iMovie toolbar Most of the tools and controls you need are available here.
Event Library Lists the names of all the Events youve recorded on video and gathered into iMovie.
Source video Shows the contents of the Events youve selected in the Event Library.

A Single Video Library

By collecting all your video from every source into iMovie, you create a single library of all your videoa video library. In the library, simply select the name of any Event that youve recorded and view its contents; its as easy as opening a book and displaying its pages. Group together all the video from a single eventyour last vacation, for exampleeven if it comes from different sources and is recorded in different video formats. Now you can access it all with a single click.
Chapter 1 Welcome to iMovie 08
Exploring and Playing Video
Enjoying your video library has never been easier. The moment you select an Event youll see your video displayed as though it were a series of filmstrips, unrolled, allowing you to see the images within the individual movie frames. When you move the pointer over the images, they move. This is called skimming, and it allows you to watch any moment you want instantly, without having to fast-forward or rewind a tape or even select and play individual clips. You can also press the Space bar or double-click anywhere in your video to play it through at normal speed.
Creating Video Slideshows
iMovie makes it easy to create better movies, faster. The easiest way to create a great home video is by building a video slideshowa series of very short video clips of equal length, representing only the best seconds of video in your library. iMovie lets you do this almost effortlessly, and then drop in background music, to create snappy, evenly paced home movies youll be proud to share.

About Video File Formats

Today you can use a multitude of video devices to shoot video almost everywhere you go. The camcorder has branched out to new formats that record to mini-DVD, hard disks, or flash memory cards. Even most digital still cameras record video, as do many other mobile devices. And each of these devices may record video in different video file formats. iMovie works with the emerging generation of video recording devices. You can import video from any of the following sources into your iMovie video library:
Camera Type USB camcorders (random access devices) Recording Medium Hard disk drive (HDD) DVD (small, 8 cm DVD) Flash (Memory card) FireWire camcorders iSight camera Digital still cameras Camera phones (automatically added through iPhoto) Mini DV tape Hard disk drive (on your computer) Flash DV (standard) and HDV (High Definition Video) QuickTime movie MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and others Video File Format MPEG-2 and AVCHD

The Import window opens when your device is properly connected.
When the camcorder is properly connected, the Import window opens, displaying all the clips on the device.
If youre importing high definition (HD) video, the 1080i HD Import Setting dialog opens. If youre not importing 1080i format video, just click OK. If you are importing 1080i format, or if you will do so in the future, select the size in which you want iMovie to import your video. The Large size video is recommended for most ordinary uses (including viewing on Apple TV) because it saves hard disk space and may play back more smoothly on some computers. However, if your camcorder records in true 1920 by 1080 HD video, and if you will use this video for broadcasting or exporting to Final Cut Pro, select the Full size, which better preserves the original quality of the video but uses more disk space. (For more detailed information about this, search for 1080i in iMovie Help.) Note: If youre using a DVD camcorder, plugging it into your Mac may cause DVD Player to open. If that happens, simply close DVD Player. 2 Click Import All to import all the clips. 3 From the Save To pop-up menu, choose a disk where you want to store the imported video. You can choose any supported hard disk thats connected to your computer with a FireWire cable. It takes about 13 GB to store an hour of standard definition (DV) video and 40 GB to store an hour of high definition (HD) video, so make sure you have enough space on the disk you choose. The amount of free space on each available disk is shown in parentheses next to the disks name in the pop-up menu. 4 Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library: To add the imported video to an already existing Event, select Add to existing Event, and then choose its name from the pop-up menu. To create a new Event, type a name for it in the Create new Event field (for example, Birthday Party). If you want to create a new Event for each day on which the video was recorded, select Split days into new Events. 5 If youre importing 1080i-format video, make a size selection from the pop-up menu. Large size video is of high enough quality to view on a high definition television (HDTV) and for most other uses. However, if youll be exporting your movie to Final Cut Pro, or if you have some other reason to maintain the original, full size of your video, choose Full - 1920 x 1080 from the Import 1080i video as pop-up menu. 6 Click OK. It can take from several minutes to more than an hour for iMovie to import the video and generate thumbnail images of each clip, depending on how many minutes of video you have. The progress bars in the Import window indicate which clip is currently being imported and how quickly the import is proceeding.

7 When the video is finished importing, turn off your camcorder and disconnect it from your computer. Selectively Importing Video from a Random-Access Device If you dont want to import the entire contents of your device, you can selectively import only the video clips that you want. You can use the playback controls below the viewer in the Import window to review the clips and decide which clips to import. For this tutorial, its best to import at least 10 or 15 minutes of video to work with. After connecting your device to your computer as described above, do one of the following. To import most of the video clips: 1 Set the switch on the left side of the Import window to Manual. 2 Deselect the checkboxes below the clips you dont want to import. 3 Click Import Checked. 4 Continue with steps 3 through 6, beginning on page 12. To import only a few of the video clips: 1 Set the switch on the left side of the Import window to Manual. 2 Click Uncheck All. 3 Select the checkboxes below the clips you want to import. 4 Click Import Checked. 5 Continue with steps 3 through 6, beginning on page 12. When the video is finished importing, click the Eject button next to the Camera popup menu, and then turn off your camcorder and disconnect it from your computer.
FireWire-Equipped Digital Camcorders If you have a DV or HDV mini-DV camcorder that you can connect to your computer using a FireWire cable, youll import the video as it plays through on the tape. To import video from a camcorder with a FireWire connection: 1 Set the camcorder to VTR mode (video tape recorder mode, which some camcorders call Play or VCR mode) and turn it on, if it does not turn on automatically. 2 Connect your camcorder to your computer using a FireWire cable. The illustration below shows how to connect a camcorder to an iMac using a FireWire cable.
When the camera is properly connected, the Import window opens. If youre importing high definition (HD) video, the 1080i HD Import Setting dialog opens. If youre not importing 1080i format video, just click OK. If you are importing 1080i format, or if you will do so in the future, select the size in which you want iMovie to import your video. The Large size video is recommended for most ordinary uses (including viewing on Apple TV) because it saves hard disk space and may play back more smoothly on some computers. However, if your camcorder records in true 1920 by 1080 HD video, and if you will use this video for broadcasting or exporting to Final Cut Pro, select the Full size, which better preserves the original quality of the video but uses more disk space. (For more detailed information about this, search for 1080i in iMovie Help.) 3 Make sure the switch on the left side of the window is set to Automatic. 4 Click Import.
5 From the Save To pop-up menu, choose a disk where you want to store the imported video. You can choose any supported hard disk thats connected to your computer with a FireWire cable. It takes about 13 GB to store an hour of standard definition (DV) video and 40 GB to store an hour of high definition (HD) video, so make sure you have enough space on the disk you choose. The amount of free space on each available disk is shown in parentheses next to the disks name in the pop-up menu. 6 Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library: To add the imported video to an already existing Event, select Add to existing Event, and then choose its name from the pop-up menu. To create a new Event, type a name for it in the Create new Event field (for example, Birthday Party). If you want to create a new Event for each day on which the video was recorded, select Split days into new Events. 7 If youre importing 1080i-format video, make a size selection from the pop-up menu. Large size video is of high enough quality to view on a high definition television (HDTV) and for most other uses. However, if youll be exporting your movie to Final Cut Pro, or if you have some other reason to maintain the original, full size of your video, choose Full - 1920 x 1080 from the Import 1080i video as pop-up menu. 8 Click OK. The tape in your camcorder automatically rewinds to the beginning; all the video on the tape will be imported, and then the tape rewinds again. The tape plays as its imported. You can watch the video as it plays (the audio plays only through the camcorder) or leave your computer and let the importing continue while youre away. It can take longer to import the video than it takes to watch it. After importing, iMovie takes some minutes to generate thumbnail images of each video clip.

iMovie HD Projects or Other Movie Files on Your Hard Disk You can import the video that youve already stored on your computers hard disk, or on any supported external hard disk connected to your computer with a FireWire cable. To import video from a hard disk: 1 Choose File > Import Movies, and then locate the project in the Import window. If youre importing high definition (HD) video, the 1080i HD Import Setting dialog opens. If youre not importing 1080i format video, just click OK. If you are importing 1080i format, or if you will do so in the future, select the size in which you want iMovie to import your video. The Large size video is recommended for most ordinary uses (including viewing on Apple TV) because it saves hard disk space and may play back more smoothly on some computers. However, if your camcorder records in true 1920 by 1080 HD video, and if you will use this video for broadcasting or exporting to Final Cut Pro, select the Full size, which better preserves the original quality of the video but uses more disk space. (For more detailed information about this, search for 1080i in iMovie Help.) 2 Choose a disk where you want to save the recording in the Save To pop-up menu. You can choose any supported hard disk thats connected to your computer with a FireWire cable. It can take several GB of space to store one hour of video, so make sure you have enough space on the disk you choose. The amount of free space on each available disk is shown in parentheses next to the disks name in the pop-up menu. 3 Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library: To create a new Event with the imported video, type a name for it in the Event Name field (for example, Birthday Party). To add the imported video to an existing Event, select Existing Event and then choose its name from the pop-up menu. 4 If youre importing 1080i-format video, make a size selection from the pop-up menu. Large size video is of high enough quality to view on a high definition television (HDTV) and for most other uses. However, if youll be exporting your movie to Final Cut Pro, or if you have some other reason to maintain the original, full size of your video, choose Full - 1920 x 1080 from the Import 1080i video as pop-up menu. 5 Choose what to do with the original files: To delete the original files after theyve been copied into iMovie, select Move files. To keep the original files intact even after theyve been copied into iMovie, select Copy files.
6 Click Import. You can also import video from a project created in iMovie HD. When you import an iMovie HD project, only the video that was originally imported from a camcorder into the project is imported into iMovie; any video that was dragged into the project from the Finder is not imported. The clips in the clip viewer are added to the video library and grouped as an Event; the clips in the timeline are placed in a new iMovie project. All transitions are replaced by cross dissolves. No titles, effects, music, sound effects, or photos are imported into iMovie. All chapter markers are also lost. To import a previous iMovie project: 1 Choose File > Import iMovie HD Project, and then locate it in the Import dialog. If youre importing high definition (HD) video, the 1080i HD Import Setting dialog opens. If youre not importing 1080i format video, just click OK. If you are importing 1080i format, or if you will do so in the future, select the size in which you want iMovie to import your video. The Large size video is recommended for most ordinary uses (including viewing on Apple TV) because it saves hard disk space and may play back more smoothly on some computers. However, if your camcorder records in true 1920 by 1080 HD video, and if you will use this video for broadcasting or exporting to Final Cut Pro, select the Full size, which better preserves the original quality of the video but uses more disk space. (For more detailed information about this, search for 1080i in iMovie Help.) Typically, youll find your iMovie projects in your Movies folder. 2 Choose a disk where you want to save the project from the Save To pop-up menu. You can choose any supported hard disk thats connected to your computer with a FireWire cable. It takes about 13 GB to store an hour of standard definition (DV) video and 40 GB to store an hour of high definition (HD) video, so make sure you have enough space on the disk you choose. The amount of free space on each available disk is shown in parentheses next to the disks name in the pop-up menu. 3 If youre importing 1080i-format video, make a size selection from the pop-up menu. Large size video is of high enough quality to view on a high definition television (HDTV) and for most other uses. However, if youll be exporting your movie to Final Cut Pro, or if you have some other reason to maintain the original, full size of your video, choose Full - 1920 x 1080 from the Import 1080i video as pop-up menu. 4 Click Import.

Step 2: Organize Your Video Library and View Your Video
After youve imported your video, youre ready to enjoy it. Your video is categorized into Events in your Event Library, where its available for immediate viewing, browsing, searching, or embellishing.

About iMovie Events

When you import video into iMovie and give it an Event name, a new Event appears in the Event Library, listed by the year in which it occurred. Clicking the disclosure triangle for a year in the Event Library displays all the Events in a single year. If the video of a single Event spans several days and you elected to separate the days when you imported the video, the individual days are listed separately. By choosing the name of an already existing Event when youre importing new video, you group video from multiple sources into one Event. You can also merge multiple Events (or Event days) into one, or split a single Event into two. By merging and splitting events or moving video clips from one Event to another, you can organize all your video into meaningful categories and time frames and browse through them as if you were browsing the titles of books on a bookshelf. For example, if you imported video from multiple sources that youd taken during a vacation to the Galapagos Islands, all your video from all sources could be grouped together under a single Event, for example, Galapagos Vacation, which can easily be found in the year in which the vacation occurred. Selecting an Event in the Event Library displays all the video that Event contains. Selecting multiple Events simultaneously displays the video contained in all of the selected Events. To browse multiple Events: m Hold down the Command (x) key as you click the names of the Events containing video you want to browse.
m Select a year in the Event Library to browse all the Events within it.
Sort Events by hard disk.
Event names are listed in the Event Library, separated into days.
Video clips appear like filmstrips in the source video library.
To merge Events: m Select them in the Event Library, and then choose File > Merge Events. To split an Event into two: m Click the video clip you want to make the first clip in the new Event, and then choose File > Split Event Before Selected Clip. To move a video segment (clip) from one Event to another: m Drag it to the title of the Event (in the Event Library) where you want it to appear. The Event appears in the Event Library listed under the year in which its most recent clip was recorded. You can also choose to further sort your Event Library by the hard disk where the video is stored. When your Events are sorted by hard disk, you can browse all the Events on a single disk by selecting the disk name. To sort the Event Library by hard disk: m Click the button with the hard disk icon at the top of the Event Library pane. To learn about more options for organizing your Event Library, see the topic Reorganizing Events in the Event Library in iMovie Help.

Viewing Your Source Video
Select the name of any Event youve created in the Event Library and take a look at the video segments it contains. The video contained in your Events is called source video because it always remains exactly as you imported it and will not be altered by any editing you perform in iMovie. It serves as the source for video that you can use to create movies.
Notice that you can see into the video by looking at the images stretched across time, just like looking at filmstrips unrolled on a table. Each filmstrip represents a video clip, or a segment of video that begins at the moment the camera started recording and ends when it stopped recording. Typically, each Event includes several video clips, one for each time you started and stopped the camera while recording the Event.
A series of thumbnail images joined together like a filmstrip represents a video clip.
A thumbnail image represents a video frame within a clip.
Jagged edges indicate that this clip is continued on the line below, or from the line above.
Several individual clips, each showing multiple thumbnail images
By default, iMovie displays one image for every five seconds of video in a clip; you can change this setting to unroll (expand) the filmstrips further, or roll them up (contract them), depending on how you like to work. The duration of each clip is visible on its left end as you move the pointer over it. To expand or contract the filmstrips: Drag the clip thumbnail slider to the right to reduce the number of images displayed for each clip, making each filmstrip shorter. Drag the clip thumbnail slider to the left to increase the number of images displayed for each clip, making each filmstrip longer. Expanding and contracting the filmstrips using this slider does not alter your video in any way; it only affects the view you have while youre working.
Playing Your Video Youll notice as you move the pointer across the filmstrips that the images in the filmstrips move and so does the larger image in the viewer. The image in the viewer corresponds to the moment of video, or video frame, where the pointer is resting. Moving the pointer back and forth across the video to watch it play is called skimming, and its a quick way to get an idea of how the video looks. As you skim through your video, you can hear the audio play back too; it plays backward and forward as you skim backward and forward. Sometimes this is useful for finding a particular moment in your video. Other times, youll want to silence it. To silence audio during skimming: m Click the button to silence skimming in the iMovie toolbar, or choose View > Audio Skimming and make sure the item is deselected in the menu.

Drag the selection handles to resize the selection.
You can extend or shorten a frame range selection, recenter it, or select an entire clip or multiple clips at once. To select a video frame range in the source video library, do either of the following: m Click a clip to select four seconds of video, beginning at the point where you clicked. m Drag across a clip to select as much of it as you want. To adjust a frame range selection, do either of the following: m Drag the handle on either end of the selection border to extend or reduce the selection. m Place the pointer over the desired startpoint or endpoint and click while holding down the Shift key. If you want to move the selection to a different frame range within the same clip without changing its size, you can recenter it. To recenter the selection: m Drag the top of the selection border to wherever you want within the clip. m Press the Right Arrow or Left Arrow keys to move the entire selection to the right or left, one frame at a time. By sliding the selection range along the clip, you can move the selection to make multiple selections of the same size, which ensures even pacing when youre building a movie. To select an entire video clip in the source video library: m Click a clip while holding down the Option key. m Click a clip while holding down the Control key and choose Select Entire Clip from the shortcut menu that appears.
Tip: Bringing up shortcut menus by Control-clicking can help you work more efficiently. Shortcut menus give you relevant options, depending on where youre clicking.
To select multiple video clips: m Hold down the Shift key and click the first and last clips you want to select in a continuous range. m Hold down the Command (x) key and click individual clips that are not contiguous; click a clip again to remove it from the set of selected clips. With multiple clips selected, you can drag them into another Event or into an iMovie project. You can also adjust the look of a video clip and then copy and paste the adjustments onto multiple other clips; to learn how, search for video adjustments in iMovie Help.
Marking Video as Your Favorite or for Deletion
With iMovie you can find the best moments instantly. You dont need to go through hours of video, fast-forwarding and rewinding to find the moments you want. Instead, as you quickly skim through your video you can mark the segments you think are the best and worst, making it easy to filter through your video later and find the moments you want to work with or the moments you want to delete. To create a more fine-grained organization for your video, you can also tag any frame range with keywords. For more information about tagging video and searching for video using keywords, search for tagging with keywords in iMovie Help. In this step, youll select some video you especially like and mark it as a favorite; video you dont like, youll mark for deletion. First, set your source video filter to show all clips, by choosing All Clips from the Show pop-up menu below the Event Library.

Show pop-up menu

Then skim your video and find some portions of video that you particularly like. To mark video as a favorite: m Select a frame range, and then click the Mark as Favorite button in the iMovie toolbar.
Mark as Favorite Unmark Reject
A green bar appears at the top of the frame range.
A green bar indicates the range is marked as a favorite.
To mark video for deletion: m Select a range and then click the Reject button in the iMovie toolbar. A red bar appears at the top of the frame range.
A red bar indicates the range is marked for deletion (rejected).
To remove a mark: m Select a range that youve already marked as a favorite or that youve rejected, and then click the Unmark button in the iMovie toolbar. The colored bar disappears.
Sorting (Filtering) Video
Now that youve marked some video, you can easily filter the source library so that you see only the best or worst selections. To filter the video source library for favorite or rejected clips: m Choose one of the following from the Show pop-up menu below the Event Library. Favorites Only: Shows only the video that youve marked as favorite. Favorites and Unmarked: Shows all the video that youve marked as favorite or left unmarked. (This is the default view.) All Clips: Shows all the clips in the selected Event. Rejected Only: Shows only the clips youve marked for deletion. By choosing Rejected Only, you can preview the clips youve rejected before you delete them.
To delete rejected clips: 1 Choose View > Rejected Only, or choose Rejected Only from the Show pop-up menu. 2 Click Move to Trash in the upper-right corner above the rejected clips. If you want to regain the disk space occupied by the video youve deleted, you must empty the Trash on your computer. To regain disk space from deleted clips: m Click the desktop to activate the Finder, and then choose Finder > Empty Trash. Favorites and Unmarked View As youre working in iMovie, you may find it easier to show only the video youve marked as a favorite or left unmarked. To do this, return to the default view. In this view, any video you reject disappears immediately from the view. To see it again, choose Rejected from the Show pop-up menu. To restore the default view (Favorites and Unmarked), do one of the following: m Press Command (x)-L. m Choose Favorites and Unmarked from the Show pop-up menu. m Choose View > Favorites and Unmarked. m If youre in Rejected Only view, click Hide Rejected in the upper right-hand corner of the Event browser.

Step 3: Enhance Video Images and Adjust Sound Volume
As you watch your video, you may feel that even your favorite moments could use some improvement. Perhaps in your favorite clip the volume is too loud or too soft. In another clip, the main subject gives you a great smilebut hes a bit too far away. Or maybe you think the colors look dull or overexposed. With iMovie you can easily enhance your videos appearance and sound.

Cropping Video Images

Just as you might crop a photograph, with iMovie you can do the same to video, creating a close-up shot of your chosen subject where you didnt have one before. If youre working with standard or lower-resolution video, cropping the clip may cause it to appear grainy. With high definition video, cropped clips can look almost as good as the originals.
To crop a clip: 1 Click the Crop button and then click a clip to select it. 2 In the viewer, click Crop. A green crop rectangle appears around the outer edges of the frame in the viewer. 3 Drag the green crop rectangle to resize and reposition it until it highlights the parts of the image you want to focus on.
Click to crop. Click to restore the image to full frame. Click to rotate the entire image. Click to preview your work. Click when youre done.
Drag and resize to set size and placement of crop.
The maximum crop is 50 percent of the original image size. The crop rectangle retains an aspect ratio of 16:9 (widescreen) if no project is selected (otherwise, it matches the aspect ratio of the selected project). 4 To preview your work, click the Play button. 5 When you like the way it looks, click Done. The crop applies to the entire clip. Youll see a crop icon at the beginning of the clip.

Crop icon

Click the crop icon to change or remove the crop at any time. You can restore your video to the original size at any time by opening the crop editor and clicking Fit.

Nondestructive Editing

Nondestructive editing means that any change you make to your video (or other media you add to your iMovie projects) is always reversible if, for example, you change your mind or dont like the result. This is because iMovie never alters the original media that you edit; nor does iMovie create a copy of the original. Instead, it simply stores the changes youve made and displays them every time you watch the video, without you ever having to save them. To undo your last action: m Choose Edit > Undo [Action]. To restore media to its original state: 1 Select the clip and then click the button to open the tool you used to make the original edits to the image or sound. 2 Remove the edits you dont want. At the end of each topic in this tutorial youll find more specific instructions for how to restore your media to its original state.

Adjusting Clip Volumes

iMovie gives you two simple ways to adjust general sound levels in your video clips: reducing the maximum volume or adjusting clip volumes to fit within a normalized range. You make both of these adjustments in the Audio Adjustments window.

Add to Project button

3 Continue selecting video and adding it to your project. 4 In the project, drag the clips around to rearrange them in any order you want. You can preview your project by playing it one of the following ways: To play a selected project from the beginning: m Click the Play Project button below the Project Library, or press the Backslash (\) key. To play a selected project from any point: m Press the Space bar or double-click the frame where you want to begin playing. To stop playing your project video: m Press the Space bar or click anywhere in the iMovie window. To play a selected clip or frame range in your project: m Press the Slash (/) key. To play a selected project full screen: 1 Choose where you want to begin playing the project: To begin playing from wherever the pointer is resting, press Command (x)-G. To play a project from the beginning, select any clip in the project and click the Play Full Screen button below the Project Library. 2 Move the pointer and click the filmstrip that appears, and then skim forward and backward through the video. 3 Press the Escape key to exit full-screen mode. As you work on your project, you can expand and contract the project filmstrips to see more or fewer frames within each clip as you work. Your project filmstrips and source video filmstrips dont have to be expanded to the same setting. To expand or contract project filmstrips: m Drag the project thumbnail slider directly below your project.
Adding Background Music to Your Project
You can enliven your movie with a musical score. If you have songs in your iTunes library, you can drag one in to accompany your video; if not, try using one of the iLife jingles. To add background music to your iMovie project: 1 Choose Window > Music and Sound Effects, or click the Music and Sound Effects button in the iMovie toolbar. 2 In the Music and Sound Effects pane, click iTunes to see all the music in your iTunes library, or click the Sound Effects folder to find background music that best fits your movie.
You can preview any sound file by double-clicking it. 3 Select a music file and drag it to the project background, being careful to avoid dragging it onto any clip. A green background music icon appears behind the video clips, starting at the beginning and continuing for the duration of the song or the video, whichever ends first. If the music extends beyond the video, a music indicator appears at the end of the video. The music automatically fades out at the end of the video.

Background music

Music indicator
4 If you want to adjust the startpoint and endpoint of the background music, click the green background, and then choose Edit > Trim Music. The music trimmer opens, displaying only the background music clip. Inside the music clip is a waveform; wherever the waveform is pink, there is accompanying video, which you can see in the viewer by skimming over the music clip. The black waveform indicates the part of the music clip that extends beyond the startpoint or endpoint of the video. If you add more clips to make your video longer, the background music automatically covers the additional video.

Title icon

3 In the viewer, select the placeholder text, and then type the text you want.
Click to open the Font window and change the look of the text. Click to preview your work. Click when youre finished.
Select the placeholder text and type your own.
4 To change the color, font, or style of the text, select it, click the Show Fonts button in the viewer, and then make your selections in the Font window.
5 To preview your work, click the Play button in the viewer, and when you like the way it looks, click Done. To make the title shorter or longer: m Let the pointer hover over either end of the title until it changes to a vertical line, and then drag either end of the title icon.
The pointer changes to let you drag the ends of the title icon.
To reposition the title: m Drag it to where you want it to appear in your video. You can even place it so that it straddles two clips. To edit a title youve already created: m Double-click the title icon and make your changes in the viewer. To delete a title: m Select the title icon, and then press the Delete key.
Adding Sound Effects and Voiceovers to Your Project
You can add any sound effect or voiceover recording to your project and anchor it to a particular video frame, so that it starts and stops when you want it to. You can use any sound file available in your iTunes library or one of the sound effects folders for a sound effect. You can record a voiceover directly over video in iMovie. To add a sound effect: 1 Click the Music and Sound Effects button in the iMovie toolbar, or choose Window > Music and Sound Effects. 2 Click a sound effects folder to see a list of sound effects, or use the search field at the bottom of the pane to find an audio file by name. You can preview any audio file by double-clicking it. 3 Select a music file and drag it to where you want it to begin playing in your iMovie project. A green sound clip icon appears below the video clips.

Sound effect icon

4 To reposition the audio clip over the video, drag it to where you want it to begin playing in your movie. 5 To make it shorter, drag the end toward the left. To record a voiceover: 1 Click the Voiceover button to open the Voiceover window.
Left and Right volume level indicators
2 Choose the microphone you want to use from the Record From pop-up menu. 3 Drag the Input Volume slider to the right or left: If you have a soft voice, drag the Input Volume slider to the right to make the recording louder. If you have a loud voice, drag it to the left to make the recording softer. 4 Drag the Noise Reduction slider all the way to the right to eliminate ambient noise (white noise) as much as possible. If you want to retain some of the background sound as part of your recording, drag the slider to the left. 5 Select Voice Enhancement if you want to make your recorded voice sound smoother. 6 If you need to hear the audio as you record your voiceover, select the checkbox labeled Play project audio while recording, and then plug in a pair of headphones so that the microphone doesnt pick up the sound of the audio playback. Deselecting the checkbox silences the audio playback while youre recording your voiceover. 7 When youre ready to begin, click the point in a clip where you want the voiceover to begin. iMovie counts down from three to one.

To publish your project to YouTube: 1 Select your project in the Project Library, and then choose Share > YouTube. 2 Choose your account from the Account pop-up menu. If you dont have a YouTube account, you can set one up by clicking Add and creating an account on the YouTube website. 3 Type a name for your movie in the Title field and give it a short description that viewers can read in the Description field. 4 Type keywords in the Tags field to help users find your movie if they search for it on the YouTube website. 5 Select a size to publish. Medium is recommended. 6 If you dont want your movie to be publicly available for viewing, select Make this movie private. 7 Click Next, and then click Publish to accept the Terms of service offered by YouTube. iMovie automatically uploads your movie to the YouTube website. After the movie has been uploaded to the YouTube website, the title bar of the project in iMovie displays Published to YouTube. It also displays buttons that take you to the movies webpage and send notifications to your friends. 8 To visit your movies webpage, click Visit. 9 To notify your friends about the new movie youve published, click Tell a friend. After your project has been published, an icon appears next to its name in the Project Library to indicate its published status. If you want to edit your project again, iMovie warns you that changing your project will make it different from the version youve already published; an alert badge appears over the publish icon until you republish your movie.
Continue to Explore iMovie
Congratulations, youve completed the tutorial. Now that youre familiar with the basic tools and features of iMovie, you can continue importing and enjoying your video whenever you want, and creating and sharing more movies. In iMovie Help, you can learn more tips for working with video and sound, including shortcuts for working with video, and much more. Here are just a few more things you can do with iMovie: Adjust color, brightness, contrast, and other images qualities. Tag your video with keywords for easy retrieval of specific moments. Customize your workspace to suit your working style. Share your movie across a variety of formats and devices. iMovie allows you to create movies in a number of different formats so that you can show your movie in almost any digital medium, including the following: Sending it in an email message Burning it to a DVD with iDVD Saving it as a QuickTime movie in a variety of formats For information about sharing your movie in these ways, see topics about sharing your movie in iMovie Help. iMovie offers advanced tools for working more quickly and flexibly with your video after you get comfortable with the basics. Using the advanced tools, you can perform many of the tasks of this tutorial on the fly, including tagging your video with keywords and enhancing video. For more information about advanced tools, see the topics about using advanced tools in iMovie Help.

Getting More Help

There are several resources you can consult for additional help using iMovie: Onscreen help: iMovie comes with a built-in help system. When iMovie is open, choose Help > iMovie Help. When the help page opens, type a word or phrase into the search field at the top of the page, or click one of the topic areas to get detailed instructions for completing specific tasks. Video tutorials (www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/imovie): These short video tutorials demonstrate how to do common tasks in iMovie. To access them, choose Help, and then click How-To Videos. (These tutorials are available in some languages only.) iMovie support website (www.apple.com/support/imovie): Look here for helpful community discussion boards, as well as detailed troubleshooting information and software updates.
www.apple.com/ilife/imovie
2008 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Apple TV, FireWire, GarageBand, iDVD, iLife, iMac, iMovie, iPhone, iPhoto, iPod, iSight, iTunes, and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. MobileMe is a service mark of Apple Inc. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective companies. 019-1282

iMovie HD Tutorial

This chapter takes you step by step through the process of building your own movie in iMovie HD.
You can use video from a variety of sources and devices to create a movie in iMovie HD. If you have some digital video in your camcorder or digital video footage on your computer, you can follow the steps in this chapter to automatically transfer it to iMovie HD, edit the clips, add transitions and a title, and lay down a soundtrack.
Step One: Start a New Project
The first time you open iMovie HD, you see the Project window, shown below, which gives you several options for creating a movie. In this step, you will select one of these options to create a new project.
To start a new iMovie HD project: 1 Click the iMovie HD icon in the Dock. If you dont see the icon in the Dock, open the Applications folder and double-click the iMovie HD icon. 2 Click the Create a New Project button. 3 Type a name for your project in the Project field.
4 Click the pop-up menu labeled Where and choose a folder to store your movie project. The default location is the Movies folder in your home folder. Saving your movie in this folder will allow other iLife applications, such as iDVD or GarageBand, to find it easily. 5 Click Create. A new project file for your iMovie HD project is created in the location you chose. Eventually it will contain all the video clips, transitions, effects, and audio used in your movie.
Step Two: Import Video Into iMovie HD
iMovie HD can transfer, or import, video in many video formats and from many different types of camcorders, including DV camcorders (including those that support widescreen) and high definition (HDV) camcorders. In most cases, iMovie HD can automatically recognize and import the video youre using, so you dont have to pay attention to video formats. In this step, you will import your own video into your iMovie project. If you have a camcorder with a FireWire connection, follow the instructions to connect your camcorder and import the video using the capture controls in iMovie HD. If you have another type of digital video device or have footage in a file on your computer, see the instructions on page 13. To import video from a camcorder: 1 Set the camcorder to VTR mode (some camcorders call this Play or VCR) and turn it on, if necessary. 2 Connect your camcorder to your computer using a FireWire cable.

Playhead Pointer

3 Place the pointer just below the playhead and then drag to the right to include the footage you want to keep. (When you move the pointer to the right, the crop markers appear.) The gold portion of the scrubber bar (shown below) highlights the footage youve selected.

Crop marker

4 Choose Edit > Crop to keep the portion of video youve highlighted and remove the rest.
Tip: To precisely adjust the position of the crop markers, click a crop marker (shown above) to select it, and then press the Left or Right Arrow key to move the crop marker one frame at a time. To move the crop marker in 10-frame increments, hold down the Shift key while pressing the arrow key.
Did You Know?Undoing an Edit
If you make a mistake or dont like the changes youve made, you can undo them. Choose Edit > Undo to remove your last change. Continue choosing Undo to cancel your previous changes one by one. Choose Advanced > Revert Clip to Original to undo all of the changes made to a selected clip. Choose File > Revert to Saved to undo all of the changes made to a project since the last time you saved it.
Step Four: Build Your Movie
Now that your video footage is transformed into a collection of cropped video clips, you can begin to use them to build your movie. In this step, youll move the clips in the Clips pane to the video track in your movie and begin to organize them into a sequence. To build your movie, you work in the area below the iMovie monitor. This area has two views you can work in: the clip viewer and the timeline viewer. The clip viewer, shown below, displays clips in the order that they will appear in your movie, just like video building blocks. It gives you a simple, straightforward view of the clip sequences and transitions used in your movie. Its also the easiest view to use when you want to rearrange clips.
The timeline viewer, shown below, displays the elements of your movie in more detail, letting you zoom in on sections of the movie. It also displays the movies video track and two audio tracks. The three tracks allow you to add and manipulate multiple layers of sound, including the sound contained in the video clips. Use the timeline viewer for precise video and audio editing.

Timeline viewer button

When you build a movie from clips in the Clips pane, youll find it easier to start by working in the clip viewer. To add clips to your movie: 1 Click the clip viewer button below the iMovie monitor. 2 Select a clip in the Clips pane and drag it to the clip viewer. 3 Repeat step 2 for all the clips you want to add. You can drag clips between other clips, placing them in the order you want. As you drag a clip in front of or behind other clips, they move aside to make room, as shown in the illustration below. 4 Drag clips in the clip viewer to rearrange them into the order you want. 5 Choose File > Save Project to save your movie project.

Did You Know?Saving While Building Your Movie
Its a good idea to save your work periodically as you make changes. Because iMovie HD saves your original footage even after cropping, you can still retrieve cropped footage after you save. To save your project: m Choose File > Save Project. At times you may want to go back to the last saved version of your project, canceling any unsaved changes. To revert to the last saved version of your project: m Choose File > Revert to Saved. You can also save a copy of your project and give it a different name. You can then create a different version of the movie or use parts of the movie in a new project. Saving multiple copies of a project can be extremely useful, but can also use large amounts of disk space. To save a copy of your project with a different name: m Choose File > Save Project As. Then enter a name, choose a location for the copy of the project, and then click Save.
Step Five: Add Photos to Your Movie
iMovie HD lets you easily add photos from your iPhoto library to your movie. You can add photos as still shots that linger for as long as you like, or you can pan and zoom in or out with the Ken Burns Effect. In this step, youll add still photos to your movie and apply the Ken Burns Effect to others. Use the Media pane, shown below, to select photos and add motion to them.

Search box

Reset button
Note: To see photos in the Media pane, you must have iPhoto installed, and you must have at least one photo in your iPhoto library. To add a still photo to your movie: 1 Click the Media button, and then click Photos at the top of the Media pane. 2 Select your entire iPhoto library, an album, or a folder in the list. The photos in the selected item appear at the bottom of the pane. You can scroll through the photos to find the ones you want.
Tip: You can also search for a photo by typing text in the search field (shown above). As you type, photos that contain the text you entered appear in the Media pane. To see all photos again, click the Reset button (an x in the search field).
3 Select the photo you want to add to your movie.
The Photo Settings window (shown below) appears. You can drag the Photo Settings window anywhere on your computer screen to move it out of the way.
Zoom slider Duration slider
4 Click the Ken Burns Effect checkbox to deselect it and turn off motion for the photo. 5 Drag the duration slider to change the display duration for your photo. When you add a photo to your movie, iMovie automatically sets it to appear for 5 seconds unless you change it. 6 Drag the photo from the Media pane to the clip viewer. If you want to place the photo at the end of your movie, you can also click the Apply button.
Tip: To select several photos at once, press the Command key as you select photos. You can also drag an entire album to add all the photos in the album. If youd like to add some motion to the photos in your movie, you can use the Ken Burns Effect to pan and zoom. Panning makes the camera appear to sweep across the face of the photo. Zooming makes a photo appear as if the camera is moving in to or away from the photo, adding interesting movement to still shots.

3 Type the text you want to appear in the text fields below the list of titles. If the title style can have more lines of text, you see a plus sign (+) next to the text field. Click it to add another line of text. You can do this as many times as you need to, or until the plus signs stop appearing. To remove lines of text, click in the field you want to remove and click the minus sign (). 4 Choose a font style from the Family pop-up menu. Try different fonts until you find one you like. 5 Choose a style for the title (for example, bold or italic) from the TypeFace pop-up menu. 6 Move the Size slider left or right to set the font size. 7 Click the Color box to open the Colors window, shown below. Then click colors in the Colors window until you find one you want. Close the Colors window when youre done.
Depending on the title style, you may have other options as well. For example, if the title has motion, use the arrow buttons to the left of the text fields to choose the direction the title moves. When the title or text is set up how you want it, you can place it in your movie. 8 Select the clip in the clip viewer where you want to place the title. 9 Select the Over black checkbox if you want to add the title over a black clip. To add it directly over the video clip, make sure Over black is not selected. 10 Click Add. If your video clip is longer than the duration of the title, iMovie HD splits the clip at the point where the title ends. You can delete the split-off portion of the original clip or use it in your movie.
To change the color of a black clip: 1 Select the black clip and choose File > Show Info. 2 Click the Color box. 3 Choose the color you want in the Colors window. 4 Click Set. Once you add a title to your movie, you can always make changes to it. Just select the title clip in your movie, make the changes you want, and click Update. To remove a title, select the title clip and press the Delete key once. If you need to make the same change to more than one clip with text, select them all, and make the change once.
Step Seven: Make Adjustments to Clips
Now that you have a movie with video, photos, and a title, you may want to make some adjustments to your video clips. Most of the editing you do in iMovie occurs in the timeline viewer. In this step, youll learn how to make small or large changes to your video clips by trimming them in the timeline viewer.

Clip viewer button

To switch to the timeline viewer: m Click the timeline viewer button below the iMovie monitor. The timeline viewer button has a clock on it. Video clips appear in the top track in the timeline viewer. You can drag the slider in the bottom-left corner of the window to make clips appear larger or smaller in the timeline viewer. You may want to make the clips smaller to see more of them in the window, or make them larger for more precise editing. To quickly trim a clip: m Drag from the end of the clip toward the center of the clip. (The pointer changes shape to show where you can drag.)

The trimmed video is still present, but it wont appear in your movie. If you decide to lengthen the clip later, you can drag the end back out to restore all or part of the hidden video. When you drag the edge of a clip, the adjoining clips move (or ripple) along with it. Therefore, if you shorten or lengthen a clip, you shorten or lengthen your entire movie.

Pointer

Important: You cant use this method of trimming if clip volume levels are showing. To hide clip volume levels, choose View > Show Clip Volume Levels to remove the checkmark. (A selected item has a checkmark next to it; you choose the item again to deselect it.) You can take advantage of the ghosted playhead in iMovie HD to choose the exact frame where you want trimmed video to begin or end, then trim to that spot.

Ghosted playhead

To precisely trim a video clip: 1 Click the clip you want to edit in the timeline viewer. 2 Drag the playhead to the frame where you want the clip to begin or end. 3 Position the pointer over the end of the clip until you see the pointer change shape. 4 Drag the end of the clip to the ghosted playhead (shown above) to remove the frames that you want trimmed. A yellow line appears and the edge of the clip automatically snaps against the edge of the ghosted playhead when you reach the frame you selected in step 2. 5 Repeat the procedure on the other end of the clip, if you want. Once you begin trimming clips, youll notice a difference in the appearance of clips in the timeline viewer. In the illustration below you can see that full clips have rounded corners. Clips that have been trimmed or cropped have straight edges where theyve been shortened. You can always extend a clip with straight ends.
You get different results depending on where you place the pointer when you drag a clip. Dragging from the end shortens or lengthens a clip, while dragging from the center moves the clip to a different location in your movie. When you move a clip over another clip, the clip youre moving pushes aside the clip and all the adjoining clips, moving them all in the direction youre dragging. Any time you move a clip to the right, a gap is created. You can drag other clips to fill the gap, or you can leave a gap as a handy background for text or to add an extra dimension to a transition or effect. The illustration below shows what a gap looks like in the timeline viewer.
Tip: A fast way to close up a gap is to view it in the clip viewer, where it appears as a black clip. Select the black clip and delete it. Another way to quickly alter a clip is to split it in two. You may want to split a clip so that you can insert titles, add other clips or images, or reorder the sequence of clips. You can split clips that are in the Clips pane, clip viewer, or timeline viewer. You can also split audio clips in the timeline viewer.

To split a clip: 1 Click a clip to select it. 2 Position the playhead where you want to divide the clip. 3 Choose Edit > Split Video Clip at Playhead.
Did You Know?Adding Special Effects
You can add interesting effects to your movies to lend them special appeal, focus, or a sense of fun. iMovie HD offers a range of video effects that can make clips shake as if during an earthquake, fling sparkling fairy dust across the screen, filter a scene with passing fog, or add a streak of electricity to an image. Other effects change the brightness or contrast of the video, add slow motion, change colors, soften the focus, and more. To find out more about adding special effects to your movie, see iMovie HD Help.
Step Eight: Add Transitions
Youve arranged your video clips in the order you want them. But the change from one scene to the next is abrupt, and youd like to smooth things out. You can do this using transitions. Transitions blend the ends of clips together in a variety of waysfor example, fading one scene into the next, dissolving one scene into another, or pushing the last scene offscreen as the next scene comes on. In this step, youll add transitions between clips in your movie. You can place a transition between any two clips in your movie, or at the beginning or end of the movie. In the clip viewer, a transition is identified with an icon, shown below.

Transition icon

Note: You cant place a long transition between two short clips that dont provide enough footage to make the transition. A warning dialog appears if this happens. To add a transition between scenes: 1 Drag the playhead near the location where you plan to add the transition. 2 Click the Editing button, and then click Transitions at the top of the Editing pane. The Transitions pane, shown below, opens.
3 Click a transition style in the list to select it. 4 Set the duration of the transition using the Speed slider. 5 Make any other settings specific to the transition you chose. For example, if you select Push, you can use the arrow buttons next to the Speed slider to choose the direction from which the next scene enters. Other transitions, such as Scale Down, allow you to set where the transition originates. A small circle appears in the iMovie monitor that shows where the transition will start. You can drag the circle to another location. 6 To add the transition to your movie, click Add or drag the transition from the list to the clip viewer.
Tip: If you want to use the same transition throughout your movie, you can set up the transition the way you want, then select all the clips in your movie and click Add. The transition is applied throughout the movie with one click. If you change your mind about a transition, you can delete it and start over, or edit the existing transition.

To delete a transition: m Select the transition and press the Delete key, or choose Edit > Clear. You must remove transitions to move clips or add a different transition between them. When you delete a transition, your clips are restored to their original length.
Step Nine: Add a Soundtrack
A soundtrack adds a lot to a movie. It can help set the tone for the movie and add depth to it. When you import video into an iMovie HD project, the video automatically includes the sound that was recorded with it. You can turn down the sound in the video, or turn it off completely and add music, sound effects, or a voiceover. Or you can use a combination of these. In this step, youll add a song from your iTunes library and adjust the volume and placement of the sound in your movie. The timeline viewer displays audio as audio clips in one of the two audio tracks, shown in the illustration below. You can add audio to either track, and also drag audio clips from one track to another.

Audio tracks

Audio checkboxes
If the sound in your video footage is noisy or unintelligible, you can take advantage of some of the new audio effects in iMovie HD, such as the Noise Reducer, to clean up or enhance the audio. If its not worth saving, you can always mute it. To mute an audio track: m Deselect the checkbox at the right end of the track (shown above).
Adding Audio to Your Movie
An easy way to add music to your video is to use the songs in your iTunes library or music youve created in GarageBand. You can also add sound effects to add drama or humor. To add audio to your movie: 1 Click Media, and then click the Audio button. 2 Click one of the audio sources in the list. Choose from built-in sound effects, GarageBand, or your iTunes library and playlists. You can search for a particular track by typing some words from the title in the search field. Click the Play button to the left of the search field to hear a track in the list before you add it to your movie. Note: To use music from a CD, you must first import the song into iTunes. 3 Move the playhead to the frame where you want the music to begin.
4 Click Place at Playhead. The audio file appears as an audio clip in the second audio track. If the audio doesnt start in the right place, simply drag the audio clip along the track until you see the frame where you want it to start in the iMovie monitor. Make sure you drag from the center of the clip, not the edge. 5 Preview your work by selecting the video clip where you added the audio and clicking Play in the iMovie playback controls.

Tip: You can also drag an audio file to the timeline viewer.
Did You Know?Working With Sound
You can enhance the sound in your movie by: Muting or quieting a videos audio track so that you can better hear a voiceover, sound effect, or music on another track. Adjusting the mix of the three tracks (for example, making the video tracks audio louder compared to the other tracks). Muting video clips entirely so that all you hear is the audio in the other tracks. Dragging one clip over another in the same audio track so that they overlap and you hear both clips at the same time. Using the iMovie HD graphic equalizer to remove wind noise or camera hum, or to adjust the bass or treble in a particular video or audio clip. You can also change the pitch of your audio and add reverb, delay, and other audio effects to make your movies sound better than ever. For more information about working with sound, see iMovie HD Help.
Adjusting the Length of Audio Clips
You can drag the ends of audio clips just like you do for video clips. Nothing is actually removed, so you can easily recover the audio you remove in this way by dragging the end of the audio clip back out. To shorten an audio track: 1 Click the View menu and make sure Show Clip Volume Levels is not selected. If it has a checkmark next to it, choose it again to remove the checkmark. 2 Position the pointer over the end of the clip you want to shorten. When its in the right position, the pointer changes shape. 3 Drag the end of the clip toward its center to shorten it. If you go too far, drag back out again. 4 Click the Play button to preview the results, then make any necessary adjustments.
Tip: If you need to lengthen a particular audio clip (for example, a sound effect), you can duplicate the audio clip and add it to the end of the previous clip. Then trim the new clip to keep just the part that you need.
Adjusting the Volume of Audio Clips
The volume of the sound in your movie is very important. If you set it too low, viewers may not be able to hear it. If you have audio playing in both audio tracks, youll also want to be able to adjust the volume for each track or for specific audio clips. To adjust the volume of the audio in your movie, you select the clips that you want to change and use the clip volume controls in the timeline viewer, shown below. These adjustments affect the playback volume of the final movie.

Volume levels

Clip volume control
You can select and change the volume of all your clips at once, or change them individually. To adjust the volume of an audio clip: 1 Select the clip, multiple clips, or a portion of a clip. 2 Choose View > Show Clip Volume Levels (so theres a checkmark next to it). A volume level bar appears in all audio clips to show the current volume level of each clip. 3 Click the speaker icon in the Clip volume control and drag the slider to adjust the volume up or down.
Tip: Once youre comfortable working with audio, you can make very fine adjustments to volume levels by clicking the volume level bars to place a marker, and then dragging the markers up or down to increase or decrease the volume. For more information, see iMovie HD Help.
If you make an adjustment to the volume while you are playing a clip, iMovie HD pauses playback and then immediately plays the clip with your adjustment. This makes it easier to get the results you want.
Did You Know?Using Advanced Sound Techniques
iMovie HD gives you the power and flexibility to make the most of the audio in your movie. You can split audio clips, drag clip volume levels to fade audio in and fade out, apply new audio effects, and use audio waveforms to synchronize audio with video.
For information about these and more advanced techniques for working with sound, see iMovie HD Help.
Step Ten: Share Your Movie
A great movie must be shared. With iMovie HD, there are many possibilities. You can: Send it in an email message Publish it on the Internet using iWeb Transfer it to an iPod Save it to DV or HDV tape Burn it on a DVD with iDVD Save it as a QuickTime movie in a variety of formats Send it via Bluetooth wireless technology to other compatible computers, mobile phones, personal digital assistants, and more Export it to GarageBand so that you can score an original soundtrack No matter which way you choose to view your movie, iMovie HD makes it easy to export a movie file in the proper format.
To share your movies with friends and family: m Choose Share and then choose how you want to share your movie. If you choose the standard export options, iMovie HD sets up the movie with the appropriate format automatically.
Tip: If you want to share just part of your movie, you can select the clip or clips you want to share and select the Share selected clips only checkbox. iMovie HD can also transfer your project to iDVD as a new iDVD project.
To export a movie to iDVD: m Choose Share > iDVD. iMovie HD takes a little while to compress and export your movie. (The time it takes depends on the length of your movie.) Its best not to use your computer for other tasks during the export process.
Tip: iMovie HD can also automatically import your video, compose your movie, and export it to iDVD using the Magic iMovie feature. When you create a movie with Magic iMovie, you can select the option to have your movie become a new iDVD project. To burn your movie to a DVD, youll need a computer with an optical drive capable of burning DVD discs.

Chapter 3 iMovie HD at a Glance
iMovie Trash: Deleted footage goes here. You can open the iMovie Trash and restore deleted video and audio from the iMovie Trash any time you want, or permanently delete it. Pane buttons: Click these buttons to see the different panes of the iMovie HD window.

Clip Viewer

The bottom part of the iMovie window has two views: the clip viewer and the timeline viewer. The clip viewer, shown below, is a simplified view where you can add clips to your movie and arrange them in the order you want them to appear.

C A B C D

Clip viewer button: Click the clip viewer button to switch from the timeline viewer to the clip viewer. Clip: Each section of video footage and any still images you import are called clips. Transition icon: Transition icons indicate that two clips are linked by a transition. Special icons: Different icons appear on clips to represent the presence of a still image, title, or video effect.

Timeline Viewer

Use the timeline viewer, shown below, to edit the video and audio clips in your movie, and synchronize your audio and video.

A B C D A B C D E H

Timeline viewer button: Click to switch from the clip viewer to the timeline viewer. Video track: Select clips in this track to edit or add effects and titles to video clips. This track also includes the audio contained in your video. Audio tracks: Add sound effects, music, and voiceover recordings. Edit audio tracks and adjust the sound volume for clips. Zoom slider: Make clips appear larger or smaller in the timeline. Enlarging or reducing the size of clips can make them easier to select and edit. Volume level bar: When Show Clip Volume Levels is selected in the View menu, you see a volume level bar appear as a line across your clips. Use this bar to raise or lower the volume of clips. Audio waveforms: When Show Audio Waveforms is selected in the View menu, representations of audio intensity in audio clips are shown here as audio waveforms. Audio checkboxes: Select a checkbox to hear the audio in a track. Deselect it to mute the track. Clip volume: Type a volume level in the text field, or click the button to use the slider to set the volume for a selected clip.

Clips Pane

Click the Clips button to open the Clips pane. The video footage and still images you import into iMovie HD first appear here. You can drag a clip from the Clips pane to the clip viewer, the timeline viewer, to your desktop, into other applications, to drop zones, and into other iMovie HD projects.

Photos

Images in your iPhoto library automatically appear in this pane. Use the Photo Settings window to add motion to your still images using the Ken Burns Effect. Click the Photos button at the top of the Media pane to see the Photos window. When you select an image, the Photo Settings window appears.

E F G H A I J K

Source list: Select your iPhoto library or an iPhoto album in this list to see its contents. Images list: Select images in the list to add to your movie. You can select single images or an entire photo album and drag it to the clip viewer or timeline. Search field: Type the name of a photo or image here to quickly locate it. Ken Burns Effect button: Click to open the Photo Settings window, where you can add motion to images. Photo Settings: Use these controls to set up panning and zooming effects for your images. Select or deselect the Ken Burns Effect checkbox to turn motion on or off. Start and End Control: Click Start and set how the image should first appear. Then click End and set how the image should appear at the end of the effect. This control is not visible if the Ken Burns Effect checkbox is deselected. Zoom slider: Move the slider to make images larger or smaller for cropping or setting up pan and zoom effects. Duration slider: Move the slider to set how many seconds the image remains in view. Reverse button: Click to reverse the direction of the Ken Burns Effect. Play/Pause button: See a preview of the effect in the iMovie monitor. Apply button: Apply the effect to the photo. This creates a new clip in the Clips pane that you can drag to the location you want in your movie.

G H I J K

Editing Pane
You can add titles, transitions, video effects, and audio effects to your movie in the Editing pane. Buttons across the top of the pane provide easy access to high-quality editing tools. Click the Editing button to open the Editing pane.

Titles

You can add opening titles, rolling commentary, end credits, and more in this pane. To see title settings, click Titles at the top of the Editing pane.

B C D G E H I F

A B C D E F G
Titles list: Select a title style to add to your movie. Click the disclosure triangle next to a title to see more titles in that category. Arrow buttons: For some titles, you can click the arrow buttons to set the direction in which you want the title to move. Color box: Click the box to choose a color for the text. Font controls: Choose a font, style (bold or italic, for example), and the font size. Over black checkbox: Select this checkbox to make the title appear over a black video clip instead of one of your video clips. Text fields: Type your text in these fields. If the style you choose allows multiple lines of text, use the plus and minus buttons to add or remove additional lines. Timing controls: Move the sliders to set how quickly you want the titles to appear and how long to pause before disappearing. The total duration is shown below the sliders. Other options may be available, depending on the title style. Update button: Click to apply changes to a title youve already added to your movie. Add button: Click to add the title to your movie. You can also drag the title or text to where you want it in the movie.

Transitions

You can add transitions to smoothly change scenes in your movie. To see transition settings, click Transitions at the top of the Editing pane.

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Transitions list: Select a transition style in this list. Arrow buttons: For some transitions, you can click an arrow button to set the direction you want the transition to move. For example, a transition might push a scene from right to left or left to right. Speed slider: Move the slider to set the speed of the transition. You can also type a duration in the text box next to the slider. Update button: Click to apply changes to a transition already in a movie. Add button: Click to apply the transition to a selected clip in your movie. You can also select and change multiple transitions all at once, and drag the transition from this list to where you want it to appear in the clip viewer.

Video Effects

You can add special effects to change the look of your movie clips. For example, you can change color video to black and white, adjust the image brightness and contrast, or add playful effects like fairy dust. To see video effects settings, click Video FX at the top of the Editing pane.
Effects list: Select an effect in this list to change the appearance of clips in your movie. Effect In/Effect Out sliders: Move these sliders to the points in the selected clip where you want the effect to appear and disappear. Appearance sliders: Move these sliders to make adjustments to the selected effect. These options will vary, depending on the effect you choose. Apply button: Click to apply the effect to the selected clip.

Audio Effects

You can use audio effects to manipulate the sound in your movie. To see audio effects settings, click Audio FX at the top of the Editing pane.
Effects list: Select an effect in this list to change the sound of audio in your movie. Effects controls: Use the controls to change the sound of an audio clip. The controls vary depending on the effect you selected. Preview button: Listen to the audio clip to see how it sounds with the settings you made. Apply button: When you like the results, click to apply the effect to the selected audio clip.

Chapters Pane

You can add chapter markers to your movie and export it to iDVD or as a video podcast. In iDVD, the chapters will appear in a scene selection menu so that viewers can skip to a particular scene. In a video podcast, chapters can include a URL and a URL title. To open the Chapters pane, click the Chapters button.

Chapter titles: A new chapter appears in the list each time you add a chapter marker. Type a name for each chapter that you want to use in your iDVD scene selection menu. Add Marker button: Click to add a chapter marker in your movie. Remove Marker button: Click to remove a selected chapter marker.
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