The Editing Process in Windows Live

Movie Maker
In the story, the knight was being directed by the hermit
towards a place where treasures can be found (interpret as:
transition). When the door opened, an astounding episode
LESSON OBJECTIVES
unfolded (interpret as: special effects). Transitions and special
effects are some of the things we will be learning in this lesson.
At the end of this
We will incorporate videos in our project and other nice
lesson, the student will
tricks that can be accomplished with WLMM. Those amazing
be able to:
homemade videos or fan-made video tributes that you see on
1.
Cut and edit videos.
sites such as YouTube and Facebook are normally done by non-
professionals. Like them, all you need are simple video editing
2.
Insert animation
tools like Windows Live Movie Maker, and a whole lot of
effects.
creativity!
3.
Apply special effects.
Cutting Our Videos
In our previous lesson, we learned various editing
techniques. These techniques will require us to cut our videos.
Sometimes when we have a video, we want to edit out some
LESSON OUTLINE
parts or put two different parts together. How can we create a
1.
Cutting Our Videos
video montage if we are not able to cut our video? Let’s see how
we can do that with Windows Live Movie Maker.
2.
Mixing Assets
3.
Movie Magic
4.
Playing Back Our
Project
Whenever we add a photo or video asset to our WLMM
project, the edit tab appears. Since we added a video asset,
the Video Tools option is available. Here we can find the
following options:
• Audio - Most videos have audio tracks incorporated in
them. With this option, you can choose to completely
mute the video audio track with “Video Volume” or
you can control how the audio track fades in and fades
out at the start and end of the video.
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• Adjust - For a video asset, only the Speed option is available. With this option you can
change the playback speed of a video. Have you seen those cool environment videos that
seem to have been taken over a period of time but moves very fast? With this tool, you can
do something like that.
• Editing - The editing group options are the ones we will use to cut our video. There are two
ways to edit videos—either we split or we trim.
Before we proceed, let us understand what makes up a video. A video is essentially a series of
pictures playing in succession. A single “picture” or still shot in a video is called a frame. To edit
videos, we need to select frames that we want to keep and those that we will discard. In WLMM,
there are several ways to select a frame.
1. We can use the frame guide as seen in the picture below. If we hold down the mouse and drag
the frame guide forward or backward in our video thumbnail, we can see the different frames
playing back in the preview pane. To select a frame, just stop dragging the frame guide.
2. We can also drag the slider from the preview pane to select a
frame. As we are doing this, we can see the timer display the
actual position of the frame. Another way to select a frame
is to simply play back the video and pause it once you reach
your desired frame.
3. The first two methods of selecting a frame may or may
not be too accurate. With the trim tool, you can set the
specific frame by putting in the second/minute where the
frame is displayed.
Now that we are familiar with selecting frames, let us study how we can cut our video. When we
choose the Split option, WLMM divides the video into two items at the current point. With the trim
tool, we have to specify the start point and the end point of
our selected video. When we choose the trim tool, it will hide
or delete all other frames not within the start and end point.
NOTE
When you edit a video in WLMM, the original video file isn’t affected. WLMM has a
copy of the video file and that’s the one that is manipulated. The complete video footage
remains in the original video file.
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The Editing Process in Windows Live Movie Maker

Mixing Assets
In our previous lesson, we learned how to add assets to our movie. Just like with images, you can
add several video clips together to form your movie. In fact, you can even mix images and movie
clips within your project.
In video editing, we can shoot the same subject in several angles to make our movie interesting.
While most professional production houses may have several cameras to do this, one does not need
to have more than one camera to get this done. We can have a single film stock that contains several
angles of the subject and then cut the video to edit out parts that we do not want and mix it back again.
NOTE
If you want to remove a movie asset such as a video or a picture from the timeline, simply
click on the asset and press the delete button on your keyboard or right-click on the asset and
choose “remove.”
Movie Magic
You may ask: But what about playback? Won’t our movie look crude if we just paste together
several movie clips? It’s easy to make our videos stand out with the Animations and Visual Effects
option of WLMM. With a little creativity, we can even make professional-looking videos!
Let us begin by discussing WLMM animations.
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The Animation tab has two groups: Transitions and Pan and zoom. The options for these groups
apply some effect in the beginning of an asset. It is used to blend different images and videos together.
When adding animation, simply click on the asset you want to use and then select the animation
option that you want. You can mix both Transitions and Pan and zoom options on a single asset.
Example of transition between two images.
The key difference between the two Animations group options is that with Transitions, you can
control the duration of the selected effect and also use it for both videos and image assets. With Pan
and zoom, we cannot control the duration of the effect and it can only be used for image assets. For
both options, there is a button that can enable the animation to be applied to all image and video
assets of the project.
Options for Transitions:
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The Editing Process in Windows Live Movie Maker
Options for Pan and zoom:
Other features that can be used to jazz up our project are options in the Visual Effects tab.
Unlike the options in the Animations tab, Visual Effects, once applied to the image or video
asset, will be there for the entire playback duration of the asset. Choosing and applying an effect
is just similar to the procedure when
applying an animation option. Other
than a list of effects, another option in
the Visual Effects tab is the ability to
control the darkness and brightness of
an image or video asset via a slider bar.
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Below are the Visual Effects options:

You can easily manage the Visual Effects options for a particular asset by clicking on the Multiple
Effects option at the bottom of the option selector. Upon clicking the Multiple Effects button, a
pop-up window will appear, listing
all available effects and options to
add or remove them from a certain
asset. Once you’re done editing,
simply click on Apply to update
the asset with the visual effects that
you have chosen.
NOTE
If you want to remove animations and visual effects from an asset simply choose the
None option and the program will automatically remove all additions applied to your asset.
Playing Back Our Project
By now you would have noticed that WLMM easily provides a preview of the changes that we
have implemented. You can also use the preview pane to play back the entire project. Or you can
simply press the space bar to start your movie. Pressing the space bar again will stop the playback.
Remember, you can always drag around your assets in the timeline to change their order and you can
mix and match animations and visual effects to suit your needs. There are no wrong or right ways to
implement your video and its effects. Be creative and express yourself
Sound
Have you observed how toddlers react to thunder? Have
you tried explaining to them where its sound comes from?
Have you also noticed how they automatically groove to the
LESSON OBJECTIVES
music when you turn on the radio or when your phone rings
to the tone of a popular dance song? Sound may be reduced
At the end of this
to mere energy vibrations, but when perceived by our senses,
lesson, the student will
it could trigger a whole lot of other happenings and certain
be able to:
recollections. Try this little experiment: find a quiet place, sit
1. Identify the different
back, relax, close your eyes, and for a minute or two, try to take
kinds of microphones.
in the sounds from around you. Imagine if each moment of
your life were experienced that way. How would they compare
2. Make creative choices
to your waking hours now? You may realize that you have
on the kind of
probably let a lot of moments slip by unnoticed.
microphone to use for
each specific purpose.
Bernie Krause, a sound recordist who was pivotal in the
introduction of the synthesizer to the music, film, and broadcast
3. Choose and use the
media in the 1960s, once said: “Our problem is that sound is
appropriate type of
not important in our culture. We know the world from the
sound for a desired
visual, not from the other senses. I had to be taught other ways
effect.
of understanding.”
LESSON OUTLINE
1. Sound Recording
2. Sound Design
3. Sound Effects
4. Sound Mixing
5. Adding Your
Soundtrack
Sound Recording
6. Adding Narration to
Film sound plays a part in your film equal to that of the
Your Project
story and the image shots. Unfortunately, the importance of
sound has not been emphasized enough as evident in most of
7. Multiple Soundtracks
our local films. Film sound is not only the dubbing of voices
after the shoot and the incorporation of a theme song. Sound
recording is a discipline that you should learn and value should
you venture into filmmaking.
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Kinds of Microphones
Recording film sound is done through the microphone. There are
basically two types of microphones. These are the following:
• Omnidirectional Microphone
This is the kind of microphone usually found on digital video
cameras. It is sensitive to sound coming from all directions. It is
www.dolphinmusic.co.uk
useful when you want to take in the sound of an environment,
for example, and you don’t need one particular sound to stand
out.
• Unidirectional Microphone
This kind of microphone is ideal for recording conversations
and interviews. It picks up sound at a narrow angle from where
it is pointed, and excludes all other sounds. This enables you
to record only the sounds that you need. However, you have to
www.dolphinmusic.co.uk
carefully point this microphone towards the source of the sound
that you want to record.
Using a Boom
A boom is a device on which you mount your microphone so that you can point it
better towards the source of the sound without being seen in the frame. If your subject is
moving or you want to catch the sound of more than one person talking, you
can move the boom pole to follow the source(s) of sound.
If you need to record sound from a source that is not moving, you can
rest your boom pole on something steady, after you find the best position
for it. This is especially helpful if you need to record for a long time.
Most camcorders have a headphone jack. Monitor the sound by using
headphones so you hear exactly what your camera records. Ask everyone to be as quiet as possible
during the shoot. Any extraneous sound may ruin the whole recording process.
Using Clip-on Microphones
Clip-on microphones may be a good idea for you
especially if you want to do an interview. They are small
enough to be noticed and they can be secured to the
clothing of your subject, which means you may place it
near your subject’s mouth. Make sure, though, that you
place it in a way that doesn’t interfere with your subject’s
movements. Also, monitor your recording with a pair
of headphones so you don’t record the rustling sound of your subject’s clothes. Most importantly,
choose a good set of clip-on microphones (the unidirectional ones are best for interviews).
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Sound
Recording on Location
As with all the aspects of filmmaking, preparation is essential. As much as possible, visit the
location of your shoot before your shooting date. Check for the noise levels in the location. Some
sounds are tolerable and may even add to the character or feel of the place. Some noises, on the other
hand, are so intrusive and distracting that you want to avoid them at all costs.
Are you going to shoot in an open marketplace or in a small room? Different places at different
times of the day have characteristic sounds. For instance, small rooms with a lot of hard surfaces tend
to have a lot of echoes. Use drapes and heavy curtains all around the room to minimize this.
Open locations tend to have a lot of
noises. It may be difficult for you to record
dialogue in these situations. Figure out ways
to minimize the noise. You can shoot at a
quieter time of the day or use a good
unidirectional microphone, pointed very
close to the speaker. If all these won’t do,
find an enclosed space where you can film
in relative peace and quiet.
Recording Room Tone
Make it a habit to record room tone. After each take, ask everyone in the set to be quiet, and
then record 30-60 seconds of the sound of the place. Recording room tone enables you more
options later on when you need to mix the sound. You can use this to introduce a location or to fill
in pauses between dialogues.
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Sound Design
If all things go well during your shoot, chances are, you just need to put whatever sound you
recorded on location into your video. But oftentimes, you need to put other kinds of sounds to
strengthen the effect of your video.
Music
Music greatly enhances the mood of a certain scene. You can use fast music, for example, to
heighten the excitement of a chase scene. Or, you may choose a slow, languid musical score to
emphasize a dramatic scene.
You can also design the music to be in direct contrast with the scene. For example, in a scene
where your character is crying while driving, you may place a very happy, catchy tune to create irony.
NOTE
If you are going to show your video commercially and make money out of it, you cannot
use other people’s music unless you pay for them. The creators of the musical score and
the lyrics have a right to their work. Anyone who uses the music for their own commercial
purpose without permission from or compensation to the creators is legally liable (i.e., guilty
of copyright infringement).
If you have a friend who writes music or belongs to a band, you may want to ask him to
collaborate with you. Or, if you have musical inclinations yourself, you can also do your own
musical score.
When designing music for your video, avoid what is called “wall-to-wall” musical scoring. Do
not get so carried away that the whole video is nothing but music. There are exceptions, of course,
like when you do music video. In general, use music to enhance a scene, not to overpower the video,
because it is interesting to have variety in your sound design.
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Sound
Sound Effects
Foley
Sound effects are used to enhance the sounds already recorded on location.
For example, if you shot a video of a person walking on grass, but aren’t
too happy with the sound of the footsteps, you may want to make another
recording of it by simulating the footsteps. This is called foley.
NOTE
Try to do your foley recording in a noise-proof room. This way, your sound effects will
not get contaminated with unnecessary noise. Use a very good microphone as well - you
want to get the cleanest sound possible.
You can also record sound effects for sounds that were not in the
location recording. For example, you have a scene where a person turns on
the radio. It is probably a better idea not to have any sound from the radio
during location recording. Then later on, make a foley record of turning on
the radio and of the sound you want to seem to come out of the radio.
Sound effects may also be used for humor. In cartoons, for example,
they use a distinctive sound whenever a character slips or falls. Although
that sound does not actually occur when one slips, it enhances the humor
of the scene.
Narration / Voice-Over
Some people prefer to have voice-over on their video. This is useful
in emphasizing important details that the video itself cannot show, or in
reiterating important points in the video. Also, a voice-over, if done well,
serves to unify the elements in the video. It is important to remember,
however, that filmmaking is a visual medium. It is more effective to show
an idea than to talk about it.
Record your narration in a well-padded room to avoid unnecessary
noise. You may want to “audition” for the right kind of voice that will
give character to your narration.
Decide beforehand the following things: Would you need a male or a female voice? Do you want
the tone to be authoritative or friendly? The quality of the voice and the delivery and the content of
the script should both be considered.
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Sound Mixing
Sound mixing involves putting together all the different
sounds that you have recorded in the appropriate levels and
places in your video.
There are no hard and fast rules here. You just need to
listen, design, and mix the sounds in a way that best serves your
video. A good thing to remember is that you don’t want your
sounds to overpower each other. If you are having a difficult
time comprehending a dialogue, for example, it may mean that
the level of your music is too high.
It is during mixing when you use the ambient sound or room tone you had recorded on
location. You can use it to fill in some gaps in the dialogue, or to give a feel for the space where the
scene is situated.
When mixing, the important thing to remember is that you want your sound to add to the
sense of reality or drama of your video. Keep in mind what is important in a scene, and mix your
sounds accordingly.
Adding Your Soundtrack
What’s a movie without a good soundtrack? Adding music to your movie enhances its appeal
and, depending on the tunes you use, it may even help convey your message or story better. Adding
music to our WLMM project is similar to the way image or video assets are added. When you add a
separate audio track to your movie, the Music Tools tab becomes available.
If we study the options in the Music Tools tab, we will notice that editing a separate audio track
is similar to editing a movie asset. Remember, these options affect only a separate audio track and not
the audio track in our video. Let us look at the available options in the Audio and Editing groups. In
the Audio group, the following options are available:
• Music Volume controls how loud our audio track will play back.
• Fade in controls how our audio will play at the start of the audio track. Will our audio play
back fast or will we have a gradual increase in volume at the start?
• Fade out determines how our audio will fade to silence or to the next track. The drop-down
options for Fade in and Fade out are the same.
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Sound
Just like the video options, audio tracks can be edited. The options for audio editing are as follows:
• Split divides a single audio track into two, depending on where you place the frame guide.
• Start Time is the point in the time line where the audio track should begin to play.
• Start Point is the point in the actual video track that will be played back. Suppose you want
to skip some long introduction rift or instrumental and go straight to the singing, you can set
the start point to the moment where the voice is played.
• End Point is similar to the start point but is the end point in an audio track.
You may be wondering why there is a need for all these audio options. You can add several audio
assets in your movie. To add more than one audio track in your movie, select the Add Music option
from the Home tab and then click Add music at a current point from the drop-down menu. If you
have different audio tracks in your movie, how the audio will blend with different tracks depends on
what options you choose such as Fade in, Fade out, and the Start time.
NOTE
WLMM can only have one separate audio track playing at a time. You can blend the
pre-existing audio track of the video asset with a separate audio track but you cannot play
back two different individual audio tracks at the same time.
Adding Narration to Your Project
There may be occasions when you need to add a voice over or a narration to your project.
WLMM provides us with a way to add a narration easily with existing Windows Vista/Windows 7
tools. Below are the steps for adding narration to our project:
• From the Windows Vista/Windows 7
menu open the Sound Recorder from the
Accessories folder.
• To begin recording, keep your WLMM project open in the background and then click the
Start Recording button in the Sound Recorder and immediately click Play control in your
Movie Maker project.
• To stop recording, simply click on the Stop Recording button of the Sound Recorder and
save the audio file that contains your narration.
• Now that you have an audio file for your narration, you can add it to your WLMM project
using the same manner with other assets. You can also drag your audio asset around the
timeline to play at a certain point in your project or use the Set Start Time option in the
Editing group.
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Multiple Soundtracks
Earlier we mentioned that our WLMM can only play back one separate audio track at a time.
But what if we want to have background music while doing our narration? One trick to get around
this obstacle is to save your project with your choice of background music, and export it to a WMV
file. After that, create a new project and use the recently created movie as your video asset. Then add
your audio narration to the new project. You can fix the volume balance between your existing video
audio and your narration using the Audio mix option on the Project tab.
SUMMARY
Film sound has always been the least priority in video production. This lesson tries
to teach the contrary, expounding on the different aspects of film sound. To record the
sound, you will use a microphone. There are two types of microphone: omnidirectional and
unidirectional. Choosing a microphone depends on what your scene needs. After recording,
film sound is further enhanced in post-production through sound design and mixing. Sound
design includes the incorporation of music, sound effects, and narration or voice-over. All of
these sound elements will be mixed accordingly to levels that will suit what the film tries to
convey.
WORD BANK
Foley - recording of simulated sound effects and other audio bits needed for the sound design
of your video

Exporting the Final Cut

Who never dreamed of becoming famous someday? Who
never wished becoming a star? Now this sounds like a reality
show ad, but we are daring you to dream big! Make a really
LESSON OBJECTIVES
good video. Then show it to the world—but always say “no”
to piracy. Your masterpiece can be viewed by means of the
At the end of this
following: optical disc players, computers, even mobile phones.
lesson, the student will
You can also share or post the movie over the Internet. It’s a
be able to:
good thing Windows Live Movie Maker offers different options
on how you want to show your movie.
1.
Add text to the
WLMM movie
project.
Wrapping Up Our WLMM Project
2.
Make use of the
Now that we have mixed and edited our images, video, and
Internet as a platform
audio assets, it’s time for us to wrap up our movie. Just like
for his/her video
professional movies we watch on the big screen, we can add
project.
intro titles, captions, and credit sequences to our movie. Titles
are normally used as intro sequences for movies. It is added
before the selected asset. Captions or subtitles are added as a
layer over an image or video asset. Credits are added at the end
LESSON OUTLINE
of the movie.
To add text to our movie, simply click on the Home tab
1.
Wrapping Up Our
and on the corresponding buttons to add a title, caption, or
WLMM Project
credit text.
2.
Sharing Our Work
3.
Saving the Movie
to External Storage
Devices
4.
Uploading the Movie
on YouTube
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Once you add any of the text options, the Text Tools tab will become available.
The Text Tools tab has several groups under the Format option:
• The Clipboard group allows us to copy-paste text from a text editor to our movie.
• The Font group provides the settings for the font family, font size, font color, and font type.
• The Paragraph group has text alignment options. It also has the Transparency option which
controls how opaque the text will appear in front of its background.
• The Adjust group lets us edit the actual text. Once we click on the Edit text option, we can
change the text on our captions and we can also change the position of the text on the screen.
We can also change the background color of our text layer. With the Start time, we can set
the position of the text in our timeline. Text duration will let us control how long the text will
appear on screen.
• The Effects group contains predefined animations on how the text will move in the screen.
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Exporting the Final Cut

Sharing Our Work
In a previous lesson, we learned that there are several
ways to share our movie with others. One of the more
notable features of WLMM is publishing your movie
straight to sites such as YouTube or Facebook. You can
also save your movie as a file with settings compatible
from high definition to mobile phone playback. WLMM
also allows us to create DVDs for our projects through
Windows DVD Maker.
NOTE
If you have an optical burner (for CD, DVD, Blu-ray), you can store your movie on the
appropriate optical disc.
Once we have finalized our project, simply click on the Main Menu and select Save Movie.
There are several options available but to create a DVD video for our project, select Burn a DVD.
Once you click on the Burn a
DVD option, WLMM will
automatically save your movie in
your specified folder and once it’s
done, it will have a pop-up
window that will ask you if you
want to play the saved movie,
open the folder containing the
movie file, or simply close the
window. Choose Close. You will
notice that once WLMM finishes
saving the movie, it automatically
opened the Windows DVD Maker
application in the background
with the saved movie file.
With Windows DVD Maker, we can add several movie clips together and burn them as a single
DVD. However, we will skip other features of Windows DVD Maker and focus on burning the
movie we created with WLMM.
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On the upper right hand corner of the

application, you can select the drive letter
where your DVD RW drive is connected.
At the bottom of the application, there is a
pie chart that lets you know the estimated
running time of the DVD, the DVD title,
and additional options like the DVD playback
settings, aspect ratio and video format. In the
Philippines, our TVs are configured to use the
NTSC format.
Once you are satisfied with
the DVD settings, just click on
the OK button to close the DVD
Options window. In the main
windows of Windows DVD
Maker, click on the Next button
to begin burning the DVD or add
a few more edits.
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Exporting the Final Cut

Windows DVD Maker will allow you to customize the menu screen of your DVD. You can
change the menu text, customize how the menu and the scene options look, or create a slide show
with music. You can even choose among a set of predefined menu styles. You can preview the way
the menu looks like by clicking on the Preview button. Do
not hesitate to check out the options in this window to create a
professional-looking DVD video and once you’re done click on
the Burn button to start creating your DVD. Make sure that
you have a blank DVD on your drive before you begin burning.
After your PC finishes burning the DVD, Windows DVD Maker will inform you that the DVD
is ready or will provide an option to make another copy of the DVD. If you want to export the video
into another storage device or in your computer, you could export the movie by going to the Home
tab and clicking on Save Movie button that can be found in the share section. Choose which file type
you want to save it as and where in your computer you want to save it to.
NOTE
The time it will take to save your video or create your DVD is dependent on the speed of
your computer and DVD writer. The faster the hardware, the faster your PC can create your
movie.
Saving the Movie to External Storage Devices
USB/ External Hard Drive
1. Insert your USB to a USB port.
2. Once the device has been recognized, right-click on your video file then select copy.
3. Go to the removable disk drive and then right click on where you want to copy your file.
4. Click Paste.
5. Eject your device safely after use.
Memory Card (SD/Micro SD with Adapter)
1. Insert your card into the memory card slot
2. Once the device has been recognized, right-click on your video file then select copy.
3. Go to the removable disk drive and then right click on where you want to copy your file.
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4. Click Paste.
5. Eject your device safely after use.
Uploading the Movie on YouTube
Your video can reach a lot more people when your video is uploaded online. One of the best
places to upload your video content is on YouTube, a popular video sharing and streaming site. You
just have to get an account, click on the upload button, and select your file from your computer to
share your video creation online.
SUMMARY
This lesson guides you on how to add titles and captions to your movie. It also details how
to burn your movie to a DVD using Windows DVD Maker. After you have stored your video
in formats ready for viewing, show it to your peers and be ready to take pride in your work.
WORD BANK
Encoding - process wherein Windows Live Movie Maker converts your video to a digital file
that the PC can play with a media player
PERFORMANCE TASK
1. Research and discuss the impact of the availability of VCDs, DVDs, CD burners, DVD
burners, and Blu-ray burners on budding filmmakers and the film industry. Look for
positive and negative impacts. Present the results of your discussion in class. Summarize
your group’s findings. What is the impact of VCDs, DVDs, CD burners, DVD burners,
and Blu-ray burners on budding filmmakers and the film industry in general?
2. Export the final cut of a video you made. Watch your video and analyze which parts of
it you liked and which parts you think need improvement. Afterwards, show your video
to your classmates and also watch their videos. Take note of the things you liked and the
parts you think need improvement from the other groups’ videos. Try to learn from the
other groups’ works so that you can make a better video next time.