My 3 Video sharing hats

My Learning:

-professional development topics

-YouTube "how to" video
-to help my nieces with their education and life choices

Teaching:

-engage visual learners

-video production for a variety of purposes

-promote books with book trailers

-video storytelling

-background knowledge for curriculum topics (natural disasters)

-YouTube "how to" (Khan Academy)

Personal:

-step by step watercolour instruction

-create more storytelling video files

-create video files of family events

Masher.com Pros and Cons

Pros: 

• online access 
• free
• easy and free registration
• extensive video, image and audio files for use with masher
• upload files
• share with email, social networks, in Masher gallery, embed code

Cons:

• 10 minute video limit
• slide bar volume control - can not remove audio track
• can not edit video
• limited timeline length, storage
• narration not possible
• maximum file size

Masher vs. Movie Maker

Tool  Link	Masher.com	Movie Maker
	Online access with simple registration	Not online Available with Windows Suites or by downloading
Cost	Free	Free download
Maximum length	10 minutes	2 hours - depends on computer hard drive space
Audio\Music	Upload MP3, WMA, WMV Slide bar volume control	Import most files Mute/ fade in/ fade out/ volume
Video	Upload or masher files .ASF, .AVI, .DV, .MOV, .MPEG, .MPG, .MP4, .WMV, .QT, .3GP	Does not support flip camera -mp4 files -requires file conversion to .avi MSWMM
Video options	No ability to edit video	Split clips into two and delete Take picture from video
Image	Upload or extensive masher files JPG, PNG, JPEG	Upload from computer files
Storage	100 MB	Based on computer size 20 different settings for saving
Maximum file size	100 MB limited timeline space	2 hours or 100 photos
Effects	18 animated or colour choices	25
Transitions	Not available	60
Skins	24 animated (whole video)	0
Text	8 fonts/ 3 sizes /multiple colours On a clip Before or after on block colour screen	Before a clip After a clip On a clip Credits at the beginning Credits at the end
Narration	Not available	Audio recorded with microphone
Storyboard Timeline	no storyboard x timeline	x storyboard x timeline
Sharing	Email, social network, URL, embed code?, or add to Masher Gallery	Email, upload to social network, DVD, CD or add to YouTube channel

Although my experience with video editing is limited to Movie Maker and Masher.com I prefer using Movie Maker and will recommend Movie Maker to teachers wishing to create videos for and with their students at school. Although Movie Maker is not an online tool and must be downloaded, the above green shaded cells indicate many more positive aspects of this technology.

Mashing with Masher:Step Four

Finally my video and photos are uploaded and I am ready to drag and drop. 
AppAppeal reviewed Masher.com and stated, "The site features an easy to use Studio for combining video, photos, and music and for editing in effects and adding text." 
It was easy.
I selected my video (sans audio) and dropped it in the timeline. I added photos and was able to shift their position as I worked. Video effects and text were added to the timeline with an animated menu for selection.  The Masher studio provides music files which I used to complete the video.

I wanted a full audio track for the video. Unfortunately I was unable to loop the music I wanted and needed to replace it with a longer track which was not as long as stated on the file information. In order to finish the video I wanted to add a text screen thanking viewers for watching. No matter what I did I was unable to access the last few photo clips or the colour screen to add my text message.
The video was given a title, description,and tags. It was saved, and I attempted to share with an embed code added to the post below. The HTML code is incomplete so I have provided the link made available for emailing. I sent an email to the Masher Support team requesting assistance.
Until the problem is rectified:

http://masher.com/player.jsp?key=5cb983ae-4959-31e4-7faf-0000837392f0&adscheme=0


Thank you for watching.

Response from Masher.com Support- "We are a small team here at Masher, but we will investigate the issue and hopefully come up with a solution."

More preparation: Step Three

Using Movie Maker to edit and combine my video clips was a simple process. I was able to split the clips and remove excess footage with one button ease. The delete key removed the unwanted footage.

Unedited clip

I combined the video clips and added video effects including text screens, fadeout to white, cycling through the spectrum of colours, and film age to some of the clips. I included a variety of video transitions between each film clip. To create a more professional looking video I would make better use of transitions for effect and limit video effects.

• Registering for a Masher account required a username, password and email account.
   
• Photos, music and videos can be uploaded easily from your computer. Masher provides a good selection of videos, photos and music for use with Masher video creations if original content is not available.

• Video uploads to Masher are limited to 50 MB. My 21 MB 3:22 minute upload took longer than I expected.  I began to edit the video and photos uploaded by dragging and dropping them on a timeline. I added a block colour screen and special effects with text for a title screen. I added an old movie effect for six frames.

• As I previewed the video I saw that the audio picked up by the camera was distracting and in places too loud.  I cannot edit the video upload in Masher so I will have to repair this problem and upload a corrected file from Movie Maker.

• I used a YouTube video tutorial to help me locate the Movie Maker Clip tool where I was able to mute the sound clip by clip, save the new video and upload once again to Masher.