Introduction

When I first heard that Apple was planning to extend video editing to "the rest of us," I was dubious. Despite comparisons with desktop publishing, which brought the world of professional printing to even the most inexperienced publisher, video editing was an entirely different beast. Video has traditionally entailed motion, audio, lighting, and special effects, not to mention the costs of buying or renting a good camera, storing the massive video files on tape or on disk, and then outputting them to a handful of other possible formats. Video editing is a skill that people spend years mastering in specialized schools.

But then Apple introduced iMovie, and seeing it in person at a Macworld Expo was a bonafied "a-ha" moment for me and most of the people in attendance. Of course this was going to work. When Steve Jobs presented a short video of two children playing, I knew the days of long, choppy, unedited videotape recordings was coming to a close. Not only can you easily let me repeat that: easily capture video footage and transfer it to your computer, you can now edit out all the bad shots, the awkward moments, and those times when the camera was inadvertently left recording while dangling at your side.