The computer can edit the movies you make.

 

Windows Movie Maker comes free as part of Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2.

Here’s how to use Windows Movie Maker if you have Windows Vista. (The next section explains how to use Windows Movie Maker if you have Windows XP SP2.)

Launch the program

To start using Windows Movie Maker, click Start then “All Programs” then “Windows Movie Maker”. The computer will say “Windows Movie Maker”.

The screen’s left edge shows this task menu:

Import from camera

Here’s how to import (copy) a movie from a digital-video camcorder’s tape to your computer.

Put the tape into the camcorder. Turn the camcorder off. Run a Firewire cable (which is also called an IEEE 1394 cable and an i.LINK cable) from your camcorder to your computer’s system unit. Turn the camcorder back on and put it into “play” mode (rather than “record” mode).

On the computer’s keyboard, type a name for your video (such as “Christmas 2006”). Press Enter. Click “Import the entire videotape to my computer”. Press Enter.

Then the computer makes the camcorder rewind and play the tape. While the camcorder plays the tape, the computer shows the movie on the computer’s screen silently and copies it to the Videos folder (which is on the computer hard disk).

For example, if you named your movie “Christmas 2006” and copied it to the computer on March 24, 2007 at 17 seconds after 9:38AM, the computer creates a file called “Christmas 2006 2007_03_24_09_38_17.avi”. (The “.avi” stands for “audio video interleaved”.) The computer puts that file into a folder called “Christmas 2006”, which it puts into drive C’s Video folder.

The file is huge and consumes lots of space on your hard disk. The file is 178 megabytes per minute of video. That’s about 200 megabytes per minute, 1 gigabyte per 5 minutes, 12 gigabytes per hour.

When the tape is done (or you don’t want to copy any more of it), click “Stop” then press Enter. Turn off the camcorder.

View the clips

The computer will analyze the movie and automatically divide it into scenes (called clips) by noticing each time you stopped the camera. The computer will show you each clip’s first frame. If your movie contains many clips, the computer will show you just the first few; to see the rest, use the window’s down-arrow (or rotate the mouse’s wheel toward you).

To play one of the clips again (to remind yourself what it was), double-click the clip’s icon (which is its first frame). The computer will play that clip for you, in a windowpane at the screen’s right edge. That windowpane is called the movie monitor.

If you want to delete a clip, click its icon then press the Delete key.

Build the storyboard

At the screen’s left edge, near the bottom, you should see the word “Storyboard”. (If you see “Timeline” instead, click “Timeline”, so it becomes “Storyboard”.)

You see the storyboard, which is a gray banner containing big white boxes (separated by tiny white-and-gray boxes). Each big white box looks like a piece of blank white film.

Drag the clips to the big white boxes, in the order you want the clips to appear in your final movie.

If you want to drag all the clips to the storyboard, in the same order as on the tape, use this shortcut procedure instead:

If you want to drag many clips to the storyboard, in the same order as on the tape, use this shortcut procedure instead:

View the movie

Here’s how to view the whole movie.

In the storyboard, click the first clip (the first box in the storyboard).

At the screen’s right edge, you see the movie monitor (the windowpane where your movie can play). Click the movie monitor’s Play button („). That makes the movie monitor start playing the whole movie for you.

The movie consists of several clips (scenes). Each clip consists of many frames: you see 30 frames per second.

While you’re watching the movie, you can click the movie monitor’s other buttons:

Here’s a shortcut: instead of clicking the Play button or Pause button, just tap the keyboard’s Space bar.

To skip to a different clip, click that clip’s icon in the storyboard.

As the movie plays, the movie monitor’s slider gradually slides toward the right.

Edit the movie

To edit the movie, you can use several techniques.

Delete a clip To delete a clip from the movie, click the clip’s icon in the storyboard then press the Delete key.

Undo an edit If you make a mistake while editing, click the Undo button (a blue arrow bending toward the left).

Split a clip Here’s how to split a clip into two parts, so you can edit each part differently:

Move a clip If you want to move a clip (which we’ll call clip A) so it will play immediately before clip B, drag clip A to clip B. (In other words, point at clip A, then while holding down the mouse’s left button, move the mouse pointer to clip B.) The clip will move when you take your finger off the mouse’s button.

Add video effects Here’s how to make a clip look more interesting.

Click “Effects” (in the task menu). You’ll see icons for 49 video effects, organized into 30 categories:

(To see them all, use the window’s scroll arrows or, better yet, click 3D Ripple then rotate your mouse’s wheel toward you.) Here are the most conservative choices:

The most lively is “speed up, double-speed”, which makes everybody act & talk twice as fast.

To see what an effect does, double-click its icon. That makes the computer show you what the effect does to a photo of a red flower. Imagine what the effect would do to your clip!

To apply an effect to your clip, drag the effect’s icon to the clip’s icon on the storyboard. That makes the clip icon’s gray star turn blue. If you drag two effects to a clip icon, the clip icon will get a double blue star. If you drag three effects there, the clip icon will get a triple blue star.

If you change your mind and want to delete all the clip’s effects, click the star then press the Delete key.

If you want to delete just one of the clip’s effects, do this:

Add transitions You can make clips overlap, so your audience sees one clip gradually disappear while the next clip gradually appears, simultaneously. That’s called a transition between clips. Here’s how to create a transition.

Click “Transitions” (in the task menu). You’ll see icons for 63 transitions effects, organized into 34 categories:

(To see them all, use the window’s scroll arrows or, better yet, click Bars then rotate your mouse’s wheel toward you.) These choices are the most fun:

To see what a transition does, double-click its icon. That makes the computer show you what the effect does to photos of a red flower and yellow flowers. Imagine what the transition would do to your clips!

To apply a transition to a pair of your clips, drag the transition’s icon to “the small box between the two clips on the storyboard”. If you want to watch the transition, click that small box then the Play button („).

If you change your mind and want to delete the transition, click that small box then press the Delete key.

If the transition confuses the computer and makes your whole movie become black, do this:

Create a title screen Here’s how to put a title at your movie’s beginning.

Click “Titles and credits” (in the task menu) then “Title at the beginning”. Type what you want the title screen to say (such as “Christmas Follies”).

After you’ve typed that and pause, the computer will show you how the title will actually look: it will be white words centered on blue background; it will play in a clip that takes between 3½ and 7½ seconds (depending on how long your title is), with a fade in and a fade out.

While you’re typing the title, you’re typing in a box. If you wish, click the box below that. Any words you type in the lower box will be the subtitle: they’ll appear smaller and below the main title. For example, in the top box you could type “Christmas”; in the bottom box you could type “Follies” or “2006” or “with Sue” or “by Sue Smith”.

When you’re satisfied with the title you wrote, add it to your movie by clicking “Add Title”.

See the timeline Instead of looking at the storyboard, you can look at the timeline, which shows more details about your movie. To switch from storyboard to timeline, click the word “Storyboard” (which is at the screen’s left edge) then “Timeline”.

The timeline is a graph. Atop the timeline, a horizontal ruler shows how many hours, minutes, and seconds have elapsed since the movie’s beginning. (For example, “0:01:20.00” means “0 hours plus 1 minute plus 20.00 seconds”.) Below that ruler, you see which clip is playing at each point of time. Each clip is represented by a box. If a clip is lengthy (takes many minutes), the clip’s box is wide; if a clip is brief (takes just a few seconds), the clip’s box is narrow.

As you play the movie, a green vertical line moves rightward across the timeline and shows how far on the timeline the playback has progressed. The timeline is especially useful if you want to skip ahead and watch a clip’s ending: while playing the movie, just drag the green vertical line to the right, until it’s near the clip’s end.

The timeline shows 3 tracks:

To make the timeline look wider (so you can see its details better), click the Zoom Timeline In button (a magnifying glass containing “+”). To make the timeline look narrower (so the whole movie fits on your screen), click the Zoom Timeline Out button (a magnifying glass containing “-”).

To return to seeing the storyboard (which is less detailed than the timeline and easier to understand), click “Show Storyboard” (which is just above the timeline).

Trim a clip Here’s the fastest way to trim a clip (make it shorter).

Click the clip’s icon then the movie monitor’s Play button, so the clip starts to play. When you get to the place in the clip where you want to trim, click the Pause button (II). Use the one-frame-at-a-time buttons (tII and IIu) until you get to the exact spot where you want to trim.

Click “Clip” (which is at the screen’s top).

Combine clips Here’s how to combine two clips that are next to each other, to form a longer clip:

Save the project

To save your work, click File (which is at the screen’s top-left corner) then Save Project. Invent a name for your project (such as “Christmas 2006 project”); type the name and press Enter.

That makes the computer copy your project to the Videos folder. At the end of your project’s name, the computer will secretly put “.MSWMM” (which stands for MicroSoft Windows Movie Maker).

Later, if you want to return to that project, click File then Open Project then double-click the project’s icon.

Copy to DVD

Here’s how to copy your movie to a DVD disk:

Click “DVD” (in the task menu). Press Enter. Click “Next” (or press Enter again).

If you get an error message saying “Windows DVD Maker has stopped working” then an error message about “lmpgd10.ax”, the problem is caused by a conflicting program called the Ligos MPEG-2 codec, so unregister that program by doing this:

Put a blank DVD+R disk into the DVD drive. Click “Burn” (or press Enter). The computer will say “Creating DVD”.

The computer will convert your movie to DVD form then copy it to the blank DVD+R disk. That process will take several minutes: go eat a pizza. Finally, the computer will say “Your disc is ready” and open the DVD drive’s door. Remove the DVD disk.

Then make the computer return to normal, by doing this:

Close

When you finish using Windows Movie Maker, close it by clicking its X button.

Here’s how to use the Windows Movie Maker version that’s part of Windows XP SP 2.

Launch the program

To start using Windows Movie Maker, click “start” then “All Programs” then “Windows Movie Maker”. The computer will say “Untitled — Windows Movie Maker”.

To make sure your screen is normal, do this:

Then the screen’s left edge shows this task menu:

Capture the video

Here’s how to capture a video (copy a video from a DV camcorder’s tape to your computer).

Put the tape into the camcorder. Turn the camcorder off. Run a Firewire cable (which is also called an IEEE 1394 cable and an i.LINK cable) from your camcorder to your computer’s system unit. Turn the camcorder back on and put it into “play” mode (rather than “record” mode). If the computer asks “What do you want Windows to do?” click “Cancel”.

If the computer’s screen doesn’t say “Video Capture Wizard” yet, make it say that by clicking “Capture from video device” on the task menu (which is at the screen’s left edge).

On the computer’s keyboard, type a name for your video (such as “Christmas 2006”). Press Enter twice. Click “Capture the entire tape automatically”. Press Enter.

Then the computer makes the camcorder rewind and play the tape. While the camcorder plays the tape, the computer shows the movie on the computer’s screen and also copies it to the My Videos folder (which is in the My Documents folder). For example, if you named your movie “Christmas 2006”, the computer creates a file called “Christmas 2006.wmv”. (The “.wmv” stands for “Windows media video.)

On a typical computer, the file consumes about 3 megabytes per minute of video. For example, a complete 1-hour tape consumes about 180 megabytes. (On your computer, the file might be a different length, depending on how much quality the computer decided to give your video.)

When the tape is done (or you don’t want to copy any more of it), click “Stop Capture” then press Enter. Turn off the camcorder.

View the clips

The computer will briefly say “Importing files”.

It will analyze the movie and automatically divide it into scenes (called clips) by noticing each time you stopped the camera. The computer will show you each clip’s first frame and the date & time you shot it (according to your camcorder’s built-in clock). If your movie contains many clips, the computer will show you just the first few; to see the rest, use the window’s down-arrow (or rotate the mouse’s wheel toward you).

To play one of the clips again (to remind yourself what it was), double-click the clip’s icon (which is its first frame). The computer will play that clip for you, in a windowpane at the screen’s right edge. That windowpane is called the movie monitor.

If you want to delete a clip, click its icon then press the Delete key.

Build the storyboard

Across the screen’s bottom, you should see the storyboard, which is a blue banner containing big white boxes (separated by tiny white-and-gray boxes). (If you don’t see the big white boxes, make them appear by clicking “Show Storyboard”.)

Drag the clips to the big white boxes, in the order you want the clips to appear in your final movie.

If you want to drag all the clips to the storyboard, in the same order as on the tape, use this shortcut procedure instead:

If you want to drag many clips to the storyboard, in the same order as on the tape, use this shortcut procedure instead:

View the movie

Here’s how to view the whole movie.

In the storyboard, click the first clip (the first box in the storyboard).

At the screen’s right edge, you see the movie monitor (the windowpane where your movie can play). Click the movie monitor’s Play button („). That makes the movie monitor start playing the whole movie for you.

The movie consists of several clips (scenes). Each clip consists of many frames: you’re temporarily seeing 15 frames per second, though your final movie will actually be higher quality and show 30 frames per second.

While you’re watching the movie, you can click the movie monitor’s other buttons:

Here’s a shortcut: instead of clicking the Play button or Pause button, just tap the keyboard’s Space bar.

To skip to a different clip, click that clip’s icon in the storyboard.

As the movie plays, the movie monitor’s slider gradually slides toward the right.

Edit the movie

To edit the movie, you can use several techniques.

Delete a clip To delete a clip from the movie, click the clip’s icon in the storyboard then press the Delete key.

Undo an edit If you make a mistake while editing, click the Undo button (a blue arrow bending toward the left).

Split a clip Here’s how to split a clip into two parts, so you can edit each part differently:

Move a clip If you want to move a clip (which we’ll call clip A) so it will play immediately before clip B, drag clip A to clip B. (In other words, point at clip A, then while holding down the mouse’s left button, move the mouse pointer to clip B.) The clip will move when you take your finger off the mouse’s button.

Add video effects Here’s how to make a clip look more interesting.

Click “View video effects” (in the task menu). You’ll see icons for 42 video effects, organized into 23 categories:

(To see them all, use the window’s scroll arrows or, better yet, click Blur then rotate your mouse’s wheel toward you.) Here are the most conservative choices:

The most lively is “speed up, double-speed”, which makes everybody act & talk twice as fast, like chipmunks.

To see what an effect does, double-click its icon. That makes the computer show you what the effect does to a photo of a grassy hill. Imagine what the effect would do to your clip!

To apply an effect to your clip, drag the effect’s icon to the clip’s icon on the storyboard. That makes the clip icon’s gray star turn blue. If you drag two effects to a clip icon, the clip icon will get a double blue star. If you drag three effects there, the clip icon will get a triple blue star.

If you change your mind and want to delete all the clip’s effects, click the star then press the Delete key.

If you want to delete just one of the clip’s effects, do this:

Add transitions You can make clips overlap, so your audience sees one clip gradually disappear while the next clip gradually appears, simultaneously. That’s called a transition between clips. Here’s how to create a transition.

Click “View video transitions” (in the task menu). You’ll see icons for 60 transitions effects, organized into 34 categories:

(To see them all, use the window’s scroll arrows or, better yet, click Bars then rotate your mouse’s wheel toward you.) These choices are the most fun:

To see what a transition does, double-click its icon. That makes the computer show you what the effect does to photos of a grassy hill and a sand dune. Imagine what the transition would do to your clips!

To apply a transition to a pair of your clips, drag the transition’s icon to “the small box between the two clips on the storyboard”. If you want to watch the transition, click that small box then the Play button („).

If you change your mind and want to delete the transition, click that small box then press the Delete key.

Create a title screen Here’s how to put a title at your movie’s beginning.

Click “Make titles or credits” (in the task menu) then “title at the beginning”. Type what you want the title screen to say (such as “Christmas Follies”).

After you’ve typed that and pause, the computer will show you how the title will actually look: it will be white words centered on blue background; it will play in a clip that takes between 3½ and 7½ seconds (depending on how long your title is), with a fade in and a fade out.

While you’re typing the title, you’re typing in a box. If you wish, click the box below that. Any words you type in the lower box will be the subtitle: they’ll appear smaller and below the main title. For example, in the top box you could type “Christmas”; in the bottom box you could type “Follies” or “2006” or “with Sue” or “by Sue Smith”.

When you’re satisfied with the title you wrote, add it to your movie by clicking “Done, add title to movie”.

See the timeline Instead of looking at the storyboard, you can look at the timeline, which shows more details about your movie. To see the timeline instead of the storyboard, click “Show Timeline” (which is just above the storyboard).

The timeline is a graph. Atop the timeline, a horizontal ruler shows how many hours, minutes, and seconds have elapsed since the movie’s beginning. (For example, “0:01:20.00” means “0 hours plus 1 minute plus 20.00 seconds”.) Below that ruler, you see which clip is playing at each point of time. Each clip is represented by a box. If a clip is lengthy (takes many minutes), the clip’s box is wide; if a clip is brief (takes just a few seconds), the clip’s box is narrow.

As you play the movie, a blue vertical line moves rightward across the timeline and shows how far on the timeline the playback has progressed. The timeline is especially useful if you want to skip ahead and watch a clip’s ending: while playing the movie, just drag the blue vertical line to the right, until it’s near the clip’s end.

The timeline shows 3 tracks:

To make the timeline look wider (so you can see its details better), click the Zoom Timeline In button (a magnifying glass containing “+”). To make the timeline look narrower (so the whole movie fits on your screen), click the Zoom Timeline Out button (a magnifying glass containing “-”).

To return to seeing the storyboard (which is less detailed than the timeline and easier to understand), click “Show Storyboard” (which is just above the timeline).

Trim a clip Here’s the fastest way to trim a clip (make it shorter).

Click the clip’s icon then the movie monitor’s Play button, so the clip starts to play. When you get to the place in the clip where you want to trim, click the Pause button (II). Use the one-frame-at-a-time buttons (tII and IIu) until you get to the exact spot where you want to trim.

Make sure you see the timeline. (If you see the storyboard instead, click “Show Timeline”.)

Click “Clip” (which is at the screen’s top).

Combine clips Here’s how to combine two clips that are next to each other, to form a longer clip:

Save the project

To save your work, click the Save Project button (which is near the screen’s top-left corner and looks like a floppy disk). Invent a name for your project (such as “Christmas 2006 project”); type the name and press Enter.

That makes the computer copy your project to the My Videos folder (which is in the My Documents folder). At the end of your project’s name, the computer will secretly put “.MSWMM” (which stands for MicroSoft Windows Movie Maker).

Later, if you want to return to that project, click the Open Project button (which is left of the Save Project button and looks like a yellow manila folder being opened by a green arrow) then double-click the project’s icon.

Copy to DVD

Here’s how to copy your movie to a DVD disk.

Click “Save to DVD” (in the task menu).

The computer will spend several minutes making a new .wmv file. For example, if your project was called “Christmas 2006 project.MSWMM”, the computer will create a file called “Christmas 2006 project_0001.wmv”.

Then the computer will say “Create a DVD”. Put a blank DVD+R disk into the DVD drive. (If the computer asks “What do you want Windows to do?” click “Cancel”.)

Edit what’s in the “DVD Title” and “Video Title” boxes, until you’re satisfied. (Later, when you view the DVD disk, the DVD Title will appear at the top of the DVD’s menu; the Video Title will be in the DVD’s menu.) Keep your titles short: each box holds at most 16 characters. When you finish editing them, press Enter.

The computer will say “Converting files”. Wait patiently (even though the screen’s green bars stop moving). After several minutes, the computer will say “Burning files to disc,” then take several more minutes to copy your movie to the DVD+R disk. Finally, the computer will say “You have successfully created a DVD of your movie” and open the DVD drive’s door.

Remove the DVD disk. Close the DVD drive’s door. Press Enter.

Close

When you finish using Windows Movie Maker, close it by clicking its X button.

Here’s how to use Pinnacle’s Studio 10 Plus.

Install the program

Here’s how to put the program onto your computer’s hard disk (if the program hasn’t been put there already).…

The program comes on a pair of DVD disks.

Insert the DVD disk labeled “Pinnacle Studio Plus International Install DVD version 10.6”. Press Enter.

Double-click in the First Name box. Press the Delete key (to delete the name that was there previous). Type your first name.

Press the Tab key. Type your last name. Press the Tab key twice. Type your e-mail address (such as poo@gis.net). Press the Tab key twice.

Type the serial number of your copy of the program. (The serial number is on a white sticker on the yellow “Software installation” booklet that came in the software’s box. Don’t type the dashes: they’ve been typed for you already.)

Press Enter twice. Click “Next” twice. The computer will show your customer care ID number; scribble it on your white serial number sticker. Click “Close Window” then “I accept the terms of the license agreement”. Press Enter thrice. The computer will copy the program from the DVD to your computer’s hard disk.

The computer will ask, “Do you want a shortcut to Studio Launcher to be created on your Desktop?” Press Enter three times.

Insert the DVD disk labeled “Pinnacle Studio Bonus NTSC”. Press Enter immediately. Press Enter again. Click “Next”. Press Enter twice. Click “Next”. The computer will copy the bonus disk’s program to your computer’s hard disk.

The computer will say “InstallShield Wizard Complete”. Remove the DVD disk from the computer. Press Enter. The computer will restart.

Launch the program

Double-click the Studio Launcher icon. (If you can’t find it, click “start” then “All Programs” then “Studio 10” then “Studio Launcher”.)

Click “Pinnacle Studio Plus”. (If the computer says “Studio 10.7 Patch”, click “Go Get It” and follow the instructions about downloading the free upgrade).

Capture the video

Here’s how to capture a video (copy a video from a DV camcorder’s tape to your computer).

Put the tape into the camcorder. Turn the camcorder off. Run a Firewire cable (which is also called an IEEE 1394 cable and an i.LINK cable) from your camcorder to your computer’s system unit. Turn the camcorder back on and put it into “play” mode (rather than “record” mode). Rewind the tape (by using the buttons on the camcorder).

If the computer’s screen says “Digital Video Device”, click “Cancel”.

Click “Capture” (which is near the screen’s top-left corner). At the screen’s bottom-right corner, click either “DV capture” or “MPEG capture”.

Then click the green “Start Capture” button. Type a name for the video (such as “Christmas 2006”). If the Create SmartMovie box is checked, remove the check mark (by clicking it). Press Enter.

Then the computer makes the camcorder play the tape. While the camcorder plays the tape, the computer shows the movie on the computer’s screen and also copies it to the My Videos folder (which is in the My Documents folder).

For example, if you named your movie “Christmas 2006” and chose “DV capture”, the computer creates a big file called “Christmas 2006.avi”. (The “.avi” means “Audio Video Interleaved”.) The computer also creates 3 little helper files: “Christmas 2006.avi.index”, “Christmas 2006.avi.A.index”, and “Christmas 2006.scn”.

The computer automatically divides the movie into scenes. (To do that, the computer continually looks at the date and time recorded on the tape and notices when the time suddenly skips ahead.)

On part of the computer’s screen, you see a photo album that shows you each scene’s first frame. Each double-page of the photo album is big enough to hold 18 scenes. (If your movie contains more than 18 scenes, the album includes several double-pages.)

When the tape is done (or you don’t want to copy any more of it), click the red “Stop Capture” button. Turn off the camcorder.

View the scenes

To play one of the scenes again (to remind yourself what it was), double-click the scene’s icon (which is its first frame). The computer will play that scene for you, in a windowpane at the screen’s right edge. That windowpane is called the player.

Build the storyboard

The screen’s bottom half should be the storyboard, which a grid of 30 gray boxes. (If you don’t see the 30 gray boxes, make them appear by clicking the “Storyboard view” button, which is 5 tiny boxes near the screen’s right edge.)

Drag the scenes to the gray boxes, in the order you want the scenes to appear in your final movie.

If you want to drag all the scenes to the storyboard, in the same order as on the tape, use this shortcut procedure instead:

If you want to drag many scenes to the storyboard, in the same order as on the tape, use this shortcut procedure instead:

On the storyboard, each box represents a dragged scene and is called a clip.

View the movie

Here’s how to view the whole movie.

In the storyboard, click the first clip (the first box in the storyboard).

At the screen’s right edge, you see the player (the windowpane where your movie can play). Click the player’s Play button („). That makes the player start playing the whole movie for you.

The movie consists of several clips. Each clip consists of 30 frames per second.

While you’re watching the movie, you can click the player’s other buttons:

Here’s a shortcut: instead of clicking the Play button or Pause button, just tap the keyboard’s Space bar.

To skip to a different clip, click that clip’s icon (in the storyboard) then the Play button.

The player has two sliders:

Another way to skip ahead is to rotate the mouse’s wheel toward you (if you have a wheel mouse). As you rotate the mouse’s wheel, you see different frames from your movie. When you reach the frame that interests you, click the Play button.

Edit the movie

To edit the movie, you can use several techniques.

Delete a clip To delete a clip from the movie, click the clip’s icon in the storyboard then press the Delete key.

Undo an edit If you make a mistake while editing, click Edit then Undo.

Split a clip Here’s how to split a clip into two parts, so you can edit each part differently:

Move a clip If you want to move a clip (which we’ll call clip A) so it will play immediately before clip B, drag clip A to clip B. (In other words, point at clip A, then while holding down the mouse’s left button, move the mouse pointer to clip B.) The clip will move when you take your finger off the mouse’s button.

Add transitions

You can make clips overlap, so your audience sees one clip gradually disappear while the next clip gradually appears, simultaneously. That’s called a transition between clips. Here’s how to create a transition.

Request transitions Click the “Show transitions” button, which is normally at the screen’s left edge and looks like a lightening bolt separating two brackets. (If you don’t see that button, make it appear by clicking, once or twice, the “Open/close video toolbox” button, which is at the storyboard’s top left corner and looks like a video camera.)

Then you see icons for many transitions.

Choose a category The icons that are most common and free are called Standard Transitions. They fall into 7 categories:

In a box, you see a category’s name (such as “2D Transitions”). Click that box’s down-arrow to see the list of other categories.

Click whichever category you wish to explore. I recommend you start by trying one of those 7 “Standard Transitions” categories (since other categories require you to install the bonus disk or pay for a download from the Internet).

When you’ve picked a category, you see icons for transitions in that category.

Try a transition To see what a transition does, click its icon. That makes the computer show you what the effect does to photos of a blue A and an orange B. Imagine what the transition would do to your clips!

Use a transition To apply a transition to a pair of your clips, drag the transition’s icon to “the space between two clips on the storyboard”. If you want to watch the transition, click its icon (on the storyboard) then the Play button („).

If you change your mind and want to delete the transition, click the transition’s icon (on the storyboard) then press the Delete key.

Extra pages If you view a category (such as “2D Transitions”) that has many transitions, you see icons for just the first 32 transitions in that category. To see the rest of the category’s transitions, click an arrow that’s to the right of the word “Page”.

See scenes again Here’s how to make the screen’s top half show scenes again (instead of transition icons to choose from): click the “Show videos” button (which is above the “Show transitions” button).

Save the project

To save your work, click File (at the screen’s top-left corner) then Save Project. Invent a name for your project (such as “Christmas 2006 project”); type the name and press Enter.

That makes the computer copy your project to the My Videos folder (which is in the My Documents folder). At the end of your project’s name, the computer will secretly put “.stx” (which stands for Studio X).

Later, if you want to return to that project, click File then Open Project then double-click the project’s name.

Copy to DVD

Here’s how to copy your movie to a DVD disk.

Click “Make Movie” (at the screen’s top) then the green “Create disc” button.

The computer will open the DVD drive’s tray. Put a blank DVD+R disk into the tray. Push the tray closed. (If the computer asks “What do you want Windows to do?” click “Cancel”.)

Click the green “Create disc” button again. The computer will copy the movie to the DVD disk. When the computer finishes, it will say “Disk creation completed” and open the tray. Take the disk out of the tray. Push the tray closed.

Close

When you finish using Pinnacle Studio Plus, close it by clicking its X button.

Then you’ll see a plain Pinnacle Studio window. Close that by clicking its X button.

Congratulations! You’ve learned the fundamentals of movie making!

Advanced tricks

While making movies, try these advanced tricks.

See the timeline Instead of looking at the storyboard, you can look at the timeline, which shows more details about your movie. To see the timeline instead of the storyboard, click the “Timeline view” button (which is at the storyboard’s top-right corner and looks like a wide box atop a narrower box).

The timeline is a graph. Atop the timeline, a horizontal ruler shows how many hours, minutes, seconds, and frames have elapsed since the movie’s beginning. (The seconds are separated from the frames by a period. For example, “0:01:20.15” means “0 hours plus 1 minute plus 20 seconds plus 15 frames”. Each second includes 30 frames, so 15 frames take half a second.)

Below that ruler, you see which clip is playing at each point of time. Each clip is represented by a box. If a clip is lengthy (takes many minutes), the clip’s box is wide; if a clip is brief (takes just a few seconds), the clip’s box is narrow.

As you play the movie, a vertical line moves rightward across the timeline and shows how far on the timeline the playback has progressed. The timeline is especially useful if you want to skip ahead and watch a clip’s ending: while playing the movie, just drag the vertical line to the right, until it’s near the clip’s end.

The timeline shows 5 tracks:

To make the timeline look wider (so you can see its details better), click the Ruler Zoom In button (a magnifying glass containing “+”). To make the timeline look narrower (so the whole movie fits on your screen), click the Ruler Zoom Out button (a magnifying glass containing “-”).

To return to seeing the storyboard (which is less detailed than the timeline and easier to understand), click the “Storyboard view” button (which is left of the “Timeline view” button and looks like 5 tiny boxes).

Add a title screen Here’s how to put a title at your movie’s beginning.

Find the “Show titles” button, which is at the screen’s left edge and looks like a T. (Make sure the T is below a lightning bolt and above a camera. If the T is not that way, make it be that way by clicking, once or twice, the “Open/close video toolbox” button, which is at the storyboard top-left corner and looks like a video camera.) Click that T.

Then you see examples of many titles. Each title temporarily has a checkerboard background, but in your final movie the title will have a black background instead.

Make sure the box above those titles says “Standard Titles”. (If the box says something else instead, click the box’s down-arrow then “Standard Titles”.)

You can choose from 26 titles in 4 categories:

(You see the first 18 of them; to see the remaining 8, click the right-arrow next to “Page 1 of 2”.)

If you click one of those titles, you’ll see it bigger, as it will really look in your movie, with a black background. Try clicking several titles, until you decide which one you prefer. If you don’t like the words of any of the 26 titles, pick a title that has nice colors and fonts; you can edit its words later. When you’ve decided which title you prefer, drag it to the storyboard, to the left of the first clip. When you’ve dragged successfully, you see a green vertical line to the left of the first clip; when you take your finger off the mouse’s button, the green line turns into the title frame.

If you want to edit the title’s words, do this next:

You can add title frames elsewhere (between your movie’s frames or at the movie’s end) by dragging titles there (then editing them).

To delete such a title, click its frame (on the storyboard) then press the Delete key.

When dragging, make sure you drag between your movie’s other clips, not “on top of” a clip. (If you drag “on top of” a clip, the title’s background won’t be black: instead, the title’s background will be that video clip. To delete such a title, click the “Timeline view” button then the title’s box (on the Titles track) then press the Delete key.

Here’s how to make the screen’s top half show scenes again (instead of titles to choose from): click the “Show videos” button (which is above the “Show transitions” button).

Combine clips Here’s how to combine two clips that are next to each other, to form a longer clip: