My First Flash Project in EDIT 484

The project was an introduction to Adobe Flash and its capabilities. The main focus of the project was to create working buttons and put some motion tweens that make sense in the mock interface. It was a fun project because I was able to play around with what I learned in class. I can't wait to see what else I can do with this program. I already see the applications in social studies, science, math, and language arts. I could make interactive activities, online quizzes, and other content related to the subjects I teach.

I apologize for the bad quality of the quicktime movie. I haven't figured out a great way to convert .swf to a movie file that can be uploaded into my blog. At a later date, maybe I will learn the proper way to export my projects that I am working on in class.

New Class for Fall 2009

On Tuesday, I had my first class of the Fall, EDIT 484. In this class we are going to learn about Adobe Flash. Concurrently, I am trying to work on being Nationally Board Certified by the end of May 2010. One of the portfolio pieces has to be a lesson using Social Studies and Art. I think Flash will be a way for me to incorporate technology into the lesson also.

I learned what the file extensions .swf and .fla meant on Tuesday. We played around with layers, objects, and several tools during our class session. I am looking forward to learning a great deal about Flash, so I can begin to use it in my classroom.

Three Important Books

I just finished reading Rafe Esquith's Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire. There are many examples given in the book that I would like to try out in my own classroom. I like the property ownership of their desks, building an environment of trust rather than fear in the classroom, and teaching them valuable problem solving skills. There are many more examples. These are a few I want to begin using. To do what this man does every day would take a serious commitment from the teacher. I noticed in his daily schedule that he doesn't have to teach ELD. I wonder how he got away with it when I am forced to teach it for 30 to 45 minutes a day. Two other colleagues are reading the book and I cannot wait to discuss the finer points of the book with them.

A few days ago, I read Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. Everyday examples from doctors to the military to detectives apprehending a "suspect" were given to illustrate the point of the writing. Snap judgments are not always wrong. Unconsciously, we make decisions that we cannot explain, "thinking without thinking" as the second title of the book says. The Millennium Challenge is a perfect example of a situation where the Blue Team had all of the advantages and planned out everything to a tee. Red Team, who lacked as many resources at their disposal, but was able to defeat Blue Team. The book contends that we accept that when an issue or problem has been thought out that the result will be favorable. The book posits that it may not be the case. Gladwell's new book Outliers might be a future read.

Last week, I finished reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. I read it more as a history of technology, but came away with a wealth of knowledge on how the "flat" world works. I gained insight in how a business works - especially supply chains, outsourcing, insourcing, etc. I was amazed that UPS of all companies actually provides services for companies other than delivering packages. Walmart's supply chain is very efficient to the point where they have little inventory. I was astonished to found out after we were losing jobs to Mexico due to cheap labor, they in turn lost out to China through even cheaper labor. Friedman gives many solutions to help our workforce transition in this "flat" world.

My next two books will be Grown Up Digital, I am currently on page 40, and Cultural Literacy, another E.D. Hirsch, Jr. book.

Final Cut

It's Sunday night and I have just finished the final cut of my marathon movie. I am going to burn it on a few DVDs for class tomorrow. Later, I will save it as a file I can use on my blog for everyone to see. After my regular school year is over, I still plan on making a longer version for my family. My movie is roughly 6 minutes long right now. When I am done it will probably be 10 to 15 minutes in length.

I was able to practice a few techniques when I was working on the final cut. I didn't have a lot of footage to work with to do some cutaways, so I had to do a little extra filming today. Only 8 seconds worth. See if you can figure out where I put it. I didn't realize that I could cutaway to still pictures and graphics, too. I am definitely going to play around with this technique in future editing.

To give my music at the end time to fade out into black, I added a black title without words. I chose "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen to end my movie project. It fades out well at the end. In addition, I was able to work with the audio clip trimmer to get my music synced up with the start of the clip I wanted and the end one. At first it was a little frustrating, but now I have the hang of it. I kept editing the middle of the movie which made it longer, hence the clip trimmer edit had to be lengthened. Slightly annoying. For me, it was great because I got to practice using the tool. Later on, I am not so sure I will have the patience.

I added a few more transitions between clips. Since I chose cross dissolve, I had to go back and lengthen the front ends and back ends of clips because it cut off a little of the sound on each end. That's no problem. Easy fix. I love the keyboard short cut and now I can't even remember how to bring up the window to do it.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the work that I have done on this project. In essence I worked mainly on iMovie '09, but I also learned how to use my camera and upload footage to iMovie. Now I am ready to film my next marathon in San Francisco on July 26, 2009. Maybe, my wife will learn how to use the HD camera, so I can get some good footage to use in another marathon movie.

Rough Cut

I just finished a rough cut of my marathon video and showed it to a couple of people. They seem to like it so I must be going in the right direction. I haven't put in the end of the race footage, cutaways, or the voice overs(not sure I want those). I was worried that too many of the same type of picture would detract from the overall feel of the movie. I don't think it does because the still pictures move by very quickly.

I haven't created the beat markers to sync the pictures and transitions with the music. I'll do that tomorrow. I extended the clips that needed it. When you press the apple key and then the option key, you can instantly and quickly extend a clip. It's rather easy in fact. I haven't had to use the precision editor yet, though I probably will get the exact edits I want on some of the video clips.

I am very happy with the direction of the project. I am learning the program while practicing the skills they teach in my book. I like using shortcuts, so the book is a perfect match for me. I hate having to open extra windows to do a task that has a keyboard shortcut.

Video and Still Pictures

Last night, my friend brought over his Sony digital camera that also records video and we uploaded about 2 minutes of footage. I'll get to try the stabilization function because the footage is a little shaky at the beginning. What I love about iMovie is the fact that you can crop video. I thought you could only do that in a still picture. It has already come in handy in the first part of the movie where I am talking about the race.

I took my two disposable cameras to Walgreens last night before the Laker's game and picked up the photos during halftime. I purchased a copy of the photos and a photo cd so I could start loading the pictures in the iMovie project. I haven't decided how many of the pictures I will use since some of them are similar. I have to label all of my photos so I know where I took the pictures at each mile marker. It'll make it easier to insert the photos once I label them, too.

I was rereading parts of the Missing Manual for iMovie this morning. I reviewed how to extend a clip using some keyboard short cuts because I realized a few of my clips in the beginning were a little too short. iMovie '09 has made it easier to do cutaways without having to extract the audio from the video clip. I have already decided I will use that technique in several places to make the movie more interesting.

After I finish the project for my Monday presentation, I am going to make different version fro family. For my project, like I said before, I am going to create a shortened version of the movie. That way I can talk about some of the information I learned and how I applied it in the movie. Otherwise, it will be me talking about the project and then watching a 10 minute movie. The whole of the presentation seems too long. If everyone in class takes 15 minutes or so, we could be there all night. Short and sweet is the way I would like to keep it.

Chapter 9: Narration, Music, and Sound

I plan on doing some narration in the marathon video in certain parts. I don't want to over do it, so I will have to be careful to make sure it fits with the overall theme of the project. Because I do not have much footage of the actual race during the middle parts of the movie, I feel like it might need some explanation to help guide the viewer. I have about 30 more still photos to add to the project. I don't anticipate narrating each picture, though I will choose a few to highlight in the movie.

I decided to use Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell" as the background music for the movie. It seems appropriate for what I am doing and the beats will actually match up with the video. It will be difficult to adjust the sound in the new version of iMovie. In the old version you could just grab the "rubber band" on the sound clip and move it down all of the way to kill the sound during narrations. In the new version, I am going to have to trick the program by using the clip trimmer to take out parts of the audio during my narrations and the people talking in the first part of the video.

I have learned in this chapter about unpinning and pinning the background music. My background music is currently unpinned though I will begin to change that as I add more video footage and stills from the marathon. I am going to have to pin the video in the parts where I want to hear the song playing. In the older version it was easier to use. Alas, a new program brings new challenges. I am looking forward to practicing with the beat markers that can be inserted so I can time the music out with the still photos. I am going to try to use the function "snap to beats" to see how well it works in the project. If worse comes to worse I can use Garageband to edit the sound before I put it into iMovie '09.

I will probably not use sound effects in this movie because I don't think they are appropriate. However, I could change my mind and add some if I think it will make the movie more interesting.

Chapter 10 on photos is next. I just got the second disposable camera from my running partner. Tomorrow I develop the photos and get a CD made. That way I can put all of the stills into my project and start matching the song or beats to my new pictures.

The project is coming along nicely...