Apple iMovie HD User Manual

iMovie HD

Getting Started

Includes explanations for importing video, editing footage, adding transitions, effects, titles, and more

Chapter 1 6 Introduction

Using This Document

What’s New in iMovie HD

Chapter 2 9 iMovie HD at a Glance

iMovie HD Project Window

Main Window

Clip Viewer

Timeline Viewer

Clips Pane

Photos Pane

Audio Pane

Titles Pane

Transitions Pane

Effects Pane

iDVD Pane

Chapter 3 21 Creating Your First Movie

Steps for Creating a Movie

Movies in Just Minutes

A Quick Tour of Video Editing With iMovie HD

Chapter 4 31 Bringing Video Into iMovie HD

About Importing Video From Your Camera

Before You Begin

Importing Video From a Digital Video (DV) or High Definition Video (HDV) Camera

Capturing Live Video With an Apple iSight Camera

Importing Video from an MPEG-4 Camera or Device

Chapter 5 38 Editing Basics

Building Your Movie From Video Clips

Previewing Your Video Clips

Removing Unwanted Video

Editing Clips with Direct Trimming

Splitting a Video Clip

Undoing an Edit

About Gaps (Black Clips)

Creating Still Images From a Video Clip

Copying and Pasting Clips and Images

Saving as You Work

Chapter 6 47 Adding Transitions and Photos

Adding a Transition Between Scenes

Deleting and Editing Transitions

Applying Transitions to Multiple Clips

Adding Photos

Adding Motion to a Photo

Chapter 7 54 Using Special Effects

Motion Effects

Video Effects

Chapter 8 59 Adding Titles and Chapter Markers

Adding Titles

Placing Titles Over a Black or Colored Clip

Placing Titles Over Video Footage

Editing an Existing Title

Creating Chapter Markers for a DVD

Chapter 9 64 Working With Sound

Adding Sound Effects

Adding Music From a CD or iTunes

Adding a Voiceover

Working With Audio Clips

Positioning and Trimming an Audio Clip

Adjusting Sound Volume

Adjusting the Volume of Your Movie

Fine-Tuning Volume Levels in Clips

Locking Audio Clips in Place

Extracting Audio From Your Video

Aligning Audio With Video

Getting Well-Synchronized Sound

Chapter 10 75 Sharing Your Finished Movie

Sending Your Movie By Email

Preparing Your Movie for a .Mac HomePage

Exporting to Your Video Camera

Exporting to iDVD

Contents

Exporting for QuickTime Viewing Formats

Sharing Your Movies Via Bluetooth Wireless Technology

Appendix 80 Keyboard Shortcuts

Contents

Introduction

Welcome to iMovie HD Getting Started. This document will get you on your way to having fun creating great movies that have both polish and impact.

iMovie HD is the fastest and easiest way to turn your home video into your own motion picture. Now iMovie HD is the perfect companion for the latest high definition video cameras and the smallest and most affordable flash cameras. Magic iMovie gives you a helping hand to get started with any new movie project by importing and organizing your video, adding transitions and even a soundtrack —all automatically. And with faster, easier editing and a wealth of new video and audio effects iMovie HD makes it a snap to create an award-winner to share on the Internet or on DVD.

Using This Document

This document is organized into ten chapters and a Keyboard Shortcuts appendix, allowing you easy access to the information you’ll need.

Chapter 1, Introduction:

•

new features of iMovie HD.

•

Chapter 2, iMovie HD at a Glance:

controls in the iMovie HD window. Looking through these pages will enable you to easily follow the steps in the chapters that follow. You can also use the At a Glance for handy reference as you create your own iMovie HD projects.

•

Chapter 3, Creating Your First Movie:

your first movie. This chapter introduces iMovie HD in a broad overview, and provides just enough information and tips to help you get started. The chapters that follow provide the step-by-step procedures and details you need as a reference for using iMovie HD features.

•

Chapter 4, Getting Your Video Into iMovie HD:

your camcorder and import your video.

•

Chapter 5, Editing Basics:

to “clean up” your video footage, editing out the parts you don’t like and keeping only the best footage to include in your movie.

In this chapter you’ll get a brief description of the major

This chapter shows you the various views and

Learn the basics for using iMovie HD to create

Follow these instructions to connect

After you import your video into iMovie HD, learn to how

•

Chapter 6, Adding Transitions and Photos:

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to use

transitions and place photos from iPhoto into a movie.

•

Chapter 7, Using Special Effects:

Learn to use special effects to change the look of motion in a video, perhaps speeding up or slowing down your video, or add visual effects such as electrical flashes or fog to a scene to increase visual impact.

•

Chapter 8, Adding Titles and Chapter Markers:

Learn to add titles, credits, and other text to your footage to identify people, places, and dates, add commentary, or anything you like. For movies that you want to share on a disc with iDVD, learn to set up your movie in chapters so that viewers can play specific scenes.

•

Chapter 9, Working With Sound:

Learn to add sound effects, music, and voiceovers

to your videos to give them a professional flare.

Chapter 10, Watching Your Finished Movie:

•

Learn to export your project into a finished movie format so that it can be viewed on the web, on DVD, as a QuickTime movie, or with format options used by experts.

•

Keyboard Shortcuts:

Common keyboard shortcuts are presented for easy reference

in the appendix.

What’s New in iMovie HD

iMovie HD adds many new features that make movie making faster and easier, with more professional results than ever:

Support for High Definition (HD):

iMovie HD continues to lead with support for the most advanced standards and cameras. Import high definition widescreen video (HDV 720p and 1080i) from the latest HD cameras. Do everything you expect from iMovie HD with HD content; edit, add effects, and share.

Support for More Video Formats and Devices:

More choices to use even the smallest and most affordable video cameras, including support for MPEG-4 from flash media video devices. Natively capture from iSight without converting formats. iMovie HD also supports 16:9 widescreen standard definition DV.

Automated Movie Making with Magic iMovie:

Just plug in your camcorder and iMovie HD automatically imports and arranges your video on the Timeline, creating a movie from start to finish—optionally adding titles, transitions, chapter markers, and even a soundtrack. Even send to iDVD, automatically.

Editing Is Faster and Easier:

Creating even the most advanced projects in iMovie HD is fast and easy with dramatically increased overall performance, including launching, editing, and saving—no matter how large or complex your project. Copy and paste clips between iMovie HD projects, and even drag and drop clips to and from the Timeline. Even rearrange your clips in the Timeline.

Chapter 1

Introduction

More Special Effects:

Enhance your movies with even more choices to add style and excitement to your movie with new video effects and additional new Skywalker Sound effects.

Even Tighter iLife Integration:

All your digital media—your songs and music, photos and movies—work together to create movies and slideshows that you can share via email, on the web or on DVD.

•

iDVD:

iMovie HD automatically sends your Magic iMovie to iDVD. Even drag and

drop video clips directly from iMovie HD to iDVD drop zones.

•

iPhoto:

•

iTunes:

Browse and select video clips and photos directly from the iPhoto browser.

iTunes playlist support gives you the ability to use any of your custom

playlists in iMovie HD.

To take a look at the windows and controls of iMovie HD, go to Chapter 2, “iMovie HD at a Glance.”

8 Chapter 1

Introduction

iMovie HD at a Glance

Welcome to the iMovie HD at a Glance. Here you’ll find a quick presentation of the iMovie HD interface and controls.

Take a look at these pages to familiarize yourself with iMovie HD features and terminology. It’ll help you learn the names of the iMovie HD controls found in the instructions in iMovie HD Help.

If you just want to get started creating a movie, skip to Chapter 3, “Creating Your First Movie,” which provides an overview of how to create a movie.

iMovie HD Project Window

When you open iMovie HD, the Project window appears. You can use it to start a new project or open an existing one.

Create a New Project button:

Open an Existing Project button:

project already saved on your computer.

Make a Magic iMovie button:

automatically. Just hook up your video camera, click this button, and find out how easy moviemaking can be.

Quit:

Click Quit to close iMovie HD.

Click this button to create a new project and import your footage.

Click this button to open and continue working on an existing

Click this button to let iMovie HD create a new movie for you

10 Chapter 2

iMovie HD at a Glance

Main Window

Here’s the main iMovie HD window, your command console for movie editing. Here you can view your movie, arrange scenes, edit clips, and add professional polish to your movie. Let’s take a closer look.

E F

iMovie monitor: Watch your clips play in this window. You can play clips that are in the Clips

pane or the clip viewer.

Scrubber bar: Drag the playhead along the scrubber bar to move through a clip frame by frame.

The number near the playhead indicates how far (minutes:seconds:frames) the selected frame is into the movie.

Mode switch: Click to switch between camera mode and edit mode. Use camera mode to choose

an input device and transfer your raw video into the computer. Use edit mode to work on your movie.

Playback controls: Use these controls to skip to the beginning of a selected clip, play or pause

the clip in the iMovie monitor, or play the clip full screen on your computer’s monitor.

Volume slider: Slide this control to change the volume of the computer’s speaker while you work

in iMovie HD. This won’t change the recorded volume levels of your video or audio clips. You make that kind of adjustment using the controls in the timeline viewer.

Pane buttons: Click these buttons to see the different panes of the iMovie HD window. See a

description of each pane later in this chapter.

Chapter 2

iMovie HD at a Glance

Trash: Drag unwanted clips to the Trash icon to delete them, or simply select a clip and press

Delete. You can open the iMovie Trash and restore deleted video and audio from the iMovie Trash any time you want or permanently delete it.

Disk space indicator: Monitor your free disk space as you work. You should always have about

2 GB free disk space for optimal performance of iMovie HD. When the text turns yellow, you are starting to run low on disk space. When it turns red, you must free up some space to continue working on your movie.

Clip Viewer

Use the clip viewer, shown below, to add clips to your movie and arrange them in the order you want them to appear in your movie. When you create titles and transitions, or add photographs from your iPhoto library, drag them to the clip viewer.

Clip viewer button: Click the clip viewer button to switch from the timeline viewer to the

clip viewer.

Clip: Each section of video footage and any still images you import are called clips.

Transition marker: Transition markers indicate that two clips are linked by a transition.

12 Chapter 2 iMovie HD at a Glance

Timeline Viewer

Use the timeline viewer, shown below, to edit your movie’s video and audio clips, and synchronize your audio and video.

Timeline viewer button: Click the timeline viewer button to switch from the clip viewer to the

timeline viewer.

Video track: Select clips in this track to edit or add effects or titles that play over your footage.

Audio tracks: Place and arrange audio clips in these tracks and drag them into position to

synchronize audio with video clips. Use these tracks to add sound effects, music, and voiceover recordings. Deselecting the checkbox to the right of the track mutes all the audio clips in that track.

Zoom slider: Move the slider to make clips appear larger or smaller in the timeline. Enlarging or

reducing the size of clips can make them easier to select and edit.

Volume level bar: When you choose View > Show Clip Volume Levels, you see a volume level bar

appear as a line across your clips. Select a clip, clips, or a portion of a clip, and click the clip volume control icon under the audio tracks to display a volume slider. Drag the slider to raise or lower the volume of a selected clip, clips, or clip segment. Or directly change the clip volume by dragging the volume level bar up or down. You can also click the bar to add markers, then drag the markers to adjust the volume for sections of audio clips. You can use this to make audio fade in or fade out.

Audio waveforms: You can choose View > Show Audio Waveforms to display representations of

audio intensity in audio clips. Use audio waveforms to align video to audio events such as a certain drumbeat or the exact beginning or end of the audio.

Audio checkboxes: Select a checkbox to hear the audio in a track. Deselect it to mute the track.

Chapter 2 iMovie HD at a Glance 13

Clips Pane

Click the Clips button to open the Clips pane. The video footage and still images you import into iMovie HD first appear here. You can drag a clip from the Clips pane to the clip viewer to add it to your movie. You can also drag clips to the timeline viewer, to your desktop, into other applications, and even iDVD drop zones.

Clip name: Each clip is assigned a unique filename. You can select the name to change it to

something more meaningful to you.

Duration: The length of a video or audio clip is read as minutes:seconds:frames. For example,

01:08:15 is 1 minute, 8 seconds, and 15 frames into the movie.

14 Chapter 2 iMovie HD at a Glance

Photos Pane

Click the Photos button to open the Photos pane. Photos, drawings, or images you put in your iPhoto library automatically appear here. You can drag an image directly from the pane into the clip or timeline viewer. You can also use the Ken Burns Effect to add panning and zooming effects to an image, and choose how long the image appears in your movie.

Ken Burns Effect: Use these controls to set up panning and zooming effects for your photos and

images. Turn the effect off or on by selecting or deselecting the Ken Burns Effect checkbox. Click Start and set how an image should first appear, then click Finish and set how the image should appear at the end of the effect. Drag the image in the preview monitor to the positions you want. Use the Zoom slider (below the monitor) to set the zoom. The Ken Burns Effect then smoothly changes the image size and location on screen as the image is displayed in your movie.

Reverse: Click to reverse the direction of the pan and zoom effect.

Preview: Click to see how the effect looks in the preview monitor.

Apply: When you have the effect the way you want, click this button to apply the effect to the

photograph. This creates a new clip in the Clips pane that you can drag to the location you want in your movie. You can also drag an image into your movie and then select it and apply changes later.

Duration: Move the slider to set how many seconds the image remains in view.

Chapter 2 iMovie HD at a Glance 15

iPhoto pop-up menu: Choose your iPhoto library or an iPhoto album from this menu to view and

select your iPhoto photographs and images. You can drag an image from the Photos pane to the clip viewer to add it to your movie.

Preview monitor: Use this monitor to set up and preview effects for a selected photo or image.

Photo browser: Select the photos and images you want to add to your movie here.

Search field: Enter the name of a photo or image here to quickly locate it.

Audio Pane

Click the Audio button to open the Audio pane. You use this pane to add sound effects, record a voiceover, or import music from a CD or your iTunes music library.

Audio pop-up menu: Use this pop-up menu to display lists of music and sound effects that you

can add to a movie. You can choose a track from your iTunes library or a music CD, or an iMovie HD sound effect. You can drag an audio clip from the list to one of the two audio tracks in the timeline viewer to add it to your movie.

Eject button: Click the button to eject a CD from the optical drive.

Play: Click the button to play or pause a selected track.

Search field: Type some words from a title to search for a particular audio file in your iTunes

library. You can search by title or artist.

16 Chapter 2 iMovie HD at a Glance

Place at Playhead: Click to import a selected track into your movie. The imported track appears in

one of the audio tracks in the timeline viewer.

Record/Stop: Click to record a voiceover or other sound through your computer’s built-in

microphone or an external microphone. The input meter displays the sound level; sound quality is best if it stays within the yellow range. Click the button a second time to stop recording. The newly recorded audio clip appears in the audio track where you can select and edit it.

Titles Pane

Click the Titles button to open the Titles pane. You can add opening titles, rolling commentary, end credits, and more. You can also choose a title style, font, and text color.

Preview: Click to see how the title will look.

Update: Click to apply changes to a title you’ve already added to your movie.

Arrow buttons: For some titles you can click the arrow buttons to set the direction you want the

title to move.

Preview monitor: Use this monitor to view title styles and preview your settings.

Timing controls: Move the sliders to set how quickly you want the titles to appear and how long

to pause before disappearing. Other options may be available, depending on the title style.

Titles list: Select a title style for the text you want to add to your movie. Click the disclosure

triangle next to a title to see more titles in that category. When you’re done setting options for the title, drag the title style from this list to the timeline viewer to place the title in your movie.

Chapter 2 iMovie HD at a Glance 17

Font controls: Choose a font, then move the slider left or right to adjust the font size. Choose a

font color using the color box.

Over black: Select this option to make the title appear over a black video clip instead of one of

your video clips. (You can also change the color of the title clip by double-clicking it in the clip viewer.)

QT Margins: Select this option if you plan to export the movie to QuickTime. This option adjusts

the size of the text to display within the TV safe area of the screen. Deselect it if you want to show the movie on a television screen.

Text fields: Type your text in these fields. If the style you choose allows multiple lines of text, use

the plus and minus buttons to add or remove additional lines.

Transitions Pane

Click the Transitions button to open the Transitions pane. You can add transitions to smoothly change scenes in your movie.

Preview: Click to see how the transition will look in the preview monitor.

Update: Click to apply changes to a transition already in a movie.

Apply: Click to apply the transition to a selected transition in your movie. You can also select

and change multiple transitions all at once.

Arrow buttons: For some transitions, you can click an arrow button to set the direction you

want the transition to move. For example, a transition might “push” a scene from right to left or left to right.

18 Chapter 2 iMovie HD at a Glance

Timing controls: Move the sliders to set the speed of the transition and make other adjustments,

depending on the transition style. You can also select the timing settings that appear in the preview monitor and change them for precise control of transition timing.

Preview monitor: View a selected video clip and transition here. You can select and change the

speed settings that appear here.

Transitions list: Select a transition in this list. When you’re done setting options for the transition,

drag the transition from this list to where you want it to appear in the clip viewer.

Effects Pane

Click the Effects button to open the Effects pane. Here you can add special effects to change the look of your movie clips. For example, you can change color video to black and white, adjust the image brightness and contrast, or add playful effects like fairy dust.

Preview: Click to see how the effect will appear in the selected clip.

Apply: Click to apply the effect to the selected clip in your movie.

Effect In/Effect Out: Move these sliders to the points in the selected clip where you want

the effect to appear and disappear.

Preview monitor: Use this monitor to preview the effects you set up. With some effects, you can

position the pointer over the preview monitor to change the location of an effect. You can also select the timing settings that appear in the preview monitor and change them for precise control of effects.

Chapter 2 iMovie HD at a Glance 19

Effects list: Select an effect in this list to change the appearance of clips in your movie.

Appearance controls: Move these sliders to make adjustments to the selected effect.

These options will vary, depending on the effect you choose.

iDVD Pane

Click the iDVD button to open the iDVD pane. You can add chapter markers to your movie and export it to iDVD. Once in iDVD, your movie will appear in sections or “chapters” that can be selected and viewed individually.

A Chapter titles: A new chapter appears in the list each time you add a marker. Type a name for

each chapter that you want to use in your iDVD scene selection menu.

B Add Chapter/Remove Chapter: Click to add or remove a chapter marker in your movie. If you

export your movie to iDVD to create a DVD, the markers you add are used to create scene selection menus in iDVD.

C Create iDVD Project: Click to export your movie directly to iDVD. This opens iDVD and your movie

appears as a project in the iDVD window.

20 Chapter 2 iMovie HD at a Glance

3 Creating Your First Movie

This chapter presents the general steps for creating a movie and provides an overview of the major features of iMovie HD. If you have video ready to import into iMovie HD, you can try out making your first movie.

Steps for Creating a Movie

If you’ve never worked on a movie before, here are the general steps you take. You might follow a different order depending on your work preferences.

1 Film or capture your video.

2 Add any photos, designs, or images you might want in your movie to your iPhoto

library.

3 Add any music for your movie to your iTunes library or select the CD you’d like to

import music from. You can also create your own music clips with GarageBand and export them into iTunes.

4 Import your video footage into iMovie HD.

5 Review the imported clips, deleting those you don’t want, and naming clips to make

them easily identifiable.

6 Make rough edits of your clips to cut them to approximate sizes.

7 Plan the order of your clips, and plan transitions and any special effects you’ll need.

8 Drag your rough cut clips, photos, or other images into the clip or timeline viewer in

the order you want.

9 Add titles where appropriate to your rough cut.

10 Polish the timing of your video clips and add transitions.

11 With the clip sequence of your movie in good shape, add audio clips to your sound

track. Record any voiceover, add music, and position any sound effects.

12 Review the movie and make adjustments.

13 Save the movie in a format appropriate for distribution, or export the movie to an iDVD

project to be burned on a DVD.

The iMovie HD Share feature enables you to choose a method of distribution and selects the appropriate video format corresponding to your choice. You can choose to share a movie via email, a .Mac homepage or webpage, video camera tape, DVD disc created in iDVD, QuickTime movie, or Bluetooth wireless technology.

Next, let’s take a look at how you accomplish these tasks in iMovie HD.

Movies in Just Minutes

Whether this is your first movie or you’ve made many, you can let iMovie HD make the movie for you to create a complete video or to give you a headstart on editing. The Make a Magic iMovie feature can automatically import video from your video camera, compose it into a movie, and put it into iDVD so you can burn it on a DVD disc. You can optionally specify for Magic iMovie to add a title, transitions between scenes, and a soundtrack, and iMovie HD sits in the director’s chair and does the rest.

Once your movie is created, you can explore and try out other iMovie HD features to learn how they work.

To create a Magic iMovie, you need:

• Your video camera and footage you want in an iMovie HD.

• A FireWire cable to connect your camera to the computer.

Note: You can’t use the Make a Magic iMovie feature with MPEG-4 video cameras and devices that connect to your computer using a USB cable. For information about importing video from such devices, see “Importing Video from an MPEG-4 Camera or Device” on page 37. After importing your video, return to the overview section, “A Quick Tour of Video Editing With iMovie HD” on page 25.

22 Chapter 3 Creating Your First Movie

To set up your camera:

1 Insert the tape with your video footage, turn on the camera, and switch the camera to

VTR mode.

2 Connect your video camera to your computer using a FireWire cable, as shown above.

3 Open iMovie HD.

4 Click Make a Magic iMovie in the iMovie HD project window.

5 Enter a project name and choose a location on your computer for the new project.

iMovie HD is preset to import video from a standard digital video camera. If your camera is a high definition or widescreen camera, click the Video format disclosure triangle and choose the video format of your camera.

6 Click Create.

The Make a Magic iMovie dialog appears. Here you can select how iMovie HD creates your video.

Chapter 3 Creating Your First Movie 23

7 Choose the Magic iMovie options you want.

• Enter a title for your movie in the Movie Title box.

• Select the checkbox for adding transitions to have iMovie HD automatically use

smooth transitions between scenes. For your first movie, use the preselected transition.

• Select the music sound track checkbox and choose a song for your movie from those

available in your iTunes library.

• Deselect the “Send to iDVD” checkbox so iMovie HD won’t export your movie to

iDVD. For now, you’ll leave the video in iMovie HD so you can explore iMovie HD features.

8 Click Create.

Your camera rewinds and iMovie HD begins importing your video and creating your first movie. Easy as that. After importing your video (the length of time it takes depends on the length of your video footage), iMovie HD’s main window appears showing your new movie.

Use the playback controls to watch the movie.

Rewind

Play/Pause

Show full screen

24 Chapter 3 Creating Your First Movie

A Quick Tour of Video Editing With iMovie HD

When you play your video using the playback controls, the video appears in the iMovie monitor.

Clips pane

iMovie monitor

Clip viewer

The individual scenes or “clips” of a movie appear in the clip viewer. You can select and drag the clips into any order you want for your movie. As the movie plays, you see the playhead pass over the clips as frames are displayed.

When you import video yourself using a FireWire connection, iMovie HD first stores the clips in the Clips pane. You compose your movie by dragging clips from the Clips pane into the clip viewer, arranging them as you want.

You can also select an individual clip in the Clips pane or in the clip viewer and view it with the playback controls. When a clip is selected you can edit it, cropping or trimming footage you don’t need or deleting entire clips.

Chapter 3 Creating Your First Movie 25

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