Pulling in video clips

Your MacBook comes equipped with extras that come in handy for video editing: a large internal drive and ports to connect stuff. Depending on the MacBook model you’re using and your external devices, you may use a USB or Thunderbolt connection. I cover both older, tape-based camcorders and USB/Thunderbolt mass-storage devices in this section.

Oh, and don’t forget that your MacBook has a FaceTime HD camera on board, ready to record clips. Heck, you’re a self-contained movie studio!

Here’s the drill if your clips are on your camcorder or mass-storage USB/Thunderbolt video device:

1. Plug the proper cable into your MacBook.

2. Set the camcorder to VTR (or VCR) mode.

   Some video devices call this mode Play.

3. Click the Import button in the top-left corner of the iMovie window (refer to Figure 14-2).

   iMovie opens the Import window.

4. Open the Import To pop-up menu at the top of the Import window and choose the destination for your new video clips.

   To create a new event for the imported clips, choose New Event. Alternatively, you can import into an existing Event or iMovie project. If your family reunion spanned more than one day, you can create a new event for each day. (How does Apple think up these things?)

5. Click the desired video source in the Source Sidebar on the left side of the Import window.

   If you’re using a tape-based camcorder, playback controls appear under the Camera Import window, mirroring the controls on your camcorder. These controls allow you to control the unit from iMovie. Keen! If you’re using a mass-storage camcorder connected by USB, you instead get an Import All button underneath the thumbnails of available clips. (Note that this button changes to Import Selected if you select one or more of the clips.)

   If you choose your FaceTime HD camera from the list, you see a real-time preview and a big red Record button. Click the Record button to start and stop recording. (You can skip the rest of the steps in this section, which deal only with external camcorders.)

6. To import selected clips from your DV camcorder, advance the video to a couple of seconds before the point where you want to start your capture; then click Import.

7. Click OK and admire your handiwork.

   iMovie begins transferring the footage to your drive and automatically adds the imported clips to the specified destination.

If your clips are already on your drive, rest assured that iMovie can import them, including those in high-definition video (HDV) format. iMovie also recognizes other video formats, as shown in Table 14-1.

To import a movie file, follow this bouncing ball:

1. Click the Import button on the toolbar.
2. Click the drive that stores your clips in the window’s sidebar and navigate to their location.
3. Select the desired clips in the list.
4. From the Import To pop-up menu at the top of the Import window, choose the destination within iMovie.
5. Click Import.

Alternatively, you can also drag a video clip from a Finder window and drop it in the Project pane.

Making use of still images

Still images come in handy as impressive-looking titles or as end credits to your movie. (To be truly professional, make sure that you list a gaffer and a best boy. I have no idea what they do, but they’re always listed.) You also can use still images to introduce scenes, close scenes, and separate clips. I use stills when delineating the days of a vacation within a movie or different Christmas celebrations over time, for example.

Here are two methods of adding stills to your movie:

• Adding images and video clips from Photos: Click the Photos entry in the Libraries list to access your images right from iMovie (as shown in Figure 14-3). When you find the image you want to add, just drag it to the right spot in the Project pane.
• Importing images from your internal drive: If you’re a member of the International Drag-and-Drop Society, you can drag TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PICT, PNG, and PSD images directly from a Finder window and drop them into the Project pane.

Importing and adding audio from all sorts of places

You can pull in everything from Wagner to Weezer as both background music and sound effects for your movie. In this section, I focus on how to get those notes into iMovie and then how to add them to your movie by dragging them to the Project pane.

You can add audio from several sources:

• Adding songs from Music and GarageBand: Click the Audio button in the Content library and select the Music entry in the Sidebar to display the contents of your Music library. Then select the desired song in the scrolling list (which displays all your music). To display a playlist or Smart Playlist, click the Music drop-down list above the waveform display. Figure 14-4 illustrates a playlist of Frank Sinatra that I selected for this project. You can add a track to your movie by dragging any song entry from the list to the desired spot in the Project pane.

  

  You’re not limited to Music for ear candy, however. If you exported any music that you composed in GarageBand to your Music library, you can use those songs in your movie. Click the GarageBand button in the Sidebar to view your GarageBand music and then drag and drop to your heart’s content.

• Adding sound effects: If you need the sound of a horse galloping for your Rocky Mountain vacation clips, click the Audio button in the Content library; then click Sound Effects in the Sidebar. iMovie includes top-shelf audio effects that you can use in the sound-effects audio track in the Project pane. This way, you can add sound effects even when you’ve already added a background song. Again, to add a sound effect, drag it to the perfect spot in the Project pane.

  If you have several gigabytes in your Music library, it may be more of a challenge to locate Janis Joplin’s rendition of “Me and Bobby McGee,” especially if it’s included in a compilation. Let your supercomputer do the digging for you! Click the search box above the waveform (which carries the familiar magnifying-glass icon), and begin typing a song name. iMovie narrows down the song titles displayed to those that match the characters you type. To reset the search box and display all your songs in the library or selected playlist, click the X icon that appears to the right of the search box. (If you’re preparing a video for posting on services like YouTube or Facebook, remember that incorporating copyrighted music into your video may violate their policies.)

• Recording directly from a microphone: Yep, if you’re thinking voice-over narration, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Check out the nearby “Narration the easy way” sidebar for the scoop.

Adding clips to your movie

You can add clips to your movie via the Project pane and Event/Project Library pane (refer to Figure 14-2). The Dynamic Duo works like this:

• Project pane: This pane displays the media you’ve added to your project so far, allowing you to rearrange the clips, titles, transitions, and still images in your movie.
• Event/Project Library pane: This pane serves as the source repository for all your clips, displaying them arranged by event (the date when they were shot or imported) or by project (media you’ve added to existing iMovie projects).

Typically, you add a clip to your movie from an event. Follow these steps:

1. Click the My Media button in the Content library.
2. Click the All Events entry in the Libraries list.
3. Move the cursor across clips in the Event pane to watch a preview of the video.
4. When you’ve decided what to add to your project, add the entire clip or a selection:
   • To select an entire clip: Right-click the clip’s thumbnail, and choose Select Entire Clip from the shortcut menu that appears.
   • To select a portion of a clip: Click and hold, and then drag the cursor across the thumbnail. A yellow frame appears around your selection. To change the length of the selected video, hover the cursor over either end of the clip and drag the handle that appears on either side. If you make a mistake while selecting video, just click any empty space within the Event pane to remove the selection frame and try again.

5. Drag the selection from the Event pane to the spot where it belongs in the Project pane.

   Alternatively, you can press the E key.

Preview your work — often.™

iMovie includes a Play Full Screen button, which appears in the bottom-right corner of the Viewer. (Alternatively, press ⌘   +Shift+F or choose View  ⇒    Play Full Screen to watch the selection.) Press the spacebar to pause, and press Esc to return to iMovie. You can also move the cursor across the filmstrip in the Project pane to browse your project quickly.

To play a selection from the beginning, press (backslash). If you’ve ever watched a director at work on a movie set, you may have noticed that he or she constantly watches a monitor to see what things will look like for the audience. You have the same option in iMovie!

Marking clips

While you’re watching video in the Event/Project Library pane, you may decide that a certain clip has a favorite scene or that another clip has material you don’t want, such as Uncle Ed’s shadow puppets. (Shudder.) iMovie features Favorite and Rejected frames, which allow you to view and use your best camera work (and ignore the worst stuff).

To mark a great video clip as a Favorite, select and right-click a range of frames or the entire clip in the Event/Project Library pane and then choose Favorite from the shortcut menu item (or press F). To mark clips that are subpar, select the offending clip in the Event/Project Library pane and press Delete (or right-click and choose Reject). Clips marked as Favorites have a green line on top of the clip, and clips marked as Rejected have a red line.

When viewing your iMovie Library, you can use the Search Filter option to specify which types of marked clips are shown: Click the pop-up menu next to the Search field at the top of the Event/Project Library pane. Your options include displaying all clips, displaying just Favorite clips, hiding Rejected clips, or displaying just Rejected clips.

If you decide that a Rejected clip isn’t so bad after all or that a Favorite really isn’t your best work, no problem. Unmark any selected Favorite or Rejected scene in the Event/Project Library pane by choosing Mark  ⇒    Unrate (or just press U).

Removing clips from your movie

Don’t like a clip? Bah. To banish a clip from your movie, follow these steps:

1. Click the offending clip in the Project pane to select it.

   Alternatively, you can select a portion of a clip by holding down the mouse button (or maintaining pressure on the trackpad) and dragging the selection box that appears.

2. Press Delete.

   This step deletes the clip from the Project pane, but the clip is still available if you select All Events or the iMovie Library in the Libraries list.

If you remove the wrong clip, don’t panic. Instead, use iMovie’s Undo feature (press ⌘   +Z) to restore it.

Reordering clips in your movie

If Day One of your vacation appears after Day Two, you can easily reorder your clips and stills by dragging them to the proper spaces in the Project pane. When you take your finger off the mouse (or trackpad), iMovie automatically moves aside the rest of your movie with a minimum of fuss and bother.

Editing clips in iMovie

If a clip has extra seconds of footage at the beginning or end (as it should, to ensure that you get all the action), you don’t want that superfluous stuff in your masterpiece. Our favorite video editor gives you the following basic functions:

• Crop: Removes unwanted material from a video clip or still image
• Rotate: Rotates a clip or image on its center axis
• Trim: Trims frames from a video clip

Before you can edit, however, you have to select a section of a clip:

1. Click a clip or image in either the Project pane (where changes you make are specific to this project) or the Event pane (where edits you make are reflected in any project that uses that footage).

   iMovie displays the clip or image on the monitor.

2. To select the entire clip or image, simply click it.

3. Drag the cursor across the thumbnail to select the section of the media you want to edit.

   Some editing functions, such as Crop and Rotate, automatically apply to the entire clip.

   The selected region is surrounded by a yellow frame. You’re ready to edit that selected part of the clip.

   When you move the cursor to the beginning or end of the selection, selection handles appear.

4. You can make fine changes in the selected section by dragging the selection handles.

   • To crop: Click the Crop button on the toolbar at the top of the Viewer (which bears an icon of two right angles forming a square). Drag the edges of the frame, using the handles, to select the section you want to keep. To preview your selection, click the Play button that appears when you move the cursor into the Viewer pane. When you’re ready, click the Done button (which bears a check mark), and everything but the selected region is removed.
   • To rotate: Click the Crop button. Now you can click one of the two rotation buttons that appear on the right side of the Viewer (both of which carry a box and curved-arrow icon). Each click rotates the media 90 degrees in the indicated direction. Click the Done button (with the check mark) when the clip or image is properly oriented.
   • To trim: Right-click the selection and choose Trim to Playhead from the shortcut menu. iMovie removes the frames from the selected video up to the playhead position.

Transitions for the masses

Many iMovie owners approach transitions as visual bookends: They merely act as placeholders that appear between video clips. Nothing could be further from the truth, though, because judicious use of transitions can make or break a scene. Which would you prefer after a wedding ceremony: an abrupt, jarring cut to the reception or a gradual fade-out to the reception?

Because today’s audiences are sensitive to transitions between scenes, you should try not to overuse the same transition. Pick two or three that match the mood of your film and the scenes between which you’re transitioning. Also carefully weigh the visual impact of a transition. You might even decide that having no transition is most effective. (Directors call the deliberate lack of a transition a jump cut.)

iMovie includes a surprising array of transitions, including old favorites (such as Fade to Black and Cross Dissolve) and some nifty stuff that you may not be familiar with (such as Cube and Page Curl). To display your transitions collection (see Figure 14-5), click the Transitions entry in the Content library.

To see what a particular transition looks like, click the thumbnail to select it and then move the cursor over the thumbnail to display the transition in the Viewer.

Adding a transition couldn’t be easier: Drag the transition from the thumbnail list and drop it between clips or between a clip and a still image in the Project pane. In iMovie, transitions are applied in real time.

Even Gone with the Wind had titles

The next stop on the iMovie Hollywood Features Tour is the Titles list, shown in Figure 14-6. You find it by clicking the Titles entry in the Content library. You can add a title with a still image, but iMovie also includes everything you need to add basic animated text to your movie.

Most of the controls you can adjust are the same for each animation style. You can change the font, the size of the text, and the color of the text. To add a title manually, follow these steps:

1. Select a Title animation thumbnail in the Titles list and drag it to the desired spot in the Project pane.

   Note that the title is previewed in the Viewer as well as in the Project pane.

2. Click the title strip in the Project pane to select it.
3. Click the Title Settings button (which bears a T symbol) on the toolbar to make any changes you want in the fonts or text attributes.
4. Click the text box within the Viewer to delete the default text and type your own titles.
5. Click the Done (check mark) button to save your changes.

6. Click the Play button in the Viewer to preview your title.

   iMovie displays a preview of the effect in the Viewer with the settings you chose.

If the Automatic Titles and Transitions option is turned on, dragging a transition or title to your Project pane will result in a somewhat brusque reminder from iMovie. However, you can elect to turn off this option from the dialog, which will allow you to manually add the perfect title or transition to your masterwork.

Adding maps and backgrounds

iMovie includes easy-to-use animated maps — think Indiana Jones traveling by airplane from place to place — and static backgrounds that can be used with your titles. To display them, click the Backgrounds entry in the Content library.

To use an animated map, follow these steps:

1. Drag one of the globe or map thumbnails to the Project pane.
2. When the globe or map is created, click it in the Project pane to select it.

3. Click the Map Settings button above the Viewer (which bears a globe icon) and then click the Start Location button (and, optionally, the End Location button) to enter the start and stop points for the animation.

   Type a city or place name to see your choices. (Heck, you can even type an airport code or decimal coordinates to specify the spot.)

4. Click Done.

   Watch as iMovie animates your location (or your trip) in seconds!

To add a static background from the browser, drag it to the desired spot within the Project pane.