8 Windows Movie Maker

Topics Covered
•Windows Movie Maker •Starting Windows Movie Maker • Adding Photos, Videos or Audio •Importing
Digital Files from External Devices •Applying Transitions Effects •Applying Visual Effects •Adding Title,
Caption and Credits •Editing Media Clips •Saving Your Project •Sharing Your Project

Windows Movie Maker

Windows Movie Maker is a video editing software that allows you to
create and edit videos. This program is manufactured by Microsoft
and provided within the Windows Essentials suite of software utilities.
This suite contains Windows Mail, Messenger, Photo Gallery, Movie
Maker, Writer and OneDrive.
Microsoft Windows Movie Maker started as an integral part of Windows Millennium (ME),
Windows XP and Windows Vista system. In the later versions of Windows, it can be

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downloaded free of cost from Microsoft website. It allows users to build movies from photos,
videos and animations, providing built-in sounds and effects as well as to publish them on
OneDrive, Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube or Flickr. Windows Movie Maker is also known as
Windows Live Movie Maker or Movie Maker.
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Movie Maker is non-linear editing software, which means that the original file that was placed
on your hard drive will not be modified in any way. Movie Maker creates its own different
video file while you are editing so that if you want, you can create several different movies
using the same source file.

FEATURES OF WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER

In the year 2000, Microsoft developed its first version of Movie Maker for Windows
Millennium (Me) operating system which provided the facility to edit video files. Since then,
Microsoft continually has updated its Movie Maker, incorporating innovative features and
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functions with each new version.

Various features of Movie Maker include:
Audio Narration: Movie Maker allows you to record narration (your comments) and you can
do it while watching your video playback. These narrations can be saved as an audio file. You
can even add sound effects to the narration track.
Audio Waveforms: On the Time scale, you can find your audio files very easily because it is
represented as a colored waveform. It helps while editing, as it makes it easy in determining
the high and low points location.
Music Download Online: Movie Maker allows you to add music to your movie, by downloading
it directly from various online music stores like AudioMicro, Free Music Archive or the Vimeo
Music Store, with proper rights.
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Outline Text Effects: To improve the overall quality and readability of the text messages in
your movies, Movie Maker now provides customizable outlined text. You can also change the
color and size of the text as needed.
MPEG-4/H.264 Encoding (MP4): Movie Maker now supports MPEG-4/H.264 encoding. H.264 is
a popular standard for high definition (HD) digital video. It has become a popular format for
cameras. This format also reduces the amount of storage required to save movies. You still
have the option to save the movies in WMV (Windows Media Video) format.
Video Stabilization: Sometimes the video you have shot appears shaky, as if you have taken it
on a bumpy ride. Movie Maker now has an option to stabilize your shaky videos and correct the
wobbling in your movies, using the new Stabilization and Wobble Correction (Rolling Shutter
correction) features.
Videos As Audio: It allows you to use your video files as an audio source for your audio tracks.
Auto-Save: Movie Maker automatically saves your project files periodically when you are
working on it. This feature will help you to recover data from your projects in case of
unexpected shut down.

Starting Windows Movie Maker

By default, Windows Movie Maker is not installed in Windows 10. You have to download it
from Microsoft website and install it on your computer. Once installed, follow these steps to
open Windows Movie Maker in Windows 10.

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1. Click on Start button to open Start menu. It displays a list of all installed programs.
2. Scroll to display Movie Maker and click on it. The Movie Maker app opens and appears in the
desktop using a window.

UNDERSTANDING MOVIE MAKER WINDOW

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To work in Movie Maker, you must understand its interface.
Quick Access Toolbar Title Bar

FileTab Tabs
Ribbon Groups

Preview Story
Monitor

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Board

Full Screen Preview

Control Panel
Zoom Slider
Title Bar: It shows the name of the displayed project. It also contains Quick Access toolbar on
the left and Minimize, Maximize and Close button on the right side.
File Tab: It displays the file menu commands, such as New project, Open, Save, etc.
Quick Access Toolbar: It displays quick access buttons to the Save, Undo and Redo commands.
Ribbon: It displays groups of related commands in tabs. Each tab offers shortcut buttons to
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common tasks.
Tabs: They contain buttons and other controls for working of project.
Groups: These are used to organize controls into sections within tabs.
 Story Board: It is used to look at the sequence or ordering of the clips in your project and to
easily rearrange them, if necessary. It will also show video effects that have been added in the
project.
Preview Monitor: It enables you to view individual clips or an entire project.
Control Panel: You can use the buttons underneath the preview monitor to play or pause a clip
or to advance or rewind a clip frame-by-frame.
Full Screen Preview: It is used to make the preview monitor larger or smaller.
Zoom Slider: It is used to change the size of content or customize the look of the story board.

Adding Photos, Videos or Audio

To work in Movie Maker, you have to add videos, photos and audio files.

ADDING PHOTOS
1 1. Click on Home tab.
2 2. Click on Add videos and photos.

3 Add Videos and Photos dialog box appears.

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3. Navigate the folder from which you want
to add photos.
4. Select the pictures that you require.
5. Click on Open.
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All the selected images will be added in the Story

Board of Movie Maker.
6. Click on Play button to preview the movie in
Preview monitor.
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ADDING VIDEOS
1 1. Click on Home tab.
2 2. Click on Add videos and photos.
3 Add Videos and Photos dialog box appears.
3. Navigate the folder from which you want
to add video clips.
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4. Select the video clip that you require.
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5. Click on Open.
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 The selected video clip will be added in the Story
Board of Movie Maker.
6. Click on Play button to preview the movie in
Preview monitor.

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ADDING MUSIC
1. Click on Home tab.
2 As music file will run in background of a movie or
1 along with other media, the Add Music icon will only
3 highlight if you have already added a movie.
2. Click on Add Music.
4
Add music dialog box appears.
3. Navigate the folder from which you want to add
music file.
4. Select the music file that you require.
5

P 5. Click on Open.

The selected music will be added and a green

wave bar is added at the base of clips in Story
Board of Movie Maker.
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6. Click on Play button to preview the movie along
with music in Preview monitor.

Importing Digital Files from External Devices

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Sometimes you record movie files on a digital storage unit, such as a Flash drive or portable
hard drive attached to your camera. The best way is to transfer all the recorded movie files
from those portable storage devices onto your computer before importing, but you can also
import the files into Movie Maker directly from these devices.

2 1. Attach the external device to the computer.

2. Click on File tab.
3. Click on import from device.
If the photos and videos will be imported into Photo
3 4 Gallery, a message appears; click on OK.
The Import Photos and Videos dialog box appears
which will give you access to all the storage devices 111
that are attached to the computer.
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4. Select the device.
5. Click on Import.
 Import Photos and Videos page appears.
6. Click on the radio button of Review, organize, and
6 group items to import.
7. Click on Next.

7 Select the groups you want to import page appears.

8. To import a group of photos and videos, select
the check box next to the group. Clear the check
boxes for groups of photos and videos that you
8 don't want to import.
9 To view all of the photos and videos in a group,
10 next to the group, click View all items.
9. For each group of photos and videos that you
want to import, click on Enter a name and then
type a name for the group.
10. To assign tags to a group, click on Add tags and
then type a new tag name for that group of
11 photos and videos.

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P 11. Click on Import.

Photo Gallery will appear.

12. Select each photo or
video you want to use in
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your movie.
12 13. Click on Create tab.
14. Click on Movie.
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The selected photos and videos are added to the

story board in Movie Maker.

Update Your Knowledge

Windows Movie Maker supports most of the video file
types such as avi, asf, mpeg, mpg, m1v, mp2, mp2v,
112 mpe and wm. It supports most audio file types such as
mp3, aif, aiff, asf, au, mp2, mpa, snd, wva and wav. It
supports most image file types such as bmp, dib, emf,
gif, jfif, jpe, jpg, jpeg, png, tif, tiff and wmf.
Applying Transitions Effects
A transition is a visual effect that appears when your movie plays from one video clip or
picture to the next. A transition effect can be used between two pictures, video clips or titles
in any combination on the story board.

1. Click on any video clips, titles

or pictures on the story
2 board/timeline to which you
3 1 want to add a transition.
2. Click on Animations tab.
You can scroll through the
available transition effects.
3. Click the transition effects
that you want to add.
Movie maker immediately
displays a preview of the
transition effect.
You can also click on Play to

P see a preview of what the

transition looks like.

Movie Maker adds a

transition icon in the selected
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4 clip or image.
4. Click on Apply to all, if you
want to apply the same
transition effect to all the
clips and images of your
project.

REMOVE TRANSITION EFFECTS

Sometimes after applying a transition you realize it just does not work and you decide to

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remove it; in that case repeat steps 1 to 3 while selecting None in step 3. Movie Maker
removes the transition and transition icon from the movie clip or image.

CHANGE THE TIME DURATION

The amount of overlap between two clips determines the duration of transition. You can
change the duration of transitions.
1. Click in the Duration box and
1 type the time (in seconds)
that you want transitions to
play back by default.

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 Applying Visual Effects
Movie Maker allows you to add special visual effects to your project. These effects enhance
the appearance of movie and give a feel of professional touch. These effects include artistic,
black & white, cinematic, mirror and motion & fades.

2 1. Click on any video clips, titles or

pictures on the story board/
timeline to which you want to add
3 visual effects.
2. Click on Visual Effects tab.
You can scroll through the available
1 visual effects
3. Click the visual effect that you
want to add.
Movie maker immediately displays
a preview of visual effect.
You can also click on Play to see a
preview of what the effect looks

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like.

Movie maker immediately displays

a preview of the effect.
Movie Maker adds an effect icon in
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the selected clip or image.
You can click on Brightness if you
want to increase or decrease the
brightness of movie clip or image.
When you click on Brightness, a
slider will appear. Drag the slider
left to decrease the brightness or
right to increase the brightness.
4. Click on Apply to all, if you want to
apply the same effect to all the
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clips and images of your project.

REMOVE VISUAL EFFECTS

Sometimes after applying a visual effect you realize that it is not working and you decide to
remove it; in that case repeat steps 1 to 3 while selecting None in step 3. Movie Maker
removes the visual effect and the effect icon disappears from the clip or image.

Update Your Knowledge

Here are some devices that you might import photos or videos from:
114 ! A digital camera or phone that's connected to your PC with a USB cable
! A Secure Digital (SD), mini SD or CompactFlash storage card that's in a card reader
! A data CD or DVD, a video camera that records to an internal hard drive or flash storage card
! A videotape that's in a Digital Video (DV) camera, High-Definition Video (HDV) camera or Webcam
Adding Title, Caption and Credits
Movie Maker allows you to add a title, your name, date, credits and other text to your movie.
The title plays for the specified amount of time and then disappears; the video clip or pictures
continues. Steps of adding Title, caption and credit are same but title is added in the
beginning of selected clip, captions are added on the selected clip and credits are added at
the end of selected clip.
1. Click on any video clip or
2
picture on the story board/
timeline to which you want
3
to add title, caption or
1
credit.
2. Click on Home tab.
3. Click on Title button.
A text box will appear in the
preview pane.

4. In the text box, type the text that you want to appear as the title.

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After typing your title text,
you can format the text by
selecting different font, font
color, background color,
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transparency, alignment,
start time and text duration
4 of the title.
5. Click on any animation
effect you want to apply on
the text.
Title, Caption or Credit that
you added appears on the
story board.

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6. Click on Play button to see
6 your title in the preview
monitor.

REMOVING THE TITLE, CAPTION AND CREDIT

1. On the story board/timeline, right-click the title, caption or credit that you
want to remove from your movie. A pop-up menu will appear.
2. Click on Remove.

Update Your Knowledge

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! Start time in the title controls how soon the text will appear. Duration in title
shows how long it remains on the screen.
! You can edit the title by double-clicking on the title text in the story board and
change the text.
 Editing Media Clips
Movie Maker allows you to resize your movie clip by using trim tool which is used to remove
unwanted sections.
2 1. Click on any video clip
on the story
board/timeline that you
3 1 want to trim.
2. Click on Edit tab from
Video Tools.
3. Click on Trim tool.
A Trim tab will appear in the ribbon.
4. Click on Trim markers
to select the starting
4 5 and ending points and
enter the new value.
5. Click on Save trim.

The Trim tab will disappear

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6. Click on Play button to
see the trimmed clip in
the preview monitor.
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You will see that the
video is trimmed
according to your
entered value in step 4.

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Saving Your Project

After you have finished adding and editing your project in Windows Movie Maker, you must save
it and give it a file name. By default, Movie Maker will save your file with .wlmp file extension.
1. Click on File tab. The File menu will appear. (not
shown)
2. Click on Save Project. (not shown)
The Save Project dialog box will appear.
3. Click inside the File name box and type the name
for the project.
116 3 4. Click on Save.
Your project will be saved in Movie Maker file format.
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Sharing Your Project
After making and saving your project, you may want to share it. However, when you save the
project, it will be saved as a Movie Maker Project file with .wlmp extension.
The .wlmp extension can be opened only in Windows Movie Maker; so in order to share your
video with friends and family or upload it to YouTube, Facebook or another website, you'll
have to save it as a MPEG-4/H.264 file or any other recognized video format (.wmv).
2 1. Click on Home tab.
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2. Click on Save movie
button from the Share
group.
The Save Movie dialog
box will appear.

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3. Click inside the File name box and type the
name for the project.
4. Click on Save.

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The Movie Maker box will appear and display the progress of
saving the movie.

After saving the movie, Movie Maker will display a

dialog box.
5. Click on Play.

5 The movie will start playing in Windows Media 117

Player.
 CHECKLIST
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Self-Evaluation

ee
agr
ree

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After reading the chapter, I know these points:

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$ I know that Windows Movie Maker is a video editing software.
$ I know that we can add images, videos and music files in Windows Movie Maker.
$ I know that we can add transition and visual effects to give the project a
professional touch.
$ I know that title can be added in the beginning and credit can be added at the end of
the video clip.
$ I know that we can share our project with friends, family or upload it to YouTube.

Exercises

A. Tick [ü ] the correct answer.

1. The feature which allows us to record narration in video is ........................... .
a. Video Stabilization

P b. Audio Narration c. Audio Waveforms

2. The section which allows us to look at the sequence of clips in the project is ..................... .
a. Control Panel b. Preview Monitor c. Story Board
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3. .......... is a visual effect that appears when the movie plays from one video clip to the next.
a. Transition b. Duration c. Stabilization
4. The tool which allows us to resize our movie clip is ........................... .
a. Speed Tool b. Trim Tool c. Undo Tool
5. The default format in which the Movie Maker project is saved is ........................... .
a. .wlmp b. .exe c. .wmv
B. Write ‘T’ for True and ‘F’ for False statements.
1. Windows Movie Player program is developed by Microsoft.
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2. Auto save feature stabilizes shaky videos and corrects wobbling in movies.
3. Preview Monitor enables us to view individual video clip.
4. Visual effects cannot be removed from the video clips.
5. You cannot import digital files from external devices in Windows Movie Maker.
6. Duration in Title shows how long it remains on the screen.
C. Fill in the blanks.
1. ....................................... helps in determining the high and low point locations.
2. .......................... text effect is used to change the color and size of the text.
118 3. ........................... is used to change the size of the content of the story board.
4. ..................... is a popular standard for high definition (HD) digital video format for cameras.
5. ........................ is added in the beginning of selected clip.
D. Differentiate between the following.
Audio Narration Audio Waveforms
................................................................. .................................................................
................................................................ .................................................................
................................................................ .................................................................
................................................................ .................................................................
E. Answer in 1-2 sentences.
1. What do you mean by Windows Movie Maker?
....................................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................................
2. What is transition effect?
....................................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................................
3. Why do we edit our movie clip?
....................................................................................................................................................

4. What is the use of trim tool?

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....................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................................
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F. Answer Briefly.
1. Write any three features of Windows Movie Maker.
....................................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................................
2. What do you mean by Video Stabilization?
....................................................................................................................................................

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....................................................................................................................................................
....................................................................................................................................................
G. Application Based Question.
Shobit wants to make a video containing pictures and video clips of his younger brother, on his
birthday. In order to upload it on Facebook, he also wants to add his name in the video, where
should he put his name in the clips?
..........................................................................................................................................................
Group Discussion
Discuss various features of Windows Movie Maker.
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Online Link
To learn more about working of Windows Movie Maker, visit the website:
https://www.minitool.com/moviemaker/use-movie-maker.html