Is it snowing in your neighborhood? Cold and blustery here. And when it snows I load up my "squirrel-proof" bird feeder with seeds and enjoy the show out my kitchen window. Recently I decided to capture the scene in a movie.
My venture into iMovie film making turned out to be a fun snowy day project. However only a few weeks ago I never would have dreamed of trying this. My past movie-making projects were disastrous even with all the how-to tips I consulted online. Then I went to the amazing Alt Summit SLC class with filmmakers (and bloggers) Alison Faulkner at The Alison Show and Jenner Brown of Lumineux Films. Jumping into film making takes energy—so fortified with the yummy treats during their hands-on Alt class, my brain was inspired!
Okay, I have to tell you two things before you watch my attempt at film making:
First, if you have a short attention span, then you are in luck because my movie is EXTRA short—barely 1 minute long
Second, don't expect a masterpiece. It is probably best called a "work-in-progress" because I know later I can go back and edit it some more.
Well, that said, here it is!
Snowy Morning from Momathon on Vimeo.
Be sure to check out Alison's super fun videos on her blog here. Jenner has some great work on many blogs. I really love this "Joy & Ruby" video he did for the Small Fry blog here.
So what did I learn in the class by Alison and Jenner? Lots! Here are just a few of the iMovie 11 tips via class:
• Add some sugar :) A supply of donuts on hand inspires creativity (Alison and I agree on that one!)
• Use "Show Advanced Tools" option. When you first set up your iMovie, go to "Preferences" and click on "Show Advanced Tools" this allows you to do cutaways, picture in picture, and green screens. (If you don't select this, when you try to add a logo in iMovie the pop-up window won't show up .)
• Add an interesting custom logo or title artwork. In Photoshop or another design program, create an interesting logo/title and save it as a PNG image with a transparent background. You can add it to your movie by selecting the PNG file, dragging it over to the movie clip near the start of your movie and click on "Picture in Picture" option. Once you get the PNG image in, you can adjust its placement on the clip. (If your PNG image turns black, you probably clicked on "Fit." To fix this, click on "Ken Burns Effect."
• Boost the stabilization of shaky footage. If your film footage is shaky—that's usually my style—then in iMovie double click on the film clip, open up "Inspector" and select "Stabilization."
• Make your film more interesting by including background sound, a voiceover, or music. To do this, move your cursor over to the "Music Note" icon (center right in iMovie screen). A box appears in the lower right portion and you can choose between iMovie/iLife sound effects and iTunes. If you want to add favorite music track from iTunes beware of copyrights. Next, select the sound clip you want and click on it, hold it . A sound icon appears. Drag the icon over to movie and drop it in. Two options for sound placement—you can place the sound clip on a specific portion of the movie (a gray strip appears below the movie clip) or attach it to the entire movie (the space surrounding the movie turns green). Use theiMovie voice over tool (microphone icon in the middle of the iMovie screen) to add your commentary later.
• iMovie works with still images too. As you might have noticed with my fim, the entire movie is made using photos and including the "Ken Burns Effect." This effect adds panning and zooming to still imagery in the video production. Too add more interest you can modify how the still imagery appears by changing the panning/zooming area selected from the start to the end of the clip by adjusting the cropping marks appearing on the image in iMovie. You can even change the length of time the clip appears to add variety.
IMAGES: Photos by the talented Alt Summit photographer Brooke Dennis and the short movie by ME on Vimeo here :)
