Blake Kilgore, "September"
This week my 21st Century Literacy class delved into multimedia: podcasting, screencasting, videos, images, and the concept of multi-modality. For a long time I have been jealous of the Mac’s offerings for multimedia. Their programs are far advanced to what the PC has to offer in user friendly, cheap, and an integrated software package. Caroline and & are considering purchasing a Mac PowerBook Pro come this fall. In the meantime, I was relieved to learn about multimedia software offered for the PC.
This week I choose to get a feel for digital video. Windows offers MovieMaker, their answer to iMovie. Not having prior experience with iMovie, I can’t offer a side-by-side comparison. At best I would describe MovieMaker as an adaptation of PowerPoint software. It has a completely different look, but the feel for editing transitions resembles PowerPoint. MovieMaker has far more control over audio and video via drag and drop, and editing station offers you to view audio and video through what could best be described as a timeline.
The controls are blunt. I had difficulty syncopating music with scene edits. The program does not allow you to either edit on the fly or frame-by-frame. You would think that you could play the audio track, pause, and slide in your edit; however, every time your mouse clicks over the timeline, you readjust the blue bar that marks your spot on the timeline. This made precise edits nearly impossible. I had to estimate scene transitions by eye and ear, and adjust accordingly. It was easy to adjust by the second, but trying to get nanosecond precision was like tying your shoes wearing mittens. Get my point?
The other major drawback is limited controls. It felt like I cycled through many of the options and effects within a few minutes. Not a problem for me – I am the “less is more” type of guy. The limitations presented a challenge for me to think outside the box, and I came up with some creative shots by overlapping shots and use of fade in/out. Though, in my experience, those programs that limit options to the most essential are more user friendly for the amateur. Having previous experience with Audacity and PowerPoint, it took me only a few minutes to orient myself to MovieMaker’s menu system. There is no doubt that I could have my students up and running on this program within a minimal amount of time.
Check out my first MovieMaker project. I worked from an MP3 downloaded from my co-worker and friend, Blake Kilgore. He is a tremendous local singer songwriter – just listen to the power and timbre of his voice. Check him out at http://www.BlakeKilgore.com. Amazing. Not to mention I was pressed to download an MP3 that wouldn’t violate copyright laws. Listening to the song, I searched through Flickr for images that matched the music’s overall tone and imagery. The rest was arranging the images in a way to support the narrative. Keep in mind that the medium was arranging still slides in syncopation to the music (without one medium upstaging the other).
This week I choose to get a feel for digital video. Windows offers MovieMaker, their answer to iMovie. Not having prior experience with iMovie, I can’t offer a side-by-side comparison. At best I would describe MovieMaker as an adaptation of PowerPoint software. It has a completely different look, but the feel for editing transitions resembles PowerPoint. MovieMaker has far more control over audio and video via drag and drop, and editing station offers you to view audio and video through what could best be described as a timeline.
The controls are blunt. I had difficulty syncopating music with scene edits. The program does not allow you to either edit on the fly or frame-by-frame. You would think that you could play the audio track, pause, and slide in your edit; however, every time your mouse clicks over the timeline, you readjust the blue bar that marks your spot on the timeline. This made precise edits nearly impossible. I had to estimate scene transitions by eye and ear, and adjust accordingly. It was easy to adjust by the second, but trying to get nanosecond precision was like tying your shoes wearing mittens. Get my point?
The other major drawback is limited controls. It felt like I cycled through many of the options and effects within a few minutes. Not a problem for me – I am the “less is more” type of guy. The limitations presented a challenge for me to think outside the box, and I came up with some creative shots by overlapping shots and use of fade in/out. Though, in my experience, those programs that limit options to the most essential are more user friendly for the amateur. Having previous experience with Audacity and PowerPoint, it took me only a few minutes to orient myself to MovieMaker’s menu system. There is no doubt that I could have my students up and running on this program within a minimal amount of time.
Check out my first MovieMaker project. I worked from an MP3 downloaded from my co-worker and friend, Blake Kilgore. He is a tremendous local singer songwriter – just listen to the power and timbre of his voice. Check him out at http://www.BlakeKilgore.com. Amazing. Not to mention I was pressed to download an MP3 that wouldn’t violate copyright laws. Listening to the song, I searched through Flickr for images that matched the music’s overall tone and imagery. The rest was arranging the images in a way to support the narrative. Keep in mind that the medium was arranging still slides in syncopation to the music (without one medium upstaging the other).
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