As an end of year gift for our students, the year 1 teachers decided to make a movie/photostory using photos taken of students throughout the year.
I used Photostory 3 and Bec used Windows Movie Maker. We thought it would be fun to get together and do a comparison of the two programs.
Windows Movie Maker
Bec chose to use Movie Maker as it was already installed on her home computer and she had done a PD on it previously.
Advantages
- You can click and drag pictures into the story board
- It's easy to add music to the movie
- Title frames can be inserted without photo backgrounds
- Transition selection and video effects are user friendly (click and drag)
- Can include video segments
- Easy to include credits
- Photos are not stored in the file, so you need to use the same computer in order to access the pictures while editing
- Periodically crashes and can be slow to load
- Need to save frequently
- To finalise and burn the movie to CD within the program takes a considerable amount of time (40mins on Bec's computer)
Photostory 3
I chose Photostory 3 because it is the main one the teachers at my school were using, and because I got frustrated using Windows Movie Maker when I couldn't edit the file on another computer.
Advantages
- Able to crop and edit photos within the program
- Guides the user in a sequential process to create the photostory
- Designed to use photos rather than video
Disadvantages
- It is difficult to rearrange the order of the photos, so it's best to import them in the order you intend to display them
- Can't use video segments - photos only
- Can't insert text slides (text has to be on the image)
- To make the images fit with the audio, you need to resize the length of time for each image and save changes each time - quite a lengthy process
- Inserting Slide Transitions is time consuming if you want to personalise them
I also chatted with our ICT specialist and she says that when working with students, she finds Photostory better for younger children with less ICT experience. She has had success with Windows Movie Maker with Year 6 students creating their Graduation movie.
These are our thoughts. Let us know what you've found from your experiences using Windows Movie Maker, Photostory 3, or some other program.
Posts
Heya Pen,
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that it's not just burning to a disc that takes forever and a day - I'm in the process of saving the final movie to my hard-drive so I can burn it using another program. 35 minutes and counting....
Otherwise, Movie Maker is a good program.
Bec
2nd try ;-)
ReplyDeleteI agree that PS3 is more suited to younger children, but it's also so similar that it makes it easier when children come to use MM.
MM for me burns to DVD quickly or HD even quicker, but I rarely make movies longer than 5 minutes. I guess it depends on the resolution and length of the movie.
In PS3 you can use PowerPoint to add text slides. Just save/export them as pictures and then import to PS3.
Also you can use PS3 to make photomovie and then import into MM and finalise the edit etc...
but you probably know all this?
I love your blog. And I have an award waiting for you at my blog. Do come and claim it. Here's the link : blossom
ReplyDeleteI find that iMovie on the MacOS is an excellent way of creating this sort of presentation and have been doing it effectively for eight years now.
ReplyDeleteDavid