Multimedia Content Products
Allie Hickman, 8th grade
Henry Moss Middle School
Multimedia Content
Colorful Candy Explosions!
Last year, my technology teacher, Mr. Kresslein taught me how to make stop motion movies. When looking over the digital project list, I decided I could make a stop motion movie for a multimedia project! I knew it would be a long process, but I was up for the challenge!
I first had to figure out how I was going to set up my camera. My STLP teacher found a way to use a magnetic camera hooked up to a laptop to take the pictures in the same frame. If I used a regular camera and tripod I would have moved the camera a little each time. So the magnetic camera was the best option for this project.
The next task at hand was to find out what theme or idea I wanted to create. I had an idea to do fireworks, because my dad makes them and sets up shows. I thought that I picked an easy idea. Boy, was I wrong. My first problem was what I was going to use to make my fireworks come to life. I thought about using paper and clay, but later thought that would be boring. Then as I was brainstorming my brother gave me candy. Then it hit me, I could use different types of candy for my fireworks! So I got different types of candy I thought would be fun to work with.
When I got all my materials together, it was time to take pictures. I started by finding a place to take the pictures. Since I had the magnetic camera, I should have found something magnetic right? Well, the only magnetic thing in my house is our fridge. I live with 5 other kids and two dogs. I also filmed over Thanksgiving break, so I decided doing it on the kitchen floor was a disaster waiting to happen.
I tried setting the camera up different places all around my house. Finally I got this set up in my room. The camera was set on my dresser drawers, the laptop was on a chair. The only problem was the lighting. I fixed this by adding a lamp beside to my workspace. But since I didn’t want to leave it for my siblings to mess with, I wanted to film it all at once. Another bad idea. Over the course of the picture taking, the lighting changed since I was filming in a room with two windows. I noticed this while I was editing, but due to the time crunch I fixed it the best I could. I had to manually fix the lighting on some of the pictures I took at the end.
I also had trouble with accidentally moving the pieces or getting my arm in the shot. It was so frustrating. But I kept with it knowing the end product would be amazing. After almost three hours and 224 pictures, I was done! The next step was editing the images into a video.
I have never used iMovie before. So I was really confused. But I eventually figured out how to use it. I put all 244 pictures into iMovie and set each image to “play” for 3 seconds each. Before I put all the sound effects in, I watched the video and decided that each picture was on the screen way too long. So I shortened them down to one second to see how it looked. I thought it looked good, but later shortened it even more to .5 seconds.
Now I had to find royalty free sound effects to use. This was easier than I thought it would be. The website I found (soundbible.com) had a lot of different sounds, including a match strike. After I found the sounds I wanted to use, I downloaded them, and put them into iMovie. I had to put them in at just the right place to make it sound right. I layered some of the sounds to make it sound different because I wanted it to sound like real fireworks. This was also challenging. It took nearly two hours to add in all the sound effects and make it sound good.
Finally I added the credits and it was finished. The project was fun but challenging. I learned how to use iMovie, how to layer sounds, and how to make candy fireworks!
Henry Moss Middle School
Multimedia Content
Colorful Candy Explosions!
Last year, my technology teacher, Mr. Kresslein taught me how to make stop motion movies. When looking over the digital project list, I decided I could make a stop motion movie for a multimedia project! I knew it would be a long process, but I was up for the challenge!
I first had to figure out how I was going to set up my camera. My STLP teacher found a way to use a magnetic camera hooked up to a laptop to take the pictures in the same frame. If I used a regular camera and tripod I would have moved the camera a little each time. So the magnetic camera was the best option for this project.
The next task at hand was to find out what theme or idea I wanted to create. I had an idea to do fireworks, because my dad makes them and sets up shows. I thought that I picked an easy idea. Boy, was I wrong. My first problem was what I was going to use to make my fireworks come to life. I thought about using paper and clay, but later thought that would be boring. Then as I was brainstorming my brother gave me candy. Then it hit me, I could use different types of candy for my fireworks! So I got different types of candy I thought would be fun to work with.
When I got all my materials together, it was time to take pictures. I started by finding a place to take the pictures. Since I had the magnetic camera, I should have found something magnetic right? Well, the only magnetic thing in my house is our fridge. I live with 5 other kids and two dogs. I also filmed over Thanksgiving break, so I decided doing it on the kitchen floor was a disaster waiting to happen.
I tried setting the camera up different places all around my house. Finally I got this set up in my room. The camera was set on my dresser drawers, the laptop was on a chair. The only problem was the lighting. I fixed this by adding a lamp beside to my workspace. But since I didn’t want to leave it for my siblings to mess with, I wanted to film it all at once. Another bad idea. Over the course of the picture taking, the lighting changed since I was filming in a room with two windows. I noticed this while I was editing, but due to the time crunch I fixed it the best I could. I had to manually fix the lighting on some of the pictures I took at the end.
I also had trouble with accidentally moving the pieces or getting my arm in the shot. It was so frustrating. But I kept with it knowing the end product would be amazing. After almost three hours and 224 pictures, I was done! The next step was editing the images into a video.
I have never used iMovie before. So I was really confused. But I eventually figured out how to use it. I put all 244 pictures into iMovie and set each image to “play” for 3 seconds each. Before I put all the sound effects in, I watched the video and decided that each picture was on the screen way too long. So I shortened them down to one second to see how it looked. I thought it looked good, but later shortened it even more to .5 seconds.
Now I had to find royalty free sound effects to use. This was easier than I thought it would be. The website I found (soundbible.com) had a lot of different sounds, including a match strike. After I found the sounds I wanted to use, I downloaded them, and put them into iMovie. I had to put them in at just the right place to make it sound right. I layered some of the sounds to make it sound different because I wanted it to sound like real fireworks. This was also challenging. It took nearly two hours to add in all the sound effects and make it sound good.
Finally I added the credits and it was finished. The project was fun but challenging. I learned how to use iMovie, how to layer sounds, and how to make candy fireworks!
Sarah Cross, 8th grade
Henry Moss Middle School
Multimedia Content
Color Uncovered
My project was created to let teachers and students learn about an app that can help a student’s mind easily learn science. The app is called Color Uncovered. Several students have tried this app. Our studies have shown these kids are more engaged than simply using a standard factual science magazine. This app makes science a more enjoyable subject if the student knows that they will get to use technology during their regular science class.
Teachers are loving this app because they are seeing the kids who wouldn’t generally like their science class actually like science! This app emphasizes many different scientific topics that wouldn’t normally grab a student’s attention.
The first thing I did was plan out what I needed to do to make this video. I picked some classmates and put them in a classroom to test out the app. I took the classroom camera so I could video these students in amazement at what Color Uncovered could actually do. I also talked to some students that have used the app before and found that more than half of the students who used this app liked it and thought it was helpful to them in their science class.
Next, I took the videos off of the camera and put them on the computer so I could create an iMovie. Once the videos were on the computer, I downloaded them into iMovie. I added still pictures, transitions, and title screens to finish off the multimedia project. I gave credits to the people used in the video and to YouTube’s Creator Studio music that we used.
This is how I created the Multimedia Video Product on the app, Color Uncovered.
Henry Moss Middle School
Multimedia Content
Color Uncovered
My project was created to let teachers and students learn about an app that can help a student’s mind easily learn science. The app is called Color Uncovered. Several students have tried this app. Our studies have shown these kids are more engaged than simply using a standard factual science magazine. This app makes science a more enjoyable subject if the student knows that they will get to use technology during their regular science class.
Teachers are loving this app because they are seeing the kids who wouldn’t generally like their science class actually like science! This app emphasizes many different scientific topics that wouldn’t normally grab a student’s attention.
The first thing I did was plan out what I needed to do to make this video. I picked some classmates and put them in a classroom to test out the app. I took the classroom camera so I could video these students in amazement at what Color Uncovered could actually do. I also talked to some students that have used the app before and found that more than half of the students who used this app liked it and thought it was helpful to them in their science class.
Next, I took the videos off of the camera and put them on the computer so I could create an iMovie. Once the videos were on the computer, I downloaded them into iMovie. I added still pictures, transitions, and title screens to finish off the multimedia project. I gave credits to the people used in the video and to YouTube’s Creator Studio music that we used.
This is how I created the Multimedia Video Product on the app, Color Uncovered.