In the last week I have discovered that I can make movies on my PC. [This is not an advertisement for Microsoft products]. But there is a tool in Office called Windows Live Movie Maker which: is reasonably easy to learn (1 evening), is reasonably easy to use, has the features I need (audio, slides, video), produces reasonable “domestic” quality. Currently the one thing I can’t adjust is the dynamic rang of the sound which seems very flat. But hey, it’s free.
No it’s not, you have to pay for it!
Sorry, it came bundled with the stuff my University paid Microsoft for. Anyway I have been making movie clips inspired after Monday’s meeting of the UK PubMedCentral advisory board and the potential for using bibliography to enhance its (already considerable) value. The first movie (3.8 mins) tells WHY we need Open Bibliography and Open Content for biomedical literature. It’s an AnimalGarden production, and is narrated by a mixture of my voice and the animals. Here’s a still. The righthand actor is McDawg.
The movie is at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6280676/swat4ls2.mp4 (thanks to Nick Stenning for transcoding) or
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6280676/swat4ls2.wmv It’s a prequel to the semantic web:
[Why do all the penguins say “I’m SPARQL”? they’ve been watching classic movies]. If anyone has comments it’s relatively easy to edit. The 1-2 small glitches are because I had to omit confidential material – maybe I can fade them more gently.
So I am hoping to create some more material to show as lightning talks on Tuesday. And making movies is a great thing to do at hackathons – I really hope we have some at the end.
The link to the first video is a 404.
BTW., are you sure that videos created with Microsoft’s program are not encumbered by some IP clause? I know, for example, that at least some versions of Microsoft’s HTML editor came with a clause in the EULA that said you couldn’t use them to create material that is derogatory towards Microsoft.