iMovie

Edit video like a pro at you computer

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Tutorial Connecting Camcorder Importing Video Make a movie Cropping and Editing Splitting Video Adding Transitions

Adding Titles Adding Video Effects Creating Stills Deleting audio and video Renaming clips Adding Audio Adding music/sound

Voice Narration Extracting Audio Editing Audio Exporting Movies Managing Disk Space Full Screen View Tips and Tricks

Needed:

A Digital DV Camcorder. A regular analog camcorder won't work. A newer Mac with Firewire or IEEE 1394. Firewire is a super fast connection which allows you to transfer video from camera to computer quickly. The Firewire connection is a rectangle with a square end on one side and a rounded end on the other. You will also need a 6-pin to 4-pin firewire cable. iMovie software loaded on your computer. You may also need plenty of memory in your computer.

The best way to learn how to use iMovie is to work through the iMovie tutorial. You don't need any video clips (they are supplied within the tutorial). You will learn how to use the editing commands and how to export your completed video so others can view it. The tutorial will take about an hour to an hour and a half to complete, but you can stop and come back to it at anytime. To start the tutorial, open iMovie and pull down the "Help" file, choose "iMovie Tutorial" and follow the instructions.

Before you can import your video, you need to connect the camera to the computer. Use the 6-pin to 4-pin firewire cable. Be careful, do not force anything.

1. Turn off your DV camcorder
2. Plug the 4-pin connector into the DV camcorder
3. Plug the 6-pin connector into the computer.
4. Turn on the camcorder. Make sure it is set to "VTR mode."

With computer and camera connected and on, and iMovie open, you are ready to import your video footage.

Make sure the Mode Switch is set to Camera mode (DV): Use the Camera mode playback controls to view the tape in the iMovie monitor. Control the video from the computer, not the camera. Rewind your tape to just before where you want to start importing. Click the "Play" button. When the display shows the scene you want to import, click the "Import" button to begin importing. To stop importing, click the "Import" button again. (You can also use the space bar to start and stop importing). You can keep the tape running and turn on and off the "Import" button to import only the clips you wish. Generally though, you want to capture a little more than you intent to use (you can trim clips later).

Clips are stored on the shelf, to the right of the screen. Each time you start "Import" you create a new and separate clip. iMovie also divides footage into separate clips at places where you stopped and started filming.

Once you've imported your clips, you are ready to start building your movie. You will see your clips on the shelf at the right of your screen. The clips are numbered, you can see the length of each clip, and an image of the first scene of each clip.

You can view a clip by clicking on it and clicking on the "Play" button.

To start making your movie;

Drag your selected clips from the shelf down to the "Clip Viewer" at the bottom.

The clip viewer displays the clips in the sequence they occur in your movie. You can rearrange the order by dragging and dropping the clip where you want them to appear.

Note: You have a choice between the Clip Viewer (above) and the "Timeline Viewer" which displays the movie's video track and two audio tracks. Use the timeline viewer to position and edit audio and video.

Besides rearranging the order of your clips, you can also crop or shorten individual clips or delete certain sections. Include only the video you want. You can crop and split clips. You can also copy, paste, and replace sections of video. You can even replace video in a clip while keeping the audio contained in it.

Some clips are longer than you need or have excess footage a the beginning or end. To remove part of the beginning and/or end of a clip, you crop it. (cropping means to cut out).

To crop a video clip: Click to select the clip. Click and drag left or right just below the scrubber bar to make the crop markers appear. The scrubber bar is the bar that appears directly under the iMovie monitor, which displays a timeline of selected clips of video. Crop markers are used to select video and audio clips. Select what you want to keep of the clip by dragging the crop markers to the desired beginning and end of the clip. The parts of the clip that are outside the yellow crop markers will be removed when you crop the clip. Choose "Crop" from the "Edit" menu. Tip: To remove a section in the middle of a clip, select it with the crop markers, press the delete key to delete the selected yellow portion. Remember, if you crop something by mistake, you can pull down "Edit" and "undo" the crop.

Viewing the movie in progress:

As you are building your movie, you can view your progress in the monitor. You can drag the playhead to any point along the scrubber bar to start or stop the movie where you want using the play button. Remember, the space bar can also be used to start and stop viewing.

You can split a single clip into two clips. This is particularly useful if you want to keep an unused section of a clip on the shelf for later editing, or if you need to insert a title in the middle of a clip, or want to move part of a clip to another location.

To split a clip:

1. Select the clip by clicking on it.
2. Move the playhead to where you want to split the clip.
3. Choose "Split Video Clip at Playhead" from the "Edit" menu.

Transitions smooth the cuts between scenes (clips) and add visual appeal. You can put a transition at the beginning or end of movie, or between two clips.

Transitions include:

• Cross dissolve
• Fade in and out
• Pushes
• Overlap
• Scale down

To add a transition to a clip:

1. Click the transition button.
   
2. Select a transition type in the transition panel.
   
3. Use the Speed slider (in transition panel) to modify the speed of the transition into or out of the clip. Slower transitions take more time to render.
4. Click an arrow to choose the transition direction (not available for some transitions).
   
5. Drag the transition from the transition panel to the desired location in the timeline viewer below.

A transition icon appears between the clips, and a small progress bar appears under it. When the progress bar disappears, the rendering is done. You can continue editing while the transition is rendering.

To preview the transition in the movie, place the playhead before the transition in the scrubber bar and click the play button.

A title lets you add descriptive text, such as credits, opening titles, etc. You can choose from a variety of styles, fonts, and colors.

You can place a title over a section of a video clip or create it as a separate clip with a black background.

To add a title to your movie:

1. Click the "Titles" button.
2. Select a title style from the list in the middle of the titles panel.
3. Type the text for your title into the text field or fields at the bottom of the title panel. For some titles, such as Centered Multiple, you can create more text fields by clicking the "+" button. You can reposition title fields by dragging them.
4. To speed up or slow down the titling effect, adjust the Speed and/or Pause sliders. A slower title speed takes more time to render onscreen.
5. To put the title over a black background, select the "Over Black" checkbox. To make the title appear over a clip, leave the "Over Black" box unchecked.
6. To customize the text:
   • Click the Color box to choose a text color.
   • Choose a font for your title from the pop-up menu.
   • Use the text size slider to adjust the text size.
     
7. If the title scrolls, you can change the direction it scrolls. To change the scroll direction, click a direction button.
8. Drag the title from the list in the middle of the Titles panel to the clip viewer. If you want the title to appear over a clip, place it before that clip.
   1. A title icon appears between the clips, and a small progress bar appears under it. When the progress bar disappears, the rendering is done. You can continue editing while the transition is rendering.
9. If you want a title to appear in the middle of a clip; Titles must be placed before or after clips, so before you drag the title from the titles list, split the clip into two clips at the point where you want to insert title.

To Edit an existing title:

1. Select the title clip in the clip viewer.
2. Click Titles
3. Make your modifications.
4. Click the "Update" button in the Titles panel.

You can add effects to your movie, such as color adjustments or a sepia tone ( a rust-tinted, old fashioned look).

To apply video effects to your movie:

1. Click the "Effects" button.
2. Select the video you want to apply the effect to.
3. Select a video effect in the Effects panel.
4. Adjust the effect by using any sliders that appear in the panel. (some effects do not have slider.)
5. Click "Apply."
6. Wait for the effect to render.

When you use an effect, iMovie applies the effect to your movie project but leaves the original footage untouched on your hard drive. If you want to save hard drive space and you're sure you want to keep an effect, you can delete the copy of the original footage by clicking "Commit."

You can add a black video clip to create a blank, black pause between scenes. You can also capture a picture form your movie and use it as a still-image clip.

Creating black video clips:

• Drag a clip to the right in the timeline viewer.

  A new black clip fills in the gap created on the left. Note: you cannot drag a clip to the right if there is a transition to the left of it.

Creating still-image clips:

1. Select the video clip that contains the picture you want to use.
2. Drag the playhead until the picture you want to use is showing in the iMovie monitor.
3. Choose "Create Still Clip" from the "Edit" menu.

Changing the duration of still-image clips:

The default duration of a still-image clip is 5 seconds.

• To change the duration of a still-image clip:
• Select it and type a new duration in the Time field at the top of the clip viewer or the timeline viewer.

You can reverse the direction of one or more video clips. For example, make it play backwards. Or you can speed up your clip or have it play in slow motion.

To reverse the direction of video clips:

1. Select the clip or clips.
2. Choose "Reverse Clip Direction" from the "Advanced" menu.

To adjust the speed of video:

1. Select the clip or clips in the timeline viewer (the tab with the clock on it).
2. Drag the clip speed slider to the desired setting.

To delete audio or video from your movie:

1. Select what you want to delete:
   • Select a section of a video clip with the crop markers.
   • Select any other type of audio or video by clicking it.
2. Choose "Clear" from the "Edit" menu.

   TIP: If you make a mistake, you can recover the deleted video or audio by choosing "Undo Clear" from the Edit menu. You can also choose "Restore Clip Media" from the "Advanced" menu.

Clips are automatically given a generic name in iMovie.

To give your clips names that are more useful to you;

• If the clip is in the clip viewer or shelf area, click the clip name and type a new name.
• If the clip is in the timeline viewer, double-click the clip and rename it in the Clip info window.

  WARNING: You can rename clips in iMovie. However, to avoid breaking links between the movie project and the media file, do not rename the files in the movie project's Media folder.

There are many ways to bring audio into your movie, you can:

• Import video that contains audio (or extract the audio from the video).
• Record music from an audio CD into the movie.
• Add sound effects that iMovie provides.
• Record voice narration using iMovie
• Import an audio file.

Once the audio is in your video, you can edit it in the following ways:

• Crop, cut, and paste it.
• Reposition its place in the movie.
• Mute or adjust the volume of individual clips and sound effects.
• Lock audio to specific places in the video.

Volume adjustment:

When you adjust the iMovie volume, you only change how loud the computer's speaker sounds. You don't change the volume of files in your movie.

To adjust the iMovie volume, drag the volume slider.

There are two ways to add music to a movie; recording music from an audio CD, or importing an AIFF or MP3 audio file.

TIP: To prevent background sounds from overpowering important foreground sounds, reduce the volume of background audio clips.

Recording audio CD Music:

To record audio CD music into your movie:

1. Click the "Audio" button.
2. Insert the audio CD into your computer's CD-ROM drive.
3. Select the track in Audio panel and do one of the following:
   • Drag the audio CD track from the Audio panel to audio track 1 or 2 in the timeline viewer.
   • Click the "Record Music" button on the Audio panel to start recording music into you movie. To end recording, click the Stop button.

Importing an audio file:

To import an AIFF or an MP3 audio file into your movie:

1. Select where you want to insert the audio file by positioning the playhead in the timeline viewer.
2. Choose "Import File" from the "File" menu.
3. Select the file and click "Import."

   The music clip appears on the audio track 2 in the timeline viewer.

Adding sound effects to a movie:

To add a sound effect:

1. Click the "Audio" button.
2. Drag a sound effect from the list in the Audio panel to the desired position on audio track 1 or 2 in the timeline viewer. You can reposition the sound effect by dragging it.
3. To delete a sound effect, select the sound and press the Delete key.

You can record you voice into your movie using a microphone connected to (or built in) you computer. Or, you can record voice narration with a digital camcorder and then import the digital video that contains the voice narration. Then you can extract the audio from the video.

To record a voice narration in your movie:

1. Position the playhead where you want the narration to begin.
2. Click the "Audio" button.
3. Click the "Record Voice" button in the Audio panel.
4. Speak into the microphone.

   Use the volume level meter (above the Record Voice button) to determine how loud you should speak. For best result, keep the level between 50% and 75%.

5. To end the recording, click the Stop button.

You can extract the audio from a video clip you have, edit it and use it elsewhere in your movie.

To extract audio from a video clip:

1. In the timeline viewer, select the video clip that contains the audio you want to extract.
2. Choose "Extract Audio" from the "Advanced" menu. The extracted audio will appear in audio track 1.

You can crop, cut, and paste audio clips just like you can do with video clips.

Cropping:

To remove part of the beginning and/or end of an audio clip, you crop it by:

1. Select an audio clip in audio track 1 or 2 in the timeline viewer. (you can't crop sound effects).
2. Select what you want to keep of the clip by dragging the crop markers to the desired beginning and end of the clip.

   1. 

The parts of the clip that are outside the crop markers will be removed.

TIP: For precise positioning, you can use the left and right arrows on the keyboard to move the markers.

1. Choose "Crop" from the "Edit" menu.

Splitting Audio Clips:

To split an audio clip into two clips:

1. Click to select the audio clip.
2. Move the playhead t where you want to split the clip.
3. Choose "Split Selected Audio Clip at Playhead" from the "Edit" menu.

Cutting, copying, and pasting audio clips:

1. Click to select the audio clip.
2. Choose "Cut" or "Copy" from the "Edit" menu.
3. Move the playhead to where you want the clip to appear.
4. Choose "Paste" from the "Edit" menu.

Repositioning Audio clips:

Drag the audio clip or sound effect to any position on audio track 1 or 2 in the timeline viewer. Note; when sounds occur at the same time in a movie, they play simultaneously.

To place the audio at a precise location in the movie:

1. In the timeline viewer, position the playhead at the point in the movie where you want the audio clip to begin or end. (This creates a "ghost" playhead that marks the place for you).
2. Drag the audio clip(s) or sound effects(s) to the ghost playhead.

Muting and adjusting the volume of clips:

You can adjust the volume of individual audio and video clips in your movie. This is important in making sure background sounds don't overpower import foreground sounds, such as voice narration.

Adjusting clip volume:

In the timeline viewer, select an audio or video clip and adjust the clip volume slider.

Muting all audio in a track:

To mute all audio in a video or audio track, Deselect the small checkbox at the right end of the track in the timeline viewer. (This audio will not be saved or recorded when movie is exported).

Making audio fade in or fade out:

You can make the volume of a clip gradually increase at the beginning and/or gradually decrease at the end of the clip.

To make audio fade in and/or out:

• Select the clip in the timeline viewer and click the "Fade In" and/or "Fade Out" boxes.
• You can adjust how long an audio fade lasts by double-clicking the clip and specifying the fade duration in the Clip Info dialog box.

Locking audio to specific video:

If you edit video after you have placed and positioned audio in your movie, you may find that you audio and video are no longer synchronized.

To avoid this problem, you can lock audio clips at specific points (frames) in the video. For example, you can lock the frame of a dog to the sound of a dog barking. Once the audio clip is locked to a specific video frame, it moves with that video frame and remains locked unless you specify to unlock it in the Advanced menu.

To lock audio to video:

• Select the audio clip(s).
• Position the playhead at the point where you want to audio and video to lock.
• Choose "Lock Audio Clip at Playhead" from the "Advanced" menu.

Deleting audio and video:

To delete audio or video from your movie:

1. Select what you want to delete by either clicking on a clip to select the entire clip or by selecting a section of a clip with the crop markers.
2. Choose "Clear" from the "Edit" menu or pressing the "Delete" key.

Remember; if you make a mistake, you can recover the deleted video or audio by choosing "Undo Clear" from the "Edit" menu. You can also select the clip and choose "Restore Clip Media" from the "Advanced" menu.

Renaming Clips:

Clips are automatically given a generic name in iMovie.

To give your clips names that are more useful to you, in the clip viewer or shelf area, click the clip name and type a new name.

Warning: You can rename clips in iMovie. However, to avoid breaking links between the movie project and the media file, do not rename files in the movie project's Media folder.

Once you have created your movie, you have a couple of choices of how you want to export it for viewing. You can;

• Record it back onto a DV tape. (high quality)
• Convert it to QuickTime movie for a computer, webpage, or email. (quality is compromised)
• Save for exporting to a DVD. (must have a DVD burner)

Recording movie onto DV tape:

Connect your DV camcorder to your computer using a Firewire cable (as you did to get your video into your computer).

1. Que up the tape you wish to record onto.
2. Choose "Export Movie" from the "File" menu.
3. Choose "Camera" from the "Export to" pop-up menu.
4. Click "Export."
5. Your movie will record onto you DV tape in real time.

You can preview your recorded tape in iMovie by setting the Mode Switch to Camera mode. then use the playback controls to rewind and play you movie.

Saving a movie as a QuickTime file:

Saving a movie as a QuickTime file allows you to play it on computers, post it on a Web page, send it as an e-mail, or save it on a CD. To do so:

1. Choose "Export Movie" from the "Edit" menu.
2. Choose "QuickTime" from the "Export to" pop-up menu.
3. Choose a movie format from the "Formats" pop-up menu. (see about formats below)
4. Click "Export."
5. Name your movie and choose a destination for the file.
6. Click "Save."

   The length of time it takes to export the movie and size of file depends on the length of the movie and the format you chose.

   About QuickTime movie Formats The "Formats" pop-up menu contains these formats: E-mail Movie - (Small) Creates a movie file optimized for sending over email. Lowest quality. Web Movie - (Small) Creates a movie optimized for posting on and playback over the World Wide Web. Streaming Web Movie - (Small) Allows you to prepare the movie for posting on a QuickTime streaming Web servers. CD-ROM Movie - (Medium) Creates a movie optimized for playback from slower CD-ROM drives. Full Quality - (Large) Creates a high-quality movie, preserving the most data possible. Use for creating movies you want to import into other applications or for further editing. Expert - Allows you to export movies using custom QuickTime settings, including Internet settings. QuickTime 4.0 or later is required to view these formats on a computer (either Mac or PC). You can download the latest version of QuickTime for free here.

Saving a movie for DVD:

Exporting for iDVD creates a large, full-quality QuickTime movie that can be published on a DVD using iDVD. The movie can be played in a DVD player and viewed on a television or computer screen.

1. Choose "Export" from the "File" menu and select "Export Movie."
2. Choose "For iDVD" in the "Export" pop-up menu.
3. If the "Render" button is active, click it. This just means that some element of your movie needs to be rendered first.

Saving a still picture from a movie:

You can create an image file by saving a frame of your movie.

To save a still image from video:

1. Select the clip that contains the picture you want to export.
2. Position the playhead so that the picture you want is showing in the iMovie monitor.
3. Choose "Save Frame As" from the "File" menu, type a name for your file, and choose a destination.
4. Choose a file format from the "Format" pop-up menu:
   • Choose Macintosh "PICT" File if you intend to use the resulting still image in an iMovie movie.
   • Choose "JPEG" if you intend to email the picture or post it on the Web.
5. Click "Save."

Video takes up enormous amounts of hard drive space. One minute of DV footage uses approximately 220 megabytes (MB) of disk space. Five minutes of video takes up approximately 1 gigabyte (GB). Editing a large movie will quickly use up disk space.

You will need to monitor your disk space during importing and editing.

The Free Space status bar shows how much disk space is currently in use:

• Green indicates more than 400 MB is available on your hard drive (enough to import safely).
• Yellow is an early warning indicating there is less than 400 MB of space remaining on the disk (just under 2 minutes of video).
• Red indicates that less than 200 MB of space (about 1 minute of video) remains on the disk.

  

  Don't let the status bar go below 100 MB.

When you get low on disk space, you can and should empty the trash which gets rid of all the discarded clips which can add up to substantial disk space. You might also remove any other unused files on the shelf.

You can delete unused clips by selecting them and pressing the Delete key or by dragging them to the iMovie Trash can. The iMovie Trash can also contains excess footage trimmed off clips and any other elements deleted from your project.

To free up hard drive space, choose "Empty Trash" from the "File" menu. This permanently deletes any unused files from your project and your hard disk. Once emptied, you will not be able to undo any previous changes or retrieve clips.

You can view you movie in the view monitor or view it in full screen. In iMovie, you can watch a movie in full-screen mode at any time by clicking the "Play Full Screen" button.

To stop playing a movie in full-screen mode - Click the movie.

Import only what you think you'll need:
Because imported video takes up so much disk space, focus on importing only the scenes you think you'll use. iMovie makes it easy to monitor your available disk space while importing.

Use the easiest way to import only what you need:
Use the iMovie playback controls to rewind the tape to a few seconds before the point where you want to start importing. Then, click Play and press the Space Bar when you see what you want. To stop importing, press the Space Bar again.

Import with "scene detection" if you intend to add transitions between scenes:
Take advantage of the "Automatically start new clip at scene break" feature, which you can turn on in the Import panel of the Preferences dialog box. This way, you won't have to look for the scene changes because the clips will already be divided that way.

To keep audio and video synchronized:
Add audio to the movie after the video editing is complete. If you do add video prior to completion of video editing, you can the audio to specific video.

To use all of the audio, but replace part of the video in a clip:
You can use the "Paste Over" command to replace video while keeping the audio that is included in the video.

To avoid running out of memory when applying changes to several clips at once:
Increase the amount of memory allocated to iMovie. To do this, select the iMovie application icon and choose "Get Info" from the "File" menu. Enter a larger number in the Preferred Size box.