Dubbing spoken tutorial using Movie Maker
Name : Nancy Varkey
Email – id : nancyvarkey@rediffmail.com
Hello friends. On behalf of CDEEP, IIT Bombay, I welcome you to this Spoken Tutorial. This tutorial will explain how to dub a spoken tutorial or a movie clip from one language into another through a step-by-step process. All you need is a headset with an audio input or a stand-alone microphone and speakers which can be attached to your computer.
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 computer, you can download it free of cost from the site www.microsoft.com/downloads.
Double-click on the Windows Movie Maker, icon to run it. This will open an empty Movie project on your screen. On the left hand side, you will see the Movie Tasks Panel. There are several options in this panel. The first option is Capture Video. Under this option, you will see the Import Video sub-option. Click on it. This will open the Import Video dialog box. Go to the location where the file-to-be-dubbed.wmv is present. I will choose the file and click on Import.
The video is being imported into Windows Movie Maker. The video will now be displayed in the Collections Panel. If the video is large, then Windows Movie Maker will automatically split the video into clips. Select all of them by pressing CTRL+A. Now, right-click on the clips and choose ADD TO TIMELINE option. The video clips will be added to the Timeline here. Click on the PLUS button next to Video. You will be able to view the Audio Timeline now. Select a clip by clicking on it. Now right-click and choose the SELECT ALL option. All the audio clips will be selected. Now go to the Main Menu. Choose Clip, Audio and Mute. The video is now without audio. Click on the MINUS button next to Video.
Notice the frame head which indicates the current position on the timeline. By default, the frame head is at the start of the timeline.
Next click on Tools in the Main Menu and choose Narrate Timeline sub-option. This will take you to the Narrate Timeline screen. First of all, you have to select the Input Level for the narration. When choosing the input level, select a level towards the upper portion of the meter without entering the red-colored area, which is marked by the second line from the top. If the capturing level is set too low, the captured audio may not be heard. Conversely, if the capturing level is set too high, the captured audio may be too loud and distorted.
Now click on the Start Narration button to begin capturing the audio narration to your computer. Speak normally into the microphone. Let me do a small demo for you. I’ll set the input level to this mark and move the frame-head to this position because this is from where the narration in the original video begins. Now I will click on Start Narration. “Doston, CDEEP, IIT Bombay ki taraf se, main iss tutorial mein aap ka swagat karti hoon. Yeh tutorial CamStudio ki abhyas karne mein aap ki madad karegi.”
I will stop capturing the narration by clicking on the Stop Narration button. Please note that one can stop the narration at any time. Movie Maker will ask you to save the narration as an audio file on your computer. A dialog box will open wherein you will be prompted to specify the filename and the path that you want the recorded audio clip to be saved in. I will choose this folder and give this name. Click on Save.
Once you have saved the audio file, you will find that the recorded audio appears in the Audio timeline. You can move the audio clip to any location by clicking on it and sliding it on the timeline.
Now is a good time to talk about saving the entire work as a project. Saving a project will allow you to continue dubbing from where you left. Press CTRL + S. When you do it the first time, you will be prompted for a file name. Let me save this project as this filename - Dubbed_into_Hindi. Click on Save. All future CTRL + S will automatically save into this project file.
You can exit from Movie Maker after saving into the project file and resume dubbing at any future convenient time. Just click on File > Open Project and choose the project you want to open. Ensure that the frame head is positioned at the point from where you want to continue and start dubbing once again as you did before. Remember to save the project often during the dubbing.
Once the narration for the entire spoken tutorial is complete, you should create a movie. To do that, go to the Movie Tasks Panel. Go to Finish Movie. Choose the first option - Save to my computer. Click on it. This will open the Save Movie Wizard dialog box. Enter the file name for your dubbed movie and specify the path. I will give this filename and choose this path. “Hindi_Dub_file.” Click on the Next button. Here you can choose the output file quality.
Let me explain this in detail. Choosing “Best quality for playback on my computer” will give a high quality video but with a large file size. Choosing “Best fit to file size” will give a lower quality video but with a smaller file size. Choosing “Other settings” will display all the saving options available in which the resultant video can be saved.
So depending on how you are going to view or where you are going to upload the video, you will have to choose the appropriate quality option. I’m going to choose Best fit for file size and 30MB. The view dimensions will be 640*480 pixels and the frame rate will be 30fps. As the file to be dubbed is also of this dimension and as I want the dubbed movie to have the same dimensions, I will choose this option. If this is not a requirement, you may choose a number smaller than 30MB for eg- 25 MB. Notice that the view dimensions have become smaller. I will go back and change this to 30 MB and click on NEXT. The movie will be saved on your computer.
Click on Finish. And Exit Windows Movie Maker.
So, you see, by following this procedure, you will be able to create dubbed versions of any spoken tutorial or movie clip in a few simple steps. Hope you find this information helpful. This is Nancy from CDEEP, IIT Bombay signing off. Thank you for watching.
