For this assignment I created a highlight reel of soccer player Lionel Messi. First, I went on Youtube and began searching for 5 different goals. That was the fun part. I then downloaded the videos using 4k Video Downloader and uploaded to Windows Movie Maker. Next, I began editing the videos using several of the tools on Movie Maker. The trimming tool was my best friend for this assignment.
I also used the effects box to switch from one replay to the next. Lastly, I added an intro and credits. This assignment was rated 5 stars because I gained a lot of experience using all sorts of tools to make this video.
I did this assignment for one of my assignments this week. We had to pick our favorite athlete and make a highlight reel for them. Last week I did the Sports Mashup assignment where I did a music mash up of different sports plays so this was very similar. I don’t really have a favorite athlete just a lot that I like, so I went with Aaron Rodgers. He’s Probably the best Quarterback in the NFL right now (sorry Pats fans). I used a few different videos I found on YouTube to make this one. There were a lot of good plays to choose from, but I cut it down to tn so the video wouldn’t be too long. I wanted to pick a song that went along with the plays so I picked Sabotage by The Beastie Boys. This is the staple song for people doing awesome and epic things so I thought it fit perfectly. I got the song from Amazon Prime using my handy dandy Prime subscription. I downloaded the file and used Windows Movie Maker to edit it and add the credits and intro.
For this assignment, I had to create a highlight reel for an athlete. It was worth 5 stars. I picked Peyton Manning, the former quarterback for the Broncos and the Colts. To complete this assignment, I looked at the tutorial that was posted with the assignment. It was very helpful.
First, I downloaded some Youtube videos using the fastest youtube video downloader, of Peyton Manning. Next I uploaded them to iMovie. I cut down some of the clips and picked some of my favorite plays. After, I downloaded the instrumental version of All I Do Is Win, for background music. Finally, I inserted an opening title and ending credits.
Overall, I thought this assignment was fairly easy. I am getting more comfortable with iMovie, the more I use it. I uploaded it to Youtube for everyone to view.
For the Highlight Reels assignment, I created the video above. It consists of some skills by the Argentinian Lionel Messi who plays for the club team FC Barcelona.
Behind the Creation
I am a huge soccer fan, or football whatever. I do not care what the hell you call it, you’re talking about the same damn sport. Anyway, I have been a fan of soccer for many years now and also play soccer whenever I can. I loved making this video and could honestly just keep putting my favorite clips of him from over the years but then this video would end up being over 20 minutes or something. I picked some epic and dramatic music for the back track because I think it compliments Messi’s status in soccer as being the greatest in history. At the end, I decided to not have any music and just let the emotions of the crowd be the “music” you listen to. I loved the clip at the end because it is just raw footage from the stands and it immerses you in the experience and it gives you the closest feeling to actually being there in the stadium. Also a quick side note for those non-soccer fans, getting past someone by going between their legs (a.k.a. a nutmeg) is extremely embarrassing for the player who it happens to.
The Process
I used iMovie to put together this compilation which is a free movie editing software that comes with a Mac. It is very intuitive and simple to use.
After opening the iMovie software, I went to “File” and selected “New Movie” to start a new movie project.
The project editor is now created for you. To import my clips, I went under the “Libraries” section in the left bar. I right-clicked on where is says “iMovie Library” and selected “Import Media”.
After finding where I saved the clips on my computer, I clicked the blue “Import Media” button in the bottom right to import the clips from the folder where I put them.
The clips that I can now use to create my video now show up under the “My Media” tab located above.
I can now click at a certain point in a clip, then I can drag my mouse up to the part that I want to add into my movie.
The selection I made gets highlighted in a yellow box
I then pressed the little box with the plus sign to add the section of the clip into my movie. A little tool tip also show up when I hover my mouse over the box to inform me of what clicking the box does.
After clicking the plus button, the clip section now shows up in my movie timeline below. I followed the same steps of making selections from the clips above and adding them to my main movie timeline to put all the clips together.
To add transitions into my video, I went to the “Transitions” tab above which brings up a list of transitions I can pick from. I selected the one I wanted and simply dragged it to the part I wanted it in. A tool tip also shows up when hovering the mouse over it to inform you of how to add the transition.
I put the transition at the end of the video and I can double click on the box to adjust how long I wanted the transition to last for.
To add the titles, I went to the “Title” tab above. This brings up a list of titles I can select from. Same as with the transitions, I simply dragged the transition I wanted to the place where I wanted it in my main movie timeline.
The title now shows up as a purple box in my main movie timeline to where I dragged it to.
Since you can only add transitions and title between separate clips, I right-clicked at the place in my movie timeline where I wanted to split the clip so I could add a title in between. This brought up a little menu from where I selected “Split Clip” to but a split in the clip.
The clip is now split and you can see that the editor puts a gap in between the clip. I was now able to add any title or transition I wanted to put.
To edit the text on the title sections, I simply double clicked in the preview window on the text. I can now edit the text straight from there to whatever I wanted. There are also font editing options available above to make other changes that you want to make.
I then muted the audio on the first clip. You can see that I select the first clip in the main movie timeline since it is highlighted with a yellow box.
Here is a zoomed in view of the box. To change the audio volume on this clip, I simply dragged the horizontal yellow line above the sound waved on the bottom of the box. You can drag this line up or down to increase or decrease the volume respectively. I dragged it all the way down to 0 to mute the audio. I did so for all of the clips in my main movie timeline.
To import my own audio track. I opened a folder window where I had the audio file. I was then able to drag the audio file from the folder window to the bottom of my movie timeline.
The green bar representing the audio I dragged in is now displayed under my main movie timeline.
To shorten the audio, I was able to simple drag the end of the green box to the left to make it shorter.
I then dragged it to where I wanted it to end. Then to save the video into a .mp4 file, I went to “File” then selected “Share’ from which a menu appeared. From this menu I selected “File” to export the project into a video file that I could share.
A window appears from where I could make some final tweaks before I export the project, I decided to keep everything as it was. I then clicked the “Next” button in the bottom left.
The video begins to export, after it was complete I get a notification from my Mac that the export has finished and it is ready to share.
For this assignment I had to choose one of my favorite athletes and create a highlight reel video. I selected the famous ice skater, Carolina Kostner. She is an Italian figure skater and has been a role model for me since I was little. In 2003, the Figure skating world championships was held in Washington D.C. and I had just begun to take private lessons and was getting into skating so, my mom took me to the practices so I could watch the competitors. I was amazed and thought all of the skaters were great. I was allowed to get some autographs from the skaters. But, when I went to get Carolina’s autograph she was a lot nicer than the other skaters and to this day I remember that and how it made an impact on me. During that practice she was falling all over the place but just kept getting back up and trying again. I have watched her over the years and she continued to improve and become more consistent and as a result her placements improved. Some of her accomplishments include being the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist, 2012 World Champion, and five time European champion. Another reason she has been a role model for me is because at 5’7” she is very tall for a figure skater. Over the years I have been told by some people that I would be too tall to be skater or comments that are similar. But, just like she kept getting back up after each fall on that practice and has persevered, I have learned not to give up or listen to negative criticisms and comments from others who try to discourage me. So, thank you Carolina! Below is a mashup video containing different clips of Carolina Kostner skating. I created it using Windows Movie Maker then uploaded it youtube.
This assignment was worth five stars contributing to the required 16 stars of video assignments for this week.
This was by far the coolest assignment that I had the chance to do. The assignment was channel my inner ESPN and clip together a highlight mix to your favorite athlete, adding music to the background, and having an intro. I have so many favorite athletes, so it was hard to pick just one player to create a highlight mix for. I ended up creating a highlight mix for Giannis Antetokounmpo, also known as the “Greek Freak”, due to his long wingspan and unlimited athletic potential ability. I chose the Greek Freak because he has been one of the reasons why my fantasy basketball team has gone so far. Also, he has exceeded expectations by a large margin and I appreciate players that have tried hard to exceed expectations.
I had never used iMovie or any sort of video editing softwares, so it was definitely an experience trying to figure out how iMovie worked in creating the highlight. After fiddling around with all the features of iMovie I still needed clips to mix together. Using Firefox, I was able to grab the videos that I needed clips from by converting them to compatible MP4s that is used in iMovie. After I had all the videos needed for the highlight mix, I delete the parts that I didn’t want from each video and clipped all the clips together to make a pretty good highlight mix.
For the music in the background, I wanted to find some sort of music that would be related to basketball and hype up the audience. I figured rap music would be the best choice for a highlight mix because all the best highlight mixes I’ve seen usually has rap music that tries to hype you up for the player in the heights. I didn’t want to purchase any more music, so I decided to go through my own iTunes to find a song. Finally I found 2 songs that I felt would be good for hyping up the audience; but the only thing that might be a problem is that there are curse words in the songs. I figured were all adults and Youtube didn’t flag it, so I kept the songs in the mix.
Now for the intro, I guess the theme that I used with iMovie includes placing the name of the video in the beginning. So I figured that was intro enough. Also, I had the first clip with real-time sound from that game; and then switched to the background music after the first clip. This was the intro that I felt wasn’t too flashy, yet was satisfying for the viewers.
Overall, this assignment was the funnest assignment I’ve done in Digital Storytelling and I hope to make more athlete highlight mixes in the future for my own enjoyment.
This is the Highlight Reels assignment, worth five stars. This is my second of the required five video assignments for the two-week period. This brings my total to 10 stars. The directions are below.
Channel your inner ESPN and clip together highlights of your favorite athete, set it to some music, and add an intro.
First, the video!
I chose to do a Kirk Cousins highlight reel because I’ve been a Redskins fan my whole life. I grew up watching them with my dad and older brother. Unfortunately, they’ve sucked pretty much my entire life. They’ve made the playoffs a couple times, but they never manage to get far. The most recent time was back in Robert Griffin III’s rookie season, when they lost the game and he severely injured his knee. He was supposed to be great, but ever since that game, he’s been pretty terrible. The supposed franchise savior turned benchwarmer. So seeing Kirk Cousins put up some great games has been really fun to watch. Maybe I won’t be watching a terrible team my entire life!
As for the music, I wanted something high energy. What’s more high energy than some classic punk rock? “Blitzkrieg Bop” by the Ramones seemed like the perfect choice.
To create the video, I searched on YouTube for a couple of clips. I found two clips of Cousins’ two best games this season. The first, which I was actually able to attend, was a couple weeks ago against the Tampa Bay Bucs. The second was today’s game against the New Orleans Saints. I used http://Savefrom.net to download the clips onto my computer and opened them in Windows Movie Maker. I split the clips to remove any dead space and rearranged them. I added title clips and credits, which include the links to the original clips I downloaded off of YouTube. The final step was to add music. I searched through my collection of music and decided on the Ramones. I just had to select the song to import it into Windows Movie Maker. I added a fade out and I was done.
This assignment is titled “Highlight Reels”, its instructions ask to “channel your inner ESPN and clip together highlights of your favorite athlete, set it to some music, and add an intro.” It is rated 5/5 stars for difficulty. I created a YouTube video using individual clips from other YouTube videos. I created a highlight reel of Mike Tyson knockouts in his professional boxing career. I chose what I thought to be his best knockouts. By best I mean power, speed, and skill.  My title for the video is “Lights Out”, it can be found on my YouTube channel.
The Story Behind The Story
Mike Tyson was one of the greatest boxers of all time. In his prime he can be compared to Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Roberto Duran, and Floyd Mayweather in terms of talent, accomplishments, and greatness. Of his 50 wins, 44 came by way of knockout. He was bigger, stronger, and faster than anyone else in his weight class in his prime. He knocked out Trevor Berbick in the second round in November 1986 to become youngest heavyweight champion in history. He has been inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame.Â
The Process, Narrated
I cut and pasted several clips from a handful of Mike Tyson boxing YouTube videos. I downloaded the videos using http://en.savefrom.net/. I then opened QuickTime Player and loaded the video I had just previously downloaded. In QuickTime, I trimmed the video to use only the portions I want. I did this by dragging the yellow bar to the left and right in the timeline. Right after, I clicked “TRIM” to complete the editing. I saved the video, and inserted it into YouTube video editor. In the video editor, because the video is edited, I simply just dragged it into the “insert video” section, created a title slide and that was it. I uploaded it to my channel and published it to the public.  Here a few photos that document my process.Â
When I came across this assignment I figured what better way to show off a dancer who both my my host character and I look up to, Juliet Doherty! Juliet Doherty is one of my favorite ballerinas out there, and she’s extremely accomplished for only being 17! She’s my favorite to watch, and I wish I could dance like her! So I decided to put together a little video of some of my favorite moments from her pieces this year!
The making of this video was really quite easy! I found all of the pictures that I wanted to use, then I downloaded them into my iMovie. Then, I strung them all together in the order that I wanted, and added an intro slide. Lastly, I found some really happy music on YouTube, and I downloaded it to use, cause who doesn’t like happy music? Hope you all enjoy it!
I liked this assignment because it was right up the alley of everything I’ve done previously with video editing, which is editing competitive game footage of myself into montages with musical accompaniment. This video is one of the first ever videos I made, and I’ve learned a lot from the mistakes I made making it. That’s why I think it’s a good subject for this assignment, because when I made it, I thought it was the best thing in the world, but now it’s hard to watch because I see all the things I could have done better. When I uploaded this, I didn’t even know how to put things on YouTube in HD, which is painfully obvious. I’ve since learned their formatting and time restrictions for HD upload, and my newer videos benefited greatly from it. This video is also very looooooong, and most that have viewed it say it doesn’t hold their attention the entire way through. This was hard to hear at first, as my highlights are like my children, but it taught me this: Just because you like it doesn’t mean other people will. Others don’t have the personal connection to the moments in this video that I do, and thus can’t appreciate it on that level, to them it’s just minutia. While I love this video, it would have been much better received if I had trimmed it down to about 4-5 minutes of the very best I had to offer. I got too emotionally attached to this work, and it suffered for it. Also, I think commentary with music in the background would have gone a long way to enthrall the more casual viewers who aren’t familiar with the game, and probably have no idea what is actually going on in some parts. I also could have credentialed myself more at the beginning of the video to entice people to take it seriously. I was, for a time, one of the top ranked players in the world. I have attached screen shots below showing me in 4th place world squad score, and 5th place world obliteration wins. I had these screen shots then, why didn’t I include them?
