Video+Editing+Software+Review

In this weeks activities I experimented with two different video editing software programs. After doing some research on recommended programs for beginners I decided to try Microsoft's Movie Maker and Wax for the programs to review and compare. My previous experience with video editing is very limited. I am fairly competent with my computer skills and often will problem solve in areas where I need to learn, but have never edited videos or used either of these software programs. The closest thing to video editing that I have done was with the use of Photostory. I used Photostory to put a collection of pictures together in a slide show and was able to narrate or put music to the show, but there are few tools that allow you to do any editing.

As I explored these two programs I began to learn what video editing really was. I thought that I would be able to just open up a video and figure out how to use the software. I quickly learned that this was not the case. With the help of some online tutorials from Youtube I was able to make some basic edits to some videos that I had saved on my digital camera. One thing that I quickly learned was that Wax was not compatible with the .wav file format which I used to save my Photostory with. When using Wax I instead used an .avi file video to edit. As I followed the tutorial I learned how to import the video file. One feature that I noticed right away was that the when you import the video to use it automatically will split the video into two files. One is the video itself and the other is the audio. I thought this was very helpful as some of the videos I was using had a lot of unwanted sounds, and I was able to cut or control what you hear separately from the video itself. I also learned how to cut the video or combine two scenes together with a creative transition. I thought the Wax software was a bit more technical than Movie Maker, but also seemed to offer more video editing options. When using Movie Maker I was glad to see that I was able to use the .wav file that I saved my Photostory with. In Movie Maker I was able to import the Photostory and add a music clip towards the end of the story so that it cues to a specific part of the song. I had some trouble adjusting the volume and as disappointed that the program did not allow me to increase or decrease the volume for certain parts of the song. Instead it has a toggle that allows you to increase the video audio while decreasing the songs volume and vice versa. Movie Maker did seem a little easier to use, but I attribute this to their being fewer editing options.

This activity will definitely attribute to future learning as I would like to use flip cameras in my class and have students create and edit their videos. Although I have no experience, I would also like to incorporate the green screen technology in their videos. I plan to have my students explore and practice using the video editing software in my class. I have given up on the idea that I need to have the program mastered before using it in the classroom. Instead I will learn along with my students. I like the theory that students see you learning and will realize and appreciate the fact that learning never stops. We are constantly having to adapt to a changing world. One reason why I feel that it is not important to master a program is how quickly they change. If we use Movie Maker with our computers at school utilizing the XP platform this year, we may not have access to the same program next year if they upgrade to windows 7. I learned while doing this activity that window 7 does not come with movie maker installed as XP and Vista did, and I had to borrow a computer in order to use it. As we learn to use these programs we may move on to the next step of video editing and continue to utilize this technology in my classroom.

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