Video Effects
Video Effects are among my favorite parts of Movie Maker. Through them you can control visually how your movie will be presented. Only one Video Effect can be dropped onto any one video clip at a time when you are in the Storyboard mode. However, switch to Timeline and you can drop multiple Video Effects at one time onto a clip.
The order in which you add clips can be modified. For instance, I add Brightness to many of my clips. My video camera does not handle light very well, and it needs to be rebalanced when I bring it into Movie Maker. But for some videos, such as spooky Halloween videos, I like to add some of the really crazy Digital Media Plus! effects such as Wildest. Some Video Effects will drown out the others if the stacking order for the effects is not right.
Easily fixed. Right-click on any clip that you have added Video Effects to; then choose the Video Effects menu option or select Clip --> Video --> Video Effects from the menu. An easy-to-use window shows you all the Video Effects you can use and the order in which they are stacked on the current clip. Select any Video Effect from the right window to move it up and down the stack order.
Preview your movie to view what is happening.
Video Effects are great and can be expanded with either your own custom-built effects or by buying effects from others. The only problem I currently see is that Microsoft has not made it easy to exactly control the effect. For instance, the Brightness effect has only one setting. There is not a slide to control the setting with greater detail. Perhaps this option will come in a future release.