Recording Voice-overs

I read that while shooting Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, actor Chow Yun Fat (who doesn't speak Mandarin Chinese natively) didn't put much work into pronouncing his dialogue correctly while shooting. Instead, he fine-tuned his accent when re-recording the dialogue in post production. Most likely you won't be doing much re-recording (also called looping), but iMovie's narration capability lets you add voice-overs or other sounds directly to your movie.

To record a voice-over:

1. Connect a microphone to your Mac, if necessary.

2. Click the Audio button in iMovie to display the Audio pane.

3. Position the Playhead in the Timeline where you want to begin recording.

4. Click the round Record button to begin recording (Figure 10.23). The indicator above the button lights up according to the sound level.

   Figure 10.23. As you're recording a voice-over, the Record button becomes the Stop button.

   

5. Click the Record button again to end. A new audio clip, which can be edited just like other audio clips, is now in the Timeline (Figure 10.24).

   Figure 10.24. The recorded voice-over appears in the Timeline Viewer as a regular audio clip, named "Voice 01" (or whichever number applies).

   

Tips

• iMovie automatically stops recording after 5 minutes.

• You can record multiple takes, then delete the ones you don't end up using.

• Some of Apple's current computers don't include a microphone port, unfortunately. Instead, consider buying a USB audio device such as Griffin Technology's iMic (www.griffintechnology.com).