Ye Olde COMM 165
Little Video Project

Spring 2008

We will use iMovie to make a little film.  You will be able to actually upload the film to your public_html directory and look at it later, but it depends on filesize of your movie..  For a more sophisticated introduction and instructions to iMovie, you should take a look at http://www.apple.com/imovie/ on the web.

First step is to create a folder for all the files to be placed in. 
Open iMovie and select "New Project." iMovie will create a project file and a Media folder. Remember the three things you need to control in saving anything:  (a) the folder location the file will be saved in, (b) the name of the file, and (3) the format of the file.
Perhaps name this folder something like
165movie

Second, your movie must be on a topic related to a speech or rhetorical situation in American history.  Imagine you are going to show this little movie as part of a larger report in an American Public Address class.

bullet Select a topic--think of the speaker and/or other major people involved, the place, the event, etc.
bullet Using an Internet Browser, connect to the Library of Congress website
http://www.loc.gov/homepage/lchp.html
and find 10-20 pictures of people, speech texts, events, newspaper headlines, or similar things related to your project topic. 
Right click on each picture and save each picture down to your storage folder.
 
bullet Then open PowerPoint and quickly create a slideshow using these pictures. 
bullet Try to make each picture full screen or a large as it will still be clear. 
bullet You may add some text for titles, captions, perhaps a few transition or key point slides, etc. 
bullet Then save your PowerPoint file. 
bullet Then SAVE AS the file again, but this time save the file as JPEG picture files.  These JPEG files are to be put into your iMovie
folder.
bullet You may find some video files to use in making the movie.  iMovie can use AVI or MOV files, and a few other formats.
 
bullet If you find it really difficult to find photographic and video materials on your topic at the Library of Congress, you may use Google Images and other resources.

Third, in iMovie, File | Import these files .

Fourth, drag and drop the files on the Storyboard.  You can place them in any order.  For example, you might move 003i9.jpg file to the first clip on the Storyboard..

Fifth, add some transition effects.  Experiment.  Add background music.

Fifth, save the project and then save the movie as a Quicktime movie to your folder.

Sixth, upload your Quicktime movie file to your public_html directory.  If the file is too large, you may make a DVD of your finished movie.

Seventh, revise your homepage to add a link (e.g., 165movie.mov) to this movie, save the revised homepage, and upload to your public_html directory.

 

Note:  You may do this project using Windows Movie Maker if you can and prefer, creating a Windows Media Video file. 

 

 

 

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