Director’s Cut
Photo Story & Movie Maker
1

Digital Storytelling vs. Making Movies
• Point of View
• Dramatic Question
• Emotional Content
• Gift of Your Voice
• Power of the Soundtrack
• Economy
• Pacing
Brennan, Joe. “Digital Storytelling vs. Making Movies.” [weblog entry] Digital Storytelling. Discovery Educator Network. December 19,
2006 (http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/digital_storytelling/category/the-center-for-digital-storytelling/). April 22, 2009.

Point of View
Mr W

The Rule of Thirds
It’s not
tic-tac-toe
Avoid
the middle
Use the
intersections

6

The Rule of Thirds in Action

Creating Movies with Photo Story

Tip:
Before you begin downloading
media, create a folder on your
computer to store all media and your
Photo Story / Movie Maker file.
Stick Figure Thinking. . 2009.
Discovery Education. 7 July 2009
<http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/>

Find Images
• Log into Discovery Education streaming
and find the images that you want to use
• Download the images into a folder on your
computer

Click or right-click on the download size for your
video (Medium for typical videos and Large for
higher-quality videos)

Be sure to copy the citation information for each
image.

Tip:
It’s a good idea to maintain a
working bibliography for media
resources during the collating
process. It will save time when
creating the project’s bibliography
and credits.
Stick Figure Thinking. . 2009.
Discovery Education. 7 July 2009
<http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/>

et’s Make Some Magic
• Open Photo Story
and click “Begin a
new story”
• Click “Next”

mporting Images
1. Click on the “Import
Pictures” button
2. Navigate to the
images that you want
to import
3. Click on the “next”
button
*Tip: Use your shift key
to select multiple
images.

dding Your Own Narration
1. Click on the Red
Button to begin
narration
*TIP: Use the text area to type in a script of
your narration first – this will help eliminate
the um-s and ah-s.

dd Titles

dd Music or Sound Effects
1. Either from your
computer…
2. Or create your
own music in
Photo Story!!
* Tip: Adjust the volume level of your
audio so that it doesn’t overwhelm
your narrations.

inish Your Story
• Save your story to
your computer.
• Save project for
future editing.

Creating Movies with Movie Maker

Find Video
1. Log into Discovery Education streaming
and find an Editable Clip
2. Download the clip and save it into a
folder on your computer with the rest of
your content.

When searching for video content, select Editable under
Narrow My Results to filter your results for Editable
content to use in your digital stories.

Set your Download Type to Media Player.
Click or right-click the Download icon.

Don’t forget to copy the citation information.

Tip:
If you right-click on the video file
after you have downloaded it and
select Properties, you can paste the
citation information into the
Description section to make creating
your Bibliography and/or Credits
easy!
Stick Figure Thinking. . 2009.
Discovery Education. 7 July 2009
<http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/>

Basic Vocabulary
Collection
Project
Movie
Storyboard
Timeline

Collection
A collection contains audio clips, video clips, or pictures that
you have imported or captured in Windows Movie Maker.

Project
A project contains the arrangement and timing information
of audio and video clips, video transitions, video effects,
and titles you have added to the storyboard/timeline.
A saved project file in Windows Movie Maker has an
.mswmm file name extension.

Movie
A movie is the final project you save by using the
Save Movie Wizard.
Note: A movie will open in Media Player.

Storyboard view is great for organizing your media
assets.

Timeline view is great for layering audio, text,
transitions, and special effects.

Let’s Make Some Magic
1. Open Windows Movie Maker
2. From the task bar on the left,
choose “Import Video”

Tip:
You can also drag and drop files
directly into your content “collection.”
Stick Figure Thinking. . 2009.
Discovery Education. 7 July 2009
<http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/>

1. Navigate to your
movie file – it must be
.asf, .avi, .wmv, or
mpeg file.
2. Click “Import”

Drag and Edit
Note that the video segment is now broken into tiny pieces
1. Drag the clip
that you want
to edit into
boxes below
2. Click on the
icon that says
“Show
Timeline”

Tip:
You can import video, images, and
audio using the same basic process.
Stick Figure Thinking. . 2009.
Discovery Education. 7 July 2009
<http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/>

Adding Your Own Narration
1. On the Audio
track line,
choose a section
of audio that you
want to mute and
right-click on that
section
2. Choose “Mute”

Record Your Narration
1. Click on the
microphone icon to
record your narration
2. Record your
narration and save
the file in your
content folder on
your computer

Finish your movie
1. Choose “save to my
computer”
2. Save your project for
future editing.

Extra Movie “Magic”

Screenshots
Use this tool to take
a screen shot from
a video file.

Zoom to Fit Timeline
To fit the timeline on the screen:
On the View menu, click Zoom to Fit.

Splitting Video Clips
Use this tool to
split the clip.

Trimming Video Clips
Drag the sides of
the video clip to
trim the length.

Trimming Video Clips

Combining Clips
You can combine clips to make them easier to edit
and organize.

Adding Titles and Credits
1. Select where you want your title to appear
in your movie.
2. Enter text for the title.
3. Select an animation style for the title.
4. Select the font and colors for your title.
5. Add the title to your movie.

Adding Titles and Credits

Title Before a Clip/Image

Title Overlay

Credits

Enter Text

Select Animation

Choose Font and Color

Video Transitions
A video transition controls how your movie plays from one
video clip or picture to the next.
You can add a transition between two pictures, video clips, or
titles, in any combination, on the storyboard/timeline.

Special Effects
A video effect determines how a video clip, picture, or title
displays in your project and final movie.
Video effects let you add special effects to your movie.

Special Effects
A video effect is applied for the entire duration that the video
clip, picture, or title displays in your movie.

Transitions & Effects
Transition
Two Video
Video Effect
Effects

Chroma Key in Movie Maker
http://www.wikihow.com/Chroma-Key-in-Windows-Movie-Maker

Learn More
Jason Ohler’s Storytelling Resources
http://www.jasonohler.com/storytelling/index.cfm
Bernajean Porter’s DigiTales
http://www.digitales.us/
Joe Brennan’s Digital Storytelling Blog
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/digital_storytelling
Hall Davidson’s Media Matters Blog
http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/media_matters
Jen Dorman’s Digital Storytelling Page:
http://jdorman.wikispaces.com/digitalstorytelling