Page content
Resize textResize textResize text largerEmail pagePrint pageShare this page

Creating Museum Movies

Museum Movie: "Artifacts in the Entrance Hall at Monticello"

"Imagine if you will…." These famous words uttered so often by Rod Serling come to mind when planning a video project. While designing and planning a video-based project, you are truly limited only by your imagination and that of your students. However, there are still some film making dos and don'ts that you need to be aware of and prepare for in your planning stage. The following sample project was created to show some of the ways digital video can help students and teachers connect their onsite museum experience with the content they learned there and provide an interesting way to present newly acquired knowledge.

What You Need and Where to Get It

This sample project was created using "iMovie3" from Apple Computer, but there are several other video editing software packages for Windows. "Movie Maker" for Windows XP is available from Microsoft for free at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/moviemaker/default.asp. Adobe Premier is available for $549 at the Adobe site or for $230 at Gradware.com (http://www.gradware.com), which is the first place you should look for software if you are an educator! Roxio VideoWave is another choice for $49.95 available at the Roxio site http://www.roxio.com/en/products/videowave_movie_creator/index.jhtml. If you are already a Mac user you will want to upgrade to the Jaguar OS. Educators can receive a free upgrade to the Jaguar OS at Apple's site http://www.apple.com/education/macosxforteachers/. This free upgrade expires on March 31, 2003, so hurry! Once you have Jaguar, "iMovie3" is a free download at the Apple site http://www.apple.com/iMovie/. Once you have the video editing software of your choice, I suggest picking up a copy of David Pogue's book, iMovie2, the Missing Manual, which is available for $19.95 at http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/imoviemm2/?CMP=IL7015. David's book is a great resource for the "how to" part of operating "iMovie," but also includes a nice tutorial on videography.

Of course, you will need a video camera! The marketplace is brimming with camcorder models, but to find out which ones "iMovie3" supports visit http://www.apple.com/switch/questions/peripherals/camcorders.html. You may also wish to check out the November 2002 issue of Consumer Reports for some unbiased information and ratings on many digital camcorders. Just make sure the camcorder of your dreams is digital and has a Firewire connection to move your video to the computer and publish your movies back to tape.

Where to Begin

Imagine you're taking your students to a museum next month—perhaps Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia; Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan;Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts; Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia; or the local museum down the road from your school. Begin by making a pre-trip visit, if possible. Scout out the venues, backdrops, and especially the lighting. Most camcorders work extremely well in outdoor lighting. When videotaping indoors, however, lighting becomes critical. If you can take your camcorder with you on the pre-visit, shoot some sample video to test the lighting. Most museums do not allow artificial lights like the ones on camcorders, so you should set your camera for "low light" conditions. Just remember that videotaping fast action scenes with "low light" settings will probably not work very well. The good news is that natural lighting will give your video a nice warm look.

The next hurdle is obtaining permission to videotape. Be sure to inquire about the museum's videotaping policy, both indoors and outdoors. Most living history museums with costumed interpreters will be happy to allow videotaping, but many indoor museums will not. My disclaimer at this point is to clearly state that Monticello does NOT permit videotaping anywhere inside the building. Because of my position at Colonial Williamsburg, I have access to some professional video that we're using in our "Jefferson's West" Electronic Field Trip on March 6, 2003. Since Lewis and Clark is the topic for this month's Teacher Gazette, I thought it would be fun to use some of the Monticello video from the "Jefferson's West" program. I have also included a "sneak peek" at the Electronic Field Trip itself. The techniques I've used to create this sample are the same regardless of the source of the video footage.

Shooting and Editing Your Video

Shoot more video that you think you will need. Try to get at least 5-10 additional seconds of a scene both before and after the scene you really want. You can always discard the extra footage, but it's really hard to go back and re-shoot it!

After a successful field trip, connect your camera to the computer with a Firewire cable and launch "iMovie3" or whatever video editing application you're using. In "iMovie3," the Mac will recognize the camera and give you control of its functions in the monitor window. Rewind the tape, select "play," and then "Import." The Mac will automatically load each clip into "iMovie3" and display the individual clips in the import bin or shelf. Creating your movie is as easy as clicking on a clip, previewing it, cropping it as needed, and dragging it into the liquid timeline or clip viewer. You can add clips by repeating the process. Rearrange the clips as you like, then add transitions, titles, digital photos, sound clips from CDs, or many other enhancements. For more information about how to use "iMovie3," visit http://www.apple.com/imovie/. Adding sound and editing other video and audio files is really easy with QuickTime Pro. I suggest purchasing a copy for $29.95 at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/. Apple also has some easy-to-use tutorials for using QuickTime Pro at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tools_tips/tutorials/.

For this sample project, once I had all of the edited clips in the right sequence, I moved one of the music selections in my "iTunes" list to the track below the video track during which I wanted it to play. I used a microphone to record my voice reading entries I selected from the Lewis & Clark Journals at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/JOURNALS/journals.html. I adjusted the volume levels of the video and audio tracks to blend them together. In a few spots I added a third audio track of harpsichord music from one of the new Colonial Williamsburg CDs-a process as easy as launching QuickTime Pro 6, opening a new movie, and selecting a track from the CD.

The Final Product

Once the movie looked and sounded right, I exported it to QuickTime for the web and it was good to go! If I were going to use this movie in a classroom setting, I would export it at a higher resolution for use with an LCD projector or publish it back to a tape in the camera so I could play it on a television set directly from the camera.

So, as you can see from the sample movie I've made, digital video can have a wonderfully creative place in your classroom. Granted, it does take some time to learn the software application and some videography techniques, but the results are well worth it. You can even import your QuickTime movies into Power Point, Keynote, or other presentation software applications and take your show on the road!

Click on the image below to play my museum movie "Artifacts in the Entrance Hall at Monticello"! The movie is about 5 megs in size, so please be patient while it downloads. In order to view it you will need the free QuickTime Player.

Museum Movie: "Artifacts in the Entrance Hall at Monticello"

This article was written by Dale Van Eck, Associate Producer Education Technology, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.