So, History Fair crunch time has reared its ugly head in my home again. I have two sisters who are in the Advanced Placement English/History 7th and 8th grade program (one's a sevie, the other's in eighth). The youngest, Amanda, is doing a research paper on George Washington, so she's all finished. Meghan, however, is doing a group documentary on J.R.R. Tolkien. (Oh, the theme is "Individual in History", btw.) She's put it off and put it off and put it off, which is a History Fair tradition in the GT class (that's the shortened thing for Gifted and Talented, or Geek in Training as we prefer). I've been helping her and her friend, Jenni, work on it today. They're using Windows Movie Maker, and there are some things about that program that drive me nuts.
First of all, you can't record a music track and overlay a voice track. I did a documentary in eighth grade as well, and it wouldn't let me do it then. I worked with a professional movie maker, so I know for sure that it doesn't work. Secondly, the transitions are choppy. Third, I can't adjust the sound very well. So yeah, it's dumb. But it's all we got, so at least I know how to use it, right?
While recording, of course everything went wrong. After the girls finished laughing their heads off about nothing (that always happens when you're doing a project, doesn't it?), we got to the end and the phone rang. Then I had a coughing fit, then the dogs got set off by the doorbell, then it started to rain and we had the window open, THEN Amanda and her friend burst into the room without reading the sign...yeah. It was interesting. All in all, we're not finished. We got about three minutes recorded. Yay, seven more to go.
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