Using Bookmarks

When editing long movies, it's sometimes difficult to locate a particular scene without scrubbing through the movie in the Monitor. iMovie's bookmarks let you set placeholders that are easy to locate. Bookmarks don't appear in your final movie in any waythey exist purely for your organizational pleasure .

To set a bookmark:

Position the Playhead where you'd like a bookmark to appear.

Choose Add Bookmark from the Markers menu, or press Command-B. A green diamond appears above the Timeline Viewer at that location ( Figure 8.18 ).

Figure 8.18. Create bookmarks in the Timeline to mark places that are easy to return to later.

To delete a bookmark:

1.	Position the Playhead at a bookmark.
2.	Choose Delete Bookmark from the Markers menu (OptionCommand-B).

To delete all bookmarks:

Choose Delete All Bookmarks from the Markers menu. In the confirmation dialog that appears, click the Delete Bookmarks button ( Figure 8.19 ).

Figure 8.19. This confirmation dialog appears when you choose to delete all bookmarks.

To jump to bookmarks:

Choose Previous Bookmark or Next Bookmark from the Markers menu. I find it easier to press Command-[ (left bracket) or Command-] (right bracket ) to go to the previous or next bookmark, respectively.

Editing Clips

Remember in Chapter 2 when I advised you to shoot plenty of footage? Take a moment to look back on those lingering, leisurely days, because in this chapter you're going to chop your film into the smallest pieces you can, and still keep it comprehensible. Part of your job as editor is to arrange the many pieces into a unified whole, but you also want to keep your audience awake.

Direct Trimming

Direct Trimming lets you edit a clip directly in the Timeline in such a way that frames you remove are still available, not made inaccessible in the Trash (see the sidebar on the next page).

Think of Direct Trimming as working with a page of rolled-up blueprints. If you want to view just one portion of the plans, you roll the edges in to hide the rest of the design. In an iMovie video or audio clip, you can hide the frames you choose not to use in your movie. If you need those frames later, you can simply unroll the edges of the clip to display the footage. Direct Trimming works only in the Timeline Viewer, though you'll discover that this style of editing affects cuts made in the Monitor as well.

To edit a clip using Direct Trimming:

1.	Switch to the Timeline Viewer, if it's not already active.
2.	Position your mouse pointer at the left or right edge of a clip. Rounded corners indicate the end of the clip's available media; straight corners indicate that more footage is available ( Figure 8.20 ). The normal cursor icon becomes a horizontal arrow indicating the direction(s) that you can edit. Figure 8.20. Direct Trimming allows you to hide frames that you don't want to use, rather than deleting them outright .

3.	Click the edge of the clip and drag it toward the clip's center ( Figure 8.21 ). The Monitor displays the current frame. Figure 8.21. Drag the edge of a clip in the Timeline Viewer to edit out the frames you don't need. Figure 8.22. Clips are edited non-destructively in iMovie, so the footage you delete is just hidden from view and available for later.
4.	Release the mouse button at your chosen edit point.

To recover footage using Direct Trimming:

Click and drag the edge of a clip away from the center. The footage that was previously hidden comes into view as you drag. If the clip edge stops moving and has rounded corners, you've reached the limit of the clip's original footage.

Tips

Select a clip that you've trimmed , and Command-drag it over the top of the next clip; this trims frames from the adjacent clip, a technique known as a "roll edit."
The Timeline Viewer adjusts as you perform a Direct Trimming action, which can look odd. Moving a clip's edge to the left, for example, squishes the clip before itbut once you release the mouse, that clip springs back to regular size .
Command-drag a clip's edges to trim without having the rest of the clips on the Timeline automatically fill in the space as you edit ( Figure 8.23 ). This leaves a gap, just as if you had tried to move a clip (as described earlier under "Ordering Clips").

Figure 8.23. Hold Command while dragging to prevent the rest of the clips in the Timeline from adjusting as you perform the edit.
To fill the gap left by trimming with the Command key, switch to the Clip Viewer and delete the black clip that appears in its place ( Figure 8.24 ). Or, Control-click the empty space and choose Convert Empty Space to Clip. A new blank clip is created. Delete it to bring the clips back into tight harmony. (See "Creating Blank Clips," later in this chapter.)

Figure 8.24. When you switch to the Clip Viewer, the gap becomes a black clip.

Direct Trimming and Non-Destructive Editing

Direct Trimming is actually a happy byproduct of a revolutionary change within iMovie. iMovie 3 and earlier were destructive: cutting out sections of a clip discarded the affected frames. If you needed that footage back, you had to restore the entire clip (see "Reverting Clips," later in this chapter) or hope that you could still undo the change.

In iMovie HD, clips are non-destructive ( Figure 8.22 ). If you delete a few seconds from the end of a clip, then later decide you need that footage, it's still available to you using the Direct Trimming feature.

Other editing methods

iMovie also offers four other methods for editing clips: splitting , which divides a clip where the Playhead is located; trimming , which deletes a selection of frames; cropping , which deletes the frames that aren't selected; and copying and pasting , which creates a new clip based on selected frames. These actions can be performed on clips that are in the Clips pane or in the Timeline.

To split a clip:

Position the Playhead at the point where you want to split the clip.

Choose Split Video Clip at Playhead from the Edit menu, or press Command-T. A new clip is created and placed next to the original ( Figure 8.25 ). iMovie appends a slash and number to the name to indicate it's a partial clip (such as "Elephant/1").

Figure 8.25. Use the Split Video Clip at Playhead command to slice a clip into two separate clips.

Tips

This command works wherever the Playhead is locatedyou don't need to select a clip in order to split it.
After splitting, the two clips are still selected. To deselect the clips, click the top of the Viewer, or select another clip.
If you choose Split Video Clip at Playhead with no clip selected, only the video clip is split, not any audio clips that may appear in tracks below it.
After you split a clip, each half still contains all of the frames they had when they were one (thanks to iMovie's non-destructive editing). Use Direct Trimming to reveal the hidden frames.

Get In, Get Out

There are times when long, lingering shots can define a scene or even an entire moviebut not many. When you're editing, concentrate on making your movies tight , showing only the essential shots within your scenes. For example, it's a good idea to have an establishing shot of a room, and perhaps a person opening the door. But you don't need to show him closing the door, walking to the center of the room, and beginning a conversation. Jump right to the conversation, since that's probably the core action of the scene. This advice applies to all types of movies: for your trip to the zoo, jump straight to the lions; we don't need to see you bounce along the pathway looking for directions.

Of course, there are always exceptions (watching 2001: A Space Odyssey immediately comes to mind), but a tighter film is almost always a better film.

To select portions of a clip:

Select a clip and place the mouse pointer just below the Scrubber Bar where you want to start the selection ( Figure 8.26 ).

Figure 8.26. Position the mouse pointer just below the Scrubber Bar at the beginning of your selection.

Click and drag to make a selection, which is highlighted in yellow ( Figure 8.27 ) in the Scrubber Bar and in the Timeline Viewer. The Monitor playback follows your pointer so you can see the frames being selected.

or

Shift-click in the Scrubber Bar to make a selection.

Figure 8.27. Click and drag to create a selection, which appears in yellow.

Move the crop markers to fine-tune your selection.

Tips

You can click and drag at any point on the Scrubber Bar to make a selection; you don't need to drag the crop markers from the left side of the bar.
Click on another clip or at the top of the Timeline Viewer to deselect the frames. You can also choose Select None from the Edit menu (Command-Shift-A).
If you move the right crop mark past the left crop mark, it becomes the left mark ( Figure 8.28 ). However, if you use the Shift-click method, the selection is extended in the direction based on which crop mark is closest .

Figure 8.28. Dragging one crop marker past the other swaps their positions (right becomes left, or left becomes right). This allows you to make a different selection in only one mouse move instead of several.
With a selection made on the Scrubber Bar, choose Select All from the Edit menu (or press Command-A) to highlight all the frames in the clip; conversely, choose Select None from the Edit menu (or press Command-Shift-A) to cancel your selection. This only works when you have a single clip selected; otherwise it selects or deselects all clips in your movie.

To trim a clip:

Select a portion of a clip.

Choose Clear or Cut from the Edit menu, or press the Delete key. The selection is removed ( Figure 8.29 ).

Figure 8.29. Trimming deletes selected frames. The remaining segments become two separate clips. (If you trim from the beginning or end of a clip, you end up with just one smaller clip.)

Before trimming

After trimming

If you chose to cut the selection, it will be stored in the Mac's Clipboard.

To crop a clip:

Select a portion of a clip.

Choose Crop from the Edit menu, or press Command-K. The selection is retained, and the rest of the clip's frames are deleted ( Figure 8.30 ).

Figure 8.30. Cropping works opposite to trimming. The frames outside the selection are deleted.

Before cropping

After cropping

Tips

Just to be clear, the "trimming" I'm explaining on this page is different from Direct Trimming, discussed earlier. In fact, it's probably more accurate to just say "removing" or "clearing" frames, but trimming is the proper editing term. "Direct Trimming," as you no doubt guessed, is a snazzy term dreamed up by Apple to sound impressive.
As with the other editing methods described in this chapter, iMovie's non-destructive editing capabilities let you use Direct Trimming to recover "lost" frames that have been trimmed or cropped from a clip.
You can edit clips in the Clips pane by trimming, cropping, or cutting and pasting them.

To copy and paste a selection to a new clip:

Select a portion of a clip.

Choose Copy from the Edit menu, or press Command-C. The selection is stored in your Mac's Clipboard.

Select any clip in the Clips pane, then choose Paste from the Edit menu (Command-V). iMovie creates a new clip.

or

Position the Playhead in your movie to the location where you want the clip to appear, then paste it. iMovie inserts the new clip at that point, splitting any clip that was present and pushing its remaining footage to the right ( Figure 8.31 ).

Figure 8.31. When pasting a copied selection into your movie, the new clip splits any existing clip at the Playhead and pushes its parts out of the way.

Before pasting

After pasting

{% if main.adsdop %}{% include 'adsenceinline.tpl' %}{% endif %}

To duplicate a clip:

Select the clip in the Timeline or the Clips pane.

Choose Copy from the Edit menu.

Choose Paste from the Edit menu. A new, identical clip appears beside the original ( Figure 8.32 ).

Figure 8.32. Duplicating creates an exact clone of the original, so it's a good idea to rename the new clip.

To duplicate a clip by Option-dragging:

Select the clip in the Clips pane.

Option-drag the clip to an empty space in the Clips pane ( Figure 8.33 ).

Figure 8.33. In the Clips pane, hold down Option and drag a clip to an empty slot to create a clone of the original.

Tips

Duplicating a clip makes a copy on disk of the entire media file, not just the edited portion. So even if you use just two seconds of a 200 MB clip, iMovie creates another 200 MB clip in your project file.
Consider renaming your new dragged or pasted clip, since it will share the original's name.

Flylib.com

Category list

Similar pages

Using Bookmarks

Using Bookmarks

Figure 8.18. Create bookmarks in the Timeline to mark places that are easy to return to later.

Figure 8.19. This confirmation dialog appears when you choose to delete all bookmarks.

Editing Clips

Direct Trimming

Figure 8.20. Direct Trimming allows you to hide frames that you don't want to use, rather than deleting them outright .

Figure 8.21. Drag the edge of a clip in the Timeline Viewer to edit out the frames you don't need.

Figure 8.22. Clips are edited non-destructively in iMovie, so the footage you delete is just hidden from view and available for later.

Figure 8.23. Hold Command while dragging to prevent the rest of the clips in the Timeline from adjusting as you perform the edit.

Figure 8.24. When you switch to the Clip Viewer, the gap becomes a black clip.

Direct Trimming and Non-Destructive Editing

Other editing methods

Figure 8.25. Use the Split Video Clip at Playhead command to slice a clip into two separate clips.

Get In, Get Out

Figure 8.26. Position the mouse pointer just below the Scrubber Bar at the beginning of your selection.

Figure 8.27. Click and drag to create a selection, which appears in yellow.

Figure 8.28. Dragging one crop marker past the other swaps their positions (right becomes left, or left becomes right). This allows you to make a different selection in only one mouse move instead of several.

Figure 8.29. Trimming deletes selected frames. The remaining segments become two separate clips. (If you trim from the beginning or end of a clip, you end up with just one smaller clip.)

Figure 8.30. Cropping works opposite to trimming. The frames outside the selection are deleted.

Figure 8.31. When pasting a copied selection into your movie, the new clip splits any existing clip at the Playhead and pushes its parts out of the way.

Figure 8.32. Duplicating creates an exact clone of the original, so it's a good idea to rename the new clip.

Figure 8.33. In the Clips pane, hold down Option and drag a clip to an empty slot to create a clone of the original.

Similar products

Similar products