project to edit
• Adding clips to the project
• Trimming
• Slip edits
• Precision and fine tuning editing
• Realtime previewing
• User controls
• Edit points
• Cropping and Rotating
• Time saving tips and shortcuts

Creating a New Project is as easy as 1-2-3

1. Select the New Project button located in the Project Pane
2. Name your new project, select your preferred Aspect Ratio, click Create
3. Go to your Event Library and Click on your Titled selection that you want to use for the current project.

Trimming and Editing

PE_1 i Movie

Lynda.com is a great tool for learning an audio and visual step by step process of all the essential functions that makes iMovie an easy tool to navigate  and use for both beginner and experienced filmmakers. The first important thing I learned  during this experience was  to directly connect my ethernet  cord into my computer for the best viewing experience. Using a WiFi connection continued to make the viewing process longer and the tutorial continued to pause making the total viewing time longer than needed and also can minimize the true functionality and personal interest in using this great tutorial tool for a valuable learning experience.

For beginning users like myself I recommend starting with the first four chapters to get an understanding of the basics of the initial steps when using the filming software for projects.

Here are a few basic things I learned in the beginning steps of the iMovie tutorial clearly narrated and created by Garrick Chow.

The Basics 

Chapter 1-3

• Bookmark and Tags
• Software Updates
• Types of Connections
• Importing Videos
• The User Interface
• Auto-Save
• Organization

Bookmark and Tags

The first handy tool i used during my iMovie tutorial sessions was Lynda.com Bookmarks and Tags options to help me remember where I left off and what important aspects I need to return to for future projects. This feature helped label and tag areas quickly to return and search quickly through the iMovie chapters when I returned to continue or review only a specific clip  I was interested in for a bookmarked chapter.

Importing Videos for DV Tape Based Camera’s

The next part that was useful to my learning was how to import various types of video from different types of hardware. I have a lot of video’s that have piled up over the years from tape based DV videos and I have yet to import them  into a software that helps me manually go throw the specific footage that is of value to me. With the manual click on specific clips that  right into iMovie. I also know that many  of my old videos are shaky I can use a stabilization option to help edit the unstable footage after being captured with a handheld camera with no prior tripod access.

The User Interface

Understanding the key terms and interface elements was an important component to my learning process since I am new to film making basic. The iMovie interface is made up of several areas or “panes” as Garrich Chow explains. The bottom portion of the interface is dedicated to your Events. Located on the bottom left view is the Event Library where all the movies you have imported into iMovie are found. The bottom right view is the Event Browser where you can see the Source video, and select clips you want to use from the video you clicked on in the Event Library.  I am  so happy about learning about the Source video because I usually think I unknowingly deleted the original but the Source video will always remain how it was imported. This information will allow me to explore more in the next section of editing when creating my videos. If I make a mistake I can always return to Source!

The top left portion of the interface is dedicated to the Project Pane and it is where you drag and drop the clips you are choosing for your video project. The top right portion of the interface is called the Viewer where you can see your project play. The middle grey bar that separates the top and bottom portion is called the Tool Bar where you can fine tune and adjust your projects.

Auto Save

The cool thing I learned about iMovie is that you never have to worry about saving your projects because all projects automatically save so you do not have to worry about losing your projects.

Getting Organized

Getting organized can be tedious and time-consuming but overall it saves time and energy that will later make it worthwhile once you put the effort. Merging your events can ultimately save space since events in your library can add up!

Organizing your clips can be done in several ways:

• splitting  events
• using keywords
• Putting into their own event
• Renaming
• Searching, saving, and choosing by drive, months, days, events

 Before jumping to editing I will take some time and organize my library!