Chapter 6. iMovie Overview

6. iMovie Overview

Being a fan of the moviemaking process, I enjoy reading "behind the scenes" articles about how films are produced. In nearly all cases, the reporter interviews cast and crew at the movie set during shooting (and invariably makes it sound more exciting than it usually is). But filming is only one part of the production.

Rarely reported on is the editing stage, when the editor (often with the director) spends long hours in a dark editing roomsometimes for many monthsshaping hours of raw footage into what we eventually see in a theater. They grab the best takes from each day's shooting, assemble them according to the storyline, and then add transitions, audio, special effects, and whatever else is required for that particular flick.

The process of making your digital video is the same (minus the reporters). By this point you've shot your footage, but that doesn't mean you have a movie. Here's where iMovie and digital non-linear editing can take your mass of video and audio and turn it into a movie. This chapter introduces iMovie, making sure you have the tools you need to get started, and giving you an overview tour of the program's unexpectedly powerful yet simple interface.

Getting iMovie

If you've purchased a new Macintosh within the last couple of years, you should have a free copy of at least one version of iMovie on your hard disk or on an accompanying CD-ROM. If you bought a Mac after January 2006, iMovie HD 6 should already be installed.

Otherwise, you need to purchase iLife '06, Apple's $79 suite of digital hub applications (www.apple.com/ilife/), which includes iMovie HD 6, iDVD 6, iPhoto 6, iTunes 6, GarageBand 3, and iWeb.