Post Production Ramblings

• As a part of our digital multimedia course we were asked to work collaboratively to create PSA videos. The experience was overall a good one, even though there were some frustrations on the way. The pre-production went very smoothly. Early on we created a group wiki for the project. It turned out to be a great tool for brainstorming. We were able to build off each others' ideas, add relevant links and videos and basically come to a consensus as to what our project should be about.
• We then divided up the work, however, even then we worked as a group. For example, Jason wrote the script, but we each went through and revised it and made suggestions until we had the final version created. We even added the pre-production document to t he wiki so that we could all help in filling it out. The production process took us a little longer to figure out how best to accomplish it as a group. We ended up adding a page to our wiki so that we could all add the videos, pictures and audio files that we were each responsible for.
• One great tool that i used was google docs. I hadn't realized before that you can upload image and video files and then provide other people with a link so they can download the files as well. This was much easier than using emails and filling up everyone's email boxes. I did the initial editing and I used animoto to put together the pictures and videos that we had each contributed.
• Kristen then took that video and edited it further, removing shots that were too dark or unfocused and adding in the audio files that Kimberly had created. She sent us the proof and we all made suggestions as to how it could be cut down to the 60 second limit and what copyright info should be added. Finally, Kristen uploaded the final video to Youtube. The great thing about Youtube is that it is easy to upload files to it and it provided a simple embed code that can allow you to add the video to your blog or wiki.
• I am happy with how the PSA turned out. If we had more time I would probably redo the narration to make it a little louder, but other than that, I think it is very solid.
• Most of the footage we used in our video was taken by us, however we did get a few pictures from Flickr that had creative commons licenses. They were: Party Picture #1 by Flickr User Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos Party Picture #2 Creative Commons License by Flickr User The "Your fired" picture was from leighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com

P.S. On the right hand side of this page, you will see a label entitled Multimedia Video Technology Posts. If you click that link, you will see all of the required blog posts for this class. In addition, here is the link for my Ed Tech Google Site as well.

Post Production Ramblings

I have rewritten this post three times and I can't get it to keep the paragraph formatting. I will keep working on it, but if you see one big paragraph, know that it isn't on purpose. As a part of our digital multimedia course we were asked to work collaboratively to create PSA videos. The experience was overall a good one, even though there were some frustrations on the way. The pre-production went very smoothly. Early on we created a group wiki for the project. It turned out to be a great tool for brainstorming. We were able to build off each others' ideas, add relevant links and videos and basically come to a consensus as to what our project should be about. We then divided up the work, however, even then we worked as a group. For example, Jason wrote the script, but we each went through and revised it and made suggestions until we had the final version created. We even added the pre-production document to t he wiki so that we could all help in filling it out. The production process took us a little longer to figure out how best to accomplish it as a group. We ended up adding a page to our wiki so that we could all add the videos, pictures and audio files that we were each responsible for. One great tool that i used was google docs. I hadn't realized before that you can upload image and video files and then provide other people with a link so they can download the files as well. This was much easier than using emails and filling up everyone's email boxes. I did the initial editing and I used animoto to put together the pictures and videos that we had each contributed. Kristen then took that video and edited it further, removing shots that were too dark or unfocused and adding in the audio files that Kimberly had created. She sent us the proof and we all made suggestions as to how it could be cut down to the 60 second limit and what copyright info should be added. Finally, Kristen uploaded the final video to Youtube. The great thing about Youtube is that it is easy to upload files to it and it provided a simple embed code that can allow you to add the video to your blog or wiki. I am happy with how the PSA turned out. If we had more time I would probably redo the narration to make it a little louder, but other than that, I think it is very solid. Most of the footage we used in our video was taken by us, however we did get a few pictures from Flickr that had creative commons licenses. They were: Party Picture #1 by Flickr User Rev. Xanatos Satanicos Bombasticos Party Picture #2 Creative Commons License by Flickr User The "Your fired" picture was from leighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com

Digital Footprints PSA

Wordles in the classroom

So I am going to have my students create wordles today and place them on their blogs. Unfortunately, I can't get the embed option to work so I found a work around. The directions are below, and here is a link to a screencast I made to teach them how to add their wordles to their blogs. "After you have created your wordle, press the "Open in Window" button. Press and hold Alt and "print screen." Open up Paint and paste the image onto the program. Then save the image in your network folder or flash drive as a jpeg file. Finally, go to your blog and place your wordle into a new blog post."

Value of Web Conferences in Online Education

I have not been able to attend a web conference yet during this course, but I have attended them for past courses. I have also watched one of the recorded conferences to gain some clarity on our week 2 assignment. I am glad that we have web conferences because as an online class, we would have absolutely no communications with our professors without them. This is critical because I have found that one of the weaknesses of taking my degree online is the amount of miscommuncation that can occur. I have found through the several courses I have taken that professors will often feel that they are giving clear simple directions, but many of my classmates as well as myself are very confused as to what to do. I think that comes from the fact that there is no face to face contact with our professors, so it is harder to get quick feedback for clarification. I communicate with many of my classmates through facebook and wikis and we are constantly trying to figure out what is expected of us in the program. Sometimes the technical difficulties are frustrating, but that is to be expected with technology.

Windows Movie Maker... it's no iMovie

My group decided to look at Windows Movie Maker and iMovie partly they seem to be the most used video editing applications in education and partly because one of our readings this week specifically mentioned them as being two of the best free video editing options available. Since I have already used iMovie many times, I decided to review and evaluate Movie Maker so that I could get exposed to a different program. Windows Movie Maker comes free with PC’s that use Microsoft Windows XP or Vista or can be downloaded for free from the Microsoft website. It cannot be used with Windows 7 that comes with its own video editor called Windows Live MovieMaker . For a free video editing software, Windows Movie Maker has some great basic functions, however, its “bells and whistles” are few and there are some drawbacks to the interface that it uses. Importing Options for importing are video straight from your video camera, video from a file on your computer, pictures or audio. Video formats that can be imported are limited to .asf, .avi, .dvr-ms, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .wm, and .wmv. This means that MP4s and .mov files will need to be converted before they can be used in the software. Editing Once you have added your media to your project, adding clips to your movie is as easy as dragging and dropping. Clips can be viewed in the preview screen at the right as they are edited. Movie Maker has several effects and transitions that you can add to customize your video. The one drawback that I found as I was adding effects to my video is that they are added to entire clips. The only way to use an effect for only part of a clip requires splitting the clip into two clips. The same is true for cutting a clip. You can cut the beginning or end of a clip, but to cut material from the middle of a clip you need to split the clip. This can get cumbersome if you have several internal clips to make. You can also add titles and credits to your video as well. For each addition you can choose the font, color and effect of your title. You can also add music or audio files to your movie as well. However, you can only control volume for the entire length of the audio or music file. There is a fade in or fade out option, but other than that, you are stuck with one level of sound for the entire selection. Unlike programs like iMovie, however there are no royalty free music or sound effect options included in the software. Publishing There are four publishing options with Windows Movie Maker. Publishing to your computer, recording to a recordable CD, sending it in an email or sending it to your digital video camera. There is no way to record a DVD in the software. A separate program will need to be used to create a DVD. You have two formats that you can publish your file in, AVI and WMV. Overall, considering that students can easily obtain it for free and that it has all of the basic editing tools needed for most student projects, Movie Maker is a good choice for classroom use. However, I would recommend that if iMovie is available at your school that it be considered. It is a program that I have used extensively in my classes. It has all of the features of Movie Maker but it also includes an easier interface for trimming and editing clips, as well as more title choices and royalty free music and sound effects. We are luck at our school to have access to both PCs and a mac laptop lab so I think that if I have my students make their own videos, I am going to use iMovie myself. Microsoft. (2010, 09 05). Create home movies with windows movie maker. Retrieved 09 05, 2010, from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx

Adding Sound Effects to iMovie tutorial

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