Thursday, January 30, 2014

Turning your baby videos into a fully fledged dvd




For Christmas, I decided to make all the family members a DVD of Summer's first 8 months as this was a more affordable option. Well for those mothers like me that aren't especially technology savvy it was a definite learning curve. So I thought if you might consider this option I would write a basic guide on how to get from movies/photos on your computer to a five minute DVD like the one of Summer I have put here.

I definitely don't claim to be an expert on any level but at least this might be a place to start :)




Have you got everything?
Select a certain time frame for your movies (aka the first 8 months) so your video seems semi on target. Then gather all of these videos and put them in a separate folder on your desktop so they are easily accessible. The next thing you need is Windows Movie Maker, for this you need Windows 8, 7, Vista or XP, check that it isn't already in your program files otherwise download it for free by Clicking here.


Open Windows Movie Maker:
You will get a  screen that looks
 something like this. I suggest the first thing to do would be save the file by clicking the little floppy disk at the top left hand corner of the screen.








Adding Photos and Videos:
On your home tab you will find the option to "ADD VIDEOS AND PHOTOS". Click this button and search for the newly created folder that you have added your movies/photos into. Once into this folder just press CTRL and A to select them all and let them open before your eyes. This has saved a lot of time doing these separately and now you watch, edit and move them all within one program. Spend time playing around with the animations tab, slow them down, speed them up, add narration over top etc. If you need any help with any of the tools head over to the Windows Support page otherwise everything is fairly self explanatory.

Adding Music:
It is great if you have the music you want as the background music already on your computer but if you don't then that's no problem either. File sharing is a big thing these days, I generally download my music from a great site kickass torrentz which I would definitely recommend. You also need a something like utorrent which downloads the torrent then magically turns it into an mp4 file! Which will be saved in your allocated folder ready for you to just click on the "ADD MUSIC" button in Windows Movie player. Feel free to cut edit, fade it in and out and make it as fun as you like. Just remember copyrighted music in the background means that you won't be able to share it on facebook etc.

Adding Titles:
Adding Titles is important in my books as it helps introduce certain aspects of your video. Under the home tab there is an option with "TITLE" on it. There are some great themes etc just to add the icing on the cake. Don't overuse the titles though as viewers aren't completely clueless as to what is going on.

Publishing:
So after previewing your videos a billion times, you are wondering what to do next. I suggest the Windows DVD maker option if you would like to that way so I have provided a link with step by step instructions.


Good luck with your movie making experience and remember amateur footage and movies make for the best laugh. I am still working out how to flip my movies round so they are all on the same angle. Don't take it to seriously and have some fun!
  

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