Instruction manual
CAMCORDERS
28 Which? Right Choice September 2009 September 2009 Which? Right Choice 29
www.whichrightchoice.com www.whichrightchoice.com
HOW TO PUT YOUR CLIPS IN THE RIGHT ORDER HOW TO TRIM A CLIP
If some of your scenes are too long
they can be trimmed before being
edited into the whole sequence.
When you trim a clip, the trimmed
part isn’t deleted — it’s just hidden
so that it doesn’t appear in your
final video.
If you’re in Storyboard mode, switch
to Timeline mode by clicking View
on the menu bar. In Timeline, click
the clip that you want to trim.
Use the playback controls under the
preview monitor to get to the point
where you want the clip to begin.
Click the pause button.
Click Clip then Trim Beginning.
Repeat the process for the end of
the clip – but this time click Clip and
Trim End.
Before you can start editing your video, you need to
add the clips you want to use to the Timeline.
Click the Vista button and select Windows
Movie Maker from the Programs list.
To add a clip, click Import Media.
Click Browse and find the clip you want.
Click Import.
The clip will appear in the Contents pane. You
can then drag it onto the Storyboard.
This is the best time to put your clips in the
order that you want them to be watched. Do
this by dragging and dropping clips within the
Storyboard.
You can drag a clip to the Storyboard. Click on
a clip in the Contents pane, and keep the
mouse button pressed down as you drag it to
the Timeline. Let go at the location you want to
drop it.
HOW TO ADD MUSIC TO YOUR VIDEO
First, you’ll need to add the music to your computer, or
find the music already stored on your computer that
you’d like to use.
Click File.
Click Import media items.
Find the file that you want to add and click on it.
Click Import.
The music file will appear in the Contents pane. From
here, drag it to the Timeline’s Audio/Music track.
HOW TO SAVE YOUR
EDITED VIDEO
While you’re editing your video it’s
known as a project. You should save
your project regularly, so that you
don’t lose any of your changes should
something go wrong.
Click File.
Click Save project as if you
haven’t already given your project
a name, name it and then Save
project. If it’s already named,
simply click Save project.
To take your videos to the
next level, you’ll need to
learn how to edit your clips
HOW TO SPLIT A CLIP
If you want to add an effect between
scenes — for example, fade out and
fade in — you’ll need to split your clip.
In the Contents pane or Timeline
click the clip you want to split.
Use the playback controls under the
preview monitor to get to the point
where you want to split the clip.
Click Split.
The two parts will now appear
separately in the Contents pane.
ADDING TRANSITIONS
AND MUSIC
A video can look clunky if the scenes
are just sandwiched together. You can
avoid this by adding transitions, such
as a fade-in or fade-out effect,
between the clips on the Timeline.
On the Timeline, click on the clip
that you want to appear after the
transition.
Click Tools, then Transitions.
In the Contents pane, click the
transition you want to add.
Click Play on the preview monitor
to see a preview of what the
transition will look like.
Click Clip, then Add to Timeline.
To return to the Contents pane
click the arrow next to Transitions
and select Imported Media.