I got this cool trick via DEN Stars Cindy Lane and Jen Dorman and man is it cool!

You can use the blue screen feature in Windows MovieMaker?  Since MovieMaker is a free download it is possible to put your classroom kids right into DE streaming movie.

What is Blue Screen?

Blue-screen, green-screen, chroma-key - it's all the same thing. To put simply this is the process of filming a scene, object or person in front of a pure coloured screen (typically either blue or green) so that the colour can be removed later to achieve certain special effects.

You can buy Matt fabric or a large screen for around 45.00

or

Use the following inexpensive Materials:

1 x Blue plastic tablecloth roll (100' x 40") from party supply store. (About $13)

9 x 1x3 pine furring strips from home improvement store. (<$10)  

How Blue Screens Work ?

Most commonly used for the weather, a bluescreen or greenscreen is used in the background.

Here’s how you do it with Windows MovieMaker: (Thanks to Jen Dorman and her excellent direction form Den Blog Network)

1. Capture your subject in front of the bluescreen. (it is very important that it is blue for Windows MovieMaker - WMM!)
2. Upload your video onto the computer and open it in WMM (on XP).
3. Highlight the following xml code: (Source-windowsmoviemakers.net/forums)

<!– windowsmoviemakers.net/forums –>

<TransitionsAndEffects Version=”1.0″>

<Transitions>

<TransitionDLL guid=”{C5B19592-145E-11D3-9F04-006008039E37}” >

<Transition name=”Bluescreen” iconid=”12″ comment=”Makes first clip show through blue areas of second clip”>

<Param name=”KeyType” value=”1″/>

<Param name=”Similarity” value=”100″/>

<Param name=”Progress” value=”0.0″/>

</Transition>

</TransitionDLL>

</Transitions>

</TransitionsAndEffects>

4.   Copy it, and paste it into notepad. Click File>Save As>My Computer>Local Disc C>Program Files>Movie Maker>Shared>AddOnTFX.

NOTE: If you dont already have an AddOnTFX folder, right click then New>Folder. Save it as “bluescreen.xml”. Close notepad and open up WMM.

5.   Find the picture or video you want to show behind. Import it into WMM, and drag it down to the timeline, to the left of the video with your subject in front of the bluescreen.

6.   Now that your two video clips are in the timeline, go to your transitions and there should be one that says “Bluescreen”.

7.  Click it and drag it down to the timeline.

8.  Click the video of the bluescreen and drag it over onto the other clip. Don’t drag it to far because that will just make the clips switch places. Keep going until the blue triangle disappears, then go back just a hair.

9. Check out your preview and see if it worked.

10. Click File>Save Movie File to convert and export into a wmv.

Jen Dorman has provided a great easy to print-out doc here: http://tinyurl.com/3c7bjj

To see the screen shots that go along with these steps go herehttp://www.wikihow.com/Chroma-Key-in-Windows-Movie-Maker

More Great Links

• Blue Screen Graphics
• Matte World Digital
• Rotoscoping
• Computer Effects
• Digital Tools

Let's Explore Time Travel

Use a great feature inside Discovery Streaming http://search.discoveryeducation.com/  after logging in type in

“Video Yearbook.”  This will bring up our Video Almanac that stretches all the way back to 1938.  The neat thing about this video series is that all of the video and its subsequent archival material is editable.  That means you can go back in time and plop yourself or your students into these videos with the trick outlined above.   Imagine interviewing Dr. Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy, spending  a day with the Boston Redsox during their spring training…in 1938, or roaring towards space on a lunar mission!  You are only limited to your imagination.

Enjoy your time travel

Joe Brennan Says:

May 27th, 2008 at 11:05 am

And a very clever young student put a video up on YouTube to walk you through the process: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L78_GEx9Fhs