Chapter 1. Introducing iMovieWhether you’ve been an iMovie fan since the program debuted wayback in 1999 or you’re taking your first foray into editing home movies,you’ll be impressed by iMovie’s features and your ability to edit videoon both your Mac desktop and any iOS device you have.In brief, iMovie is video-editing software that grabs the rawfootage from your camcorder, camera, phone, or computer and lets youedit it easily, quickly, and creatively. In this chapter, you’ll learnthe many ways you can use iMovie (some of which may surprise you) andtake a look at the iMovie workspace. The iMovie RevolutionOver the decades, home movies have gotten a bad rap. Do somerandom browsing on YouTube and you’ll find all kinds of offenders:unending shots of cats sleeping on sofas, high-school plays filmedfrom the back of the auditorium, and random vacation moments where thecamera shakes enough to simulate an earthquake.Most people know that you can improve home movies by editing outthe bad parts and concentrating on the good, but until iMovie camealong, that was an expensive and time-consuming undertaking. Youneeded several thousand dollars’ worth of digitizing cards,complicated editing software, and the highest-powered computerequipment available. Unless you were getting a paycheck at the end ofthe process, editing your own movies just wasn’t worth it.Then along came iMovie, the world’s least expensive version ofwhat Hollywood pros call nonlinear editingsoftware. In the old days, your recorded footage sat on a videotape,and you edited your clips in linear fashion—you laboriously rewoundand fast-forwarded through every frame of the tape to get to the partsyou wanted.
And iMovie for iOS works with ClassKit, so teachers can assign projects to students, and students can easily hand in their finished assignments right from the app. Join Apple Teacher and get free iMovie training materials; Download the Everyone Can Create Video guide.
Nowadays, you don’t do any rewinding or fast-forwarding;you can instantly jump to any piece of footage you want.Why does this history lesson matter? Because it feels prettydang cool to know that, right there on your Mac, you havevideo-editing powers that not long ago would’ve left trainedprofessionals drooling.
Little old you can take the cats, thehigh-school plays, and the vacations and make them look downrightepic. With iMovie and a camera, you’re ready to go.Home movies. Plain old home movies—casual documentaries of yourlife, your kids’ lives, your school life, your trips—are thesingle most popular use for iMovie. Using the program, you candelete all but the best scenes (and cut that unending shot of theground when you forgot to turn off your camcorder). And using theshooting tips you’ll find in this book, you can improve thequality of that footage even before you shoot.Web movies. But why limit your aspirations to people you know?If you’ve got something funny or interesting on “film,” why notshare it with the Internet at large?
In iMovie, posting toYouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook are only a menu command away—andthat’s just the beginning. New film festivals, websites, andmagazines, all dedicated to independent makers ofshort movies, are springing upeverywhere.Business videos. Because it’s so easy to post and share your iMoviecreations on the Internet, you should consider video a useful toolin whatever you do. If you’re a real estate agent, blow away yourrivals (and save your clients time) by showing movies, not stillphotos, of the properties you represent. If you’re an executive,quit boring your comrades with stupefying PowerPoint slides andmake your point with video instead.Video photo albums. A video photo album can be much more exciting,accessible, and engaging than one on paper.
Take your digitalphotos and assemble them in sequence, and then add somecrossfades, titles, and music. The result is a much moreinteresting display than a book of motionless images, thanks inpart to iMovie’s Ken Burns effect.Just-for-fun projects. Neveragain can anyone over the age of 8 complain that there’s “nothingto do.” Set your kids loose with a camera and instructions to makea fake rock video, commercial, or documentary.Training films. If there’s a better use for video than how-toinstruction, you’d be hard-pressed to name it. Make a videofor new employees to show them the ropes. Create avideo that ships with your product to humanize your company and tohelp customers make the most of their purchases. Post videos onthe Web to teach newcomers how to play the banjo, grow a garden,kick a football, or use a computer program—and then marketit.Interviews.
You’re lucky enough to live in an age when you canmanipulate video clips in a movie just as easily as you do wordsin a word processor. Capitalize on this. Create family histories.Film relatives who still remember the War, the Birth, theImmigration. Or create a time-capsule, time-lapse film: Ask yourkids or parents the same four questions every year on theirbirthdays (such as, “What’s your greatest worry right now?” or “Ifyou had one wish?” or “Where do you want to be in 5 years?”).Then, after 5 or 10 or 20 years, splice together the answers foran enlightening fast-forward through a human life.Broadcast segments. Want a taste of the real world? Call your cable TVcompany about its public-access channels. (As required by law,every cable company offers a channel or two for ordinary citizensto use for their own programming.) Find out the time and formatrestraints, and then make a documentary, short film, or otherpiece for actual broadcast.
Advertise the airing to everyone youknow. It’s a small-time start, but it’s real broadcasting.Of course, you could skip the small time and upload yourvideos straight from iMovie to CNN’s iReport website. Here, amateurreporters post their own news items for all the world to watch. Onoccasion, CNN even turns to these videos for its nationwidebroadcasts.Analyze performance. There’s no better way to improve your golf swing,tennis form, musical performance, or public speaking style than tostudy footage of yourself. If you’re a teacher, camp counselor, orcoach, then film your students, campers, or players so that theycan benefit from self-analysis, too. Figure 1-1. To install the latest version of iMovie, go to the AppStore ( →App Store).
If you have iMovie ’11, you’llget the upgrade for free. If not, get ready to shell out$14.99.If you bought your previous versions of iMovie from the AppStore, or if you have iMovie ’11 already on your Mac, you’ll get thenewest version as a free upgrade.
If not, Apple will ask you to ponyup $14.99. (If that seems steep, consider that previous versions ofiMovie came in a software bundle called iLife that cost anywherefrom $50 to $80.)Apple says iMovie requires a Mac running OS X Mavericks(version 10.9) or later. Apple also recommends at least 4 GB ofmemory. It goes without saying, of course, that the more memory youhave (and the bigger your screen and the faster your processor), thehappier you and iMovie will be. This program isseriously hungry for horsepower. NoteInstalling the new version of iMovie doesn’t replace orremove older versions.
Once you install the new version, you’llfind the older version in a folder called “iMovie 9.0.9” (orwhatever iMovie version you had) in your Applications folder,ready to run when necessary.Keep this older version around for a while. The latest version of iMovie might be missing somefeatures that you counted on in the past. These features may findtheir way back into the program with future updates, but in themeantime you can always go back to the older software. “.1” UpdatesLike any other software company, Apple occasionally releasesnew versions of iMovie: version 10.1, version 10.2, and so on (oreven 10.1.1, then 10.1.2, and so on). Each “point” upgrade (as in“iMovie ten-point-one”) is free and improves the program’sreliability. Upgrades are well worth installing for any program, butthey’re especially important for iMovie—they do more than squashbugs; they often add features you want.You don’t have to look far to find these updates. One dayyou’ll be online and a notification will pop up onscreen, lettingyou know that there’s a new “point” update for your version ofiMovie, and offering to install it for you.
(If you set your AppStore preferences to install updates automatically, your Mac willdownload and install the update without any input from you. You canturn on this option at →System Preferences→App Store.)When the updater finishes, your original copy of iMovie hasmorphed into the updated version of the program. (One way to findout what version of iMovie you have is to open the program and thenchoose iMovie→About iMovie.)This book assumes that you have at least iMovie 10.0.3.Libraries list. IMoviestores all your imported footage here, organized by event (see).Event browser. Here’s whereyou review your imported footage and select the good bits forinclusion in your movie.Viewer. Review either yourraw footage or your movie-in-progress here.Content Library.
Here livethe stock goodies that iMovie provides to jazz up yourproduction.Project pane. This is whereyou build your movie, piece by piece, by dragging the footageyou choose in the Event browser here. UP TO SPEED: Use Old Clips with the New iMovieUpgrading iMovie from a prior version can take some time. Like, alot of time. That’s because the program makesa copy of your old iMovie clips so you can use the footage withthe new version of the program.The upside is that if you find yourself wanting to head backto the old iMovie to work on some prior projects in their originalformat, Apple thoughtfully held onto the clips for you.The downside is that an iMovie library is usually reallybig, like dozens of gigabytes large.
If you haven’t got a lot offree hard drive space, you can kiss what free space you do havegoodbye. Unfortunately, the only solution is to get rid of stuff.You can commit whole hog and delete your old iMovie library fromthe Finder, or you can delete footage from the old or newlibraries. (Seefor help on deleting footage in the new iMovie.). NoteThe Event browser is called that because, for most people,the things you film tend to be organized around events in yourlife, like vacations, weddings, and graduations. You’ll learn allabout events in.The most basic edit you’ll make in iMovie is highlighting somefootage in the Event browser and sticking it into the Project pane.This simple process is described extensively in.The new version of iMovie lets you display or hide the Projectpane. (The old version dedicated permanent real estate to it.) In, you cansee a little in the top-left corner of the Project pane.Click that and the Project pane disappears, leaving a usefullybigger Event browser, along with a bigger Viewer (see the nextsection). That’s one of the many changes to how projects now work,covered in.
The Content LibraryMaking movies takes a lot more than just piecing clipstogether. You’ll also want to include professional elements liketitles, music, transitions, and photographs. You’ll turn to theContent Library for these sorts of things.
Think of it as the placeyou’ll find anything that’s not a video clip. (In other words, theContent Library contains everything but “content.”)shows the Content Library in the lower-left corner. You’ll learnabout each of the items there in the chapters to follow. In themeantime, click around and explore the tools.
You can waste a goodhour entertaining yourself with the sound effects alone.Get iMovie: The Missing Manual now with O’Reilly online learning.O’Reilly members experience live online training, plus books, videos, and digital content from 200+ publishers.
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