The first section, Capture Video, which should be expanded, holds four options for bringing materials into your video project.

Capture from Video Device:

This is the option to bring video from your camera or another video device onto the computer. We will go over this process shortly.

Import Video:

This is the option to bring video already on your computer into your project. Video that was captured at another time from a camera or downloaded from the Internet can be brought into Movie Maker this way.

Import Pictures:

This is the option to bring digital images from your computer into the project. You might use them as title pages or edit them together with music for a slideshow effect.

Import Audio or Music:

This is the option to bring audio of any sort into your project to compliment your visual component. Sound effects or songs can be added to your video to strengthen the final effect your film on your audience.

The second and third sections in the Movie Tasks menu pertain to working with content once its in your project and help you publish the project once you are happy with it. So let's see how specifically to bring your footage into a project.

Capturing your Video

To do this you must have a camera or tape playback device with a firewire port and you need the firewire cable as well. Plug one end of it into the camera and one into your computer's firewire port, (if it doesn't have one you may need to purchase a firewire card). Once everything is plugged in you should make sure to turn on your playback device, if it's a camera use the VTR mode, and see if the Movie Maker recognizes the camera. A window for capturing the video will pop up if it is recognized properly. If not, don't worry, simply re-open Movie Maker leaving your device plugged in and turned on and it should recognize it.

A first window will pop up asking for a file name for you video clips and a place to put the files. *Tip: keep things very organized and all in one folder*. Click next once you've filled in the two fields.

Now you will choose your video settings. There are three choices, more or less, Best quality for playback on your computer (recommended), Digital device format (DV-AVI) to record back onto a DV tape rather than merely a file that is only viewed from the computer, and lastly there are some other settings you can choose if you really know specifically that you need something else. Even though the first option is recommended you may want to choose the Digital device format (DV-AVI) to make sure you leave with the all the quality you came in with. Who knows what you will want to use this video for so keep all the quality unless you are using a computer lacking speed and memory, such a computer may not let you edit very well with full quality. Click Next.

Depending on whether or not you've used an entire tape for shooting a single project you will choose to capture the whole tape or capture parts manually. If space on your hard drive is fairly limited or you just donÕt feel like taking up all the space you have, you will want to capture particular clips individually. This may mean watching the tape several times to find what you want, it will take time but its much better than overloading your computer with more than it can hold and never getting your project done. Your video by default will be previewed as it is captured, check the box to turn it off. Click Next.

Your tape will be automatically rewound and captured from the start if you chose the whole tape capture option. Otherwise you will rewind, play, and record all the content you desire using the camera controls on the computer. *With the magic of firewire you can control your camera through the computer*.

You can exit the capture window at any time with the Finish

button. Your captured clips will appear in the collection bin, which is pretty hard to miss, since it comprises most of the Movie Maker layout.