Use video editing software to mix reality and imagination in amazing ways. Your interests, passions and motivation are the keys, followed by hardware, software, and your skills using them. It's never too early or late to begin... jump in and enjoy!!
Movie Maker is a very basic movie editing app... use it to learn and make small fun projects. As you learn, try other software for more advanced features and move on to pro-sumer software when ready... or stay with Movie Maker for the long run.
Welcome!!!...
I made this video as a 'Happy New Year 2012' one but it quickly moved up my personal vimeo leaderboard to become my most viewed video. I'll leave it here as a welcoming video to the website, a sample of the kinds of things you can do with Movie Maker.
I'm currently writing an e-book about the new versions of Windows Movie Maker. It's online as a website... when finished I'll pack it up and publish. Until then feel free to read it here...
Use the many online groups and forums for support... some of the key ones are:
My facebook Windows Movie Maker Group is a social media one for those interested in chatting about Movie Maker and related software. It's open to all. Browse or join in.
Microsoft Forums, where I'm a 'Community Moderator', provide official support from Microsoft staff and Movie Maker users... here's a set of direct links to the forums of most interest...
June 1, 2013 - I used to think of Camtasia as a screen capturing app and a tool to make neat business presentations. Camtasia Studio 8 is so much more. Here's a video produced with Camtasia on a Windows 8 computer, with text captions added by Movie Maker 2012.
... and this hour long full-feature 'Calico at Art Hops', produced with Camtasia, is my first TV production, to be broadcast in Kalamazoo 4 times this month.
May 23, 2013 - Making movies requires lots of learning and you can't have too much good info to help develop your skills. Here's the initial announcement of new
April 25, 2013 - It's been 6 months since the last update of MM2012 was released. I don't have statistics but see many users having issues with it and reverting to MM2011... or like me, using it with work-arounds as needed.
February 25, 2013 - I spent last week at Microsoft's MVP 2013 Summit conference... mingling with other MVPs and the Movie Maker Team. I added a few videos to my video album of MVP Summit Snippets on vimeo.
It's been 2 years now that I've been taking video with a Sony AVCHD camcorder. In Windows 7 I use the included PMB software that came with it as my main video clip management app.
PMB doesn't work on Windows 8 but Sony developed another similar app named PlayMemories Home, which I downloaded and checked out last night on my 64 bit Windows 8 desktop. It's similar to PMB and works great.
January 5, 2013 - Here's a video clip review of 2012 from my video library...
November 20, 2012 - Happy Holidays to you and yours, however you celebrate...
Click this pointer for a rolling 12 months of new items...
I'm a user of Movie Maker, not a programmer... and my computers are PCs, not Apples...
I use dozens of video editing apps and utilities. This website is about many of them, focusing on Microsoft's Windows Movie Maker and Photo Story 3 (PS3).
The classic versions of Movie Maker ended with Vista. Windows 7 marked a new beginning of movie editing with Microsoft tools. For those who want to use both classic and new versions, the MM2.6 for Vista runs fine on Windows 7 and 8, and doesn't conflict with new versions.
My two books about Movie Maker... 'Zero to Hero' and 'Do Amazing Things' cover the basics of the classic versions and the info isn't repeated here. The site is about more advanced subjects, along with help resolving problems. For online help getting started with Movie Maker, use links on the
Tutorials and References page.
As there are no books about Photo Story 3, everything from basic to advanced material is included... but not much for problem-solving.
Many of the website pages are busy with content. And the hundreds of newsletters and Bright Hub articles I've written over a 5 year stretch provide even more depth. They are online here with links sprinkled around the site.
Click this image or the link under it for a full table of contents to them.
Movie Maker is a wonderful easy-to-use entry-level video editing app included in all versions of Windows XP and Vista, or available for downloading to Windows 7 and 8 systems. Most people computer users don't realize they already have it. You can be up and running in a couple hours, mixing still pictures, video clips, music and audio in 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 and Windows 7, DVD Maker can burn your saved movies on standard video DVDs.
The latest version of Movie Maker is Movie Maker 2012, an optional download for Windows 7 or 8 users. See the Setup Movie Maker branches of the menu for appropriate links.
Photo Story 3 complements Movie Maker by letting you pan and zoom still pictures, using all the pixels in high resolution ones... it doesn't come with Windows but it's a free download from Microsoft. Unfortunately it installs and works on very few Windows 8 systems.
The Photo Story Magic group is a virtual Photo Story 3 university, where PS3 buffs showcase their work and provide info about how they do it. Join in... click this widget to browse and view the stories.
If you're not ready to jump into making advanced stories, my website has a full tutorial in the Photo Story 3 branch of the menu at the left.
With Microsoft® Expression® Media you can produce 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.
Many of my online personal videos are short examples of amazing things you can do. Links to them are throughout 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, DVD Maker and Expression by sharing my personal experiences.
Provide an Online Companion to my book Movie Maker 2 - Do Amazing Things!, published by Microsoft Press on 12/10/03 and now distributed in book and e-book formats by O'Reilly. 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 many free and fee-based online hosts such as YouTube, vimeo, and FaceBook...
Provide a full tutorial about Photo Story 3, to get the most of using it by itself or hand-in-hand with Movie Maker.
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 available 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.
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 page's content.
• Provide personal comments about the topic.
The link above-right to my name... PapaJohn... is to a 33 second intro story made with Photo Story 3 for the 2005 Microsoft MVP Summit. The narrator is Brian at theDVShow.
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 Movie Maker', 'Online', and 'Offline' branches of the menu tree have many other links to available resources.
By design, Movie Maker is an easy to use, yet extremely powerful, digital video editing program, with real time previewing. It's free to all users of Microsoft Windows XP® or later operating systsems. Its comfortable user interface helps you focus your creative energies on your movie projects 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.
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.
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 online comments 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 wrote 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. I've received 11 annual Most Valuable Professional (MVP) awards (2002-2012) for working with the community of Movie Maker users.
My grandchildren call me 'Papa', '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 forum postings and emails, add what I learn from Microsoft, and annotate it with my personal experiences. It is constantly evolving, driven by software and hardware changes, and our collective needs.
Some HowTo's are included... short video tutorials made possible by great screen capture tools such as Camtasia, 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.
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 facebook and forum posts, second to 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.
. Look for 'How To' logos throughout the site.
