How iMovie Manages Clips


If you're casually flipping through this chapter, I'll understand if you skip everything elseexcept this section. It's important to understand how iMovie handles clips as you're working with them, especially when you begin deleting unused clips.

Clips can be made up of either video footage or imported still pictures. Each clip includes a thumbnail image of the clip's first frame, a timecode noting the clip's duration, and a title that you can edit (Figure 7.19).

Figure 7.19. Each clip contains a thumbnail image of the first frame in the video. If a clip has been split, iMovie adds a number to indicate it's a section from the original.


When you import footage, iMovie creates a new clip for each scene, which also adds a new clip file to your hard disk. However, even if you rename, split, or otherwise edit a clip in iMovie, the media file stays the same (Figure 7.20). iMovie actually records only the changes made to the clip, and doesn't alter the clip's original media file.

Figure 7.20. The original clip, "Clip 313.dv," was renamed "Rhino" and split into four separate clips, but the Clip 313.dv source file located in the project's package on the hard disk is not renamed or split.


This clip management style comes in handy in several ways as you use iMovie.

Advantages of iMovie's method of managing clips

  • Undo. iMovie offers virtually unlimited levels of Undo, enabling you to recombine split clips, move clips back to their original locations, and other actions.

  • Deleting clips. When you split a clip and throw away one of the portions, that discarded section can either be retrieved from the trash or pulled from the piece you kept (see "Direct Trimming" in Chapter 8).

  • Reverting clips. If you're not happy with your edits, or something has gone horribly wrong, you can always restore the clip to its original state, because the original data is always on file. See the next chapter to learn how to restore clips.




iMovie HD 6 & iDVD 6 for Mac OS X (Visual QuickStart Guide Series)
iMovie HD 6 and iDVD 6 for Mac OS X
ISBN: 0321423275
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 197
Authors: Jeff Carlson

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