About Movie Maker

After almost 4 years of publishing weekly newsletters, I now write such articles for Bright Hub. There are links to them throughout this website.

Click this image or link for a table of contents.

PapaJohn's Newsletters and Articles

this site focuses on 3 Microsoft products

Movie Maker is a wonderful easy-to-use entry-level video editing app included in all versions of Windows XP and Vista. Most people don't know they already have it. You can be up and running in a couple hours, mixing still pictures, video clips, music and audio into amazing home movies, and topping them off with a wide assortment of titles, text overlays, and credits.

Your movie projects can go wherever your creativity and imagination take them. Additionally, in the Home Premium and Ultimate versions of Vista, DVD Maker works hand-in-hand with Movie Maker.

Photo Story 3 complements Movie Maker by letting you pan and zoom using all the pixels in your high resolution still pictures... it's not included in XP or Vista, but is a free download from Microsoft.

Microsoft® Expression® Media produces online video and Silverlight packages for the best and newest in website video distribution.

Use the software apps individually or together, along with other software tools in your editing toolbox, making the most of each...

Many of my online personal videos are short examples of amazing things you can do. Links to them are sprinkled through the website.

Use the menu tree at the left to navigate the site. There are hundreds of pages loaded with information, samples and downloads. My goals are to...

• Help you do amazing things with Movie Maker, Photo Story, and DVD Maker by sharing my personal experiences and examples.

• Provide an Online Companion to my book Movie Maker 2 - Do Amazing Things!, published by Microsoft Press on 12/10/03. The companion makes clarifying notes, provides source files, shows samples, and takes you deeper into selected topics... things often done with included CDs or DVDs. Being online, I can easily update it to stay current.

• When you're ready to exhibit your work online, you'll need a web host. You usually have some space provided by your Internet Service Provider. There are hundreds of free service providers such as YouTube... and there are fee-based online hosts such as neptune and mydeo. This picture is a link to my online videos at neptune.

• Provide a full tutorial about Photo Story 3, to get the most of using it by itself or with Movie Maker 2.

• Help you resolve problems with Movie Maker by providing insights into how it works and issues you might run into, and what you can do to resolve or work around them.

I don't have access to the source code, so I rely heavily on the collective experience of Movie Maker users and other information from Microsoft.

Like most sites today, there's a sprinking of commercial ads... appropriate and without pop-ups. When you're shopping online, please use these links... any proceeds I get from clicks or purchases helps keep the site running.

I don't cover the basics of shooting great video with a camcorder or editing with Movie Maker. The info about making amazing movies is more about editing techniques than storyboarding. Bring your own ideas and inspiration, and the site will help you implement them using Movie Maker and Photo Story 3.

For topics not covered, use the built-in Movie Maker help file, online tutorials, books, training sessions, my Training and Support Services page, and other resources.

The 'Setup MM2 in XP', 'Online', and 'Offline' branches of the menu tree have many other links to available resources.

Thumbnails and Comments The website has grown considerably and continues to expand. Look for boxes like this on many pages. I use them to... • Summarize a page that is too big for an easy read. Scan the thumbnail and move on unless you really want to dig into the topic on the page. • Provide personal comments about the topic. The link from my name above... PapaJohn... is to a 33 second intro story made with PhotoStory 3 for the 2005 Microsoft MVP Summit. The narrator is Brian at theDVShow.

PapaJohn

My Photo Story 2 web site continues to support that version. It's at...

www.papajohn.org/PhotoStory2/PS.html

By design, Movie Maker is an easy to use, yet extremely powerful, digital video editing program, with real time previewing. It's free for all users of Microsoft Windows XP® and Vista, and its comfortable user interface helps you focus your creative energies on your movies rather than the software.

There are many things involved in making a movie: obtaining graphics, video, sound, music, text and narration... moving them into your computer... editing a project... and then saving and distributing the finished movie.

Your learning curve may be easy or steep, and there may be issues to resolve. But the rewards are great, and many people are willing to assist as you go. It's never too early or late to get started.

Transition Maker 2 for XP systems... not Vista A utility that lets you create your personal sets of special transitions. Use the above link or click on the TM2 icon to go directly to the download site for a free trial version... ...and information about what it is, including a full online tutorial... the main site menu at the left includes a branch about TM2 in the Edit Movies section.

Much of the information on this website comes from postings on these newsgroups:

microsoft.public.windowsxp.moviemaker - Movie Maker 2

microsoft.public.windowsxp.photos - Photo Story 3

microsoft.public.windows.vista.music_pictures_video - Vista's Movie Maker 6 and DVD Maker.

... the broad-based places for peer support. Thanks to Microsoft for providing the newsgroups, and mostly to all who ask questions and share their experience and comments.

Included links are to websites, forums, software downloads, books, activities, events, and training... anything of direct interest to users of Movie Maker and Photo Story 3. The information may be summarized or commented on here, but it is not duplicated. Suggestions for additional links or references are always welcomed.

This website is, and will remain, tightly focused on you, the users of Movie Maker and Photo Story 3. It covers all software features, and related topics from camcorders to burning DVDs and uploading videos to website hosts.

I use newsgroup posts and your personal emails for guidance about what to include in the website.

The information on each page usually flows from general to specific, with many pages drilling down to individual posts. When they go down that far, the date of the post is shown, but not usually the name of the person who posted it. The word 'Microsoft' means it was made by someone working for Microsoft. In most such cases, Microsoft employees are responding to posts on their own time, participating in peer support activities.

Zero to Hero was published in early 2003, and Do Amazing Things on December 10, 2003. Use the links on the right to order them from Amazon U.S. Zero to Hero is also available in Polish 'od zera do bohatera'.

There are other book-related links on the Offline... Books and Training page.

One of the branches of the menu is your entry to the online companion for the Do Amazing Things book. It's open to all.

The Zero to Hero book is supported by an online forum hosted by APress/Friends of ED.

When your favorite editing software doesn't have enough features, use those in other apps such as VirtualDub, an open source utility used by millions.

I was more than pleased to write the introductory chapter for the first book about Learning VirtualDub, released by Packt Publishing in May 2005.

I'm not a Microsoft employee, but received 6 annual Most Valuable Professional (MVP) awards (2003-2008) for working with the community of Movie Maker users.

'Papa' is what my grandchildren call me, 'John' is my real name, and PapaJohn is my online handle.

This website started March 8, 2003 as a better way to share my personal notes about Movie Maker. It has helped many and I hope it helps you. I roll up information from newsgroup and forum postings, add what I learn from Microsoft, and annotate it with my personal experiences. It is constantly evolving, driven by our collective needs.

A set of HowTo's is the latest website feature... short video tutorials made possible by great screen capture tools and better internet capabilities. Linger over a How To button and the tool tip will tell you the topic. Click it and you'll see a short video about the item.

Here's a How To about setting a How To Background Stage. Look for 'How To' logos throughout the site.

Some people wonder if I respond to emails. Yes, but my typical day gives first priority to newsgroup posts, second to forum posts, then to my personal activities, and finally to emails. Emails may get you personal help but not help others. I prefer letting all see the correspondence... and others often respond sooner than I do, with better answers. Having said that, feel free to email me at:

PapaJohn@CharterMi.net

Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

HighMAT and the HighMAT logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.