How to edit digital camera movie clips

So let's try a preview of some of the effects on offer.

Click on the Collections button at the top, then on Video Transitions, and double-click to select a transition. Now watch the preview in the right-hand pane.

The Tasks view, which can be reached by clicking on the Tasks button in the toolbar, sets out the various tasks involved in making a movie in the left pane.

Switch back and forth between Tasks and the Collections view by clicking on the relevant button in the toolbar.

Getting footage
Video files can be imported from both camcorders and digital cameras. Most digital camcorders have a Firewire socket or a USB2 port to connect them to a PC (Sony's name for Firewire is iLink – it's the same technology, just a different brand name).

In this case, we've taken some video shot on a Sony Cybershot U30, a relatively cheap and dated two-megapixel camera. Even with such low-quality footage it's possible to make a fun little movie that can be emailed to friends.

To begin, connect your camera to the PC with the supplied lead. The Cybershot is shown as a USB drive on a PC, so it's easy to navigate to. In the case of the Cybershot, we looked for movie files on its memory card and copied them across to a folder on the PC's hard disk.

The next step is to open Movie Maker, go to the File menu and then Import. Navigate to where you've stored the video files. You can select more than one at a time by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on each clip in turn before clicking on Open.

To capture camcorder footage, attach it to the PC with a USB or Firewire cable. The PC should recognise new hardware that's been plugged in, and Movie Maker will launch a wizard to help transfer the footage across.

Starting the edit
Select a movie in the Collections pane on the left of the screen. A file should show up in the middle pane, showing the first frame of the selected clip. Click on this clip and drag it to the Storyboard pane. Repeat the process with any other clips you want to include.

The clips fall into place on the storyboard; the running order can be easily changed by dragging clips forwards or backwards on the storyboard.

Trimming unwanted footage from clips is easy using the Timeline. Go to the lower pane, and click on the button marked Show Timeline. This shows the same clips, but the width of each clip denotes its running length.

To trim a clip, click on it in the Timeline, then play the clip in the Preview pane, stopping it roughly at the point you want to cut from. Then use the Previous Frame and Next Frame buttons in the Preview window for a more precise placement.