5/5/13 5:57 PM Page 1 of 184 http://help.apple.com/imovie/print.html?lang=en#printBook iMovie Help Get Started To create movies in iMovie, you must first import(transfer) your video f ootage from your camera to your computer. You can import from most types of camcorders, including: Digital camcorders that record to DVD, hard disk drive, or f lash memory. These cameras connect to your computer using a USB cable. Digital still cameras that r ecord video. These cameras use flash memory, often stored on Secure Digital (SD) or CompactFlash (CF) cards. They connect to your computer using a USB cable. Camcorders that record to tape. These cameras connect to your computer using a FireWire cable. This task describes how to import from digital camcorders and camcorders that record to tape. When you import video, iMovie stores it as an Event in the Event Library. This is the footage you use to create movie projects in iMovie. Import video from a camcorder that records to DVD, hard disk drive, or flash memory 1. Locate the cable that came with your camera, or any other similar USB cable. The cable should have at least one connector that plugs into your Mac and looks like the connector on the left (A, below). The other end of the USB cable, which plugs into your recording device, might look different (as shown in B, below). For more information about cable connectors, go to this topic: About video cable connectors. 2. Connect the camera to you r computer with the cable. 3. Turn on your camera and set it to PC Connect mode (this mode may have a different name on your camera). 4. The first time you import from a device that records high-definition (HD) video, an HD Import Setting dialog appears. Even if you aren’t i mporting high-definition video now, select Large or Full, and then click OK. 5. If the Import window doesn’t open, ch oose File > “Import from Camera.” Import video
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iMovie Help
Get Started
To create movies in iMovie, you must first import (transfer) your video footage from your camera to your computer.
You can import from most types of camcorders, including:
Digital camcorders that record to DVD, hard disk drive, or flash memory. These cameras connect to your
computer using a USB cable.
Digital still cameras that record video. These cameras use flash memory, often stored on Secure Digital (SD) or
CompactFlash (CF) cards. They connect to your computer using a USB cable.
Camcorders that record to tape. These cameras connect to your computer using a FireWire cable.
This task describes how to import from digital camcorders and camcorders that record to tape.
When you import video, iMovie stores it as an Event in the Event Library. This is the footage you use to create movie
projects in iMovie.
Import video from a camcorder that records to DVD, hard disk drive, or flash memory
1. Locate the cable that came with your camera, or any other similar USB cable.
The cable should have at least one connector that plugs into your Mac and looks like the connector on the
left (A, below). The other end of the USB cable, which plugs into your recording device, might look
different (as shown in B, below). For more information about cable connectors, go to this topic: About
video cable connectors.
2. Connect the camera to your computer with the cable.
3. Turn on your camera and set it to PC Connect mode (this mode may have a different name on your
camera).
4. The first time you import from a device that records high-definition (HD) video, an HD Import Setting dialog
appears. Even if you aren’t importing high-definition video now, select Large or Full, and then click OK.
5. If the Import window doesn’t open, choose File > “Import from Camera.”
Import video
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The Import window displays all the video clips on the device. You can use the playback controls below the
viewer to play the clips.
6. Select which video clips to import:
To import all clips, set the Automatic/Manual switch to Automatic, and then click Import All.
To import specific clips, set the Automatic/Manual switch to Manual. Deselect the clips you don’t want
to import, and then click Import Checked.
7. Choose the disk where you want to store the video from the Save To pop-up menu.
Typically, you’ll store the video on your computer hard disk, but if you have another hard disk connected
to your computer, you can store the video there.
8. Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library:
To add the imported video to an existing Event (video you’ve already imported), select “Add to Existing
Event,” and then choose the Event’s name from the pop-up menu. The first t ime you import video,
there won’t be any existing Events in your Event Library.
To create a new Event, type a name for it (for example, “Birthday Party”) in the “Create new Event”
field. If the video you’re importing was recorded on several different days and you want iMovie to
create a new Event for each of those days, select “Split days into new Events.”
9. To have iMovie smooth the shaky portions of your video (a process called stabilization ), or to have iMovieanalyze your video for the presence of people, select “After import analyze for,” and then choose an
option from the pop-up menu.
Stabilization reduces the camera motion in your video so that shaky parts can be played back more
smoothly. Analyzing video for the presence of people marks the footage that contains people. You can
easily search for this video later when you’re creating a project for which you need footage of people.
The processes of stabilization and analyzing video for the presence of people can take a long time.
10. If you’re importing HD video, choose a size from the “Optimize video” pop-up menu.
If you’re not sure whether the video you’re importing is HD video, check the camera’s user manual for
information about how to set the camera to record HD or standard-definition (SD) video.
The option you choose overrides what you selected in step 4 in the HD Import Setting dialog (which you
see only the first time you import video).
11. Click OK.
It can take several minutes to more than an hour for iMovie to import the video, depending on how much
video you have.
Import video from a tape-based camcorder
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1. Locate the cable that came with your camera, or any other similar FireWire cable.
The cable should have a 6-pin connector that plugs into your Mac (A, below) on one end and a 4-pin
connector that plugs into your camcorder (B, below) on the other end. You might have a FireWire 800
cable, with a different end that plugs into your camcorder. For more information about cable connectors,
go to this topic: About video cable connectors.
2. Turn on the camcorder and set it to VTR or VCR mode (this mode may have a different name on your
camera).
3. Connect the camera to your computer with the cable.
4. The first time you import from a camcorder that can record high-definition (HD) video, an HD Import
Setting dialog appears; even if you aren’t importing HD video now, select Large or Full, and then click OK.
5. If the Import window doesn’t open, choose File > “Import from Camera.”
6. Set the Automatic/Manual switch:
Automatic: Automatically rewinds the tape, imports all of the video on the tape, and rewinds the tape
again. If you use this option, click OK.
Manual: Lets you rewind and fast-forward the tape so that you can import only the footage you want.
Use the controls to set your tape to the point where you want to begin importing.
7. Click Import.
8. Choose the disk where you want to store the video from the Save To pop-up menu.
Typically, you’ll store the video on your computer hard disk, but if you have another hard disk connected
to your computer, you can store the video there.
9. Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library.
To add the imported video to an existing Event (video you’ve already imported), select “Add to Existing
Event,” and then choose the Event’s name from the pop-up menu. The first t ime you import video,
there won’t be any existing Events in your Event Library.
To create a new Event, type a name for it (for example, “Birthday Party”) in the “Create new Event”
field. If the video you’re importing was recorded on several different days and you want iMovie to
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create a new Event for each of those days, select “Split days into new Events.”
10. To have iMovie smooth the shaky portions of your video (a process called stabilization ), or to have iMovie
analyze your video for the presence of people, select “After import analyze for,” and then choose an
option from the pop-up menu.
Stabilization reduces the camera motion in your video so that shaky parts can be played back more
smoothly. Analyzing video for the presence of people marks the footage that contains people. You can
easily search for this video later when you’re creating a project for which you need footage of people.
The processes of stabilization and analyzing video for the presence of people can take a long time.
11. If you’re importing HD video, choose a size from the “Optimize video” pop-up menu.
If you’re not sure whether the video you’re importing is HD video, check the camera’s user manual for
information about how to set the camera to record HD or standard-definition (SD) video.
The option you choose overrides what you selected in step 4 in the HD Import Setting dialog (which you
see only the first time you import video).
12. Click Import.
If you’re importing automatically, you can leave your computer and come back when the import is
complete.
If you’re importing manually, click Stop (in the lower-right corner of the Import window) when the section of
video you want has been imported. Then use the import controls to set your video to a point where you
want to begin importing again, and repeat steps 7 through 11. Continue in this manner until you have
imported all the video you want.
For more information about importing video into iMovie, click the Browse Help button above and see the topics in“Import video into iMovie.”
Get Started
To work on a new video project in iMovie, you first create the project by giving it a name and defining other
parameters for it, including whether or not your project will have a theme. Themes give your movies a specific look
and feel. Examples of themes include bulletin board, photo album, and comic book.
iMovie comes with a selection of themes you can use in your movie. Each theme comes with its own title styles (text
that appears onscreen) and transitions (visual effects that play between clips) that you can use to give your movie a
polished and professional look.
When you select a theme, you can have iMovie automatically insert titles and transitions into your project as you add
video clips to it. You can always change or delete these elements later.
After you create the project, you add video to it that you’ve already transferred (imported) from your camera to your
computer. Lesson 1 describes the importing process.
Start a new video project
Start a new project
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1. In iMovie, choose File > New Project.
The File menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
2. To apply a theme to your project, select one of the themes presented below Project Themes.
If you don’t want to add any theme-based elements to your project, select No Theme.
3. Type a name for the project in the Name field.
4. Choose a format option from the Aspect Ratio pop-up menu.
This format, which refers to the width and height dimensions of your movie, affects how the video appears
on the screen.
Widescreen (16:9): Makes the movie appear much wider than it is high. Widescreen movies are
optimized for viewing on widescreen computer monitors and high-definition TVs (HDTVs). When
viewed on a standard-definition TV, widescreen movies appear with black areas above and below
(sometimes referred to as “letterbox”).
Standard (4:3): Makes the movie more square in shape. When viewed on a standard-definition TV,
these movies can fill the screen. When viewed on an HDTV or widescreen computer monitor, they
appear with black areas on the left and right of the video (sometimes referred to as “pillarbox”).
5. Choose an option from the Frame Rate pop-up menu; choose the same frame rate that you used to shoot
the video.
NTSC, PAL, and Cinema are video format standards that refer to the number of frames per second (fps)
your recorded video contains. In general, video cameras purchased in North America use the NTSC
format (30 fps), and cameras purchased in Europe use the PAL format (25 fps). Cinema format video has
a frame rate of 24 fps. If your camera was set to Cinema format when you shot your video, choose this
option.
6. If you didn’t select a theme in step 2, and you want iMovie to automatically include transition effects
between video clips as you add them, select “Automatically add,” and then choose a transition style from
the pop-up menu.
7. If you did select a theme for your project but don’t want iMovie to add themed elements automatically,
deselect “Automatically add transitions and titles.”
When this option is selected, iMovie automatically inserts cross-dissolve transitions and special themed
transitions between clips, as well as a theme-styled introductory title over the first clip in your project, and
a theme-styled credits title over the last clip.
8. Click Create.
The empty project, which contains no video yet, opens in the Project browser. It appears as shown in the
image below, with the project’s name (in this case, “Spring Vacation 2010”) at the top.
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Get Started
After you create a project, as described in Lesson 2, you add video clips to it that you’ve already imported
(transferred) from your camera to your computer.
All of your imported video appears in the Event Library. From there, you select specific video and add it to your project
by dragging it to the project in the Project browser, which is your project workspace. As you add video and other
elements to your project, they appear immediately in the Project browser, where you can edit them, rearrange them,
delete them, and so on.
Add video to a project
1. Open an existing project by double-clicking it (don’t click the project’s name directly) in the Project Library.
If you don’t see the Project Library, click the Project Library button.
2. In the Event Library, select an Event whose footage you want to add to your project.
If you don’t see the Event Library, click the Event Library button, which is typically located in the lower-left
corner of the iMovie window.
Add video to your project
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You select an Event by clicking its name once. The Event footage appears in the Event browser to the
right of the Event Library.
3. In the Event browser, select a range of video frames or an entire video clip.
To select an entire video clip, hold down the Shift key and click the clip once, so that it’s outlined in yellow.
To select a portion of a clip (called a frame range ), drag across any clip while you hold down the button on
your mouse or trackpad. Selected frames are outlined in yellow.
4. Drag your video selection to the Project browser.
You drag by holding down the button on your mouse or trackpad as you move the selected clip to the
Project browser. You can drag it anywhere: to the beginning or end of the project, or between clips you’ve
already added. A vertical green line, along with a green Add (+) symbol, appears anywhere you can place
the clip.
The image below shows how the Project browser appears when you add your first video clip to a project.
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Video that’s been added to a project is marked along the bottom with an orange stripe in the Event
browser, so that you can see at a glance which video you’ve used. You can add the same video to
multiple projects, and you can use it more than once within a project.
Continue adding video in this way until you have all the video you want in your project. Next, you can enhance your
project by adding music, photos, titles (text that appears onscreen, over your video), and more.
Get Started
After you’ve created a project and added video to it, you can embellish it in a number of ways with both visual and
audio enhancements. Themes give your project a polished look in an instant. You can also add background music,
titles, and transitions that let you create professional-quality projects.
Add a theme to your project
iMovie comes with a selection of themes you can use in your movie. Each theme comes with its own title styles
(text that appears onscreen) and transitions (visual effects that play between clips) that you can use to give
your movie a big-budget look.
When you select a theme, you can have iMovie automatically insert titles and transitions into your project as
you add video clips to it. You can always change or delete these elements later.
If you didn’t choose a theme for your project when you first created it, you can apply one at any time thereafter.
1. If your project isn’t already open (showing in the Project browser), double-click it in the Project Library to
open it.
2. Choose File > Project Theme.
The File menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
3. Select a theme by clicking its thumbnail once; the theme previews automatically in the viewer on the right
You can click other thumbnails to preview those themes.
4. If you want to turn off automatic transitions and titles so that iMovie doesn’t replace transitions that you’ve
already added to your project, deselect “Automatically add transitions and titles.”
5. Click OK.
Add background music from your iTunes library
Background music you add to a project plays behind the audio recorded with your video, so that you can hear
both tracks of sound at the same time. You can adjust the volume of the background music so that it plays
more loudly or softly, which allows you to layer sound in interesting ways.
The music in your iTunes library is automatically available for use in iMovie projects.
1. If your project isn’t already open (showing in the Project browser), double-click it in the Project Library to
open it.
Enhance your project
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2. Click the “Music and Sound Effect” button at the right end of the iMovie toolbar.
The “Music and Sound Effect” browser appears.
3. Choose one of the music options (not the sound effects options) from the options at the top of the Music
and Sound Effect browser; you should see either a list of options or a pop-up menu from which you
choose an option.
For example, if you choose iTunes, you see a list of everything that’s in iTunes. If you choose Music, you
see just the music you have stored in iTunes. If you choose a specific playlist, you see just the music in
that playlist.
4. Scroll through the list to find the song you want to add, and then click the song so that it’s highlighted with
a blue bar.
5. Drag the song to the Project browser, to the dark gray area to the right of the last clip in your project,
making sure that you don’t drag it over a clip.
You drag by holding down the button on your mouse or trackpad as you move the selected song to the
Project browser. Release the mouse button when you see a green Add button.
The background music well of your project is then shaded with green, representing the background music
clip. The music begins at the start of your project and ends with your video, even if the song is longer than
your video.
If the music doesn’t cover your entire video, you can add more music by dragging it to the background
music well of your project.
6. To adjust the volume of the background music, click the Action pop-up menu (looks like a gear) in the
upper-left corner of the green background music well, and then choose Audio Adjustments.
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7. In the window that opens (called an inspector ), drag the volume slider, which appears at the top, to the
right or left to increase or decrease volume, and then click Done.
Add a photo from your iPhoto library
You can add photos to your iMovie projects—to add visual interest, to highlight specific moments, or simply tobreak up the action of the video footage itself. All the photos in your iPhoto library are automatically available
for use in iMovie.
1. If your project isn’t already open (showing in the Project browser), double-click it in the Project Library to
open it.
2. Click the Photos button at the right end of the iMovie toolbar.
The photos appear in the Photo browser.
3. Choose iPhoto from the pop-up menu at the top of the browser to see all the photos stored in iPhoto, or
choose an iPhoto album from the pop-up menu to narrow your search.
4. Scroll through the thumbnails (miniatures) of the photos to find the one you want to add, and then click it
so that it’s outlined in blue.
5. Drag your chosen photo to the project in the Project browser.
You drag by holding down the button on your mouse or trackpad as you move the selected photo to theProject browser. You can release the mouse button anyplace you see a vertical green line along with a
green Add button.
When you add a photo, by default it is set to remain onscreen in your project for 4 seconds. Also, the Ken
Burns effect is applied to the photo. This effect makes it appear as though the camera were panning
across and zooming in on the image.
6. To change how long the photo stays onscreen, double-click the photo in the Project browser.
7. In the window that opens (called an inspector ), type a new value, in seconds, in the Duration field, and
then click Done.
Add titles (onscreen text)
You can add onscreen text to any video in your project using one of the many title styles available in iMovie.
Onscreen text can be used to add a title and credits to your movie, to visually “narrate” the scenes in your
movie, to create textual segues from one scene to the next (for example, “Ten years later” or “Later that same
day”), and so on.
1. If your project isn’t already open (showing in the Project browser), double-click it in the Project Library to
open it.
2. Click the Title button at the right end of the iMovie toolbar.
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Add transitions between clips
iMovie comes with several styles of transitions that you can add between clips to give professional polish to
your projects. A transition smoothes or blends the change from one scene to another. For example, a transition
can make one clip fade in or out, dissolve into another clip, zoom in to another clip, and so on.
iMovie makes all the transitions in your movie the same length. Standard transitions are one-half of a second
long, and theme-styled transitions (which are available only if you’ve set a theme for your project) are twoseconds long. You can change these durations if you want.
1. If your project isn’t already open (showing in the Project browser), double-click it in the Project Library to
open it.
2. Click the Transition button at the right end of the iMovie toolbar.
The transition styles appear in the Transition browser.
3. Browse through the transition styles, scrolling the window if necessary, to find the one you want to use.
Move your pointer over the transition thumbnails in the browser to see how they animate. If you’ve set a
theme for your project, a number of theme-styled transitions appear above the standard transitions in the
browser.
4. Drag a transition to the Project browser before, after, or between the clips where you want it to appear.
You drag by holding down the button on your mouse or trackpad as you move the selected transition to
the Project browser. You can release the mouse button anyplace you see a green Add (+) symbol.
The transition effect is represented by a transition icon in the Project browser. (Several icons are shown
below; which you see depends on the transition style you added.)
5. To play back the transition effect to see how the transition looks in your video, move your pointer in the
Project browser anyplace before the transition effect icon (you see a vertical red line where the pointer is),
and then press the Space bar.
6. To change the duration of the transition, double-click the transition icon in the Project browser.
7. In the window that opens (called an inspector ), type a new value, in seconds, in the Duration field, and
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Get Started
iMovie includes a number of templates you can use to create professional-quality movie trailers in genres that range
from adventure, to romance, to friendship and drama. Each template lets you customize screen text (movie name,
cast, credits, and so on) and add clips of your own video to build a visually appealing story. Each template also comes
with a unique musical score that matches the style of the trailer.
Create a trailer
1. Choose File > New Project.
The File menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
2. In the window that appears, select a template in the Movie Trailers section (on the left, below Project
Themes) by clicking its thumbnail image.
View any template by clicking its thumbnail and watching its preview in the viewer on the right.
3. Type a name for the trailer project in the Name field.
4. Choose a format option from the Aspect Ratio pop-up menu.
This format, which refers to the width and height dimensions of your movie, affects how your video
appears on the screen you’re using to view it.
Widescreen (16:9): Makes the movie appear much wider than it is high. Widescreen movies are
optimized for viewing on widescreen computer monitors and high-definition TVs (HDTVs). When
viewed on a standard-definition TV, widescreen movies appear with black areas above and below
(sometimes referred to as “letterbox”).
Standard (4:3): Makes the movie more square in shape. When viewed on a standard-definition TV,
these movies can fill the screen. When viewed on an HDTV or widescreen computer monitor, they
appear with black areas on the left and right of the video (sometimes referred to as “pillarbox”).
5. Choose an option from the Frame Rate pop-up menu; choose the same frame rate that you used to shoot
the video.
NTSC, PAL, and Cinema are video format standards that refer to the number of frames per second (fps)
your recorded video contains. In general, video cameras purchased in North America use the NTSC
format (30 fps), and cameras purchased in Europe use the PAL format (25 fps). Cinema format video has
a frame rate of 24 fps. If your camera was set to Cinema format when you shot your video, choose this
option.
6. Click Create.
In the Project browser, you see a tabbed interface with areas for entering information iMovie uses to buildyour trailer. The tabs are Outline, Storyboard, and Shot List.
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For YouTube, “Category” refers to the category under which the video will be categorized on the YouTube
website. “Tags” are keywords that viewers can use to search for your movie on the YouTube website.
4. Select a size of movie to publish that’s compatible with YouTube or Facebook, as indicated in the “Sizes
to publish” table.
Larger sizes typically offer higher quality but may take longer to upload.
5. For YouTube, to allow your video to be viewable by anyone, deselect “Make this movie personal.”
6. Click Next.
7. Click Publish.
iMovie uploads your movie to YouTube or Facebook; depending on website traffic, the movie may not be
available on YouTube or Facebook right away.
8. To see your movie online, click View in the window that appears.
9. To notify your friends via email of the new movie you’ve published, click “Tell a Friend.”
For more ways to share your iMovie projects, click the Browse Help button above and see the topics in “Share your
video project.”
Get Started
iMovie is a powerful tool that can be used in two ways: to create movie projects from your raw footage, and to store
and organize video in a video library.
In iMovie, your video is organized in two places:
The Event Library holds the video you import (transfer) from your camera; this video is referred to as Events .
The Project Library lists the movie and trailer projects you create from your imported video.
There are a number of ways you can organize and view your projects and Events in iMovie.
Organize the Project Library
You can organize your projects into folders in the Project Library. This is useful if you have a lot of projects andwant to be able to find them more easily.
1. If you don’t see the Project Library, open it by clicking the Project Library button, which is typically located
in the top-left corner of the iMovie window.
2. Choose File > New Folder.
The File menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
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1. Choose iMovie > Preferences, and then click Video.
The iMovie menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
2. Choose an option from the “Import HD video as” pop-up menu.
Browse Help ! Import video into iMovie
To import video from your recording device to your computer, you need to connect your device to the computer using
either a USB or FireWire cable. The kind of cable you need depends on the kind of device you’re using:
USB device: For camcorders that record to DVD or hard disk drive (HDD), or for flash-based camcorders and
digital still cameras that record video, you use a USB cable. Your device most likely came with a USB cable, but
you can use any other USB cable as well. The USB cable should have at least one connector that plugs into yourMac and looks like the connector on the left (A, below). The other end of the USB cable, which plugs into your
recording device, might look different (as shown in B, below).
FireWire device: For most camcorders that record to tape, you use a FireWire cable, with a 6-pin connector that
plugs into your Mac (A, below) on one end and a 4-pin connector that plugs into your camcorder (B, below) on the
other end. Your device most likely came with a FireWire cable, but you can use any other FireWire cable as well.
Or you might have a FireWire 800 cable, with a different end that plugs into your camcorder:
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If your device didn’t come with a cable and you’re not sure what kind of device you have, you can check the logo near
the cable ports on your device to see if it matches the FireWire or USB logo, both shown above. Otherwise, check the
documentation that came with your device.
Note: Not all Mac computers include a FireWire port. Check your system configuration to confirm that your Mac
includes FireWire support before attempting to connect a standard (DV) or HDV camcorder.
If you’re unsure whether your camera is compatible with iMovie, go to the following support page:
iMovie ’11 Supported Cameras
Browse Help ! Import video into iMovie ! Import from a camera or camcorder
To watch your recorded video or create a project with it in iMovie, you first need to transfer the video—import it—from
your camcorder into iMovie. This topic explains how to import video from USB devices, which record to DVD, hard
disk drive (HDD), or flash-based storage media.
If your camcorder records to tape, go to this topic instead: Import video from a tape-based (FireWire-equipped)
camcorder.
Note: To import AVCHD video (a video format that’s used in the majority of consumer camcorders), you must use aMac that has an Intel Core Duo processor or better. You can check which type of processor your Mac has by
choosing Apple menu > About This Mac. The Apple menu is on the left side of the light gray bar that appears across
the top of your computer screen.
To check whether your camera is compatible with iMovie, go to the following support page:
iMovie ’11 Supported Cameras
To import video from a USB recording device:
1. Turn on your camcorder or other device, and connect the camcorder to your computer with the cable that
came with it or any other USB cable.
Note: If you’re connecting a DVD camcorder, plugging it into your Mac can cause the application DVD
Player to open. If that happens, simply close DVD Player.
2. Set the camcorder to PC Connect mode.
The name for this transfer mode may be different on your device. For some digital still cameras that shoot
video, for example, you need to set the camera to Browse mode. Your camera may automatically go into
“connect” mode if you turn it on in playback mode while it’s connected to your computer.
3. If this is the first time you’re importing from a device that records high-definition (HD) video, an HD Import
Setting dialog appears. Even if you aren’t importing HD video now, select Large or Full, and then click OK.
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Browse Help ! Import video into iMovie ! Import from other sources
If your digital still camera or digital single-lens reflex camera (DSLR) is compatible with iMovie ‘11, you can import
video into iMovie and then use the footage just as you would any other video footage you import.
If your digital still camera isn’t compatible with iMovie '11, you may be able to import video into iPhoto. After it’s
imported into iPhoto, footage on your computer that’s in a video format compatible with iMovie automatically appearsin your iMovie Event Library after iMovie generates thumbnails of the video. To learn about importing video into
iPhoto, open iPhoto and choose Help > iPhoto Help.
To check whether your camera is compatible with iMovie, click the link below:
iMovie ’11 Supported Cameras
To import video from a compatible digital still camera:
1. Turn on your camera and set it to import mode.
2. Connect the camera to your computer.
3. If iPhoto opens, close it.
4. In iMovie, if the Import window doesn’t open, click the Import button in the iMovie toolbar.
The Import window displays all the video clips on the device. You can use the playback controls below the
window to review selected clips.
5. To select which video clips you want to import, do one of the following:
To import all clips, make sure the Automatic/Manual switch is set to Automatic, and then click Import
All. iMovie remembers which clips you’ve already imported and won’t reimport these clips.
To import most of the clips, set the Automatic/Manual switch to Manual. Deselect the clips you don’t
want to import, and then click Import Checked.
To import only a few of the clips, set the Automatic/Manual switch to Manual, and then click Uncheck
All. Select the clips you want, and then click Import Checked.
6. Choose the disk where you want to store the video from the “Save to” pop-up menu.
7. Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library:
To add the imported video to an 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 (for example, “Birthday Party”) in the “Create new Event”
field. If you want to create a new Event for each day on which the video was recorded, select “Split
Import video from your digital still camera or DSLR
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days into new Events.”
8. To have iMovie analyze your video for stabilization, or to analyze it for the presence of people, select
“Analyze for stabilization after import” and then choose an option from the pop-up menu:
Stabilization: Analyzes the camera motion in your video so that any shaky parts can be played back
more smoothly. It can be time consuming, so if you have over an hour’s worth of video to analyze, you
might want to let iMovie do it overnight or while you’re going to be away from your computer.
Stabilization and People: Analyzes the camera motion in your video so that any shaky parts can be
played back more smoothly; also analyzes video for people so that you can later sort your video to see
just the footage that contains people.
People: Analyzes video for the presence of people so that you can later sort your video to see just the
footage that contains people.
If you don’t set iMovie to analyze video for stabilization at this point, you can always do it later. You can
also analyze it for people later as well. Refer to the “See also” topics below for more information.
9. Click Import.
iMovie can take a while to import the video and generate thumbnail images of each clip, depending on
how much video you have. The progress indicator in the Import From window shows you how long it might
take.
To import video from a compatible DSLR:
1. Turn on your camera and set it to import mode.
2. Connect the camera to your computer.
3. If iPhoto opens, close it.
4. In iMovie, choose File > Import > Movies.
The File menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
5. In the window that opens, click the name of your device on the left side of the window below the Devices
heading, and then click the appropriate folders to navigate to the movies located on your camera.
6. Select the movies you want to import
Note: Movie file names have a .MOV extension. Each type of camera has a different file structure andnaming convention. Check your camera’s documentation if you’re unsure of where your movie files are
stored.
7. Choose the disk where you want to store the video from the “Save to” pop-up menu.
8. Choose how you want to organize the imported video in your Event Library:
To add the imported video to an 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 (for example, “Birthday Party”) in the “Create new Event”
field. If you want to create a new Event for each day on which the video was recorded, select “Splitdays into new Events.”
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Mac. Using iMovie on your computer, you can then edit the project just as you would any other project.
To import a project created using iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch:
1. Connect your device to your computer.
2. On your device, in the iMovie Projects screen, scroll to center the thumbnail for the project you want to
import into iMovie on your computer.
3. Tap the Share button , and then tap “Send Project to iTunes.”
4. Open iTunes on your Mac, and select the device on the left side of the iTunes window, below Devices.
5. Tap Apps at the top of the iTunes window, and then tap iMovie in the Apps pane on the left, below File
Sharing.
The shared project appears on the right in the iMovie Documents pane.
6. To copy the project from your device, drag it from the pane to your computer—onto your desktop, into
your Movies folder, or another convenient location.
7. Open iMovie on your Mac, and choose File > Import > iMovie for iOS Project.
8. In the window that appears, locate the iOS project on your computer, and then select it.
9. In the window that appears, select to create a new Event with the project or add the video to an existing
Event.
If you create a new Event, the project is added to your Project Library and a new Event is added to your
Event Library. Both have the same name as your iOS project.
If you add the video to an existing Event, the project is added to your Project Library and the video isadded to the Event you specify. The Event retains its original name.
To facilitate further editing, the imported Event video includes the entirety of the video clips used in your
iOS project, not just the specific portions you used. For example, if a video clip included 25 frames but you
used just 12 of those frames in your iOS project, all 25 frames of the original clip are imported.
10. Click Import.
The iOS project retains all audio and video edits and can now be further edited like any other iMovie
project. If the iOS project had a theme, the theme titles and transitions are retained, and you can add new
ones based on this original theme.
If you want to change the project’s theme, only the themes in iMovie for Mac are available. If you change
to one of these themes, you can’t change back to the original iOS theme, or any other iOS theme.
If your project contained photos, these images are retained in your project but aren’t available from the
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You can record video directly into iMovie using your computer’s built-in iSight camera or a tape-based camera or
camcorder.
To record video into iMovie:
1. Do one of the following:
If your computer has a built-in iSight camera, click the Import button to open the Import window.
If your computer doesn’t come with a built-in iSight camera, connect a tape-based camera or
camcorder, set it to VTR mode (this mode may have a different name on your device), and then
choose the camera you want to use from the Import From pop-up menu.
2. Click Capture.
3. Choose the disk where you want to store the video you’re about to record from the “Save to” pop-up
menu.
You can choose any hard disk that’s connected to your computer. Make sure the disk has enough
available storage space for the video you’re recording. It takes about 13 GB to store an hour of standard
(DV) video and 40 GB to store an hour of high-definition (HD) video. The amount of free space on each
available disk is shown in parentheses next to the disk’s 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 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 (for example, “Birthday Party”) in the “Create new Event”
field. If you want to create a new Event for each day on which the video was recorded, select “Split
days into new Events.”
5. To have iMovie analyze your video for stabilization, or to analyze it for the presence of people, select
“Analyze for stabilization after import,” and then choose an option from the pop-up menu:
Stabilization: Analyzes the camera motion in your video so that any shaky parts can be played back
more smoothly. It can be time consuming, so if you have over an hour’s worth of video to analyze, youmight want to let iMovie do it overnight or while you’re going to be away from your computer.
Stabilization and People: Analyzes the camera motion in your video so that any shaky parts can be
played back more smoothly; also analyzes video for people so that you can later sort your video to see
just the footage that contains people.
People: Analyzes video for the presence of people so that you can later sort your video to see just the
footage that contains people.
If you don’t set iMovie to analyze video for stabilization at this point, you can always do it later. You can
also analyze it for people later as well.
6. When you’re ready to begin recording, click Capture.
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camera farther away from the subject, so that when your video is stabilized, iMovie can zoom in to the center of your
video without cropping out the subject matter.
Note: Some video, such as footage shot with camcorders that use CMOS image sensors, may appear distorted after
stabilization. These camcorders often use a technology called a “rolling shutter,” which exposes different parts of the
frame at different times until the entire frame is fully exposed. If the camcorder is moved before the entire frame is
fully exposed, the resulting image may appear distorted. Applying video stabilization to this video may make this
distortion more apparent.
SEE ALSO
Correct rolling shutter distortion in a video clip
Browse Help ! Watch footage and projects
iMovie is a multipurpose application. You can use it to create original video projects, but you can also use it to store
and organize your video footage and to watch video—the projects you create and your raw footage (which, in iMovie,is organized into Events). When you watch projects or Events, you can play them from the beginning or from any
other point. You can also play just an individual clip in a project or Event.
To play your video:
Do any of the following:
To play an Event or project from the beginning, click any clip in a project or Event, and then click the Play
button (shown below) below the Project browser or Event browser. You can also choose View > “Play
from Beginning” or press the Backslash (\) key.
The View menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
To play your project or Event from a specific point, in the Project browser or Event browser move your
pointer over the frame where you want to begin, and then press the Space bar.
To play any frame range or clip, select it in the Project browser or Event browser (so that it has a yellow
border around it) and then press the Slash (/) key or choose View > Play Selection.
To play any frame range or clip in a loop, select it in the Project browser or Event browser (so that it has a
yellow border around it) and then choose View > Loop Selection. Press the Space bar to stop.
To play a project in full-screen playback mode from the beginning, choose View > “Play in Full-Screen
Playback Mode” while the project is open in the Project browser, or press Command-G to play the project
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The View menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
Browse Help ! Watch footage and projects
As you move the pointer over a video clip to skim it, the iMovie viewer displays the frame that’s currently under the
pointer. You can pause skimming so that the viewer continues to show the same frame of video even as you move
the pointer around.
To pause video skimming:
In the Project browser or Event browser, position the pointer, without clicking, over the frame in a video clip you
want to show in the iMovie viewer, and then hold down the Control key.
You can now move your pointer anywhere without changing the image showing in the viewer.
After you release the Control key, you can continue skimming video as usual.
Browse Help!
Watch footage and projects
If you have a second display connected to your computer, you can use it to play video. When you do so, the iMovie
viewer appears on the second display only, thereby expanding your workspace in the iMovie window.
To set iMovie to show video on a second display:
1. Connect a second display to your computer.
For instructions about how to connect a second display, choose Help > Mac Help and enter “connectingmultiple displays” in the search field. To view the Help menu, click your desktop so that the “Finder” is
active (you’ll see the word Finder in the upper-left corner of your screen), and then click Help in the light
gray bar at the top of your screen.
2. Make sure Advanced Tools are turned on in iMovie preferences.
3. In iMovie, choose Window > “Viewer on Other Display.”
The Window menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
To return the viewer to the iMovie window, choose Window, and then deselect “Viewer on Other Display.”
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To work on a new video project in iMovie, you first create the project by giving it a name and defining other
parameters for it, including whether or not your project will have a theme. Then you add video to the project from your
Event Library. If there is no video in your Event Library, you must first import some video from a camcorder or other
recording device, or from another source, such as from a camera archive or an iMovie HD project. To learn how to
import video, go to the Import section of iMovie Help.
iMovie comes with a selection of themes you can use in your movie. Each theme comes with its own title styles (titles
are text that appears onscreen) and transitions, which play between clips and give your movie a professional touch.You can have a clip fade in or out, dissolve into another clip, zoom into another clip, and so on. You can have iMovie
automatically add these transitions when you create a new project; you can always change or delete them later.
This topic describes how to create a standard movie project. To learn how to create a trailer, go to this topic instead:
Create a trailer.
To start a new video project:
1. In iMovie, choose File > New Project or click the Create Project button (shown below) in the lower-right
corner of the Project Library.
The File menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
2. Do one of the following:
To include titles and transitions styled after Apple-designed themes in your project, select one of thethemes presented below Project Themes. Click a theme thumbnail to preview it.
If you choose a theme, iMovie automatically inserts cross-dissolve transitions and transitions based on
the theme between clips, as well as a theme-styled introductory title over the first clip in your project,
and a theme-styled credits title over the last clip. To learn more about themes, go to this topic:
Overview: iMovie themes.
Select No Theme if you don’t want to add any theme-based elements to your project.
3. Type a name for the project in the Name field.
4. Choose a screen format from the Aspect Ratio pop-up menu:
Widescreen (16:9): Makes the movie appear much wider than it is high. Widescreen movies are
optimized for viewing on widescreen computer monitors and high-definition TVs (HDTVs). When
viewed on a standard-definition TV, widescreen movies appear with black areas above and below
(sometimes referred to as “letterbox”).
Standard (4:3): Makes the movie more square in shape. When viewed on a standard-definition TV,
these movies can fill the screen. When viewed on an HDTV or widescreen computer monitor, they
appear with black areas on the left and right of the video (sometimes referred to as “pillarbox”).
5. Choose an option from the Frame Rate pop-up menu.
You should choose the frame rate that you used to shoot the video.
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You can’t change this setting later, but you can view it by choosing File > Project Properties. The File
menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
6. Do one of the following:
If you didn’t choose a theme in step 2, and you want iMovie to automatically include transitions
between video clips as you add them, select “Automatically add,” and then choose a transition style
from the pop-up menu.
If you did choose a theme for your project but don’t want iMovie to add themed elements
automatically, deselect “Automatically add transitions and titles.”
7. Click Create.
You can now add video to a project from the Event browser and begin to embellish your project in other
ways, adding titles, special effects, background music and sound effects, and more.
If you don’t set a theme for your project when you first create it, you can always apply one later. You can also change
a theme at any time. Go to this topic to learn how: Set or change a project’s theme.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Start a project
NTSC, PAL, and Cinema are video format standards that refer to the number of frames per second (fps) your
recorded video contains. In general, video cameras purchased in North America use the NTSC format (30 fps), and
cameras purchased in Europe use the PAL format (25 fps).
Cinema format video has a frame rate of 24 fps. This is the frame rate at which traditional film cameras shoot, and
many people think this unique frame rate provides the resulting footage with a special “film-like” look. Therefore, many
newer digital cameras, no matter which country they’re purchased in, have a 24 fps “Cinema” mode. You can set your
camera to this mode to help give your footage that film-like appearance.
In general, when you create a new project, you should select the frame rate that you used to shoot the video. While
you can mix footage with different frame rates within the same project, it can lead to poor playback performance.
After you set the frame rate for a project, you can’t change it manually. However, if the first clip you add to the project
has a different frame rate from the project, iMovie prompts you to adjust the project frame rate to match.
When a video clip in your Event or project has a frame rate that doesn’t match that of the project, iMovie displays a
small symbol, which shows the frame rate of the video clip, in the lower left corner of the clip. This symbol indicatesthat you may experience poor playback performance.
You can view your project frame rate in the Project Properties window. Choose File > Project Properties. The File
menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project
In iMovie, you can create a storyboard (a draft layout) for your project before adding video clips to it. Storyboarding
lets you plan a project and experiment with timing and mixing types of shots (for example, close-ups, wide angles,
landscapes, and so on) so that there’s less trial and error when you start adding video clips.
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To change the name of a project:
1. In the Project Library, slowly double-click directly on the project’s name; the name becomes highlighted
and is now editable.
2. Type a new name, and then press Return.
Depending on how you have the Project Library organized, the project’s position in the project list may change after
you rename it.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Work with a project
Duplicating a project is useful if you want to edit the project but retain a copy of the original version.
To duplicate a project:
1. In the Project Library, click to select the project you want to duplicate, and then choose File > Duplicate
Project.
The File menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
A new project is created and is listed above the original project. It has the same filename as the original,
appended with a number.
2. Double-click the name and type a new one, if you want.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Work with a project
iMovie automatically saves all the changes you make as you work on a project, which means you never have to save
changes manually. Also, you can undo all of your changes up to the last time you quit and reopened iMovie.
Changes you make in a project don’t affect the source media (photos, and video from your Events) because iMoviedoesn’t alter the originals. As a result, you can restore a video clip or photo to its original state at any time.
SEE ALSO
Undo changes you’ve made to a project, photos, or Events
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Work with a project
When you’re finished creating a project, you can finalize it. With this process, iMovie prepares (renders) your movie inall of the possible sizes—mobile, medium, large, HD 720p, and HD 1080p—that your project’s media supports.
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3. If you want to turn off automatic transitions and titles (or just automatic transitions if your project has no
theme) so that iMovie doesn’t replace transitions already in your project, deselect “Automatically add
transitions and titles” or “Automatically add.”
As long as iMovie is set to add transitions automatically, you can’t add, edit, or delete them individually in
your project.
If you want to quickly add transitions to your project and then edit or change them individually, set iMovieto add transitions automatically when you choose the theme. Then, add a new transition to your project
and click Disable Automatic Transitions in the dialog that appears. This action turns off automatic
transitions, which means you can add, edit, and delete transitions individually.
4. Click OK.
You can also set the theme when your project is open by clicking the Title button (A, below) or the Transition button
(B, below) in the iMovie toolbar, shown below. Then click the Set Theme button in the upper-left corner of the browser
and follow steps 2 and 3, above.
SEE ALSO
Add transitions between video clips
Change the style of transitions in a project
Change still frames in theme-styled transitions
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Use project themes
To get the best results with the Sports theme, use the Sports Team Editor to enter team information—including player
names and statistics, player photos, and team logos—for any team you plan to feature in a movie project. iMovie then
incorporates this information into Sports theme tit les and transitions to give your projects professional polish.
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The new team type appears in the Sport pop-up menu in the Teams pane.
To import or export a team:
After you create a team in iMovie, you can export the team information (including logos, player photos, and
other player data) to a file. Exporting is useful in two significant ways: It’s a great way to archive the team data.Also, if you have iMovie on another computer, you can move the exported file to that computer and then import
it into iMovie so that you can work on team videos from there.
Do the following:
To import a team, click Import Teams (A, below) at the bottom of the Teams section of the Sports Team
Editor. Browse for the team file in the Finder window that opens, select it, and then click Open.
The team you just imported appears immediately in the Teams list.
To export a team, select it in the Teams section of the Sports Team Editor by clicking its name, and then
click Export Teams (B, below). In the dialog that appears, type a name for the exported file in the Save
Team field, choose where you want to save the file from the Where pop-up menu, and then click Save.
Team files have a “.imovieteams” extension.
You can export more than one team at a time by Command-clicking as you select teams.
To import a player list:
If you already have team information stored in a tab-delimited text file, you can import it into the Sports Team
Editor to save yourself the time of having to enter player information manually.
1. In the Sports Team Editor, select a team to import the player list to by clicking its name once in the Teams
list.
If you don’t yet have a team, you need to add one first by clicking the Add (+) button in the lower-left
corner of the Teams pane.
2. Click Import Player List at the bottom of the Players section of the Sports Team Editor.
3. Browse for the player list text file in the Finder window that opens, select it, and then click Open.
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in the horizontal gray area that separates the Project browser from the Event browser ensures that you
don’t accidentally select another project element.
If you have many clips selected, hold down the Command key and click the clips you don’t want selected.
To deselect all clips, choose Edit > Select > None.
The Edit menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
To select just transitions, photos, maps, backgrounds, or animatics:
To select just the transitions, photos, maps, backgrounds, or animatics in an open project, choose Edit >
Select, and then choose Transitions, Photos, Maps, Backgrounds, or Animatics.
SEE ALSO
Apply the same adjustments to multiple clips
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Select video clips and video frames
You can select a range of video frames from any clip in an Event or a project. These selected frames can then be
trimmed, marked with keywords, marked as favorite or rejected, or modified in other ways.
To select a frame range:
Do one of the following:
In the Project browser or Event browser, drag across the thumbnails of any clip to select a frame range. A
yellow border appears around the range you’ve selected.
When a filmstrip breaks onto two lines, you can select a frame range extending over the break simply by
continuing to drag across the break. When you reach the edge, the pointer jumps to the next line.
Click a clip in the Event browser. By default, a frame range of four seconds of video, starting at the point
where you clicked, is automatically selected.
In iMovie preferences, you can change this default setting so that clicking an Event clip selects a minimumof one second of video or a maximum of ten seconds of video.
To extend or shorten the frame range selection:
Do one of the following:
Drag the handles on either side of the yellow selection border to adjust where the selection starts or ends.
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If you have a Mac whose trackpad supports Multi-Touch gestures, swipe up using three fingers.
To use the “Add to Project” tool to add video:
If you want to add a lot of video to a project quickly and then fine-tune your selections later, use the “Add to
Project” tool.
1. Open a project, and then make sure Advanced Tools are enabled in iMovie.
2. In the Event Library, select an Event whose footage you want to add to your project.
3. Click the “Add to Project” button, shown below.
The pointer’s appearance changes, when you move the pointer over a video clip, indicating that it’s in toolmode.
4. Do either of the following:
Click some video in the Event that you want to add to your project.
By default, iMovie selects four seconds of video, starting from the point where you clicked, and adds itto your project. You can change this default setting so that clicking automatically selects more or less
video.
Drag to select a frame range in the Event.
When you click video or select a frame range, the video is immediately added to the end of the project.
Continue selecting video to add to the end of your project.
5. When you’re finished adding video to your current project, click the Pointer button to leave tool mode.
Event video that’s been added to a project is marked along the bottom with an orange stripe in the Event browser, so
you can see at a glance which video you’ve used. You can add the same video to multiple projects.
If you’re adding video from multiple sources and it doesn’t all fit within the aspect ratio you’ve set for the project,
iMovie can automatically crop it to fit your aspect ratio as you add it.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and delete video and photos in a project
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You can drag clips in the Project browser to rearrange them however you want in your project.
To move a clip in your project:
In the Project browser, select one or more clips, and drag them to a new location in the project. A vertical green
line appears in places where it’s OK to place the clip.
If you have a Mac with a trackpad that supports Multi-Touch technology, you can move a clip to the right or left of the
clip next to it by selecting it and swiping three fingers right or left on the trackpad. You can’t swipe a clip past a
transition.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and delete video and photos in a project
If you’ve imported video from your digital camera into iPhoto, it appears automatically in your iMovie Event Library (as
long as the video is in a compatible format).
To use iPhoto video in iMovie:
Click iPhoto Videos in the Event Library.
The videos appear in the Event browser on the right. You can select and use the video just as you would
any other footage.
To learn about importing video into iPhoto, open iPhoto and choose Help > iPhoto Help.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and delete video and photos in a project
Most consumer camcorders and still cameras include CMOS image sensors that expose the picture they’re recording
progressively, instead of all at once. As a result, if the camera moves a lot during recording, or if the camera isrecording fast motion, image distortion can occur. This causes the picture to appear wobbly or skewed. iMovie has a
rolling shutter feature that can reduce this motion distortion.
To correct distortion caused by rolling shutter:
1. In the Project browser, double-click a video clip, or select more than one video clip and then double-click.
2. In the inspector that opens, select the “Reduce motion distortion” checkbox, and then choose a level of
correction from the Amount pop-up menu.
Choose Medium for footage shot with a consumer camcorder. Choose High or Extra High for footage shot
with a Flip camcorder or a mobile phone that records video.
Rearrange clips within your project
Use video from your iPhoto library
Correct rolling shutter distortion in a video clip
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project.
Replace from Start: Replaces video in the project with video of an equal length from the Event,
starting from the beginning of your selected Event clip.
Replace from End: Replaces video in the project with video of an equal length from the Event, working
backward from the end of your selected Event clip.
Replace at Playhead: Replaces video in the project with video of an equal length from the Event,placing the beginning of the selected Event clip where the playhead appears in the project. iMovie
shortens or lengthens the Event clip, in both directions if necessary, to fill the space used by the clip
it’s replacing.
If there isn’t enough of the Event clip to equal the duration of the clip it’s replacing, a warning appears
asking if you want to continue. If you continue, the clip is replaced and the overall project duration
shortens.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and delete video and photos in a project
You can split a clip you’ve added to a project into two or three parts. This is useful when you want to insert a transition
or when you want to apply video effects or audio adjustments to just part of the clip.
You can’t split a clip in the Event browser.
To split a video clip into two parts:
Open a project so that it’s showing in the Project browser, and then do one of the following:
Rest the playhead (the red vertical line) at the point where you want to split the clip, and then press
Command-Shift-S.
Hold down the Control key, and then click where you want to split the clip. Choose Split Clip from the
shortcut menu that appears.
Select a region of the clip beginning at one end up to the point where you want to split the clip, and then
choose Clip > Split Clip.
The Clip menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
To split a video clip into three parts:
1. Open a project so that it’s showing in the Project browser.
2. Select a frame range that begins and ends in the middle of the clip (don’t select all the way to either end).
3. Do either of the following:
Choose Clip > Split Clip.
The Clip menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
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To extract a freeze frame from a project:
1. In the Project browser, move the playhead (the red vertical line) over the frame you want to freeze, and
then hold down the Control key as you click.
2. In the menu that appears, choose Add Freeze Frame.
A four-second freeze-frame clip is inserted at the playhead. You can drag it to a new location in the project andchange its duration. To remove it from your project, select it and then press Delete.
To add a still frame from an Event:
1. Move the playhead (the red vertical line) over a frame in the Event browser, and then hold down the
Control key as you click.
2. In the menu that appears, choose “Add Still Frame to Project.”
A four-second still-frame clip, with the Ken Burns effect applied to it, is added to the end of the project that’s
open in the Project browser. You can drag it to a new location in the project and change its duration. To
remove it from your project, select it and then press Delete.
To move a freeze-frame or a still-frame clip:
Drag the image to a new location in the Project browser. If you drag it over a video clip, iMovie adds the
image before or after that clip, where the vertical green line appears.
After you’ve added a still frame or a freeze frame to your project, you can change its duration. You can also edit it just
as you would any photo or still image, by cropping it, adding or adjusting the Ken Burns motion effect, and adding
special effects.
SEE ALSO
Crop video clips or still images
Modify the motion (Ken Burns) effect applied to a photo
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and delete video and photos in a project
When you add a background clip or an image—either a photo or a still image extracted from video—to your project,
iMovie creates a clip with it that by default appears onscreen for four seconds when you play your movie. You can
adjust the duration of this clip, making its appearance in your movie longer or shorter.
To adjust the duration of a photo, still frame, or background clip:
1. In the Project browser, double-click the clip whose duration you want to change.
Adjust the duration of a photo, still frame, or background clip
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top portion it shows the clip before it (B, below). Or it shows the clips on either side of the gap you clicked.
The transition point between the two clips is represented by a vertical blue line (C, below). The non-
shaded frames on either side of the line are the video that plays before and after the transition point (A
and B, below). The shaded frames are video that you didn’t use in your project (D, below).
2. To change where the transition point is, do any of the following:
Change the frame before the transition point: Move your pointer over the clip in the top portion of
the Precision Editor, on either side of the vertical blue line. The viewer plays the video as your pointer
moves. Click when you see the frame where you want the transition to start. The clip in the Precision
Editor shifts so that the frame you clicked is at the “cut point” where one clip ends and the next begins.This action either extends or shortens the clip, depending on where you set the new cut point.
You can also drag the clip, stopping when the viewer shows the frame you want at the cut point.
Change the frame after the transition point: Move your pointer over the clip in the bottom portion of
the Precision Editor, on either side of the vertical blue line. The viewer plays the video as your pointer
moves. Click when you see the frame you want after the transition. The clip in the Precision Editor
shifts so that the frame you clicked is at the “cut point” where one clip ends and the next begins. This
action either extends or shortens the clip, depending on where you set the new cut point.
You can also drag the clip, stopping when the viewer shows the frame you want at the cut point.
Reposition the transition point between the two clips: Drag the transition point handle (the blue
dot on the vertical blue line) to the left or right. This action trims frames from a clip on one side of the
transition while extending the clip on the other side. The total duration of your project stays the same.
As you reposition a transition point, the viewer shows the endpoint of the clip before the transition. To
make the viewer show the startpoint of the clip following the transition instead, hold down the Option
key as you drag the transition point handle.
3. To preview your work at any time, move the pointer over the horizontal gray divider between the upper
and lower clips. The playhead (the red vertical line) should be to the left of the blue transition line.
Skim the transition by moving the pointer along the divider; play it by pressing the Space bar. Press theSpace bar again to stop playing it.
You can also skim any element in the Precision Editor, such as the unused portion of a clip, by moving the
pointer over it.
4. Click Done in the upper-right corner of the Precision Editor.
To edit a transition between two clips:
Editing or repositioning a transition trims frames from one clip while extending the other.
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To change the font, color, size, text style, or alignment:
1. In the Project browser, select the title you want to change by clicking its blue title bar, and then click Show
Fonts in the upper-left corner of the viewer.
Note: You can’t change the style of some animated titles, such as Pixie Dust and Lens Flare, or themedtitles, which are represented by gold title bars.
2. Move your pointer over any font in the window that opens to preview your title in that font. (The viewer
shows the title in whatever font your pointer is hovering over.) Press the Space bar to play the video with
that font.
3. Skim and preview colors and font sizes in the same way you previewed fonts, in step 2 above. Move your
pointer down the column of colors, or the column of font sizes, to preview how the title looks in those
colors and sizes.
4. Click any font, color, or size to select it.
5. Click a style (bold, italic, or outlined) and an alignment to select them.
6. When you’re satisfied, click Done.
You can see more fonts, sizes, styles, colors, and so on by clicking the System Font Panel button in the lower-
left corner of the iMovie fonts window. When you use this fonts panel to preview changes to your title, however,
you must first select the title in the viewer by clicking it once (so that it becomes highlighted), and then click
various font, color, and other choices in the System Font Panel. When you’re satisfied with how your title looks,
click Done. Or, to return to the simplified fonts window, click iMovie Font Panel.
To change the title background color:
Some title styles include a background element whose color you can change. These styles are the following:
Gradient - White, Soft Bar - White, Paper, Formal, Gradient - Black, Soft Bar - Black, Torn Edge - Black, and
Torn Edge - Tan.
1. In the Project browser, select the title you want to change by clicking the blue or gold title bar.
2. In the viewer on the right, click the block of background color, which opens the Colors window.
If you have trouble getting the Colors window to appear, click in the lower-right or lower-left corner of the
viewer below the title.
3. Select a color from the color wheel, and then close the window.
To change the style of a non-themed title:
Do one of the following:
To change the style of a single title, double-click the blue or gold title bar in the Project browser, and then
click the Title button (which is labeled with the name of the current title style) in the inspector that opens.
In the Choose Title window, skim any of the title styles to see a preview in the iMovie viewer. Press the
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Space bar while your pointer is hovering over a specific style to preview it playing at normal speed.
Click any title style to select it. If you have automatic transitions turned on, click Turn Off Automatic
Transitions in the dialog that appears, and then click Done. If not, simply click Done.
To change the style of multiple titles in your project, open your project so that it’s showing in the Project
browser, and then click the Title button.
In the Title browser, move your pointer over any title style to preview it.
Drag any title style from the Title browser to a clip in the Project browser whose title you want to change.
Release the mouse button when you see the green Add (+) symbol.
In the dialog that appears, choose Replace to change just the selected title, Replace Similar to replace all
similar titles (if applicable), or Replace All to change the style of all titles in your project.
If you have automatic transitions turned on, click Turn Off Automatic Transitions in the dialog that
appears.
To change a theme-styled title:
Your project must have a theme in order to add theme-styled titles to it.
1. With your project open, click the Title button.
2. In the Title browser, move your pointer over any title style to preview it.
3. Drag any title style—a theme or a non-theme style—from the Title browser to the clip in the Project
browser whose title you want to change.
Release the mouse button when you see the green Add (+) symbol.
4. In the dialog that appears, choose Replace to change just the selected title, Replace Similar to replace all
similar titles, or Replace All to change the style of all titles in your project.
5. If you have automatic transitions turned on, click Turn Off Automatic Transitions in the dialog that appears.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and edit screen titles
You can make a title appear over as much or as little video as you want. You set duration individually for each title inAdjust how long a title stays onscreen
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Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and edit screen titles
You can easily duplicate the last title you created in a project and use it elsewhere in the same project. This
duplication is especially useful when you’ve formatted the title’s font, style, color, and other attributes just as you want
them. You can duplicate the title, and then simply edit its text without having to reset its other attributes. In this way,you can easily have all the titles in your project match.
To reuse the last title you created:
1. In the Project browser, select a video clip or a frame range you want to add the duplicated title to.
If the selected video already has a title, delete it first before moving to step 2.
2. Choose Clip > Duplicate Last Title.
The Clip menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
The last title you created is added, represented by a blue title bar above the clip. You can leave the title as
is or modify it any way you want, just as you would any other title.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and edit screen titles
After you create a title, you can move it to another location in your project.
To move a title:
In the Project browser, drag the blue or gold title bar to wherever you want it to appear in your project.
If “Snap to Ends” is turned on (choose View > “Snap to Ends” and make sure it has a checkmark next to it),
when you move a title, its beginning or end aligns with the beginning or end of clips as you move the title bar. A
vertical yellow line indicates the title has “snapped to” an end.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and edit transitions between clips
You can add transitions between clips to smooth or blend the change from one scene to another. You can have a clip
fade in or out, dissolve into another clip, zoom in to another clip, and so on.
You can add transitions to your project manually, choosing which effects to add between which clips. Or, you can set
iMovie to add transitions automatically.
By default, iMovie makes all the transitions in your movie the same length. Standard transitions are one-half of a
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second long and theme-styled transitions (which are available only if you’ve applied a theme to your project) are two
seconds long. You can change these default settings in iMovie preferences, and you can adjust the duration of each
transition individually after you add it to your project.
Note: Because no transition can be longer than half the length of the clip on either side of it, the transitions in your
project may be shorter than the default, depending on the length of the shortest clip adjacent to the effect.
To add transitions between clips manually:
1. With your project open in the Project browser, click the Transition button in the iMovie toolbar, or choose
Window > Transitions.
The Transitions browser opens, showing all the transitions available. If a theme is set for your project, agroup of theme-styled transitions appears above the standard transitions.
To preview the transitions, let the pointer hover over each one in the Transitions browser.
2. Select a transition by clicking it once, and then drag it between two adjacent clips in the Project browser.
The transition is represented by a transition icon in the Project browser. (Several icon styles are shown
below.) The exact appearance of the icon depends on which transition type you added.
To add transitions between clips automatically:
You can set iMovie to automatically insert transitions in your project. When you do so, iMovie adds a transition
almost every time you add a new clip to your project. If you have a theme applied to your project, iMovie adds
some theme-styled transitions and some standard effects. If you already have some transitions in your project,
iMovie replaces them with new ones.
Using automatic transitions is useful when you want to apply transitions throughout your project quickly.
However, with automatic transitions turned on, you can’t add, change, or delete transitions individually.
Therefore, to add transitions quickly and then edit them, set iMovie to add transitions automatically, and then
turn off automatic transitions. You can then select just the ones you want to modify.
1. With your project open, choose File > Project Theme (the File menu appears in a light gray bar across the
top of your computer screen), and then do one of the following:
To include transitions styled after a theme, select a theme by clicking it once, and then select the
“Automatically add transitions and titles” checkbox.
iMovie inserts standard cross-dissolve transitions between clips, with occasional transitions based on
the theme. Not every space between clips gets a transition.
iMovie also adds a theme-styled opening title over the first clip and an end title over the last.
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To include only standard, non-themed transitions in your project, click No Theme, select the
“Automatically add” checkbox, and then choose a transition style from the pop-up menu.
Note: If you already have a theme applied to your project and select No Theme, all theme elements
are removed from the project.
2. Click OK.
With automatic transitions turned on, you can double-click any transition in a project and change its duration inthe inspector that opens. Simply type a new duration in the Duration field, and indicate whether you want it to
apply to all the transitions in the project.
To set how much transitions overlap with adjacent clips:
Whether transitions are added to your project automatically or manually, you can set how much they overlap
with the clips they’re adjacent to. This setting, which applies to all non-themed transitions in your project,
affects the duration of your project.
With your project open, choose Edit > Transition Overlap, and then choose one of the following options:
All - Maintain Clip Range: The two clips are made to overlap by the length of the transition, and the
transition is placed over the overlapping region. In this case, no additional content from clip ends is
added. The total duration of your project decreases by the length of the transition.
Half - Maintain Project Duration: The transition is placed so that it spans the clips; one half of the
transition overlaps each clip. In this case, additional content from the end of each clip is added to fill
out the transition. The total duration of your project remains the same.
To change the overlap setting for a specific transition, double-click any non-themed transition icon in your
project. In the inspector that opens, choose an option from the Overlap pop-up menu.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and edit transitions between clips
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With your project open, do one of the following:
Add a transition to your project manually (by dragging a transition from the Transitions window to the
project), and then click Turn Off Automatic Transitions in the dialog that appears. The transitions already
in your project are retained.
Choose File > Project Theme, and then deselect the checkbox for automatic transitions; the File menu
appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
Choose one of the following:
Remove transitions (or transitions and titles) and extend clip ends: Removes all transitions from
the project and slightly extends the ends of the clips that were adjacent to the transitions. This option
lengthens the duration of your project a bit.
Remove transitions (or transitions and titles) and maintain clip durations: Removes all
transitions from the project and slightly shortens the ends of the clips that were adjacent to the
transitions. This option maintains the current duration of your project.
Leave transitions (or transitions and titles) in current locations: Retains all current transitions butadds no new ones as you add clips to the project.
Browse Help ! Create an iMovie project ! Add and edit transitions between clips
You can change the style of a transition that’s already in your project. For example, you might want to change a
cross-dissolve effect to a ripple effect, or you might want to replace a standard transition with one from the theme
that’s applied to your project.
To change the style of a single transition:
1. In the Project browser, double-click the icon for the transition you want to change.
2. In the inspector that opens, click the Transition button, which is labeled with the name of the current
transition style.
3. In the Choose Transition window, move your pointer over any of the transition styles to see a preview in
the viewer.
Press the Space bar while your pointer is hovering over a specific style to preview it playing at normal
speed.
4. Click a transition style to select it.
5. If you have automatic transitions turned on, click Turn Off Automatic Transitions in the dialog that appears.
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3. In the inspector that appears, type a new duration if you want to change how long the map remains
onscreen.
4. To apply an interesting visual effect to the map, click the Video Effect button (labeled None).
In the window that opens, move your pointer over any effect to preview it in the viewer. You can also
press the Space bar to play the preview in a loop. As the preview loops, you can move the pointer over
other effects to preview them. (Press the Space bar again to stop the preview.) Click the effect you want.
5. To set the start location for the map’s animation, click the Start Location button (labeled with the name of
a city).
In the window that opens, scroll to find a city, or type a location in the field at the top of the window to
narrow your search. iMovie knows the locations of thousands of cities, airports, and points of interest
around the world.
Select a location by clicking it, and then type the name you want to appear on the map in the field at the
bottom of the window. This feature is useful if you want, for example, to use the name of a friend you’re
visiting in that city instead of the name of the city.
6. If you want the map to show travel from one location to another, select the End Location checkbox, and
click the Choose End Location button. Specify a location as described in step 5, above.
When you’re done, click OK.
7. If you added a flat animated map, instead of a globe animated map, click Done.
8. If you want iMovie to show a somewhat magnified view of the map, select the “Zoom in” checkbox.
9. If you want to show an animated route line connecting the two locations, as well as their names, select the
“Show route lines/cities” checkbox.
10. If you added the Blue Marble Globe map, select the “Show clouds” checkbox to add realistic-lookingclouds to your map.
11. If you want to swap the start and end locations for the map (so that the map animates from Paris to New
York instead of New York to Paris, for example), click the Swap button to the right of the location buttons.
12. Click Done.
You can change the start and end locations at any time by double-clicking the map in your project and
entering new locations.
You can treat the animated map just as you would any other video clip, applying the Ken Burns effect to it,
cropping it, adding sound clips to it, and so on.
To add a still map to your project:
The Ken Burns effect is applied to still, or flat, maps. This effect makes it look as if the camera is panning andzooming slightly across the surface of the map while it’s onscreen.
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The File menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
2. In the dialog that appears, click to select a template in the Movie Trailers section.
When you choose a template, a preview appears in the viewer on the right. Click other templates to
preview them.
A brief description of the template and how many cast members it features appear below the viewer. This
information can help you decide which template to use. If you plan to use footage that features just two
people, you need to choose a template that allows for two cast members. Likewise, the description can
help you assess whether a template fits the flavor of trailer you want to create.
You can’t switch templates once you begin creating your project because the required elements from one
template won’t fit with a different template. If you want to use a different template for your project, youneed to create a new trailer from the beginning.
3. Type a name for the trailer project in the Name field.
4. Choose a screen format from the Aspect Ratio pop-up menu:
Widescreen (16:9): Makes the movie appear much wider than it is high. Widescreen movies are
optimized for viewing on widescreen computer monitors and high-definition TVs (HDTVs). When
viewed on a standard-definition TV, widescreen movies appear with black areas above and below
(sometimes referred to as “letterbox”).
Standard (4:3): Makes the movie more square in shape. When viewed on a standard-definition TV,these movies can fill the screen. When viewed on an HDTV or widescreen computer monitor, they
appear with black areas on the left and right of the video (sometimes referred to as “pillarbox”).
5. Choose an option from the Frame Rate pop-up menu.
You should choose the frame rate that you used to shoot the video.
6. Click Create.
A tabbed interface appears. You enter information about your movie in the Outline tab. You add video to
your trailer in the Storyboard and Shot List tabs.
7. Type the requested information in the text fields in the Outline tab.
Simply click the existing name or words and type new text. You can’t leave any fields blank because
iMovie incorporates what you type in the fields into the trailer. The required information varies among
templates. These are the possible categories:
Name and Date: Required details vary from template to template. Type the movie name, its release
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date (for example, “January 2010,” or “1/10/10”), and any other information requested, following the
model of the placeholder text.
Cast: Type the names of the people who are featured as main characters in the footage you plan to
use in the trailer. Some templates have no cast members, and some allow you to delete or add more
cast members by clicking the Delete (-) button or Add (+) button to the right of a field.
Studio: Type a fictitious studio name and choose a logo style from the pop-up menu. You can’t
change the appearance of the name (its font, color, size, and so on) as it appears in the logo.
Credits: Type a name in each of the credits fields.
8. Click the Storyboard tab.
A graphic interface representing the trailer’s storyboard appears. It includes text bars at the top (and at
other intervals) that let you edit onscreen text. There are also wells with placeholder imagery to which you
add video clips to build your project.
The text bars and wells are arranged in the order in which the elements appear in your trailer, but you can
edit or fill them in any order you like.
9. To edit any onscreen text, click the word or words in a text bar, type new text, and then press Return.
You can mimic the wording style of the placeholder text to preserve the templated flow and flavor of the
trailer. New text appears in the bar in italics to indicate you’ve edited it from the original.
To revert to the placeholder text, click the Revert button at the right end of the text bar.
10. Add video clips to placeholder wells simply by clicking video in the Event browser, or by selecting a frame
range.
When you add video by clicking it in the Event browser, starting from the point where you clicked, the
correct length of video is added to fill the active placeholder well. (The time stamp on the left edge of each
well indicates the length of video it requires.) When you fill a placeholder well with video, iMovie
automatically makes the next well active in the storyboard. If you want to fill wells out of order, simply click
one to select it.
The video you click or select should conform to the style of shot illustrated by the placeholder image. Forexample, if the active placeholder shows a headshot, you should add a tight close-up shot of the cast
member in question. If the image shows a character running, you should add footage of that character in
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Browse Help ! Crop and apply effects to video and photos ! Crop and rotate video clips and photos
If you don’t like the way you’ve cropped or rotated a video clip or photo, or the way you’ve applied the Ken Burns
effect, you can change the effect or restore the video or photo to its original state.
To reverse or make more changes to an image or video:
1. Select the photo or video clip, and then press the C key or click the Crop button.
2. Do any of the following in the viewer:
To change the image orientation, click the rotate buttons until you get the orientation you want.
To include the entire image in the frame regardless of its aspect ratio, click Fit.
To change a crop, click Crop, and then drag to reposition and resize the green crop rectangle.
To undo the Ken Burns effect, click Fit.
To change the Ken Burns effect, click Ken Burns, and then drag to reposition and resize the red and
green crop rectangles.
Browse Help ! Crop and apply effects to video and photos ! Enhance video and photos
iMovie includes several tools for adding special effects to video and photos in your projects.
Video effects
Video effects apply a stylized filter to still images and video to modify their appearance. Examples of video effects
include dream, sepia, negative, and x-ray.
Audio effects
Audio effects apply a filter to any type of audio clip—including the audio that was recorded with your video—modifying
the sound in interesting ways. Examples of audio effects include robot, cosmic, and echo. You can also change thepitch of audio clips or make them sound as though they were recorded in specific locations, such as a small room or
cathedral.
Effects that use two images
You create these two-image effects by dragging a video clip over another video clip in a project. To apply these
effects, you must have Advanced Tools turned on in iMovie preferences.
Picture-in-picture: A picture-in-picture clip is a clip of video that plays in a small window on top of another video
clip.
Cutaway: A cutaway clip is a video clip you insert into another, usually related, clip in order to show two differentelements of a single event. The two clips play sequentially, not at the same time: the original clip “cuts away” to
the added clip and then returns to the original clip.
Edit or revert cropping, rotating, or the Ken Burns effect
Types of special effects you can apply to video and photos
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2. Do one of the following:
In the Clip inspector that opens, drag the Speed slider to the left to make the video play slower or to
the right to make it play faster. The farther you drag the slider, the more extreme the speed change.
To set the percentage of the clip’s normal speed you want to apply, or to set the clip’s duration in
seconds, type values in the fields to the right of the Speed slider.
If you see a Convert Entire Clip button instead of the Speed slider, click it. Certain types of video—including video shot with the iPhone and H.264 video shot on the Flip camcorder—must be converted
before making a speed change. After the video is converted, you can drag the Speed slider or set the
percentage of the clip’s normal speed as described above.
If you change your mind later and want to undo the changes you’ve made, you can always open the inspector
again and reset the speed or direction of the clip. Click Done when you’re finished.
From the Clip menu:
1. In the Project browser, select one or more video clips or a frame range.
2. Do one of the following:
To slow down the selected video, choose Clip > Slow Motion, and then choose a percentage to slow
the clip: 50%, 25%, or 10%.
The Clip menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
To speed up the selected video, choose Clip > Fast Forward, and then choose a multiple: 2x, 4x, 8x,
or 20x.
If an option can’t be selected, it means the video clip isn’t long enough to accommodate that increase
of speed. Or, it may mean you need to convert your video. Certain types of video—including video
shot with the iPhone and H.264 video shot on the Flip camcorder—must be converted before making a
speed change. Double-click the clip in the Project browser. In the inspector that opens, if you see a
Convert Entire Clip button, click it. Then choose Clip > Slow Motion or Clip > Fast Forward again.
If you change your mind later and want to undo the changes you’ve made, double-click a video clip, or select
one or more video clips or a frame range you want to restore. In the inspector that opens, move the Speed
slider to reset the speed of the clip, and then click Done.
In the Project browser, when you move the pointer over a video clip that has had its speed changed, an icon near the
left edge of the clip (see examples below) indicates the following:
Rabbit facing to the right: The clip is sped up.
Turtle facing to the right: The clip is slowed down.
Rabbit facing to the left: The clip is reversed, or both sped up and reversed.
Turtle facing to the left: The clip is reversed and slowed down.
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Browse Help ! Crop and apply effects to video and photos ! Enhance video and photos
To reverse video:
When you reverse video, its length stays the same; it plays at the same speed, only backward.
1. In the Project browser, double-click a video clip you want to reverse, or select one or more video clips and
then double-click.
2. In the Clip inspector that opens, select the Reverse checkbox, and then click Done.
This makes the clip play backward in your project.
If you see a Convert Entire Clip button instead of the Speed slider and other speed controls, click it.
Certain types of video—including video shot with the iPhone and H.264 video shot on the Flip camcorder
—must be converted before making a speed change. After the video is converted, you can select the
Reverse checkbox.
3. Click Done.
In the Project browser, when you move the pointer over a video clip that has been reversed, an icon near the
left edge of the clip (see examples below) indicates the following:
Rabbit facing to the left: The clip is reversed, or both sped up and reversed.
Turtle facing to the left: The clip is reversed and slowed down.
If you change your mind later and want to undo the changes you’ve made, you can always select the reversedvideo in the Project browser, open the inspector, and deselect the Reverse checkbox.
To apply the instant replay effect to video:
Applying the Instant Replay effect lengthens your project somewhat because the replay plays in addition to the
original clip.
1. In the Project browser, select a single video clip or a frame range you want to replay.
2. Choose Clip > Instant Replay > [percentage ]; the Clip menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of
your computer screen.
The percentages refer to the speed of the replay. For example, choosing 50% means the replay plays at
half the speed of the original clip. The replay clip appears in the Project browser after the original clip.
If you have automatic transitions and titles turned on, you need to turn them off. Click the Turn Off
Automatic Transitions button in the dialog that appears. You can turn them on again later by choosing
File > Project Theme, and then selecting “Automatically add transitions and titles.”
If the Instant Replay option is dimmed, you may need to convert your video. Certain types of video—
including video shot with the iPhone and H.264 video shot on the Flip camcorder—must be converted
before making a speed change. Double-click the clip in the Project browser, and then click Convert Entire
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1. Make sure Advanced Tools are turned on.
2. Open the project you want to add the picture-in-picture clip to so that it’s showing in the Project browser.
3. In the Event browser, select a video clip or a frame range that you want to use as a picture in picture, and
then drag it over a clip in your project.
When you see the green Add (+) symbol, release the mouse button.
4. In the contextual menu that appears, choose “Picture in Picture.”
In the Project browser, the picture-in-picture clip appears with a blue border around it above the video clip
in your project, and the portion of the clip it appears in is shaded in gray.
Depending on the length of the picture-in-picture clip you added, it may extend beyond the clip you added
it to (only if there’s another clip after the clip you added the picture-in-picture clip to). To reposition where
the picture-in-picture clip appears in the project, drag it to a different spot within the same clip or to a
different clip. You can also drag the ends to lengthen or shorten it. To drag an end, move the pointer over
it until the pointer changes to a resize pointer, and then drag.
5. Play back the effect by placing the playhead (the red vertical line) anywhere before the picture-in-picture
clip in the Project browser and then pressing the Space bar.
Press the Space bar again to stop playback.
To adjust the picture-in-picture clip:
You can position the picture-in-picture clip anywhere you want within the main clip, and you can resize it, makea border around it, and set it to appear with a zoom or dissolve effect. You can even set it so that the original
video shrinks into the picture-in-picture window while the new video plays in the background.
Do any of the following:
To change the part of the frame where the picture-in-picture clip appears, click to select the clip in the
Project browser (so that its border turns yellow), and then drag the picture-in-picture window in the viewer.
Yellow guidelines appear to help you align it. Click Done when you’re happy with the placement.
To resize the picture-in-picture window, select the picture-in-picture clip in the Project browser (click it sothat a yellow border appears around it), and then drag any of the clip window’s corners in the viewer. Click
Done when you’re happy with the size.
To apply an effect to the picture-in-picture clip, double-click the clip in the Project browser to open the
inspector, and then choose Zoom, Dissolve, or Swap from the pop-up menu that appears below the PIP
Effect subhead.
Choosing Swap makes the main clip shrink into the picture-in-picture window while the new clip plays at
full size in the background.
To give the picture-in-picture clip a drop shadow or a border, or to set the border color, double-click the
picture-in-picture clip in the Project browser to open the inspector, and then select Visible next to Drop
Shadow, or click the Border Width or Border Color button below the PIP Effect section of the inspector.
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To delete a picture-in-picture clip:
Click to select the picture-in-picture clip in the Project browser (so that its border turns yellow), and then
press Delete.
The sound from the original clip and the sound from the picture-in-picture clip play simultaneously. You can reduce
the volume of either clip so that sound from the other clip stands out. Go to this topic to learn how: Reduce the volume
of competing audio clips.
You can edit picture-in-picture clips the same way you edit standard clips in your projects. For example, you can trim
them using the Clip Trimmer, adjust their audio, crop them, add video effects, and so on.
If a picture-in-picture clip covers a transition in your project, the transition is overridden and doesn’t play.
Browse Help ! Crop and apply effects to video and photos ! Enhance video and photos
A side-by-side clip creates a split-screen effect, showing two different video clips playing next to each other in the
same frame, with each clip taking up half of the frame. Side-by-side clips are useful for showing two people or groups
of people engaged in a different aspect of the same situation. For example, you could show a person arriving at a
surprise party in one side of the clip and the group awaiting the arrival in the other.
To add a side-by-side clip:
1. Make sure Advanced Tools are turned on.
2. Open the project you want to add the side-by-side clip to so that it’s showing in the Project browser.
3. In the Event browser, select a video clip or a frame range that you want to use as a side-by-side clip, and
then drag it over a clip in your project.
When you see the green Add (+) symbol, release the mouse button.
4. In the contextual menu that appears, choose “Side by Side.”
In the Project browser, the side-by-side clip appears with a blue border around it above the video clip youadded it to, at roughly the spot where you added it (toward the beginning, middle, or end of the clip).
Depending on the length of the side-by-side clip you added, it may extend beyond the clip you added it to
(only if there’s another clip after the clip you added the side-by-side clip to). You can drag the split-screen
clip so that it begins at a different point in the main clip. To reposition where the split-screen clip appears
in the project, drag it to a different clip.
5. Play back the effect by placing the playhead (the red vertical line) anywhere before the side-by-side clip in
the Project browser, and then pressing the Space bar.
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To adjust the side-by-side clip:
You can position the side-by-side clip so that it begins exactly where you want it to, and you can switch which
side of the frame it appears on. You can also set it to slide onscreen when it begins and then slide offscreen
when it ends.
To adjust the side-by-side clip, do any of the following:
To reposition the clip, click to select it in the Project browser (so that its border turns yellow), and then
drag it to a new position above the same clip.
To switch the side of the frame where the clip appears, double-click the clip in the Project browser to open
the inspector. Choose Left or Right from the “Side by Side” pop-up menu, and then click Done.
To apply a slide effect, double-click the clip in the Project browser to open the inspector. Select Manual
(below the Slide heading), and then drag the slider to set the duration of the slide. Then click Done.
To delete a side-by-side clip:
Click to select the side-by-side clip in the Project browser (so that its border turns yellow), and then press
Delete.
The sound from the original clip and the sound from the side-by-side clip play simultaneously. You can reduce the
volume of either clip so that sound from the other clip stands out. Go to this topic to learn how: Reduce the volume of
competing audio clips.
You can edit side-by-side clips the same way you edit standard clips in your projects. For example, you can trim them
using the Clip Trimmer, adjust their audio, crop them, add video effects, and so on.
If a side-by-side clip covers a transition in your project, the transition is overridden and doesn’t play.
Browse Help ! Crop and apply effects to video and photos ! Enhance video and photos
You can record video in front of a green or blue backdrop, and then “cut out” the subject and superimpose it intoanother video clip. This is called a “green-screen” or “blue-screen” effect. For example, you could record a friend
acting scared in front of a green or blue backdrop, and then place that video into a video clip showing an angry bear,
so that your friend appears to be standing, terrified, next to the bear.
You can also drag the green-screen or blue-screen clip over a solid-color or animated background clip.
If the subject of your video is green or is wearing green, you should record in front of a blue background. Likewise, if
the subject of your video contains blue or is wearing blue, you should record in front of a green background.
To use the green-screen or blue-screen effect:
1. Record video in front of an evenly lit, solid bright green or blue backdrop, and then import it into iMovie.
Use a green-screen or blue-screen effect to superimpose video
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how: Change the style of transitions in a project.
To make part of a clip fade to a visual effect and then fade back to its original state:
1. In the Project browser, select a frame range.
2. Choose Clip > “Fade to” > [option ].
The Clip menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
In the Project browser, the video clip is split into multiple pieces with cross-dissolve transitions between
them. The chosen effect (black and white, sepia, dream, and so on) is applied to the frame range you
originally selected.
3. Play back the effect by placing the playhead (the red vertical line) anywhere before where the effect
begins in the Project browser and then pressing the Space bar.
Press the Space bar again to stop playback.
You can change the style of the transitions that iMovie added to your project. Go to this topic to learn how:
Change the style of transitions in a project.
Browse Help ! Crop and apply effects to video and photos ! Enhance video and photos
If your project has a background music track to which you’ve added beat markers, you can apply special effects to thevideo in your project that synchronize with the music.
Jump Cut at Beat Markers: Jumps the video ahead by the number of frames you choose, from 3 to 30.
Split at Beat Markers: Splits the video at every beat marker. You can then apply different effects to each section
of video to create a visually striking movie project. You can also rearrange clips and add new ones while retaining
the “cut-on-the-beat” pattern.
Flip at Beat Markers: Flips the video at every beat marker, which makes the video appear as if you’re viewing it
from the other side.
These effects don’t alter how the background music plays.
To add jump cuts at beat markers:
1. Make sure your project has a background music track to which you’ve added beat markers.
2. In the Project browser, select a single video clip or a frame range.
3. Choose Clip > “Jump Cut at Beat Markers” > [number of frames ]; the Clip menu appears in a light gray bar
across the top of your computer screen.
If you have automatic transitions and titles turned on, you need to turn them off. Click the Turn OffAutomatic Transitions button in the dialog that appears. You can turn them on again later by choosing File
> Project Theme, and then selecting “Automatically add transitions and titles.”
Add video effects that synchronize with background music
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In the Project browser, drag the purple voiceover bar (shown below) to any other video frame or still image
in the project.
To delete a voiceover:
1. In the Project browser, select the purple voiceover bar (shown below) so that it’s outlined in yellow.
2. Press the Delete key, or choose Edit > Delete Selection.
The Edit menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
Browse Help ! Work with audio and music ! Add audio and music
You can add sound effects and music to video clips in your project. iMovie provides several sound effects to choose
from, and you can also use audio recordings from your GarageBand or iTunes libraries.
To attach a sound clip to video:
1. With your project open in the Project browser, click the “Music and Sound Effect” button in the toolbarbelow the viewer, or choose Window > “Music and Sound Effects.”
The Window menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
2. Choose one of the options from the pop-up menu at the top of the Music and Sound Effect browser to
focus your search for the music or sound file you want to add. If you don’t see the pop-up menu, drag thegray dot upwards to reveal it.
3. Browse to find the music you want to use in your project, or use the search field at the bottom of the
browser to find an audio file by name.
4. In the Project browser, drag the audio file over the video frame where you want it to begin playing.
A green bar appears below the video where the sound effect is applied.
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To move a sound clip to a different video clip in your project:
In the Project browser, drag the green bar to any other video frame or still image in the project.
If “Snap to Ends” is turned on (choose View > “Snap to Ends” and make sure it has a checkmark next to
it), as you drag an audio clip in the Project browser, its anchor aligns with the beginning of video clips. A
vertical yellow line appears when alignment has occurred.
The anchor of an audio clip is the point at which you “grabbed” the clip with the pointer to drag it. Because
you can grab anywhere in the audio clip, this feature allows you to align specific parts of audio clips with
video clips.
To delete a sound clip from a project:
1. In the Project browser, select the green bar that appears below the video clip; it becomes outlined in
yellow.
2. Press the Delete key, or choose Edit > Delete Selection.
The Edit menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
If the sound effect or music clip is too long, you can trim it. Go to this topic to learn how: Set the beginning and end of
a sound or music clip.
If the sound effect is difficult to hear over the background music, you can make the volume of the background musicautomatically lower (or “duck”) when the sound effect plays, giving priority to the audio in the sound effect: Reduce the
volume of competing audio clips.
Browse Help ! Work with audio and music ! Add audio and music
There are several ways to extract just the audio from a video clip in a project or Event and add it to another clip in a
project. The extracted audio clip behaves just like any other audio clip in iMovie. You can move it within the project,
trim it, apply an audio effect to it, and so on.
To add just audio from one video clip to another:
1. In the Project browser, select a video clip or a frame range, and then choose Clip > Detach Audio.
The Clip menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
The now-detached audio track appears as a purple bar below the video clip.
2. Drag the purple bar and position it below any video clip in your project.
When you move the audio clip, the video clip where it originated no longer has an audio track.
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Press the Space bar again to stop playback.
Using the Clip Trimmer:
The Clip Trimmer lets you trim the sound elements in your project one at a time, so it’s especially useful if
there’s just one sound element you want to change (the background music or a sound effect, for example). TheClip Trimmer also gives you access to the unused portions of the clip you’re editing, which can help you fine-
tune your trimming.
1. In the Project browser, move your pointer over the audio clip you want to trim, and then choose Clip
Trimmer from the Action pop-up menu (looks like a gear) that appears.
The Action menu icon appears at the left end of the green or purple sound clip bar, or in the upper-left
corner of the background music well in your project.
The Clip Trimmer opens, showing a magnified waveform view of the sound or music. The light blue orgreen portion of the waveform represents the part of the song or audio clip that’s used in the project. Any
dark blue or green portion of the waveform represents the part of the song or audio clip not currently used
in the project.
2. To set where the clip starts playing, drag the yellow handle near the start of the clip.
Yellow handles appear on both sides of the clip, as shown below.
3. To set where the sound clip stops playing, drag the yellow handle at the end of the clip.
Depending on which type of clip you’re trimming, the duration of the sound clip (the time stamp) appears
next to the handle. This makes it easy for you to adjust the sound clip to the exact length of the video clip
or project it applies to.
4. To preview your work, click the Play button in the Clip Trimmer; click the button again to stop the preview.
5. Click Done when you’re satisfied with the result.
When you trim a background music clip, iMovie applies a one-second fade-out to the end of the music clip so
that the music doesn’t end abruptly.
You can pin the beginning of a background music clip to a specific video clip, so that if you move the clip, the
music moves with it: Pin the start of a background music clip to a video frame.
Using audio waveforms:
With audio waveforms visible in the Project browser, you can modify aspects of all the sound elements in your
project in the same window. This feature is especially useful if you have many changes to make to your
project’s audio.
These instructions apply to modifying the startpoints and endpoints of audio you’ve added to your project, or
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In the Project browser, move your pointer over a video clip that has elements you want to align with a beat
marker, and then choose Precision Editor from the Action pop-up menu (looks like a gear) that appears in
the lower-left corner of the clip.
Click the Extras button, shown below. The other elements attached to the clip, such as titles, voiceover
clips, and so on, appear. Drag the colored bar for any element to align its left edge with a beat marker.
You can play back your work at any time by moving the playhead (the red vertical line) to the left of the clip you want
to see and then pressing the Space bar. Press it again to stop playback.
Browse Help ! Work with audio and music ! Synchronize video with music and other audio
iMovie has a “Snap to Beats” feature (turned on by default) that lets you easily align video clips and still images tobeat markers added to background music. With this feature on, when you drag a video clip near a beat marker, the
clip snaps to alignment with the marker and stays “pinned” to that marker (as long as you don’t move the video clip
elsewhere).
As a result of pinning, if you move a beat marker, the clip that is pinned to the beat marker moves with it. Therefore, if
you move the marker to the left, iMovie automatically lengthens the video clip that’s pinned to that marker and
shortens the preceding clip by the same amount. If you move the marker to the right, iMovie automatically shortens
the video clip that’s pinned to that marker and lengthens the preceding clip by the same amount.
“Snap to Beats” applies only when you’ve added beat markers to a background music track following the steps
described below. It’s a useful feature if you want to create a project with a music video feel because it lets you add
video and photos so that they appear in time with the music.
To synchronize using “Snap to Beats”:
1. Create a new project.
2. Add a background music track to the project.
The colored well that represents the track starts out as a small square, but it grows as you add video clips
to it.
3. Add beat markers to the background track.
Synchronize video clips with background music using “Snap to Beats”
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4. Add video clips to the project.
The clips are automatically added at beat markers, starting from the beginning of the music track.
iMovie automatically trims or extends each clip (from its end) to fit between the beat markers, so it’s
unnecessary to be exacting when you select video to add. The portion of the selected Event clip that
iMovie actually adds to the project is underlined in orange in the Event browser.
When you add other elements to your project—titles, sound effects, voiceover tracks, and so on—they alsosnap to the beat markers as you drag them in the Project browser. A vertical yellow line appears when they
have “snapped.”
You can add a transition effect to the project between two existing video clips, but it causes the rest of the
project after the transition to be out of sync with the beat markers. However, if you add a transition after the last
clip in the project, iMovie makes the preceding video clip and the transition fit in the space between beat
markers by shortening the video clip. You can then continue adding video clips that snap to the beats.
In the Clip Trimmer, you can add other beat markers to the music track wherever you want. When you do so,
iMovie splits the clip where you added the marker.
To turn off “Snap to Beats”:
You can turn off “Snap to Beats” at any time during the creation of a project. That means you can start the
project with it on and then turn it off to give yourself more leeway to move and edit elements of the project.
Choose View > “Snap to Beats” (make sure the command is deselected in the menu).
The View menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
When “Snap to Beats” is off, you can still add beat markers and use them to manually align elements to the
beat. When you add a marker to a portion of the music that already has video, the video clip isn’t split at the
marker. You can also move any existing beat markers without shortening or lengthening the video clips on
either side.
To replace video clips in your project, keeping existing beat markers aligned:
After you’ve synchronized video with beat markers added to background music clips, you can replace a video
clip in your project so that the new clip is the same duration as the one it’s replacing. That way, all the
subsequent clips in the project stay aligned with the beat markers.
1. Make sure Advanced Tools are turned on.
2. Make sure “Snap to Beats” is turned on; choose View > “Snap to Beats” (make sure the command is
selected in the menu).
3. Open the project you want to work on so that it’s showing in the Project browser.
4. In the Event browser, select a clip or a frame range you want to add to your project, and then drag it over
the clip in the Project browser you want to replace.
Release the mouse button when you see a green Add (+) symbol.
5. In the menu that appears, choose one of the following options:
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Browse Help ! Work with audio and music ! Adjust volume
You can select specific portions of a single audio or video clip and adjust the volume separately from that of the restof the clip. Such fine-tuned control over the audio in your project lets you correct for small imperfections (for example,
a brief loud noise that mars an otherwise good audio track) and add artistic flair by layering sounds in interesting
ways.
To adjust the volume of a portion of a clip:
1. With your project open, click the Audio Waveform button at the bottom of the Project browser, or select an
Event and then click the Audio Waveform button at the bottom of the Event browser.
In the Project browser and Event browser, blue waveforms represent the sound that was recorded with
your video. In the Project browser, green or purple waveforms represent sounds and music you’ve added
to your project. Names appear in the top-left corner of purple or green waveforms to make it easy to
identify them.
If you can’t see a waveform below a clip, the volume bar may be all the way at the bottom of the blue,
green, or purple band. Simply drag it up so that you can see the waveform.
2. In the waveform band, move your pointer over the beginning of the portion of audio you want to modify,
and then drag right or left to select the entire part you want to change.
As you drag, a yellow outline delineates the area you’re selecting.
You can also simply click the waveform band, which selects a portion of the waveform. Then move your
pointer over either end of the yellow outline (the pointer changes to a resize pointer) and drag right or left
to modify the selection range.
3. Move your pointer over the volume bar (the thin black horizontal line) of the selected portion of the clip,
and then drag up (to increase volume) or down (to decrease volume) when the pointer changes to a
resize pointer.
4. To modify the transition into and out of the modified portion (for example, to make the transition shorter or
longer), move the yellow dots that appear on the volume bar.
Move the pointer over a dot until it changes to a hand, and then drag to lengthen or shorten the transition.
5. To play back changes to the selected clip, move the playhead (the red vertical line) to the left of the clip
and then press the Space bar; press it again to stop playback.
To play back in an automatic loop as you’re making changes, choose View > Loop Selection. To stop the
loop, press the Space bar.
The View menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
6. To make further changes to a previously modified portion, click the adjusted audio range to select it; thendrag the volume bar to adjust the volume, or press the delete key to reset the volume to its original level.
Adjust the volume of a portion of an audio or a video clip
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Browse Help ! Work with audio and music ! Adjust audio quality
You can reduce the background noise in video and audio clips without reducing the overall volume and audio quality
of the clips. For example, if you recorded a birthday party outdoors and a plane flew overhead, the background noise
from the plane could mar an otherwise good audio track. Reducing the background noise can fix the problem.
To reduce background noise in an audio or a video clip:
1. In the Project browser, double-click the video clip or audio clip (the colored bar that represents a
voiceover, a sound effect, or music you’ve added to a clip, shown below) you want to modify.
2. Click Audio at the top of the inspector that opens.
3. Select the “Reduce background noise by” checkbox in the Enhance section of the inspector, and then
drag the slider to set a percentage of noise reduction.
Depending on the quality and type of audio embedded in your clip, there may be some reduction of overall
volume and audio quality if you set noise reduction to any value above 75 percent.
4. To play back changes to the selected clip, in the Project browser, move the playhead (the red vertical line)
to the left of the clip and then press the Space bar; press it again to stop playback.
You can start and stop playback while the inspector is open, which makes it easy to make a change by
moving the slider, play it back, and then adjust the slider and play back the changes again until you’re
satisfied with the result.
To restore audio to its original state at any time, even after you’ve closed and reopened the project, double-click the
clip, click Audio at the top of the inspector, and then click “Revert to Original.”
Browse Help ! Work with audio and music ! Adjust audio quality
iMovie includes an audio equalizer that lets you optimize the quality of sound in your video and audio clips. By
adjusting its controls, you can affect the range of tones, from treble to bass, in any sound clip, including the audiorecorded with a video clip, voiceovers, sound effects, and music.
The equalizer includes several preset options, such as Voice Enhance and Music Enhance, that make it easy to
improve sound quality for specific uses.
To optimize sound quality:
1. Double-click a video clip or an audio clip (the colored bar that represents a voiceover, a sound effect, or
music you’ve added to a clip, shown below) whose sound you want to optimize.
Reduce background noise in an audio or a video clip
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To remove an audio effect from a clip:
1. In the Project browser, double-click a video clip or an audio clip (the colored bar that represents a
voiceover, a sound effect, or music you’ve added to a clip, shown below) whose audio effect you want to
remove.
2. Click the Audio Effect button in the inspector that opens.
3. In the window that opens, click None, and then click Done.
Browse Help ! Share your video project
Image resolution refers to the number of pixels in an image. Resolution can be expressed in terms of the width and
height of the image in pixels (for example, 640 by 360 pixels) and as the total number of pixels in the image. The total
number of pixels is determined by multiplying the width and height of the image. So, an image that is 640 by 360
pixels has 230,400 total pixels.
Your electronic devices (computer, iPhone, iPod, iPad, and so on) also have screen resolution, which plays a role in
how images appear onscreen. For example, if you’re viewing an image with a large resolution on a device whose
screen has a smaller resolution, you have to scroll to see the entire image. If the image you’re viewing has a smaller
resolution than your screen, you’ll see the entire image without scrolling, and there will be space around the image.
When you share or export a project in iMovie, you have the choice to render it in a number of sizes: tiny (in a fewcases only), mobile, medium, large, HD 720p, and HD 1080p. The resolution of the exported movie for each of these
sizes varies depending on the aspect ratio (standard or widescreen) you chose when you created the project.
Listed below are the resolutions for each size, based on the original aspect ratio of your project.
Mobile: 480 by 360 pixels for standard aspect ratio or 480 by 272 pixels for widescreen aspect ratio.
Medium: 640 by 480 pixels for standard aspect ratio or 640 by 360 pixels for widescreen aspect ratio.
Large: 720 by 540 pixels for standard aspect ratio or 960 by 540 pixels for widescreen aspect ratio.
This size can be rendered only if the resolution of your original video is at least 960 by 540 pixels (widescreen
aspect ratio) or 720 by 540 pixels (standard aspect ratio).
HD 720p: 1280 by 720 pixels for widescreen aspect ratio.
This size can be rendered only if the resolution of your original video is at least 960 by 540 pixels and your project
is set to widescreen aspect ratio (16:9).
HD 1080p: 1920 by 1080 pixels for widescreen aspect ratio.
This size can be rendered only if the resolution of your original video is greater than 1280 by 720 pixels and your
project is set to widescreen aspect ratio (16:9).
Browse Help ! Share your video project ! Publish your video project online
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Edit Names and Passwords: Allows you to create user names and passwords that you can provide to
others to access the movie. After selecting this option, click the Add (+) button in the bottom-left corner
of the window and then type a user name. Press the Tab key, and then type the password you want to
associate with the user name. User names and passwords must be between 4 and 20 characters long
and can include only letters (a through z), digits (0 through 9), the underscore (_), and periods (.), but
only a single period can be used at the end. Any MobileMe Gallery movies available to this user are
listed to the right of the password.
5. Select “Hide movie on my Gallery home page” if you don’t want the movie to appear on the homepage of
your MobileMe Gallery.
Hiding the movie also prevents its viewers from seeing other parts of your MobileMe Gallery.
6. Select “Allow movie to be downloaded” if you want viewers to be able to download copies of your movie.
7. Click Publish.
iMovie renders and uploads your movie to your MobileMe Gallery.
8. To watch your movie online, click View, or to notify your friends and family of the new movie you’ve
published, click “Tell a Friend.”
Click OK to do neither and simply close the dialog.
In the Project Library, an icon appears next to the project’s name to indicate which size it has been rendered in.
When the project is open in the Project browser, its title bar also displays a MobileMe icon to indicate that it has
been published to your MobileMe Gallery. Click the icon to take you to the movie online, to notify friends about
it via email, to publish the movie again, or to remove the MobileMe icon from the Project browser.
If you make further edits to your project in iMovie after you’ve published it to your Gallery, a yellow warning
symbol appears near the icon (as shown below), indicating that your project is out of date and needs to be
rendered and published again. With the project open, click the icon and choose “Re-Publish to MobileMe” to
republish.
If you want to change the title or description of your movie later, without republishing it, you can log in to your
MobileMe account and change the information directly in your Gallery.
To remove a movie from your MobileMe Gallery:
Open the project or select it in the Project Library, and then choose Share > “Remove from MobileMe
Gallery.”
Browse Help ! Share your video project ! Publish your video project online
You can publish your iMovie project directly to a number of popular sharing websites, including YouTube, Facebook,Publish a movie to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, or CNN iReport
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MB: The size of the movie file in megabytes.
5. To allow your video to be viewable by anyone, deselect “Make this movie personal.”
By default, your video is viewable only by contacts you specify in your YouTube account on the YouTube
website.
6. Click Next.
7. Click Publish.
iMovie uploads your movie to YouTube, but it may take some time for your movie to appear there,
depending on website traffic.
8. To visit your movie’s webpage, click View in the dialog that appears.
It’s also a good idea to write down the URL for your movie for future reference.
9. To notify your friends of the new movie you’ve published, click “Tell a Friend.”
In the Project Library, an icon appears next to the project’s name to indicate which size it has been rendered in.
When the project is open in the Project browser, its title bar also displays a YouTube icon. Click the icon to goto the movie online, to notify friends about it via email, to publish the movie again, or to remove the YouTube
icon from the Project browser.
If you make further edits to your project in iMovie after you’ve published it, a yellow warning symbol appears
near the icon (as shown below), indicating that your project is out of date and needs to be rendered and
published again. With the project open, click the icon and then choose “Re-Publish to YouTube” to republish.
To delete the original movie from YouTube, go to your account page on the YouTube website.
To publish to Facebook:
1. In iMovie, open a project or select it in the Project Library, and then choose Share > Facebook.
The Share menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
2. Choose your account in the Account pop-up menu, or click Add to add an existing account.
If you don’t have an account, go to the Facebook website (www.facebook.com) and create one first.
3. Fill in the fields and make selections from pop-up menus:
Password: Your account password.
Viewable by: The subset of people who can view your video.
Title: The name of your movie.
Description: Information about your movie for viewers to read (optional).
4. Select a size for your published movie from the table of options.
The “Sizes to publish” table shows which sizes are compatible with Facebook, and the resolution of each
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2. Choose your account in the Account pop-up menu, or click Add to add an existing account.
If you don’t have an account, go to the CNN iReport website and create one first. (Go to www.ireport.com
and then click Upload at the top of the page.)
3. Fill in the fields and make selections from pop-up menus:
Password: Your account password.
Subject: The topic of your movie.
Body: Information about your movie for viewers to read (optional).
4. Select a size for your published movie from the table of options.
The “Sizes to publish” table shows which sizes are compatible with CNN iReport, and the resolution of
each size (how many pixels it contains).
If you’re unable to select the larger sizes, the original project media isn’t large enough to render in those
sizes. The size of the largest media used in the project determines the final movie sizes you can render.
The resolution of the exported movie for each size depends on the aspect ratio (standard or widescreen)you chose when you created the project. This topic explains resolution in more detail: About image
resolution of shared projects.
Holding the pointer over the “i” next to the movie dimensions displays the following information for the
rendered movies:
H.264: The standard video compression that’s used in the movie.
fps: The frame rate of the movie in frames per second.
Kbps or Mbps: The data rate of the movie in kilobits per second or megabits per second.
MB: The size of the movie file in megabytes.
5. Click Next.
6. Click Publish.
iMovie uploads your movie to the iReport website, but it may take some time for it to appear there,
depending on website traffic.
7. To visit your movie’s webpage, click View.
It’s also a good idea to write down the URL for your movie for future reference.
8. To notify your friends of the new movie you’ve published, click “Tell a Friend.”
In the Project Library, an icon appears next to the project’s name to indicate which size it has been rendered in.
When the project is open in the Project browser, its title bar also displays a CNN iReport icon. Click the icon to
go to the movie online, to notify friends about it via email, to publish the movie again, or to remove the CNN
iReport icon from the Project browser.
If you make further edits to your project in iMovie after you’ve published it, a yellow warning symbol appears
near the icon (as shown below), indicating that your project is out of date and needs to be rendered and
published again. With the project open, click the icon and then choose “Re-Publish to CNN iReport” torepublish. To delete the original movie from CNN iReport, visit the CNN iReport website.
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To copy Events that contain clips used in the project to the same disk as the project, click “Copy the
Events.”
To copy only the video in the clips used in the project to the same disk as the project, click “Copy the
clips.”
To move Events that contain clips used in the project to the same disk as the project, click “Move the
Events.” The Events are deleted from their previous locations.
In all three cases, any iTunes songs used in the project are also copied to the same disk as the project.
Browse Help ! Organize video ! Manage Events
When you import video, or record directly into iMovie, iMovie stores that video (your raw footage) as one or more
Events in the Event Library. This is the source video for all your video projects; when you create a movie or a trailer,you select video clips from your Events and add them to your project. You can then edit the video however you want
within the project without modifying the source video. As a result, after editing video in a project, you can always
revert back to the original, unmodified state of the source video.
When you import video, you name your Events, and then by default iMovie lists them in the Event Library by the date
they were recorded. You can choose to organize the library in other ways, and you can also hide the library to give
yourself more room to work.
In addition to being a powerful tool for making movie projects, iMovie is useful as a video library, a platform for
organizing, accessing, and watching all your footage. By giving your Events meaningful names, such as “Birthday
Party 2010,” “Family Vacation in Belize,” and so on, you can organize all of your video so that it’s readily accessibleand then watch it right in iMovie.
Browse Help ! Organize video ! Manage Events
In the Event Library, you can choose to view your Events in a number of ways, including by the date when they were
recorded and the disk they’re stored on.
To reorganize the Event Library:
1. If you don’t see the Event Library, click the Event Library button.
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4. Do one of the following:
To copy the Events, drag them to the icon of the hard disk, in the Event Library, you want to copy them
to.
To move the Events, hold down the Command key as you drag the Events to the icon of the hard disk
you want to move them to.
The Events are moved, and they’re deleted from the original location. Any projects using clips from themoved Events refer to the clips at their new location. This means that the hard disk to which you have
moved the Events must be connected to the computer where the projects are in order for you to play
or further edit the projects in iMovie.
If you’re moving a large amount of video at once, this process may take several minutes.
Browse Help ! Organize video ! Manage Events
If you’ve selected an Event in the Event Library but you don’t see any source video clips within it, you may have
chosen an Event browser view that hides your clips.
To show the source video clips within an Event:
Choose an option from the Show pop-up menu below the Event browser.
Favorites Only: Shows only the frames you’ve marked as “favorite.”
Favorites and Unmarked: Shows only the clips you’ve marked as “favorite” or left unmarked.
All Clips: Shows all video in the Event.
Rejected Only: Shows only the video you’ve marked as “rejected.”
“Favorites and Unmarked” is the recommended view for working with Event clips. If you’re in a different view, you can
press Command-L to switch back to the “Favorites and Unmarked” view at any time.
SEE ALSO
Mark and unmark video as “favorite” or “rejected”
Browse Help ! Organize video ! Rate and tag video
iMovie offers three ways to let you mark video footage so that you can find or sort it later. Marking video can speed
the process of creating projects because it facilitates finding the exact footage you want.
Marking video as “favorite” or “rejected”: In most cases, your Events (source video) contain footage that you’d like
If you can’t see any source video clips in a selected Event
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to use in projects as well as footage you would never use in a project. You can flag clips in your source video as
“favorite” or “rejected” as you skim the video. Later, when you’re creating a project, you can sort the Event
browser to see just the video flagged as “favorite.”
Tagging video with keywords: Tagging your Events with keywords helps you keep your video library organized
and makes it easier to find the specific footage you want. For example, you can tag all the landscape shots from
your last vacation with the term “landscape,” and later, when you’re creating a project featuring your vacation, you
can easily find all the landscape shots.
You can add any combination of keywords to any clip so that you can sort using very specific parameters. For
example, in addition to tagging some of your video with the keyword “landscape,” you can also tag some of your
shots with the additional keyword “trees” and others with the additional keyword “family.” That way, you can find
footage featuring your family against the landscape, footage featuring trees, and so on. You tag video with
keywords using the Keywords window.
Adding comment markers and chapter markers: You can mark any selection of video in your project with a
comment and then easily return to it by choosing the comment marker from the markers pop-up menu. Comment
markers are functional only in the Project browser.
You can also mark any frame of video in a project with a chapter marker and then easily return to the frame bychoosing the chapter marker from the markers pop-up menu.
Browse Help ! Organize video ! Rate and tag video
Your Event (source) video may contain sections that you don’t like or that you might never want to use in a project.
For example, there might be several frames where the image is blurry or chaotic, or frames where the imagery isn’t
particularly captivating.
You can easily mark the clips you like and the clips you don’t like as you review your source video. When you’re ready
to make a project, or play your video for your friends, you can focus on your best footage by choosing to display only
your favorite video.
You can delete rejected video to free up space on your hard disk.
To mark video using basic tools:
1. In the Event browser, select a frame range, a clip, or multiple clips you want to mark.
2. Do one of the following:
If you like the video, press the F key or click the “Mark as Favorite” button.
In the Event browser, a green line appears at the top of frames you’ve marked as “favorite.”
If you don’t like the video, press the R key, press the Delete key, or click the Reject button.
The marked video disappears from view. (If, however, you’ve chosen All Clips from the Show pop-up
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2. Do one of the following:
If Advanced Tools are turned off, in the Event browser, select the video you want to unmark as
“favorite” or “rejected,” and then press the U key or click the Unmark button.
If Advanced Tools are turned on, in the Event browser, click the Unmark button (shown above), and
then drag across the thumbnails of any clip to unmark a range of frames, or Shift-click to unmark an
entire clip.
In both cases, the green or red line at the top of the video disappears.
Browse Help ! Organize video ! Rate and tag video
You can show or hide Event video that you’ve marked as “favorite” or “rejected,” or that you’ve left unmarked.
To sort marked video:
1. In the Event Library, click to select the Event you want to search.
2. Choose an option from the Show pop-up menu below the Event browser.
Favorites Only: Shows only the frames you’ve marked as “favorite.”
Favorites and Unmarked: Shows only the clips you’ve marked as “favorite” or left unmarked.
All Clips: Shows all video in the Event.
Rejected Only: Shows only the video you’ve marked as "rejected.”
Browse Help ! Organize video ! Rate and tag video
You can add comment markers and chapter markers to any video in your projects so that you can easily skip to the
sections you’ve marked. You can add as many comment markers and chapter markers as you like.
Comment markers: You can mark any frame of video in your project with a comment and then return to the frame
by choosing the comment marker from the markers pop-up menu. Comment markers don’t appear in finished
projects; they appear only in the Project browser.
Chapter markers: When you use chapter markers to mark specific points in your movie, viewers can use the
markers to quickly jump to those points in the movie after it’s been exported or burned to DVD. Also, as with
comment markers, you can mark any frame of video with a chapter marker and then easily return to the frame bychoosing the chapter marker from the markers pop-up menu.
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Keep in mind that movies exported in the tiny format don’t include chapter markers.
To export your movie using advanced QuickTime options, choose Share > “Export using QuickTime.”
Browse Help ! Organize video ! Rate and tag video
You can apply one or more keywords to any selection of video in an Event (source video). You can then sort the
Event by keywords to see just the video you want. Sorting can be helpful when you’re creating a project. For example,
you could mark all the video that includes a specific location with that location’s name as a keyword (“swimming pool,”
for example). You could later sort for that name when you needed to choose footage of that location to include in a
project.
There are two ways to apply keywords to video. You can first select video to apply keywords to and then apply
keywords to it one by one. Or, you can use Advanced Tools to add keywords. With this method, you first select one or
more keywords you want to apply to video, and then select the video to apply them to. This method lets you add thesame set of keywords to many different video clips very quickly.
To apply keywords individually:
1. In the Event browser, select video (a frame range or one or more clips) you want to add keywords to.
2. Click the Keywords button in the iMovie toolbar to open the Keywords window.
If you don’t see the Keywords button, you need to turn on Advanced Tools.
3. At the top of the Keywords window, click Inspector.
iMovie comes with a number of keywords already set.
4. To add keywords to video, select those you want to apply; deselect any you don’t want to apply.
If a keyword has a number next to it, you can simply press the corresponding number key on your
keyboard to add that keyword.
A blue line appears at the top of the selected video, indicating that keywords have been applied to it.
5. To add a new keyword to the list, type it in the Keyword field, and then click “Add to Clip.”
This action applies the newly created keyword to the selected video, and it adds the keyword to the
Keywords list so that you can use the new keyword in the future.
6. The presence of a dash in the checkbox next to a keyword indicates that part of the selected video has
already been tagged with this keyword. Click the dash to select the keyword and apply it to all the selected
video; click it again to deselect it and remove it from all the selected video.
7. Continue to apply keywords to other video: drag across the thumbnails of any clip to select a frame range,
or Option-click to select an entire clip, and then select keywords to apply.
8. When you’re finished adding keywords, close the Keywords window or click the Pointer button.
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1. In the Event Library, click to select the Event you want to search.
2. Click the People button.
The Event browser refreshes to show just the video that contains people.
You can see all video from the selected Event that contains people without clicking the People button. Clipsthat contain images of people are displayed in the Event browser with a purple line across the top, along with
all other footage in the Event.
To find specific Event video that shows people:
1. In the Event Library, click to select the Event (already analyzed for people) you want to search.
2. Click the Keyword Filter button, below the Event Library, to open the Keyword Filtering pane.
If you don’t see the Keyword Filter button, you need to turn on Advanced Tools.
3. Select the “Filter by Keyword” checkbox at the top of the pane.
4. Click the buttons next to the parameters you want to search for to set your filter.
When the button is green, the filter includes that parameter; when the button is red, it doesn’t.
The possible parameters are People (one or more people), One Person, Two People, Group (two or morepeople), and Closeup, Medium (a medium-range shot), and Wide (a wide-angle shot). You see just the
parameters that apply to the selected footage.
5. Click Any or All at the bottom of the Keyword Filtering pane to find footage that corresponds to any of your
selected parameters or that corresponds to all of the parameters at once.
For example, if you want to find close-up shots of a single person, click the Closeup and One Person
buttons so that they’re green, and then click All.
As you select search parameters, the corresponding clips appear in the Event browser on the right.
6. When you’re done, click the Keyword Filter button to close the Keyword Filtering pane.
Browse Help ! Organize video ! Mark video that has panning motion
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You can print images of video clips as they appear in an Event or a project.
To print video clips:
Click anywhere within a project (in the Project browser) or an Event (in the Event browser), and then chooseFile > Print Project or File > Print Event.
The File menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
All clips in the project or Event, not just the selected clip, are printed as they currently appear in the Project
browser or Event browser.
Browse Help ! Optimize the iMovie window for your work style
To suit your work style, you can enlarge or shrink the individual thumbnail images that make up each video clip
(filmstrip) in the Project browser and Event browser.
To resize thumbnails:
Drag the thumbnail size slider to the right or left.
You can also expand or contract filmstrips to see more or fewer thumbnails in each clip. The expanded view makes it
easier to select video more precisely. The contracted view gives you a better sense of the overall project and allows
you to move clips within the project more easily.
Browse Help ! Optimize the iMovie window for your work style
Each video clip in iMovie is represented by a series of thumbnail images called a filmstrip . Each thumbnail can
represent several seconds of video encompassing hundreds of video frames (individual images).
You can expand the filmstrips to see more thumbnails in each clip. This expanded view makes it easier to select video
more precisely. The most expanded setting displays one thumbnail image for each one-half second of video footage.
By contracting the filmstrips, you can see more video clips at once in the Project browser or Event browser. This
contracted view gives you a better sense of the overall project and allows you to move clips within a project more
easily. The most contracted setting represents each clip with a single thumbnail.
To expand or contract filmstrips:
Print images of Event or project clips
Resize thumbnail images
See more or fewer thumbnail images for each video clip
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To display projects horizontally:
Click the Horizontal Display button in the upper-right corner of the Project browser.
To see more of the horizontal display, click the Swap button in the iMovie toolbar to exchange the
placement of the Project browser and the Event browser.
After you click the Horizontal Display button, all other projects open in horizontal orientation until you
switch back to the default view by clicking the button again.
Browse Help ! Optimize the iMovie window for your work style
To optimize your workspace, you can hide the Event Library or the Keyword Filtering pane. When you need to select
a different Event or filter by keywords, you can make the Event Library or Keyword Filtering pane visible again.
To show or hide the Event Library:
Choose Window > Show Event Library or Window > Hide Event Library, or click the Event Library button.
The Window menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
To show or hide the Keyword Filtering pane:
If Advanced Tools are turned on, you can filter Events by keywords using the Keyword Filtering pane.
Click the Keyword Filter button (shown below) in the lower-left corner of the iMovie window, or chooseWindow > Show Keyword Filter or Window > Hide Keyword Filter.
The Window menu appears in a light gray bar across the top of your computer screen.
SEE ALSO
Apply keywords to video
Find video tagged with specific keywords
Show or hide the Event Library or the Keyword Filtering pane
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Use a green-screen or blue-screen effect to superimpose video
Add video to a project
Replace a video clip in your project
Apply keywords to video
Mark and unmark video as “favorite” or “rejected”
Browse Help ! Optimize the iMovie window for your work style
You can use your keyboard to quickly accomplish many tasks in iMovie. To learn the shortcuts for common
commands, refer to the list below. You can also access this list within iMovie by choosing Help > Keyboard Shortcuts.
To complete an action, press the shortcut keys indicated in the list. The Command key must be pressed in
combination with other keys for some of the shortcuts listed below. The Command key appears immediately to the left
and right of the Space bar on most keyboards. It may feature an Apple icon or a propeller icon.
Another way to access relevant commands is to use shortcut menus. These are context-sensitive menus that list mostof the commands you can use while working with items in the iMovie window. To access a shortcut menu for an item
in the iMovie window, hold down the Control key while you click the item.
Action Shortcut
Get information
Open iMovie Help Command-Shift-Question Mark (?)
Open the Project Properties window Command-J
Open the Project Theme window Command-Shift-J
Show playhead info
Shows date, time, and keywords for video frames above the
playhead.
Command-Y
Import and export
Import from camera Command-I
Export movie Command-E
Play video
Play video beginning from the frame beneath the pointer Space bar
Play 1 second of video total—0.5 seconds before the pointer and
0.5 seconds after
Plays only 0.5 seconds of video from the beginning of the selection
or to the end of the selection if the pointer is resting within the
selection border.
Left Bracket ([)
Play three seconds of video total—1.5 seconds before the pointer
and 1.5 seconds after
Plays only 1.5 seconds of video from the beginning of the selection
or to the end of the selection if the pointer is resting within the
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Tighten kerning Command-Option-Left Arrow key
Loosen kerning Command-Option-Right Arrow key
iMovie window
Minimize window Command-M
Open “Music and Sound Effects” pane Command-1
Open Photos pane Command-2
Open Titles pane Command-3
Open Transitions pane Command-4
Open “Map, Background and Animatic” browser Command-5
Show projects at full-screen Command-6
Show Events at full screen Command-7
Make viewer small Command-8
Make viewer medium Command-9
Make viewer large Command-0
Browse Help ! More resources
If you can’t find the answer to your question in iMovie Help, visit the iLife Resources website. You’ll find additional
learning resources for iMovie and the other iLife applications.
SEE ALSO
iLife Resources website
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