Evaluation of Free Video Editing Software

This week I set out to learn a video editing software program. I've heard a lot of great things about iMovie, but since I do not have a Mac, it wasn't an option. I read a review of Movie Maker that stated it was comparable with iMovie, and since it was also preloaded on my netbook, I decided that I would give it a try.

Unfortunately, I immediately started having some challenges with Movie Maker not loading properly. I decided to uninstall it and then reinstall it. Uninstalling, of course, was easy. When I tried to reinstall it though, it would not complete the process due to a missing file. To make a long story short, I spent hours trying to troubleshoot the problem. I eventually gave up and started looking for other options. I read many reviews and found that some people preferred the original Movie Maker, while others preferred Windows Live Movie Maker 2011. I decided to try to install WLMM 2011, and thankfully did not encounter any problems.

After downloading the software, I opened it and began to "feel" my way around. It was easy to import my pictures and video clips by dragging and dropping them. I was able to figure out how to use the trim tool, too. I found that I needed to watch a few tutorials if I was going to learn how to use the software efficiently. It was actually easy to use once I knew the process. I learned that the video clips could be moved around simply by dragging them, and also that they could easily be copied. Something else that is an important step is to make sure to set the video volume to none before adding audio. I did not do that with the first video I made and the wind noise and talking on a few of the the original clips was very distracting. To narrate, I just used my sound recorder with an external microphone. I found the sound to be much cleaner and consistent than the method used for Microsoft's Photo Story 3. Of course, using a program such as audacity gives you more control. I downloaded Audacity, but ended up having to use the beta version. I didn't have any trouble with it, however. Adding transitions and filters in WLMM was easy simply by the click of a button on the menu bar. One thing to keep in mind is that just because you CAN use a filter or fancy transition does not mean you SHOULD.

One problem I encountered with WLMM 2011 was having the ability to add music and a voice over. It only has the capability of adding one audio track. I found an extremely useful YouTube video that showed me a great work around. Simply add one track, and then save and close the video. Import the saved video into WLMM and then add the second tract. This worked well for me. Another nice feature of this program is the ability to manage the volume of the video and the added audio.

Once the movie is how you want it, you can immediately share it on Facebook or YouTube with convenient buttons on the toolbar. WLMM saves to .wmv format.

Overall, I was glad that I already possessed knowlege of making movies from stills, but I found that editing video is much more involved than using still photographs in programs such as Animoto or Photo Story 3.   I think that at this time I would be more likely to use video editing software to produce videos as teaching tools rather than asking the kids to create videos with editing software.  I have used Photo Story 3 very effectively with students.  Possibly, once I am more comfortable with video editing myself, I might want to introduce it to students as a highly engaging learning activity.  I can imagine having students create a video as an alternative to a traditional research paper.  To get started, I like an idea that I gleened from one of this week's reading, "Video Basics and Production Products for the Classsroom".   In this article, Garrison suggests having students script and video alternate ending to stories.  I think this would be a fun way for students to become familiar with the equipment and software while showing their creativity and collaborative work.

I liked Windows Live Movie Maker 2011, but I think I would like to also look into other programs so that I will have a basis for comparison. 

Garrison, A. (1999, Winter). Video basics and production projects for the classroom. Center for Media Literacy. Retrieved April 6, 2009, from http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/aritcle3.html