Video Project

Master in Teaching Program 2006-08

Winter 2008

 

Overview

Starting with the video footage taken of you last fall, you will create a two minute video clip that will be saved as a Quicktime movie and later inserted into a PowerPoint presentation. You have the freedom to portray yourself, as teacher, as you see fit, through your choice of footage.

 

Purposes

á      Carefully review the videotape of your own teaching to identify aspects of your teaching that you are not normally aware of

á      Get some experience / review editing digital video footage as a way of preparing and encouraging you to create video projects in your future teaching

á      Create a brief video "snapshot" of your teaching to share with the cohort during the last week of the quarter

 

Suggested Procedure (specific instruction on using iMovie are included later in this document)

á      Notice which computer you are sitting at Ð you will likely need to return to this same computer if you need additional time to complete this project.

á      Open iMovie and connect your camera to your computer (if you want to use other software you can, as long as it can be saved into Quicktime or Windows Media Player format and inserted into a PowerPoint presentation)

á      Begin by creating a title screen with your name, fall student teaching site, and date

á      Import sections of the video into iMovie that you are most likely to want to use in your final product Ð ideally you would import no more than 10 minutes total, as you will soon be editing this down to 2 minutes of footage.

á      Choosing from your imported video footage, create approximately 10 short clips, of about 10 Ð 15 seconds each.

á      Put the clips in a logical order and insert transitions between each.

á      Add a closing screen, giving yourself and other appropriate people credit and/or sharing a final thought

á      Export your video clip as a quicktime movie. Be sure to save your clip for yourself and also email a copy to Scott.

 

Requirements

á      Your final video clip must be saved in Quicktime (.mov) or Windows Media (.wmv) format

á      Your clip must be between 90 seconds and 3 minutes in length

á      The clip must include an opening and closing title

á      Your clip must include transitions between the various scenes

á      Additional features such as voice over, sound effects, subtitles, use of stills, etc. are optional but encouraged if you have some video editing experience/expertise

á      The Quicktime video clip must be emailed as an attachment to Scott by Friday, January 25.

 

i Movie Basics

You only need to be able to do a few simple things in iMovie to be able to create your video clips. These skills you need are briefly outlined below

 

á      Getting Started: before you open iMovie, insert your tape into the camera, and turn the camera to its video setting and connect your camera to your Macintosh computer with a firewire cable.

 

á      Open iMovie and create a new iMovie project

 

á      To import sections of your video footage into iMovie, move to the section of tape you want using the iMovie control buttons and then click Import. You can save time by previewing your tape and only importing the sections you are most likely to use.

 

á      To edit your clips to include just the exact scenes wanted, the simplest technique is to use the "Split Video Clip at Playhead" command under the Edit menu. Just move the clip to the start or ending point you want and do the split.

 

á      You assemble your clips in the panel at the bottom of the iMovie screen. Put the clips in the order you want.

 

á      Put transitions between the clips to make your movie flow more smoothly. Click on "Editing", then on "Transitions", then drag the type of transition you want Ð cross dissolve is recommended Ð between clips.

 

á      You should add a title at the start of the movie to give the viewer some context Ð and you can also add additional titles throughout the clip to give additional explanation to your viewer about what is happening in the clip. You create titles by clicking on "Editing" and then 'Titles", and then select the kind of title, type in the words, and then drag (by the words describing the type of title) to where you want the title to show. You can either put the title by itself over black, or can make the title show up within your existing video footage by clicking on or off the "over black" checkbox.

 

á      The final iMovie  task is to export your video as a QuickTime movie. You do this after you have a clip fully assembled at the bottom of the iMovie screen. At that point, select "QuickTime" from the Share menu, select CD ROM or Web streaming as your quality (the CD ROM is a little better quality, but takes longer to export). This file is small enough to fit on a thumb drive or to be sent to yourself or others by email.