Building a Basic Video TrackStart a new project by selecting File, New Project. In the Create New Project dialog box, name your movie. Move to the volume on which you are going to store it and click Create. Unlike many other applications, what you create is not a file but rather a folder that contains all the elements of your project. NOTE Be sure to choose a volume with plenty of free space to store your iMovie project on. If you have a partitioned hard disk, you might need to move outside your Home directory to store your project to have enough room. In the ideal situation, you will have a dedicated hard disk or volume on which to store your project. Save your project. Then, move to the Finder and open the project folder you just created to see three items: a folder called Media, an iMovie file, and a QuickTime movie with the same name as the project (see Figure 17.2). The media folder is used to store the clips, images, additional sounds (such as a music track), and other components you use in your project. The iMovie file, which has the same name as your project, is a small pointer file that contains references to all the files in the media folder you are using. If you want to open your project by double-clicking something, this is the file you double-click. The QuickTime movie file contains references to the QuickTime movie of the project. Figure 17.2. When you create a new iMovie project, you create a folder that contains the Media folder, an iMovie reference file, and a QuickTime file.Now you are ready to build your movie; you need to fill the iMovie Clips pane (also called the Shelf). To open the Clips pane, click the Clips button. The Clips pane is a holding area for the video clips, QuickTime movies, imported images, and other content you use in your movie. You drag clips from the Shelf to the Clip Viewer to place them in your movie. You can also drag clips from your movie and place them on the Shelf again. There's more on getting clips to and from the Shelf and the Clip Viewer later in this chapter. Importing Clips from a Digital Video CameraSetting up a FireWire camera to work with iMovie is a snap. Power up your Mac, and then turn on the camera to its output setting (this is sometimes labeled VCR or VTR). Connect the FireWire cable to the DV camcorder and your Mac. iMovie switches into the Camera mode automatically. CAUTION If the FireWire plug doesn't slip in easily, take a closer look. FireWire connectors are relatively fragile, so don't push too hard. A message appears in iMovie's Monitor window confirming that iMovie is in touch with your DV camcorder. In addition to the "Camera Connected" message, notice that the button just under the Monitor is now Import. This means you are ready to begin importing your clips into iMovie. The really cool part about an iMovie-compatible DV camcorder is that you can control your DV camcorder using iMovie's controls. The Play, Fast Forward, Stop, and other buttons in the iMovie Monitor control your DV camcorder. If you aren't using an iMovie-compatible camera, you have to control the camera using its controls and manually control iMovie as well.
To begin playing the tape in your camcorder, click the iMovie Play button (see Figure 17.3). The clips on the tape begin playing in the Monitor. Use the iMovie controls to move to the point on your tape at which you want to begin capturing clips from the tape. Figure 17.3. When you capture clips from a DV camera, you work in iMovie's Import mode.TIP If, for some reason, you aren't getting the screen shown in Figure 17.3, check the Camera/Edit Mode switch and make sure its in Camera mode. Following are the controls iMovie provides (from left to right and bottom to top):
Click the Import button (or press the spacebar); iMovie starts the camcorder and begins capturing the clips. It stores the first clip in the first available slot on the Shelf. When it gets to a scene break (the point at which you pressed the Stop button while filming with the DV camcorder), it stops that clip and immediately begins capturing the next scene, which it places in the next available slot on the Shelf. iMovie continues this process until it runs out of video to import or out of disk space to store clips, whichever comes first. If you don't want to wait that long, click Import again to stop the capture process (or press the spacebar). As you import clips into iMovie, keep a close eye on the Disk Gauge in the bottom-right corner of the iMovie window. This gauge shows you how much free space is available on the disk where your project is stored. When you are in good shape spacewise, the gauge shows green. When it turns yellow, you are starting to run out of room. When it turns red, the disk you are using is full and you need to clear more space on it to continue capturing clips.
Use the iMovie controls to move the tape to the next set of scenes you want to capture, and begin again. Continue until you capture all the scenes your script and storyboards call for, your disk runs out of space, or the Clips pane is so full of clips that you have trouble dealing with so many. The Clips pane now has some nice clips (and probably some not-so-nice ones), ready for you to edit and use in your movie. When you are done, disconnect your camera and turn it off.
TIP If you want to control how clips are broken instead of letting iMovie do it for you, uncheck the Automatically start new clip at scene break check box in the Import area of the iMovie Preferences dialog box. When you import video, the clips come in as one continuous chunk unless you start and stop the importing process manually. Frankly, dealing with one large clip is much more difficult than letting iMovie break up the clips for you. But if you have recorded your movie using very short multiple clips of the same scene, you might choose to have them come in as one long clip instead. Importing QuickTime Movies and ImagesIn addition to clips you capture from a DV camcorder, you can also import QuickTime movies and images onto the Clips pane for use in your movies. NOTE You can import image files in all the common Mac image file formats, such as JPEG, TIFF, PICT, and so on. For best results, you should size your images so they have a resolution of exactly 640x480 because iMovie scales them to that size anyway, which can result in some distortion if the original image's size is much different from this. TIP You can access photos in your iPhoto Photo Library directly from within iMovie. You will learn how to do this later in this section. To import content into iMovie, perform the following steps:
From this point on, imported content behaves in the same way as any other clip on the Clips pane. Previewing Your ClipsSelect a clip by clicking it on the Clips pane. The clip is highlighted with a blue border this means the clip is selected. More telling is the first frame of the clip the Monitor shows. Notice that when you select a clip, iMovie also moves into the Edit mode, in which you can manipulate your clips (if it isn't in the Edit mode, slide the Camera/Edit Mode switch to the right). In the Edit mode, the iMovie window features the controls shown in Figure 17.4 and described in the following list:
Figure 17.4. Getting comfortable with iMovie's Editing tools probably won't take very long.Click Play to watch and hear the selected clip. Click Play again to pause the clip. You can also start and stop play by pressing the spacebar. As the clip plays, notice that the Playhead moves across the Scrubber bar. Navigating Clips in iMovieAs you edit, you are constantly moving around a clip to get to specific areas to edit. There are several ways to do this. Click the Playhead and drag it to the right to move forward in the clip or to the left to move backward in the clip. When you release the mouse button, the Playhead is at the exact position where you left it and you can see the frame indicated by the timecode. Use this method for gross but quick movements in the clip, such as moving from the beginning to the middle. You can also move the Playhead much more precisely using the keyboard; this is essential when you get to detailed editing because you can move by increments as small as a single frame. To move the Playhead one frame at a time, use the left- and right-arrow keys. As you probably guessed, the right-arrow key moves the Playhead forward one frame, and the left-arrow key moves you backward one frame. You can also move the Playhead forward or backward 10 frames at a time by holding down the Shift key while you press the left- or right-arrow keys. This movement is also very useful when you are doing detailed editing because it enables you to quickly move to a precise location in the clip, but you get there more quickly than by moving one frame at a time. A fast preview technique is to select a clip and fast-forward through it (press -]) so you get a good idea of what it contains. If it looks as if it contains no usable footage, delete it. If it looks promising, watch it again at regular speed. Editing a ClipEditing clips is one of the most important tasks you will do. When you edit a clip, you remove everything from that clip that will detract from, rather than add to, your movie. Editing your clips is fundamental to creating good movies. You can edit clips at any time, but in my opinion you are better off if you edit your clips before you place them in a movie. Building a movie from edited clips gets you to a completed movie more quickly because you deal with less unwanted material when you actually build your movie. When you edit a clip, you select the frames you want to take action on by using the start and end crop markers. You use these markers to select video clips much like you use the mouse or keyboard to select text within a document. Removing Frames from a ClipOne of the most fundamental tasks is removing frames from a clip, such as removing them from the beginning or end of a clip. However, you can remove frames from anywhere in a clip with the same steps:
Cropping a ClipYou can also crop a clip to remove everything from it except the frames you have selected. This is a good way to remove frames at the beginning and end of a clip at the same time:
Splitting a ClipYou might want to split a clip so you can work with each part independently. For example, you might want to use one part of the clip at one location in a movie and another part of the clip later in a movie. When you split a clip, the two resulting clips behave just like clips you have created by capturing them from a DV camera or by importing them. Do the following steps:
Building a Movie from Clips on the Clips PaneAfter you have done the rough editing of your clips, you can begin creating your movie. You assemble your movie by placing clips on the Clip Viewer in the order you want them to be in the movie. Click the Clip Viewer button, which is the rectangular shape just under the Scrubber bar, to bring the Clip Viewer to the front (it will probably be in the front already). To begin assembling your movie, simply drag clips from the Clips pane onto the Clip Viewer (see Figure 17.6). Drag them onto the Clip Viewer in the order in which you want them to appear; you can reshuffle them later if you want. Figure 17.6. I have moved clips from the Shelf to the Clip Viewer; the Clip Viewer shows the sequence in which the clips will be played in the movie.When you select one or more clips on the Clip Viewer, the Monitor shows the clips you have selected. Vertical lines in the Scrubber Bar mark the boundaries of each clip. If you don't have any clips selected, the Monitor shows the contents of all the clips on the Clip Viewer in other words, your entire movie. If the Clip Viewer gets full, use its scrollbar to reveal empty space for more clips. Press Shift--A to deselect any clips that are selected. Press the Home key to move to the start of your movie. To preview your movie, press the spacebar. Your movie plays. You can use the same movement and editing controls with an entire movie as you can when dealing with an individual clip (such as fast forward). (You can play a single clip again by selecting it on the Clip Viewer.) You can change the order of clips by dragging them from one location on the Clip Viewer to another. As you move a clip between two other clips, the clips move apart to show where your clip will be placed when you release the mouse button. You can remove a clip from your movie and place it back on the Clips pane by dragging it from the Clip Viewer to the Shelf. You can delete a clip by selecting it and then pressing Delete. To see your movie in full-screen mode, click the Play Full Screen button. Your movie plays back so it takes up the entire screen. This helps you focus on your movie without any distractions from the iMovie interface. To stop your movie and return to iMovie before your movie has finished, click the mouse button or press the spacebar. Continue placing clips in the Clip Viewer until you have all the clips you want to appear in your movie. You don't have to use all the clips on the Clips pane; you can leave clips there for later use or delete them when you are sure you won't use them in this movie. Adding iPhoto Images to a MovieYou can add your iPhoto images to a movie, or you can create a movie consisting entirely of iPhoto images to create a slideshow. When you add images from iPhoto to a movie, you can configure motion effects for the images you add; in iMovie, these effects are called the Ken Burns Effect. This effect taken from the treatment of images Ken Burns uses in his excellent documentaries, such as Civil War applies motion and zoom effects to the image. You can configure the effect for each image you add to the movie, from no effect at all to a maximum effect. NOTE When you import images into iMovie, they appear on the Clips pane just like video clips. You add images on the Clips pane to a movie by dragging them to the Clip Viewer. For all images you add, regardless of whether you choose to use the Ken Burns Effect, you can set the image duration and zoom. The image's duration setting determines how long the image appears on the screen, and the zoom determines which part of the image is displayed. To add iPhoto images to a movie, perform the following steps:
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