Genius Hour Movie Trailer

For my Genius Hour Movie Trailer I used a program called Animoto. I really enjoyed using Animoto for my first experience creating a digital piece such as this. It is really simple to use! You use an exemplar to start off that models the type of piece you would like to produce, and manipulate each slide to look and say as you would like. It was easy to upload my video clips, and click, drag and drop them right where I wanted to them to be in my trailer. I was able to customize it by choosing which clips had sound and which didn't, and I was able to choose from a wide variety of songs to create theme music.

That being said, I did encounter some problems with this website because it is only supported through Firefox and even if you have that internet server, some computers are not supported. So when considering using this in a classroom setting, you would need to ensure that the technology you have will support the website and that students have ample time to use the program during school hours as their technology at home may not be compatible. I also would have enjoyed even more creative freedom when using this website when adding effects, text, and transitions to my pages. I think that in order to do this you need to pay for the upgrade. Further, the watermark is another downside of the free option on this website because it is quite large and distracting.

Despite the pitfalls I experienced when using this website I still think that if you can use it in your classrooms, you definitely should! This website offers a simple, accessible site that junior level students could use to create an awesome digital piece. Whether it is a movie trailer, commercial, or mini play, the opportunities are endless and exciting! This is certainly a tool I look forward to incorporating into my classroom in the future.