Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Exercise Five: Make a Music Video, Make a Diagram

In Exercise Five, you will create a music video in iMovie HD, and then make a diagram of the interaction model of the experience. Please read the instructions that follow carefully, as there are many steps and a number of deliverables.

1) Locate the source files for the music video, located in TEMPORARY_STORAGE in a folder called "Exercise Five."

2) Check out the video clips and audio files. You're welcome to use your own video clips and/or audio files if you have any available.

3) Open iMovie HD, and save an iMovie Project to your desktop using a title of your choice.

4) Pick the audio file that you want to make a video for. Import it to iMovie HD by drag-and-dropping the file into the bar at the bottom of the iMovie screen. Note that this automatically changes iMovie from "clips viewer" mode to "timeline viewer" mode. You can also do this with the two buttons near the bottom right of the screen.

5) Pick some video clips that you might want to use to make your video. Drag-and-drop them into the "clips" pane at the right of the iMovie screen. From here, you'll drag-and-drop them into the upper bar in the timeline, once you've decided how you want to use them.

6) Make your video! Play around. There are a lot of features in iMovie HD, but some that you'll want to be sure to learn how to use include:
-the volume control on the audio clip (select the clip, View>Show Clip Volume Levels, fiddle with the audio "line");
-how to cut the audio clip (place the playhead; Edit>Split Audio Clip at Playhead);
-the fact that iMovie measures time in Minutes:Seconds:Frames, and that there are only 30 frames per second;
-the fact that some of the video clips have sound in them already, which you may want to control/eliminate (again, select the clip, View>Show Clip Volume Levels, fiddle with the audio "line"), and
-the editing pane (the button for this is on the bottom right), especially transitions (once in the editing pane, the button for this is on the top right).

7) Keep making your video. Play for about an hour. Learn as much as you can. iMovie is a great tool for making quick videos, and will serve you well for Project One.

8) Remember to save your iMovie project often. iMovie doesn't create a playable file directly - in order to do this, you'll need to perform one last action. Click File>Export, and then select "Web Streaming". This will take a few minutes, and will create a playable Quicktime file, just like the video clips you were given to work with.

9) Upload your finished video to the course blog.

10) Last but not least, make a diagram of the entire interactive experience of creating your video and uploading it to the blog. It would be prudent to take notes throughout the process (it's also always prudent to read all of the instructions before you start a task). Draw the diagram by hand, scan it and post it to the blog in the same post as your video. There's a scanner in the lab, and the monitor can help you if you've never scanned before. Remember to name and label your post appropriately.

Exercise Five is due at 08:30 on Wednesday, February 4th.

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