Creating Titles

One of the important distinguishing features of iMovie as compared to iPhoto is the ability to add text and titles. Titles are elements that can be made to play over a black (or single-colored) screen, or over the moving video of your project.

Adding Titles over Video

1.	Open the text document Sgraffito Script.txt. This is the narrative that Jennifer needs to incorporate into the dynamic slide show. You're going to start with the title.
2.	Click the Titles button. This opens a window in which you can build and preview text and titles you want to add to your sequence.
3.	Click the first shot in the sequence (always on the far left of the workspace)the still shot of the pink sgraffito vase. A still shot is a good choice for an opening title. By selecting a shot in the timeline, you are indicating to iMovie that this image is the one to which you want to add a title. TIP Any time you have text onscreen for viewers to read, it's important to make it as legible as possible. This means keeping the text from competing with the background. There are many techniques to keep titles legible, from making the letters as large as possible to putting white titles over a neutral or dark background. Moving video tends to compete with titles for attention and can make reading titles a little harder.
4.	Select a style of title. Fancy can be fun, but simple and clear is often the fastest and easiest choice. Clicking a title style from the list will start a preview of the style in the small video window at the top of the column. Check out a few styles, then select Centered > Centered Title. Many title styles have two variations: the basic kind, usually with fields for one or two lines of text, and the "multiple," which provides for additional fields that appear sequentially. You can create fields for additional lines in the multiple title by pressing the plus button (+), which is visible when the option is available.
5.	Change the title text from the default ("My Great Movie") to Jennifer's actual title"The Sgraffito Technique"by typing it into the field at the bottom of the Titles window. There's the option for a subtitle also.
6.	Add the subtitle "Scratching Your Designs".
7.	Use the Size slider to adjust the size of the text on the screen. You should make titles as large as possible without reaching the edges of the screen. You can also change the font and color here, but for now, leave them as is. With each adjustment, click the Preview button. You will see your title in the large display, where it is easier to judge its size and timing.
8.	Use the Speed and Pause sliders to adjust the timing of your titles and effects. The Speed slider controls how long a title takes to generateto move in and perform its little dance, as it were. It's best to think of speed as the duration of the title effect. More important, in many cases, is how long you let the title remain onscreen after it appears. You control this with the Pause slider. For guaranteed readability, leave the title onscreen for as long as the slider will allowat least 3 or 4 seconds. iMovie will present the total duration of your title as the sum of two values: the length of the title generation (the speed) and how long it sits onscreen (the pause).
9.	When you're satisfied with the preview, drag the title effect to the beginning of the shot where you want it. Once you've dropped the title onto the shot, iMovie begins to render the effect.

NOTE

iMovie will effectively break your clip into two parts: the part with the title over it (with the duration you specified) and the remaining part, without the title.

The title, as seen in Timeline view (left) and Clip view (right).

Adding Titles over Black

Adding titles over still images or moving video produces exciting results, but for maximum clarity it's often best simply to insert title "cards" (as they did in silent movies). In iMovie, this means adding titles over black, and it's as easy as selecting a check box.

For the next title, Jennifer wants a simple card explaining briefly what sgraffito means. Using the same techniques you just learned, she adds text from her script over a black background.

1.	Select a different title style: Scrolling Block.
2.	Select the "Over black" check box. TIP Checking QT Margins adjusts your title for better visibility if you plan to export your movie to QuickTime for emailing to friends or publishing to the Web. Clear this box if you plan to show your movie full size on a television set or if you are going to burn to a DVD for TV viewing.
3.	In the empty text field below the font-selection tools, type in the first section of text from the script. You might need to experiment with where to place line breaks (returns) to cause the text to read smoothly onscreen. The text block should read: Sgraffito is an ancient art form. The word literally means "to scratch."
4.	Adjust the generation of the title by moving the Speed slider and previewing the results. You want a long block of scrolling text to move slowly and be easily readable. About 15 seconds is good.
5.	Drag the scrolling block of text to the timeline, and drop it between the title shot and the first shot of the blue and white piece.
6.	Now, without changing any of the settings, change the text block to include the next section of text: You probably tried something like this when you were a kid. With crayons. It's easy. NOTE If you wanted the first title card to say this instead of what you wrote in step 3, you could now click the Update button, which would revise the existing title.
7.	Preview the new block of text. Adjust the duration to fit.
8.	When you like this new scrolling block title, drag it down to the timeline and drop it after the blue and white sgraffito piece.

Through this method, Jennifer can continue to add title cards or rolling text blocks throughout her training video. But titles are not enough. To build a truly sophisticated video, particularly a dynamic presentation from still images, some basic transition effects are required. Fades and dissolves are the key.