This project started as we were split into groups based on our majors to create a 3-5 minute long movie.  Our group's major was science although none of us were actually science majors.  We were given a rubric to base our standards off from and shown how to use digital video cameras to capture the raw footage for out video.   We decided a fun and educational topic to do would be Newton's Laws.  We planned out with a story board our video clip because we knew that the time given for shooting the video would be short. 

We shot the video and we learned some techniques and used whatever we could find around us to help us.  In one shot we needed both of us to be in the video, so we used a trash can and binders to get the proper position and angle for the shot.  This also kept the camera perfectly steady.  Then we were introduced to the movie editing program called Imovie.

Our group had some experience with Imovie, but that was only due to helping others with very simple things.  We learned some things the hard way in the program like if you put effects and transitions in and then make changes they need to be rerendered or deleted and added again.  This added time to the editing process, but mistakes like these were stopped quickly. After an hour of using Imovie, it felt I knew how to navigate the program and the features pretty well.  For a program that comes with the OS, Imovie had many powerful editting tools.  You can add trasitions like fades and wipes, slow or speed up video, change lighting, add sound, and many other features.  I especially enjoyed how you could edit effects and clips in one view and then put in music and set timing up correctly with another view. 

My group really enjoyed doing this project and students in secondary school could benifit from having a teacher know how to make videos.  First off, if students were given the choice of a research paper or making a movie about their topic, I'm sure many would want to do a movie.  It is a fun way to get students to learn material and increase their technical skills.  It not only requires you to know your subject, but also teaches students how to plan and work cooperatively.  It also encourages creativity at a time when most projects are starved of it.