View source for /Editing spoken tutorial using Movie Maker

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Name : Nancy Varkey <br>
E-mail id : nancyvarkey@rediffmail.com <br>


Hello friends.  On behalf of CDEEP, IIT Bombay, I welcome you to this Spoken Tutorial.  This tutorial will explain the basics of how to edit a video using Windows Movie Maker. 

Windows Movie Maker, a component of Microsoft Windows, is an editing software that is available for all the latest Windows versions – Me, XP or Vista.  If you do not have it on your PC, you can download it free of cost from the site www.microsoft.com/downloads. 

You will need a headset or speakers in order to listen to the audio of the movie clip.  Double-click on the Windows Movie Maker icon to run the program. This will open an empty movie project on your screen.  Right at the top you will see the Main Menu.  It contains many options which we will see in detail as we go along.

On the screen, you will see a Movie Tasks panel on the left hand side, a Collection panel in the middle and a Display panel on the right hand side. If this is your first time using Windows Movie Maker, the Collection panel will be empty. All the video clips, audio narrations and music files required for the project, when imported, will be displayed in the Collection panel.  But if you have used the program before, the video and audio clips that were previously imported will appear in your Collection panel. Select all the clips in the Collection panel by pressing CRTL+A.  Right-click on any clip and choose the Delete option.  Now that you have an empty movie project on your screen, you can import the files you require into Windows Movie Maker.  

The Movie Tasks panel has several options – the main ones being Capture Video, Edit Movie and Finish Movie.  There is another option called the Movie Making Tips.  Under Capture Video, you will see the option Import Video.  Click on it.  Alternately, you can click on File in the Main Menu and choose the Import into Collections sub-option.  Both choices will open the Import File Dialog box.  Here you can choose the video that you want to edit by specifying the path and the filename.  I will choose this video and click on the Import button.  The selected video is being imported into the Collection panel.  If the video is too large, then Windows Movie Maker will automatically split it into smaller clips.  Select all of them by pressing CTRL+A.  Now right-click on any clip and choose Add to Timeline sub-option.  The clips will get added to the Timeline here in the order they appear in the Collection panel. If you want, you can also add the clips to the Timeline one by one, by dragging the clip and dropping it on the Timeline.   Let me put this back.  

Vista users kindly note that Windows Movie Maker played in Windows Vista will not split the video into smaller clips.  It will be visible as a single clip in the collection panel.  So again, right-click on the video clip and choose Add to Timeline option.  This will add the entire video to the Timeline in a single clip.

Notice the small blue rectangle at the top of the Timeline.  This is called the frame-head.  It shows the current position of the video on the Timeline.  By default, it is at the beginning of the Timeline. Click on the first clip.  The first frame or the beginning of the video will now be visible in the Display panel here.  When the video is being played, it will be visible in the Display panel.  You will notice that there are VCR controls at the bottom of the Display panel.  Before I explain them, let me move the frame head here.  The first button is to Play or Pause.  When in the Play mode, the frame head moves forward.  When in the Pause mode, the frame head remains at the current position.  The second button is to Stop the playback.  When clicked the playback will stop but the frame head will go to the beginning of the Timeline.  Let me move the frame head here.  The third button is to Rewind one clip at a time.  Notice that the frame head moves backward one clip at a time.  The sixth button is to Fast Forward one clip at a time.  Notice that the frame head moves forward one clip at a time.  The fourth and fifth buttons are to Rewind and Fast Forward one frame at a time.  Notice that the frame head is moving one frame at a time.

Now this button here is called the Split button.  It splits the clip into two clips at the current position - both the video and the audio clips.  Let me demonstrate this.  I will move the frame-head here and click on the Split button. Notice that the clip is now split into 2 clips at the current position.  This is a powerful editing tool.

Now, let me explain the layout of the Timeline.  The Timeline is split into three categories – Video, Audio/Music, and Title Overlay.   Click on the plus-button next to Video.  This will expand the Video timeline and display the audio timeline therein.  This is useful for dubbing purposes.  I have already explained about dubbing in another tutorial.   You may want to watch it.  I will collapse the Video Timeline now by clicking on the minus button next to Video.   

Above the timeline there are several icons that could help during the editing.  The Zoom In button stretches the Video Timeline so that each frame of the video can be edited. The Zoom Out button collapses the Video Timeline so that you can view the whole video on the Timeline. This button is the Rewind Timeline button.  Whenever you press it, the frame head will move to the beginning of your video. This is the Play Timeline button.  Clicking on it will play the video in the display panel.  This Play button behaves exactly like the VCR control Play button.  For more information on the various features of Windows Movie Maker, the Moving Making Tips option in the Movie Tasks panel can be explored. 

Now that I have explained the basic layout of the Windows Movie Maker screen, let’s come back to the Timeline and learn how to add or remove portions from a video.  I will zoom in here.  Once you have imported the video, play it from start to finish and make a note of the portions that you want to edit.  I want to remove a few seconds of video from here.  So I will move the frame head here and play the clip.  I will pause the playback here because this is the beginning of the part that I want to delete.   Now I will click on the Split button.  Notice that the clip is now split at this position.  I will resume the playback and again pause at the end of the part that I want to delete.  Click on the Split button again.  Notice that the clip is again split at this position.  I’ll just move it back so you can see.  Now I will select the clip by clicking on it and press the Delete on the keyboard.  Notice that the next clip moves forward and joins the end of the previous clip.  Movie Maker does this on its own so that there is continuity in the video.  Always remember that whenever you delete a portion of a clip both the video as well as the audio gets deleted.  In this way, one can delete portions from a video.

Now I will demonstrate how to add an extra clip to an existing video.  I have a small clip that I would like to include into my video.  So, I will import it into the Collection panel by clicking on Import Video.  This is the file that I want to import so I will select it and click on the Import button.   The clip is now being imported into the Collection panel. The clip now appears in the Collection panel.   I will choose the clip by clicking on it and drag it to the position that I want it to appear on the Timeline.  I will release the mouse button and my clip is added at the current position.  Please note that you can add a new clip at the beginning or at the end of another clip on the Timeline and not in between.  If you want to add in between then you will have to split the clip which is on the Timeline and add the new clip there.  In this way, one can add portions to a video.  This procedure can be used to combine two or more videos.

Another feature that I would like to demonstrate is how one can extend the length of a clip or a portion of a clip.  This feature is particularly useful while dubbing.  Sometimes the language in which one is dubbing may need more words to explain the same thing said in the original language of the video.  At such times, one may need to extend the time of the video clip to synchronize with the audio.  Select the portion of the video that you want to extend by following the procedure explained above about deleting portions.  I will demonstrate this.  I will move the frame-head here - Split the video here – Play and pause – Split the video again - Select the clipped part – Right-click and select Copy - Move the frame head to the position where I want to paste it – Right-click and select Paste.  Alternately, you can press CTRL+C to copy and CTRL+V to paste.   In this manner, I have extended the clip by the required number of seconds.  

It is always better to extend a clip to a longer duration and then cut off the portion that you do not require at the end of editing.  Ideally choose a portion without mouse movement otherwise there will be a repetition of the mouse movement in the pasted clip as well.  This could lead to confusion for the viewer.   So, that is something we need to keep in mind when we copy and paste to extend the video.  This covers the basic editing features of Windows Movie Maker.

So, use these features of Windows Movie Maker to edit your video.  As mentioned earlier, you may want to watch the tutorial on How to Dub a video from one language into another.  Once you are conversant with basic editing and dubbing, you may want to watch yet another tutorial on how to add some cool video effects and transitions, titles or credits and audio or music to your video.   Viewers may also want to refer to our site www.spoken-tutorial.org  This site contains all information related to the making, editing, dubbing of spoken tutorials for all operating systems.  Hope you find this information helpful.  This is Nancy from CDEEP, IIT Bombay signing off.  Good-bye and thank you for watching.