Photos, Music, Voice Recordings - Are we done yet?

The group took additional photos today of some things outside in between the rainclouds. We still need a photo of the class, the green house and old school building.

We have more Voice Recordings than we can even use in the video. We used a MP3 player that is also a digital recorder to collect thoughts from teachers. A few students discussed that voice recordings over slides with information written on them would not "look" or "sound" right. We plan to use music over such slides and try to insert voice recordings over photos with no major information written on them.

As for Music, we found public domain, free downloads of music. It was mostly classical in nature, however one student came early to "listen" to some of it and choose a few songs to use in the movie. It was a great site, very well organized, check out the link.

Making a Movie with Windows Movie Maker

We learned the hard way that we need to make our movies in layers, each layer needing to be completed before we moved on to the next:
1. CLIPS - photos, title slides, video
2. TRANSITIONS
3. TEXT OVERLAY - titles over any photo/video clips
4. VOICE RECORDINGS & MUSIC

Today we nearly completed step #1, except for the beginning of the movie, steps #1-3 are done (Although after watching it as a class some of your comments may require that we fix the beginning as well!). We only have tomorrow to finish the movie as a class, therefore I'll spend some time tomorrow morning making sure everything is organized to help you move through the next steps quickly.

The Rivendell Wordle - What do you think?

To the right you can see a Wordle that was created with your words from a wiki journal (with a few additions). Look closely at the Wordle which is also posted in this blog entry. Wordles are created based on frequency (number) of words. The more times the word shows up the larger it appears in the Wordle.

What do you think? Do you like the colors? Do we need more or less words? Are the sizes of the words okay? POST a comment by clicking on the "comment" link below.

Thursday's Schedule

This is an important day for movie making. We have to get all of our slides created. We can deal with color, animation, and background later. The students who worked on it yesterday spent a bit too much time on those "extras." Here is the plan:
1. Check the blog
2. Type your WIKI journal entry
3. Meet at SmartBoard to get into groups and gather last remaining photos and voice overs needed
4. Photo and recording groups head out; others stay behind to work on movie
5. We need to find and decide on music TODAY!
6. We need to decide on a TITLE today!

Photos, voice recordings, & fact collecting - OH MY!

Today, Wednesday, they worked in their pairs to collect digital media for the video - voice recordings and photos. One group also interviewed the Superintendent to cover a few questions we had not answered yet. Overall 4 students used digital cameras and 2 students learned how to use a MP3 to record someone talking.

We also began creating the movie with Windows Movie Maker. 6 students were imported photos and inserted text into the movie today. They also played around with the text color and animation. About 2 and 1/2 minutes of video has been created. We are still in need of a good title and some free source GOOD music, if we can find any.

In between all this they each were able to visit several links on the blog and "play games," apparently one of many goals they had for the week. Stop Disasters is a favorite among them.

Wednesday's Schedule - It's going to be busy!

Today is really our last day to collect information, data, photos, and graphics for the movie. Someone once told me that for every 1 minute of a move it takes about 7-10 minutes of work. Here is your schedule for today:


1. Read the blog (you are doing this now!) :)
2. Do the survey at the bottom of the blog
3. Meet at the smartboard to view the start of your Movie and decide upon a title/subtitle
4. Interview faculty/staff, Record Quotes from faculty/staff/students, take photos, copy/save other photos from internet, make PPT slides for movie
5. Finish your Inspiration Fact Collector outline
6. Choose your music for the movie.

Research and Planning for the Movie Project

Today, Tuesday, the students worked in pairs to research specific topic areas for the "What is Rivendell" informational movie. Most of the questions or areas were answered by visiting various websites on the Internet. The RISD website was their main source of information; most groups read parts of the website they had never visited previously. Others needed to venture out to other sources usually through links from the RISD site. The graphic organizer, created with Inspiration, shows the different topic areas they were working on today. The few that we could not find will be asked in live interviews with staff tomorrow.