Multimedia

I have worked with both of these softwares before this class. I decided to try iMovie because I just got a new version of the software. I realized I was out of practice. The software had been redesigned since I had last used iMovie. It took a while to get used to the the difference. I still found the program very intuitive to use. I ran out of time to create a track using garage band. I found that I was very monotone on my delivery. It is hard for me to deliver it with the wanted expression. To correct this next time I will have a person in the room and I will try talking to them rather than reading the script.

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 Week 2  Video Editing Software Review

I will be looking at two free softwares offered by the the two big operating systems. This will be iMovie for Apple and Movie Maker for windows. I know that some people have strong feelings about one company or the other. I am not one of these people. I own one Apple Laptop and one Dell PC. I prefer to work on my laptop but this is because the Dell is getting older. So this will be an article written without much bias for one company over the other.

iMovie Apple's free entry level software is iMovie. I have worked with iMovie about 6 years ago. I made a nice digital video field trip. I added music, text, and transitions between clips. One big plus is that most apples come with a firewire port, if not a firewire 800 port. This greatly speeds up download times from the cameras. This is more about the computers than the software. The software was easy to use. It formed individual clips each time you stopped recording. For the Zoo project this was great for my home movie it wasn't as useful. This program looks very sleek and a master at iMovie will be able to pick up apples top video editing software Final Cut Pro very quickly. It offers a drag and drop interface. It recognized the camera right away on plugging it in. The video clips were easy to move around. There was an easy way to do narrations.The program offered only twenty transitions but offered a high level of customization within those transitions. I really like the transitions previewed as you run the mouse over them. Like in presentations you don't want too many transitions in one show. The program came with a wide choice of sounds effects. It also easily links to your itunes library or your garage band application if you are into making your own movie. You can add titles and credits but you have to go to the tool bar to find these options. You are able to burn DVDs of your movie, upload directly to Youtube, a Mobile me gallery or a QuickTime movie. This is a very good tool for a beginning to intermediate Video editor. If you are ready to make top of the line movies it is time to move up to a bigger, better, and more expensive program. For the rest of us enjoy creating movies without the hassle of having to learn a program simply drag and drop, click and choose and your projects will look better than you expected.

Movie Maker I am using an older Dell for this comparison. That may be where some of the issues I had came from. First on opening the software I was shocked by the easy look of the program. I quickly plugged in my camera and nothing. I went to the file menu and selected capture video. I got an error message saying no video source discovered. It took a while for the program to see the camera, I had to use the back panel USB ports. I then added my clips. I like that the program gave you the option of flagging each clip or doing one long track. I picked the clips since I was interested in trying the transitions. I was amazed by the number of transitions available (60). It offers a preview window to test the transitions the window is much larger than the thumbnail Apple offers but doesn't offer you the sam level of control of those transitions as Apple offers.It can be set up to look more like iMovie by clicking the show timeline icon. This allows you to see the video clip and audio all at the same time. Adding video was as easy as finding the file dragging it on to the window and placing it where you wanted it. Adding narration was also easy with this program. This program easily adds titles and credits to your project by walking you through the steps. Movie maker can export in windows media video or DV AVI. This is a good program for those beginning in video editing. It is very intuitive and is very accessible because of the abundance of Windows based PCs out there. It is a great software considering it is free.

Review I used Apples website to view the tutorials of their iMovie software http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie-intro. I found several movies there to help a person begin a project. It covers importing from a camera to adding transitions. I like this set up because it easily allows a user to find the information they need without having to find the right place in one long video. It is a very polished video going through all the directions as they tell you what to do. The tutorials may be lacking in information for advanced users but I found several discussion boards that had answers to the issues I wanted addressed. Not bad for a software that is free with any new computer purchase. I don't know if I would pay to update. There is a lot of discussion about the loss of usable codecs. I guess that is a choice each of us will have to make our selves.