Comments

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  Mike McQueen January 26, 2012 at 3:42pm

  Greetings Kathryn,

  I'm Mike McQueen, teacher librarian and founder of http://www.GettingBoysToRead.com. Like many school districts, we are in a financial crises. Our school board recently proposed to eliminate ALL 20+ middle school teacher librarians and also cut all 90+ elementary schools to half time. Since we are the biggest district in all of Colorado, we worry this will cause other districts to follow suit. We launched an online movement and are going to do our best to put up a good fight. If possible, please visit our Facebook page and "Like" us http://www.facebook.com/SupportSchoolLibraries . Adding a positive comment and sharing with your friends would help our morale as well. The board finalizes the budget soon so your timely support would be greatly appreciated!

  Sincerely,

  Mike McQueen

  Teacher Librarian at McLain HS

  Lakewood, CO
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  Mike McQueen May 26, 2009 at 6:29pm

  Hi Kathryn,
  I'm a teacher librarian & recently started a community based blog for getting boys to read - http://GettingBoysToRead.com. Please send me a friend request if you'd like to network, share ideas, and learn more about getting boys to read.
  
  Sincerely,
  Mike McQueen
  
  LET'S NETWORK HERE TOO (request me as a friend):
  My FACEBOOK Profile
  My TWITTER Profile</</body>
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  Doug Valentine April 21, 2009 at 3:38pm

  Thanks again for the info. It was very helpful. I believe that I will purchase the Crazy Talk Pro after trying the basic version this morning and hearing back from you. I do have a few more questions: First, Do you know if I have windows for Mac if the Crazy Talk would work on the Mac, Second, Do you record the voices on the crazy talk software or type it in and the character mechnically talks what has been typed, Third, Does the Crazy Talk Pro save into a quicktime movie format, and Fourth, Does the Vegas Software accept quicktime movies for editing. I don't mind a PC and actually I prefer them but my district has a Mac preference. Mid-Del School District is North of Norman and a suburb of OKC. I'm not an OU grad but attend meetings there such as Festival of Books, Computer related workshops, and Nat'l Brd meetings as a mentor. Norman is a nice town but I understand you have go where the best opportunity is. Actually, I'm going to be in Dallas to assess for NBPTS with Pearson on Central Expressway in July. Would you be interested in giving a short seminar on your Movie Making around that time. I'll pay for your services. Thanks KSK
  
  I'm not sure about the Windows for Mac answer. You might want to contact their website. I know they don't have a straight Mac version. As far as recording voices, I use the kids. I video tape them reading their review and then I take just the audio out with Vegas as a WAV file. I can then import that into Crazy Talk and use as my soundtrack. Once I combine the picture and the voice in Crazy Talk, I render as an .Avi file. In Vegas I can then chroma key and keyframe any movements. Crazy Talk Pro renders as .Avi, MP4, RM or WMV. No quicktime. Vegas can use Quicktime. It can edit most any file format. As far as being available in July, it depends on the days. At some point I am taking a real vacation. :)
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  Doug Valentine April 19, 2009 at 6:22am

  Yes, several people have asked. I use Crazy Talk Pro because that was the first one I saw. I'm sure the cheaper version works well without the bells and whistles, Their site has a free trial so you might look at that. I use a PC, Crazy Talk doesn't work on a Mac as yet. As far as Vegas, you could probably do it fine with the cheaper version but you wouldn't be able to export it into some formats. I'm not sure how the cheaper version is with HD so I would check on their site to find that out as well. Vegas is a really good editor, it requires some learning, but you can stick to the basics of the program and pick it up pretty quick. If you didn't want backgrounds or the cutout look you could use Crazy Talk by itself. It combines the voice track with the picture and exports into a number of formats. Hope this helps! BTW, I see you are in Oklahoma. I got my graduate degree at OU! I miss Norman sometimes but the $$ just wasn't there..
  Doug
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  Doug Valentine April 18, 2009 at 1:51pm

  Hi,
  I make my book reviews using a combination of a program called "Crazy Talk" and my editor, Vegas Video. Crazy Talk allows me to animate faces and Vegas lets me chroma key the background and add all the effects.
  
  Doug