Imovie

 I have been working a lot with iMovie lately. I had to write and film a book commercial. I love using IMovie, but I have encountered many problems. I hope that next time I will be able to avoid these problems.

1. IMovie video segments can only be 0.3 seconds short.
I know that does not seem like a big problem, but when you want to achieve a special effect then this gets in your way.

2. IMovie does not have a wide selection of audio.
The background music that IMovie does have it great, but there is not a wide variety. IMovie allows you to use music that you have downloaded as a background, but complications occur when you do not have downloaded music. It would be much easier if IMovie had more of a selection.
Of course, this problem can be solved by downloading your own music, or creating your own interesting sounds using the different features that IMovie comes with.

3. IMovie does not allow me to put the background music where I want it.
This problem may just occur because of my ignorance, but as far as I know, background music has to start at the beginning. It makes sense to have background music throughout the whole length of the movie, but what if I want it in just a portion of the film. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the music to just play in the areas that I wanted it to. There is a solution, but it takes a while.
First, you have to add the theme music, repetitively until it covers the area that needs to be covered. Then every time you want a transition in the music- from on to off, or off to on- split the audio. You will then have multiple segments of audio running throughout the movie. Then go and mute the audio in the places that you do not want audio. That is the only solution that I have found.

Although I discovered different problems while making this video, I also discovered new things that I can do with IMovie.

1. You can separate the audio from the video.
While I knew this already, I discovered what this actually means. It means that I can take the audio from any video in camera roll, and place it as the background music, the audio for another video, or simply just delete it. This takes my filmmaking to a whole new level.

2. You can speed up audio.
This has helped me so much. While videos from camera roll can only be slowed down, audio can be sped up as well as slowed down. That means that you can take a song from the selection of theme songs in IMovie and change it to a completely different sounding song. You can also do the same thing with sound effects. Using the many different features of audio speed on IMovie, you can create your own selection of sounds.








I am still discovering all the uses for IMovie, but this week, I was able to help a third and fourth grade class discover IMovie for themselves. So hopefully this helps you to discover iMovie.

LORD OF THE FLIES:Introduction

In school my ninth and tenth grade English class is required to read LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding. We are going to read this classic and are encouraged to write about different aspects of each chapter in our own personal journals. I am going to write my thoughts and what I take away from each chapter. We will be discussing the book in class, and we will see the book from many different viewpoints. So here we go... embarking on the adventure that is LORD OF THE FLIES .

Green Screens

Why they work and how to use them

Green screens have taken film-making to the next level. They enable actors and characters to travel to places without actually being there. So how do these magical time machines work?

Green screens work because of amazing technology invented by Larry Butler. This technology is able to detect the green of the screen, and replace it with an image of your choice. If a camera can detect many colors, then why does the screen have to be green?

Well, the truth is that it does not have to be green! Green is used because it is the color that is the farthest away from natural skin color.(Unless you have seen someone with green skin.) It is not a very common clothing color, so therefore it is used for a wide variety of projects. Green screens are great, but say you are the hulk or Oscar the grouch, then can you use this technology?

 "Green screens" do not have to be green, they can also be blue, or any color for that matter. Filmmakers use blue screens for filming when green screens do not work. Green and blue screens are very common, but most other colors are not used. 

In reality, neither the material used for the green screen nor the camera is the time machine. The use of a green screen, or chroma key has to do with what you do after you film. After filming an action-filled scene, you use chroma key technology to replace the green(or blue) with you favorite background.

 To try out green screens on your own, you can use apps such as Stop Motion Studio ( http://appcrawlr.com/ios/stop-motion-studio ), or Do Ink (https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/green-screen-by-do-ink/id730091131?mt=8). There are a plethora of other apps that range in prices; so just explore! Although there are many different apps that you can use with green screens, they all have one thing in common: filters. The technology filters colors, which allows it to take the green, and only the green out.

For more information about green screens, check out the links below.

The science behind green screen                                                                                                        Who Invented the Green Screen?
                                                                                                                                                                Do you need a special camera for green screen?                                                                                                                                               Difference Between Chroma Key and Green Screen
What is Green Screen?