One of the hallmark characteristics of iMovie is that it enables anyone to quickly and easily edit a movie using various snippets of video they’ve shot. Now that Apple’s mobile iOS devices all capture HD video, it makes sense that there should be a way to edit that footage together without waiting to bring it back to your computer.
iMovie for iOS takes the concepts used by the Mac version and makes them work on a mobile device. Although you won’t find every feature from the desktop software, iMovie for iOS is more than capable of creating high-quality movies wherever you happen to have some video clips, an iOS device, and a bit of spare time.
To accommodate smaller screens compared to the Mac, and to take advantage of a touch interface, Apple made some significant design decisions when developing the mobile version of iMovie. Although most of it will be immediately familiar, there are some aspects—such as how iMovie organizes projects or handles themes—that may require some getting used to.
iMovie for iOS is a separate $4.99 app available from the App Store. If you purchased the original version of the software, which ran on the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch, you can upgrade to the latest version for free. Check for updates in the App Store app on your device or within iTunes on your computer.
In addition to working on the iPhone 4 and fourth-generation iPod touch (the current models at the time of this writing), iMovie for iOS runs on the iPad 2—but not on the original iPad.
Every movie you edit is its own iMovie project, accessible from the neon-lit opening screen. To get you started quickly, however, iMovie jumps right into the editing environment after you create a new project. You can return later to grace the project with a name.
At the main screen, tap the New Project button. iMovie takes you to the editing environment. The interface differs between the iPad (Figure 7.1) and the iPhone or iPod touch (Figure 7.2) due to the sizes of the devices’ screens. Each device enables you to edit in either the horizontal or portrait orientation.
Figure 7.1. The iPad editing environment in landscape orientation.
Figure 7.2. The iPhone and iPod touch editing environment
It’s not currently possible to move projects between iMovie ’11 and iMovie for iOS. Files created in the iPad version of iMovie’s sister app GarageBand can currently be brought into GarageBand on the Mac, so I’m optimistic that we’ll see this capability arrive with iMovie in the future. (Although you can move projects between iOS devices, as I describe near the end of this chapter.)
If you create a project and then immediately return to the opening screen, iMovie discards the new project because it has no content.
Every movie must have a theme, even if you don’t plan to use theme elements. New projects adopt the Modern theme, but you won’t see evidence of it unless you specifically choose a theme transition or add a title to a clip. You can change a project’s theme at any time. Any themed assets in the movie automatically switch to the chosen theme (which also means you can’t mix and match elements from different themes in the same project).
Instead of starting with the first frame of the first clip, you may want to begin your movie with a fade in from black. The Project Settings window includes a single-switch option for adding fades to the start and end of a project.
iMovie keeps track of your saved projects on the opening screen, like you’re choosing a video at a stylish multiplex. (Being from Seattle, I keep expecting a light drizzle of rain to come down while I’m scrolling through project thumbnails; maybe in a future update.)
iMovie for iOS is pretty picky about the video it uses. Basically, if the video came from an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, you’re golden. I’ve also had success with footage from my Flip MinoHD. If you want to bring in video you’ve shot using other cameras, you need to first convert it on your Mac. That said, there are several ways to get video into iMovie.
Using the cameras on the device, you can record video directly into your iMovie timeline. With a project open, do the following.
If not, tap the Retake button and shoot again.
Video shot by the device stays with the project in which it was captured. It isn’t automatically added to the Camera Roll, which is where the iOS stores photos and videos that have been shot by the device or, on the iPad, imported using the iPad Camera Connection Kit. To move a clip to the Camera Roll, tap the Edit button and then tap the Move button.
Whenever possible, I prefer to shoot video using the Camera app instead of using iMovie. Shooting in iMovie makes the clips unavailable for other projects without moving them to the Camera Roll.
If you own an iPad as well as an iPhone or iPod touch, you can import media to the iPad’s Camera Roll using Apple’s $29 iPad Camera Connection Kit. I’m far more likely to shoot video using my iPhone than my iPad 2, but I prefer to edit in iMovie on the iPad’s larger screen when possible.
With a library of clips to work from, it’s easy to add clips to your project’s timeline.
A clip can be added only before or after an existing clip; you can’t insert a new clip in the middle of an existing clip. To do that, you must first split the clip in the timeline (see “Splitting a clip,” later in the chapter).
Working with video clips in the timeline is quite similar to editing clips in iMovie ’11, but designed to be done with the tip of a finger instead of a mouse and keyboard, of course.
Unlike iMovie ’11 (unless you’re using the Single-Row View described in Chapter 2), the timeline in iMovie for iOS runs left to right across the bottom of the screen. Tap the Play button to preview the movie in real time in the Viewer.
To skim the timeline, swipe left or right. The playhead remains in the middle of the screen, so instead of positioning the playhead on the video, you’re actually positioning the video clips under the playhead.
On the iPhone or iPod touch, you can also swipe within the Viewer to skim the timeline. On the iPad, tap and hold the upper-left or upper-right corner of the timeline to quickly jump to the beginning or end.
After adding footage to the timeline, you’ll find yourself moving, trimming, splitting, and deleting sections to cut out unwanted sections and create good timing. iMovie on the iPad 2 also has an abbreviated Precision Editor for fine-tuning the edit points between clips.
To view more thumbnails in the timeline, pinch outward horizontally with two fingers to expand the clips; pinch inward to compress the sizes of the clips.
Drag a clip from the timeline to the Viewer until you see a small cloud icon appear (Figure 7.11). When you lift your finger from the screen, the clip disappears in a puff of smoke.
Figure 7.11. Giving a clip the Keyser Söze treatment
• Drag the transition itself to reposition the edit point without changing the duration of the surrounding clips.
• Drag the top handle to change the end point of the previous clip, without adjusting the next clip.
• Drag the bottom handle to change the start point of the next clip without adjusting the previous clip.
It’s not possible to adjust the duration of the transition from within the Precision Editor. For that you need to edit the transition itself.
Whether you like it or not, iMovie automatically adds transitions between every clip. Now, before your imagination fills with endless cross dissolves, note that it’s possible to have a transition that doesn’t do anything at all. In other words, iMovie adds a transition placeholder between every clip so you don’t have to drag one from elsewhere.
The appearance of the latter depends on which theme you chose for your project. To change the theme, tap the Project Settings button and highlight a new one, as described earlier in the chapter.
Like transitions, titles do not exist in a separate pane, ready to be dragged onto a clip. Instead, any clip can have a title, which is an attribute of the clip, not something added separately.
A title spans the entire length of a clip—even if the clip is several minutes long. If you want the title to appear on just a portion, such as the first few seconds, do the following:
The iPhone, iPad 2, and iPod touch can all embed location data in the photos and video they capture, thanks to their built-in assisted-GPS technologies. iMovie reads that data, too, and gives you the option of using it in titles and, creatively, a few themes.
• To use your current location, tap the crosshairs button.
• To find a location, tap the Other button to search iMovie’s database of locations. Tap the closest match to use it.
In most themes, the location appears as a subhead below the title. If you don’t want to announce the location, why not put that text to good use? In the Location window, enter any text you wish to display, even if it has nothing to do with location (Figure 7.18).
Figure 7.18. Use the Location line as a subhead.
As you’re working on editing your movie, you can tap the Undo button to reverse the last action; on the iPhone or iPod touch, shake the device to display the Undo button. But what if you tap Undo a few too many times? On the iPad, tap and hold the Undo button, which reveals a Redo button; on the iPhone and iPod touch, Redo appears with Undo when you shake the device.
Predictably, iMovie for iOS can import photos as well as video, and even manages to apply the Ken Burns Effect to them. In fact, every photo gets the Ken Burns treatment, without an easy way to keep an imported photo from moving.
Photos you’ve shot using the device or that were synced from your computer can be brought into your iMovie project. As with video, if you captured photos from within iMovie, those images are restricted to the project that was active when you did the shooting.
If you shot photos using your iPhone or iPod touch, you can transfer them directly to an iPad using Apple’s iPad Camera Connection Kit. See “Import from a camera, iPhone, or iPod touch,” earlier in this chapter.
If you recall from Chapter 4, the Ken Burns Effect is based on the position of the frame at the beginning and end of the clip. iMovie determines how best to make the camera move from one state to the other.
Unfortunately, there’s no easy control to turn off the Ken Burns Effect and just display a static photo. However, it is possible.
One area where iMovie for iOS sacrifices features for mobility is in editing audio. You can adjust the volume level for an entire clip, not specific levels within the clip; it’s also not possible to detach audio from a video clip. Still, that leaves plenty of functionality, especially now that you can add multiple background music clips, include up to three additional sound effects at a time, and record voiceovers.
When working with audio on the iPad 2, it’s extremely helpful to view audio waveforms on tracks; the feature isn’t available on the iPhone or iPod touch. Tap the Audio Waveforms button to make them visible.
So you don’t have multiple audio sources fighting for attention, you can adjust the volume level for any clip, or mute it entirely.
Figure 7.21. Change a clip’s volume in the Clip Settings window.
For the easiest approach, iMovie can include background music, designed for the current theme, that loops in the background. Or, you can add your own audio tracks (with a few limitations). As with iMovie on the Mac, a project can have a background music track that operates a bit differently than other audio tracks. In the iOS version, a song in the background starts at the beginning of the movie; it can’t be pinned to a specific location in the movie.
Figure 7.23. A background song added to the timeline
Music written for each theme is available to add to any project, not just to movies with those themes. In the Audio library, tap Theme Music and choose any song you wish.
iMovie does not import any music encumbered with Apple’s FairPlay DRM scheme; those tracks appear in the song list, but in gray with “(Protected)” before their names. Apple abandoned DRM for music tracks a while ago, but you may still have tracks in your iTunes library from before the switch. If you still want to use a specific song, go to iTunes on your computer, click iTunes Store in the sidebar, and then click the iTunes Plus link under Quick Links. That gives you the option to upgrade protected songs (for a fee of $0.30 per song, or 30 percent of an album’s current price) to the DRM-free iTunes Plus format.
iMovie considers any audio file less than one minute in length to be a sound effect, and won’t add it as a background song.
Aside from the fact that a background song can’t be repositioned in the timeline, you can edit it like most clips. Tap to select it and adjust its duration using the selection handles, or double-tap it to adjust the clip’s overall volume.
One downside is that you can’t apply a fade to an audio clip, so if you shorten the clip, the audio ends abruptly.
Whenever a video clip with audio appears over a background song, the song is automatically ducked (made softer). Unfortunately, iMovie offers no controls for specifying the amount of ducking to apply.
When you want to add a little punch to your audio, consider throwing in a sound effect. Up to three sound effect clips can appear in a section at a time.
Figure 7.24. The Water Splash sound effect is added to coincide with a splash in the video.
Using iMovie’s audio recording feature, you can record sound effects while you’re shooting or anywhere else. See “Add a voiceover” on the next page.
iMovie’s automatic assumption that any audio clip less than one minute in length is a sound effect is an annoyance when you want to use a short song to open your movie. But it’s also an advantage: You can add any music file—whether its content is a sound effect or not—that’s under one minute as a sound effect clip.
Most of the time, your videos can speak for themselves. On occasion, though, you may want to provide narration or a commentary track that plays over the footage. iMovie’s audio import feature lets you record your voice (or any sound, for that matter) into the timeline.
Figure 7.26. Review your recording before adding it to the timeline.
Feel free to record multiple takes, but keep in mind that you can have only three audio tracks in one spot at a time. Also, mute the other takes before you record a new one.
To capture better-quality audio, consider using a microphone instead of relying on the device’s built-in mic. That can be the microphone on the earbuds that come with the iPhone or even, when connected to the iPad using the iPad Camera Connection Kit, a professional microphone or USB headset.
iMovie for iOS is designed to easily turn footage into a movie, but it’s also intended to take your video and share it with the world. That could mean saving the finished movie to the Camera Roll for later viewing or for importing into iTunes on your computer, or sending it directly to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, or CNN iReport.
When you share your project to the Camera Roll, a final version of the movie is created and made available for you to not only watch, but access from other apps with access to your photo and video library, such as Keynote.
To upload a finished movie to your MobileMe Gallery, share it to the Camera Roll first. From there, you can open the movie, tap the Action button, and choose Send to MobileMe.
With an Internet connection, you can upload your video directly to a sharing service that publishes the work online almost instantly—you don’t need to sync with a computer first.
Figure 7.28. Enter information about the movie when sharing online.
When finished, iMovie gives you the option of viewing the movie on the Web or sharing the location in an outgoing email message.
Another method of sharing an iMovie project is, quite frankly, a weird workaround. It’s possible to export the project itself, not just a rendered version of the movie, for backing up to your Mac or sending to another iOS device for editing. (Sadly, at this time you can’t bring your iMovie for iOS project and finish editing it in iMovie on the Mac. Someday, I hope.) It is, however, a fairly counterintuitive procedure.
Figure 7.30. Importing the “Carkeek Afternoon New” project into iMovie on an iPhone
See? Only 13 steps to move a project from one device to another!
This method is also a way to duplicate a project—for example, if you want to save what you’ve done but try an editing experiment. After sharing to iTunes, tap the Import button to bring a copy back in; it will have a slightly different name.
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