Understanding iMovies

While editing our prelim and final piece we used iMovie to put together and edit them, we had a limited knowledge on how to use the software some we looked online to find out more information about using it. We found this extremely useful and it has helped us to full understand and aid towards our editing skills without this extra knowledge we easily progressed through the editing stage and managed to use techniques to improve our work.

We followed step by step guides to learn new techniques and improve our speed in which we edit and because of this we could spend more time trying new methods of editing. When starting to edit we used easy guides like this one we created to help us speed up the simple editing tasks.

Step by Step Guide

Importing And Starting

Firstly you must import your clips into iMovie. (You can import directly from a camera or from any files that exist on your computer). Simply select the import feature from the FILE menu and use the browser to select your clips.  Your first import will take some time if you have a lot of clips, since iMovie will generate new thumbnails for each clip. Once you have imported all the clips, select NEW PROJECT from the file menu to create a new project.  Your project is empty, so you need to SELECT all the clips you want in your project and drag them to the timeline window on the top. Once you have the clips in the timeline, you should reorder the clips in the proper sequence by dragging and dropping them in the correct order.

Adding Transitions

You may want to use TRANSITIONS between scenes to fade one scene to another or use another transition effect. To access them, select TRANSITIONS from the WINDOW menu. Simply select the transition you desire and drag it and place it between the two scenes

Cropping 

To crop a scene, simply select the scene and then click on the CROP button. The crop window will open up and you can adjust the window to crop the video clip. This will crop the whole clip you selected so you need to preview the clip to make sure the crop fits the entire scene.

Adjusting The Video

You may want to edit the video itself. To do so, simply select a single clip or multiple clips using the SHIFT button and mouse click. Click on the VIDEO ADJUST button to bring up the control panel. You can adjust exposure, saturation and each channel independently. You can even adjust the white point by simply dragging it and moving it to a new location.

Adding Titles

Titles are added just like transitions. Select TITLES from the WINDOW menu. Drag the title from the inspector and place it into the movie. You can then completely edit the text. As with most Macintosh applications, all the fonts that are available on your system may be used. You can also easily change color, spacing and even kerning of the text.

Editing or Adding Sounds

You can also easily edit the sound of any clip and add sound and music to your movies. From the FILE menu choose Music and Sound Effects to gain complete access to your iTunes library. Here you can add a music track or sound effect to a single scene or to the whole movie. Selecting the SOUND icon from the toolbar will allow you to edit a sound, adjust the volume and fade the sound in or out.

Exporting

The final step is to export your movie. You can export directly to a number of devices including your computer or a USB stick. To export you click the EXPORT button and select the place you wish to export to once this is done it will save and you are done.