Apple iMovie 08 User Manual

iMovie ’08

Getting Started

Get to know iMovie and revolutionize the way you play, watch, store, and share your video.

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Welcome to iMovie ’08

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Introducing iMovie ’08, a revolutionary way to enjoy, store, and share all your home video.

You can bring video into iMovie from a variety of sources and devices so that your memories are always at your fingertips. All those clips you have hidden away on your digital camera or camcorder? That box full of discs and tapes in your closet? Add them to your video library to enjoy anytime. Watch all your home movies without having to unpack your camcorder or connect it to your computer or TV. Browse the events that make up your life, moment-to-moment, year-to-year, person-to-person—all in one place. With iMovie it’s easy to organize and catalog your video, separate the good from the not-so-good, and find just the parts you’re looking for, when you want them.

You can also create quick and simple movies, adding titles over video, scene transitions, background music, and voiceovers. iMovie makes it easy to share your movies with friends and family on the web, your computer, your iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV.

Before starting with the tutorial that begins in Chapter 2, read the following sections to get familiar with the concepts and tools that iMovie provides for playing, organizing, and working with video. Even if you’ve used previous versions of iMovie or other video editing applications, you’ll benefit from understanding the ideas that make iMovie ‘08 different from anything you’ve seen.

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Project Library

Lists all the iMovie

projects you’ve created.

iMovie toolbar

Most of the tools and

controls you need are

available here.

The iMovie Interface

The main iMovie window, shown below, is your console for viewing, organizing, and editing video. From here, you can access almost every tool that you’ll use to work with your video.

iMovie project

Put together video clips, photos, music, and more to create movies you can share on the web, your iPod, or Apple TV.

Viewer

Your video plays here.

Event Library

Lists the names of all the Events

you’ve recorded on video and

gathered into iMovie.

A Single Video Library

By collecting all your video from every source into iMovie, you create a single library of all your video—a video library . In the library, simply select the name of any Event that you’ve recorded and view its contents; it’s as easy as opening a book and displaying its pages. Group together all the video from a single event—your last vacation, for example—even if it comes from different sources and is recorded in different video formats. Now you can access it all with a single click.

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Source video

Shows the contents of the Events you’ve selected in the Event Library.

Exploring and Playing Video

Enjoying your video library has never been easier. The moment you select an Event you’ll see your video displayed as though it were a series of filmstrips, unrolled, allowing you to see the images within the individual movie frames. When you move the pointer over the images, they move. This is called “skimming,” and it allows you to watch any moment you want instantly, without having to fast-forward or rewind a tape or even select and play individual clips.

You can also press the Space bar or double-click anywhere in your video to play it through at normal speed.

Creating Video Slideshows

iMovie makes it easy to create better movies, faster. The easiest way to create a great home video is by building a “video slideshow”—a series of very short video clips of equal length, representing only the best seconds of video in your library. iMovie lets you do this almost effortlessly, and then drop in background music, to create snappy, evenly paced home movies you’ll be proud to share.

About Video File Formats

Today you can use a multitude of video devices to shoot video almost everywhere you go. The camcorder has branched out to new formats that record to mini-DVD, hard disks, or flash memory cards. Even most digital still cameras record video, as do many other mobile devices. And each of these devices may record video in different video file formats. iMovie works with the emerging generation of video recording devices. You can import video from any of the following sources into your iMovie video library:

Camera Type Recording Medium Video File Format

USB camcorders

(random access devices)

FireWire camcorders

iSight camera

Digital still cameras

Camera phones

(automatically added through iPhoto)

Hard disk drive (HDD) MPEG-2 and AVCHD

DVD (small, 8 cm DVD)

Flash (Memory card)

Mini DV tape DV (standard) and HDV

(High Definition Video)

Hard disk drive (on your computer)

Flash MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and others

QuickTime movie

In addition to these video sources, you can also add video from movie files already stored on a hard disk (including from projects created in iMovie HD).

Note: An Intel processor is required for AVCHD video support. For more information

about AVCHD camcorders, go to www.apple.com/ilife/systemrequirements.html.

Chapter 1 Welcome to iMovie ’08

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What You’ll Learn

To learn how to get video into iMovie, and then organize, sort, and manage it, follow the quick tutorial that begins in Chapter 2.You’ll learn how to do the following:

Â Import video into iMovie

Â Organize your video into Events

Â Mark your favorite segments for easy retrieval

Â Mark segments you don’t like for deletion

Â Enhance the sound in your video

Â Crop excess background to create a close-up shot

Â Create a video slideshow

Â Add a photo with pan and zoom effects (the Ken Burns effect)

Â Share your finished movie

Before You Begin

You may choose to print this document before you start or keep this PDF file open on your desktop while you work. Note that you don’t have to complete the tutorial in one sitting. Skip the parts you don’t want to tackle today and focus on the parts you most want to learn.

In many tasks shown here and in iMovie Help, you need to choose commands from the menus in the menu bar. Menu commands look like this:

Choose Edit > Copy.

The first term after Choose is the name of a menu in the iMovie menu bar. The next term is the item you choose from that menu.

What You Need

To complete all the parts of this tutorial, you need the following:

Â Digital video on one of the devices listed in the table on page 7, or video stored on

your computer’s hard disk or an external hard disk connected to your computer with a FireWire cable.

Â At least several gigabytes (GB) of storage space available on your computer’s hard

disk or on an external hard disk connected by a FireWire cable. (The amount you’ll need depends on the video file format you’re using. Check the instructions for importing video from your recording device for more detail.)

If you don’t have any video available, you can still create a slideshow using photos from your iPhoto library. Experiment and have fun as you learn how to get started with iMovie.

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Learn iMovie

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Import video from your latest video devices and dig those old DV tapes out of the shoe box. With iMovie you can import, organize, and edit your video, and bring those memories back to life.

During this tutorial, you’ll bring your video into iMovie, arrange your Event Library, and play or skim through your video. You’ll also find and mark your favorite parts for instant access to your favorite moments, and mark the parts you want to delete. You’ll trim and crop your video and create a video slideshow with titles, transitions, photos, and music that’s ready to share with friends on the web, your iPod, or on your high definition television (HDTV) through Apple TV.

Step 1: Import Video into iMovie

To begin working with your video, you must first transfer it to iMovie. Importing video into iMovie does not erase it from your recording device.

In this step you’ll open iMovie and import video from a video recording device or import a video file you’ve already stored on a hard disk, and start building your video library.

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To open iMovie:

m Double-click the iMovie icon in your Applications folder or click the icon in the Dock.

When you open iMovie for the first time, you see the iMovie window, shown below.

See a list of your projects

in the Project Library.

Import and edit

using the iMovie

toolbar buttons.

See a list of your Events

in the Event Library.

Build your project.

View your video in this viewer.

Browse your source video.

Identifying Your Camera Type and Importing Video

There are several ways to import video into iMovie. Follow the instructions that fit your situation, and then skip to “Step 2: Organize Your Video Library and View Your Video” on page 20.

Â If you have a DVD, hard disk drive (HDD), or flash memory camcorder, see page 11.

Â If your video is on tape in a FireWire-equipped digital camcorder, see page 14.

Â If you have video in your iPhoto library, see page 16.

Â If you want to record video directly into iMovie, see page 17.

Â If your video is in a previous iMovie project or elsewhere on a hard disk, see page 18.

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DVD, HDD, or Flash Memory Camcorders

These devices connect to your computer using a USB cable. They’re known as randomaccess devices (RAD) because they allow you to select and import individual video clips randomly, rather than having to import video while it plays through, as with a traditional tape-based camcorder.

Note: An Intel processor is required for AVCHD video support. For more information about AVCHD camcorders, go to www.apple.com/ilife/systemrequirements.html.

To import video from a random-access device:

1 Set the device to PC or computer mode, and then connect it to your computer using a

USB cable. (See the documentation that came with your device for specific instructions about connecting it to a computer.)

The illustration below shows how to connect a camcorder to an iMac using a USB cable.

The Import window opens when your device is properly connected.

When the camcorder is properly connected, the Import window opens, displaying all the clips on the device.

Chapter 2 Learn iMovie

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If you’re importing high definition (HD) video, the 1080i HD Import Setting dialog opens. If you’re not importing 1080i format video, just click OK. If you are importing 1080i format, or if you will do so in the future, select the size in which you want iMovie to import your video. The Large size video is recommended for most ordinary uses (including viewing on Apple TV) because it saves hard disk space and may play back more smoothly on some computers. However, if your camcorder records in true 1920 by 1080 HD video, and if you will use this video for broadcasting or exporting to Final Cut Pro, select the Full size, which better preserves the original quality of the video but uses more disk space. (For more detailed information about this, search for 1080i in iMovie Help.)

Note: If you’re using a DVD camcorder, plugging it into your Mac may cause DVD Player to open. If that happens, simply close DVD Player.

2 Click Import All to import all the clips.

3 From the Save To pop-up menu, choose a disk where you want to store the imported

video.

You can choose any supported hard disk that’s connected to your computer with a FireWire cable. It takes about 13 GB to store an hour of standard definition (DV) video and 40 GB to store an hour of high definition (HD) video, so make sure you have enough space on the disk you choose. The amount of free space on each available disk is shown in parentheses next to the disk’s name in the pop-up menu.

4 Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library:

Â To add the imported video to an already existing Event, select “Add to existing

Event,” and then choose its name from the pop-up menu.

Â To create a new Event, type a name for it in the “Create new Event” field (for example,

“Birthday Party”). If you want to create a new Event for each day on which the video was recorded, select “Split days into new Events.”

5 If you’re importing 1080i-format video, make a size selection from the pop-up menu.

Large size video is of high enough quality to view on a high definition television (HDTV) and for most other uses. However, if you’ll be exporting your movie to Final Cut Pro, or if you have some other reason to maintain the original, full size of your video, choose “Full - 1920 x 1080” from the “Import 1080i video as” pop-up menu.

6 Click OK.

It can take from several minutes to more than an hour for iMovie to import the video and generate thumbnail images of each clip, depending on how many minutes of video you have. The progress bars in the Import window indicate which clip is currently being imported and how quickly the import is proceeding.

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7 When the video is finished importing, turn off your camcorder and disconnect it from

your computer.

Selectively Importing Video from a Random-Access Device

If you don’t want to import the entire contents of your device, you can selectively import only the video clips that you want. You can use the playback controls below the viewer in the Import window to review the clips and decide which clips to import. For this tutorial, it’s best to import at least 10 or 15 minutes of video to work with.

After connecting your device to your computer as described above, do one of the following.

To import most of the video clips:

1 Set the switch on the left side of the Import window to Manual.

2 Deselect the checkboxes below the clips you don’t want to import.

3 Click Import Checked.

4 Continue with steps 3 through 6, beginning on page 12.

To import only a few of the video clips:

1 Set the switch on the left side of the Import window to Manual.

2 Click Uncheck All.

3 Select the checkboxes below the clips you want to import.

4 Click Import Checked.

5 Continue with steps 3 through 6, beginning on page 12.

When the video is finished importing, click the Eject button next to the Camera popup menu, and then turn off your camcorder and disconnect it from your computer.

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FireWire-Equipped Digital Camcorders

If you have a DV or HDV mini-DV camcorder that you can connect to your computer using a FireWire cable, you’ll import the video as it plays through on the tape.

To import video from a camcorder with a FireWire connection:

1 Set the camcorder to VTR mode (video tape recorder mode, which some camcorders

call “Play” or “VCR” mode) and turn it on, if it does not turn on automatically.

2 Connect your camcorder to your computer using a FireWire cable.

The illustration below shows how to connect a camcorder to an iMac using a FireWire cable.

The Import window opens when your device is properly connected.

When the camera is properly connected, the Import window opens.

If you’re importing high definition (HD) video, the 1080i HD Import Setting dialog opens. If you’re not importing 1080i format video, just click OK. If you are importing 1080i format, or if you will do so in the future, select the size in which you want iMovie to import your video. The Large size video is recommended for most ordinary uses (including viewing on Apple TV) because it saves hard disk space and may play back more smoothly on some computers. However, if your camcorder records in true 1920 by 1080 HD video, and if you will use this video for broadcasting or exporting to Final Cut Pro, select the Full size, which better preserves the original quality of the video but uses more disk space. (For more detailed information about this, search for 1080i in iMovie Help.)

3 Make sure the switch on the left side of the window is set to Automatic.

4 Click Import.

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5 From the Save To pop-up menu, choose a disk where you want to store the

imported video.

You can choose any supported hard disk that’s connected to your computer with a FireWire cable. It takes about 13 GB to store an hour of standard definition (DV) video and 40 GB to store an hour of high definition (HD) video, so make sure you have enough space on the disk you choose. The amount of free space on each available disk is shown in parentheses next to the disk’s name in the pop-up menu.

6 Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library:

Â To add the imported video to an already existing Event, select “Add to existing

Event,” and then choose its name from the pop-up menu.

Â To create a new Event, type a name for it in the “Create new Event” field (for example,

“Birthday Party”). If you want to create a new Event for each day on which the video was recorded, select “Split days into new Events.”

7 If you’re importing 1080i-format video, make a size selection from the pop-up menu.

Large size video is of high enough quality to view on a high definition television (HDTV) and for most other uses. However, if you’ll be exporting your movie to Final Cut Pro, or if you have some other reason to maintain the original, full size of your video, choose “Full - 1920 x 1080” from the “Import 1080i video as” pop-up menu.

8 Click OK.

The tape in your camcorder automatically rewinds to the beginning; all the video on the tape will be imported, and then the tape rewinds again.

The tape plays as it’s imported. You can watch the video as it plays (the audio plays only through the camcorder) or leave your computer and let the importing continue while you’re away. It can take longer to import the video than it takes to watch it. After importing, iMovie takes some minutes to generate thumbnail images of each video clip.

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Apple iMovie 08 User Manual

Contents

Welcome to iMovie ’08

The iMovie Interface

A Single Video Library

Exploring and Playing Video

Creating Video Slideshows

About Video File Formats

What You’ll Learn

Before You Begin

What You Need

Learn iMovie

Identifying Your Camera Type and Importing Video