1. To share the movie, click on Share->QuickTime->Webstreaming
2. Go to the Virtual Classroom.
3. Log in using your school computer login. (Enter the enrollment key and update your profile if you haven’t before.)
4. Find section 2: Technology/Research Skills
5. Click on your class name.
6. Click on ‘Add entry’.
7. Click on ‘Choose file’. Browse for where your movie (not your iMovie file, but the new .mov file) is saved. Click on the file and then click ‘Choose’.
8. Click ‘Save and view’ to finish uploading your file.

We watched the Spider-Man 3 trailer, looking for theme and symbolism. We then looked at a trailer storyboard to find the same elements of literature.

Students had read a literature circle book as a group of 4 and now they were ready to create the movie trailer.

Trailers needed:

1. 5 different scenes from the book
2. 10 different camera shots
3. an interweaving theme
4. 3 examples of text
5. a music soundtrack
6. to be 30-60 seconds in length

I tell you nothing teaches precision in words like a 30-60 second limit. If they were under, they didn’t have enough content. Over, and they were boring.

These editing skills transferred later into their essays and narratives. (Woo!)

A week with iMovie and then we were ready for the HJHS film festival. At lunch we had standing room only in the library (my obsession was long-building) as most of the 8th grade student body watched everyone’s trailers on an iDVD.

When do you have students asking for a copy of their book report to show off?

1. Click on the iMovie HD icon in the dock.
2. Create a New Project
3. Name it with the assignment name, your class period, and your last name. (Example: ‘portfolio-4th-guy’). Save it to the hard drive by selecting Macintosh HD->Users->Shared and then click Save
4. Click on Editing -> Titles to add your text.
   
5. Make sure that your text is big enough to read. You will probably need to split up your sentences into smaller phrases.
6. Type single words as titles for emphasis.
7. You can use the slide to adjust how many seconds the animation takes and how long it pauses.
   
8. For pictures, drag your image from the desktop/documents onto the timeline/clip view.
   
9. To change the animation, click on the photo to select it. Click on Media->Photos and then Show Photo Settings
10. With the Ken Burns Effect on, the photo will slide in/zoom out in many different ways. Drag the top slide bar to zoom in and out. Drag the bottom one to make the animation speed up or slow down.
    
11. Your Preview bar has its own animation timeline. Click on the animation timeline to select which place to zoom in.
    
12. The hand lets you control the position of the photo. Click and drag to move the camera’s focus.
13. To add sound, make sure that you are in the project’s timeline mode first. Click on the clock to switch from clip mode to timeline mode.
    
14. Click on Audio to view your iTunes library, GarageBand songs, and Skywalker sound effects.
    
15. Click on a song and drag it to the second line in the timeline.
    
16. Click on the triangle and drag it to go to different parts of the timeline/project.
17. To shorten a clip, click on it to highlight it, move the triangle to where you want to cut it, select from the top menu Edit->Split Clip to make the cut.
    
18. Click off of the clips to deselect both, then click back on the clip that you don’t want. Press the delete key to get rid of it.
19. Click on Editing->Transitions or Editing-> Video FX to make your presentation more professional.