Although Steven Spielberg has nothing to worry about, JOHN HARRIS discovers that making movies is a pretty simple process with Windows Movie Maker

My mother’s in for a big shock tomorrow.When she wakes up, she’ll discover her eldest son has turned 50. Although now in her mid 70s, my mum still remembers when she thought 50 was old.

I noticed I was approaching a life milestone back in May when I received an invitation to a 50th birthday party in Melbourne.

“I don’t know anyone that old,” I said to myself, before noticing that it was from Geoffrey Harold Brown, the silver-tonsilled lad who started school the same year I did.

If, by now, you’re wondering what all this has to do with technology, it’s about how I discovered an amazing thing right under my nose.

I’m not talking about how the rising sun peels away night from the Adelaide Hills; or how my daughter’s stories breathe life into tiny plastic dolls or the wondrous love of my tolerant wife - although they’re all pretty good.

The amazing discovery I made was the Movie Maker program in Windows XP.

At GHB”s 50th birthday bash, I was the only person wandering around with a video camera.

After eventually returning to Adelaide, I decided not to throw the Mini DV into the drawer with other visual memories of the past decade.

I plugged a cable into the Firewire card in back of my PC and dragged the video across from tape to the hard drive.

Rather than buy a film editing program, I decided to check out Microsoft’s freebie, Windows Movie Maker, which comes with both XP and Vista.

The program is easy to figure out. Controls are at the top of the screen while a “film reel” runs across the bottom of the screen.

A dropdown menu inserts imported video clips, transitions and effects. On the left are a range of options for importing content and editing the video.

At the bottom of the screen, another dropdown menu switches between a Storyboard view, with panels showing inserted video clips, and a Timeline view, which displays how the video and audio tracks interact with titles, transitions and special effects.

While easy to learn, Movie Maker was not a quick study for my first film. It took days.

As well as the party video, I added many still photos I’d taken: For the soundtrack I used “Geoffrey Brown Superstar”, a melodious little roast sung by Adelaide chanteuse Louise O’Reilly.

Once done, I exported a three and a quarter minute version of the film for YouTube and a 20-minute director’s cut on DVD for the birthday boy himself.

So if you have a Windows PC, a drawer full of video tapes and some time on your hands, Windows Movie Maker is a great way to bring forgotten memories back to life.

John Harris is managing director of Impress Media Australia. Email your birthday wishes to jharris@impress.com.au.

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