iMovie

Have you or your students ever wanted to be a director of a movie? iMovie is the app that allows you to do just this! You become the director of a movie or trailer to a movie by using this app. Teachers of all ages, this app is great because all students need in order to get started are some photos and/or videos that they want to include in their movie or trailer.

Negatives: One of the major negatives of this app is that this is only available through Apple products. It is automatically downloaded on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, but you can't use Android or Google products with this app.

Lesson Ideas: IMOVIE + BOOK REPORTS = SUCCESS! Teachers this is a great way for students to take what they read in a book and put it into a movie. Many books have already been created into movies and you can use that to your advantage! Tell the students that they have been given a task to turn this book into a movie. They would have to write a script (this could go into writing as well) for their trailer or movie based on the book. Another idea would be to create a movie showing the scientific process by having the students video an experiment. They could show how they planned the experiment, gathered materials, executed the experiment, collected their results, and made their conclusions. Finally, you could also have the students recreate a time in history. They can act it out or create puppets to reenact the events in history that they are studying.

Because this is only an Apple product, these images represent the major parts of the app that you should know about.

When you first open the app, the video screen will appear. This pulls up all of the videos that you have taken on your Apple device (as long as you have allowed the app to access your photos and videos).

The next tab at the top of the screen is the Projects tab. This is where you can start to create new movies and trailers using your pictures and videos from your device.

The last tab at the top of the screen is the Theater tab. This is where all of your completed movies and trailers will be displayed. The tab allows you to have easier access to the movies in order to show off the work that you have done.

Under the top Projects tab, you can select to create a new project. Once you select that, you get the option to choose a Movie project or a Trailer project. The movie project creates a movie that combines videos, pictures and music into one cohesive video. The trailer projects allows you to select from a template and insert your own videos and graphics.

If you select the Movie project, you will be directed to your photos and videos to choose for your project. Once you select the pictures and/or videos from your device that you would like to use in the movie, the app will piece them together to create a movie with transitions already embedded. The plus icon in the center of the screen will allow you to add photos and/or videos at the spot that the line (from the center of the screen to the bottom) is placed. The next icon, the arrow with the line, will take the white line to the previous picture or video. The next icon, the play button, will play the video from the spot of the line. The playback will show at the top half of the screen. The last icon in that set is the turn around arrow which takes the video back to the beginning. Finally, at the bottom right corner, there is a gear icon. These are the settings for your movie. The next screenshot discusses those options.

These are the project settings. On this screen you are able to change many different options for your movie project. First, you can change the filter of the photos in your movie. Simply slide your finger to the left in order to scroll through all the options of filters. You then can change the theme if you choose. To scroll through all of the options, simply slide your finger to the left like the filter options. Next, you can add theme music. If you select to turn this on, a pop-up screen will appear with the selection of music based on the theme that was selected (the previous option). The next two options are the fading options. If you select to turn these on, the screen will start as black and fade into the first picture and then fade out to black at the end of the movie. Finally, you can choose to have the speed determine the pitch of the music.

The other option of projects is the Trailer project. This is the screen that appears when you select the trailer project. This is where you would select the template that you would like to use in your project. Once you select the template, you are able to change all of the features in the trailer. One thing that you do have to know about this is that you have to have videos to go into the template. Ultimately, you have to figure out your overall goal of the movie in order to choose the best template and you also have to shoot the videos BEFORE creating the trailer.