How to Make a Movie Out of a Slideshow in Windows Movie Maker

As a video major in college more than twelve years ago, I struggled through months and months of fighting with an ornery old editor in a freezing cold laboratory at school. My professor had saved money by getting second hand editing units, and video effects "Toasters," and they never worked properly. I remember hours of re-doing edits that had screwed up, only to find that my tape was damaged and the video wasn't quite the way I wanted it when all was said and done.

If only we had had digital editing back then, my life would have been a lot easier. With Windows Movie Maker, which comes free with most Windows PCs, you can make movies out of your video, screen captures, screen shots or photographs. It's amazingly easy, and you won't have to fight with the program to get the desired effect, or worry about damaged tape or misbehaving editors ruining your work. Then you can submit the videos to Associated Content, to earn cash. Or you can upload them to Google Video or YouTube and watch them go viral.

This tutorial deals with how to use your photos or screen shots to make a movie in Windows Movie Maker. This is particularly useful if you don't have a video camera, or if you don't have a video capture card on your computer. You can still make videos in Windows Movie Maker even without these devices. Download all your pictures to the computer from the camera, or make your screen captures before you start. To create screen captures, hit the "prt scr" (print screen) button, then open your image processing program (such as Windows Paint, GIMP, or Paint Shop Pro). Then in Windows Paint, and click Edit > Paste. In GIMP, click File > New, then in the image window, click Edit > Paste. In Paint Shop Pro, click Edit > Paste as New Image.