Windows Live Movie Maker: “It’s So Easy”

A family member has a special birthday coming up and I had thought to create a collage of pictures from old photograph albums created prior to the digital era. Then, last week, I followed a Twitter link announcing the release from Beta of the new Windows Live Movie Maker. After I read about the new Windows Live Movie Maker and watched the brief video “Introduction & Walk-through”, I thought it might be fun to give it a try.

Please understand that I have tried programs like this before, only to give up because they did not work as described or were much too complicated for my purposes. But the Windows Live Movie Maker sounded simple enough and I soon discovered how simple it is to use. In fact, the only time-consuming part of the project was selecting the photographs to include in the movie. (I don’t think that I should mention the time spent with at least a half-dozen family albums spread around me as I relived the memories invoked by all those pictures.) After scanning the pictures with my Kodak EASYSHARE Printer, I used Windows Live Photo Gallery to easily adjust and crop the the pictures.

Since the special birthday has not arrived yet, I cannot share that movie with you. Instead, allow me to illustrate how easy it is to create a simple project – so easy that I know you can do it too!

After installing Windows Live Movie Maker, you can find it under All Programs > Windows Live. Click to launch the program and you will see the window shown to the right for your new movie. (Note the Windows 7 style ribbon.)

Now all you need to do is navigate to where your stored images (or videos) are stored on your computer. Select the images you want to include in the movie and drag them to the Movie Maker window.

Windows Live Movie Maker will format the images for your movie.

Want to add some music to accompany the show? Merely click “Add music” on the ribbon and navigate to the file where your music is stored. One more step and the project is done. Click on “AutoMovie” and respond to the prompt:

Add a Title, caption images as desired and complete the credits. The options are also available as easy picks from the ribbon: and that is all there is to it! You have a finished product: "It's So Easy".

For simple instructions on how to publish your finished product to YouTube as well as other helpful information, check out the videos the Windows Live Team created:

• Getting started with Windows Live Movie Maker
• Using AutoMovie
• Easily create beautiful videos using AutoMovie
• Three ways to share your video creation (YouTube, burn to DVD, save as HD)
• Add photos and videos to Movie Maker to get started
• Add transitions or visual effects
• Edit video clips to include the best footage in your movie
• Add and edit music
• Why we like the storyboard
• Add a title, captions and credits
• Publish to YouTube

References:

• Download Link: http://download.live.com/
  
• The new Windows Live Movie Maker
• Hands on with Windows Live Movie Maker
• Podcast: Windows Live Movie Maker

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, challenge-movie, Movie Maker, Picture Gallery, family, How-to, Story

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