Converting files

So as we all know there is a project that is due on monday and the project is a short film or to be more specific a documentary from 10 to 15 minutes long. So i went out and got some footage of things such as interviews so I could do this project. So after getting all these shots and footage on my camera I decided to start editing yesterday in order to finish a pretty decent project. The problem was that the format my videoes are in is mov. files. Now i want to use moviemaker but in order to move my videos to moviemaker i got to chang them into avi files. So i thought no problem all I need is a converter. So I went and downloaded a converter and converted my files. The videos came out short and choppy and i didn't like the quality so i tried a different converter and i got the same results. Then my computer decided it wanted to get sick and caught a virus. So i had to stop looking for the converter and fix this problem which was time consuming and annoying. After fixing the problem I went and began looking for a converter again with no success. Then finally i founded one but it was just too good to be true. I found one but it took about half a day to convert one clip which was about 4 minutes long. It came out well but it was just irrational how much time it took to convert the clip. Even now it moves slow. I don't know how I'm going to pull this project off with so many problems coming at me last minute. The worst part is that this is just the converting of files who knows what other problems is ahead and I don't have much time left to do it. This sucks.