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 during filming. 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 Media button to display the Media pane, and then click the Audio button.
3.	Position the Playhead in the Timeline where you want to begin recording.
4.	Click the round Record button to begin recording (Figure 10.16). The indicator beside the button lights up according to the sound level. Figure 10.16. Press the Record button to record a voice-over directly into the Timeline.
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 10.17).

Figure 10.17. The recorded voice-over appears in the Timeline Viewer as a regular audio clip, named "Voice 02" (or whichever number applies).

Tips

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

• Some Mac models do not include an audio-in port or a built-in microphone, unfortunately. Instead, consider buying an inexpensive USB audio device such as the iMic, from Griffin Technology (www.griffintechnology.com). Or, an iSight works quite well, too.