Saturday, April 16, 2011

Maria's DIY project - A Video clip with iMovie

Figure 1: Creating the project
I spent this week debating on my studio project until yesterday. I knew I wanted to create a movie using iMovie... but what should my theme be? I wanted it to be something meaningful to me, something that I can share and express myself. Last night I remembered that... mother's day is approaching... what a great opportunity, right? My mom has been asking me to create a collection of pictures and dent them to the family. So here I am, blogging about my experimentation with iMovie, creating a movie with pictures of the family. After watching a short tutorial (that always comes up when I open iMovie), I created my project (See figure 1).

Figure 2: The buttons to select and import music 
and images, text and transitions in iMovie.

I went through a million pictures, until I choose the ones I wanted to include in my movie! And then... it was time to choose a song. my mom like Frank Sinatra, so I picked a jazz piece that seemed to be happy and matching the whole theme (see Figure 2). I then put the pictures in order in the working space and started experimenting with the transitions, the time, and the feeling of each picture (see Figure 3). I have to say that this whole process brought wonderful memories in my mind :)

Figure 3: The working space in iMovie, the 
import section and the main screen.
One important implication of new media in the 21st century is that new media allows so much space for creativity and self expression. Learning moves beyond of the conventional boundaries of school and new doors are opened that lead to open learning practices, on the way, and by the way learning. It was a learning process for me, as I mastered a new tool for making movies. Learning does not have to be aligned with the curriculum and the standards. Learning that is useful in real life is what we should address to be most valuable. Learning is lifelong and powerful means of participation.


Video: The final product of my studio work: a video clip that I will send to my mom on mother's day :)

As I am learning this new technology, I am, at the same time learning things about myself. How confident and competent I am with new media and technology, but also how much I miss my family: my parents and my two little brothers.

4 comments:

  1. Your mom will love this! I bet that it's hard waiting to send her a link! I like your last statement here about making as a way of learning about the self as I think that's very true. I think that some of the readings that we did last week were exactly these self explorations made possible through the process of engaging in DIY.

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  2. Great job, Maria! I love Mack the Knife. It was my grandfather's favorite song and it's always funny when I hear it somewhere.

    I like how the background looks like a photo album. I've used iMovie a few times, mostly just to trim some video clips and add music. I will have to play around with it some more sometime.

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  3. Maria, I think I have just found yet another way to waste time (in a fun, educational way!) OMgoodness - I love it - your mom is going to love it, too. Don't you think that kids would love doing this, too.....if they aren't already! I know I have iMovie on my laptop, but I haven't used it yet - I wonder if my kids would find it fun to play with??? What do you think? -Kate

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  4. Lol, it is definitely a great distraction! I think it is also a nice and easy tool for kids to use. There are no difficult features, it is very user-friendly! I guess I know what my spare time will look like :)

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