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Introduction to iMovie and iDVD for CREST

The Do's and Don't's of Shooting Video

Bryan Alexander's Resources Page!

Getting Started w/iMovie
Using iMovie to Play Back your Video Footage
Capturing Your Video Footage from your Video Camera so that you can Edit
Editing your movie
Importing Still Images into iMovie
Sharing your Movies with the Rest of the World
Archiving your iMovie Projects and Files

Getting Started - Launching iMovie

Double click on the Macintosh HD icon on your Desktop to open it and navigate to Applications/iMovie HD. Double-click on iMovie to open it.

At the "iMovie HD" window, click on "Create a New Project".
At the "Create Project" window, next to "Project:", type in a file name for your iMovie project.
Save the file to the desktop.

iMovie Preferences Options:

Go to iMovie HD/Preferences
Click on the Import icon. Uncheck "Start a new clip at each scene break"
Under Import icon, uncheck "Automatic DV Pillarboxing & Letterboxing". Close the Preferences window.

While you are working, use iMovie's built in Help.

Choose Help/iMovie HD Getting Started
Choose Help/iMovie HD Help
Choose iMovie HD/iMovie HD Hot Tips (web site)

Using iMovie to Play Back your Video Footage

Connect the camera to the computer:

Insert your mini-dv tape into the camera
Set camera mode to "play/edit" (or VCR/VTR mode)
Connect FireWire cable from FireWire port on the side of the Macintosh to the dv in/out port in the camera
(While working with your camera at the computer, save the camera's battery juice by plugging in the ac adapter.)

Below and to the left of the iMovie monitor, set the Mode to "import video" mode by clicking on the DV camera icon).

The iMovie monitor will turn blue and should say "Camera Connected".
If it says "No Camera Attached", re-check the connection between the camera and the computer, and make sure that the camera is in play-edit or VCR mode.

Use the controls below the "Import" button (or the VCR controls on your camera) to rewind the tape in your camera to the beginning (or to the spot where you taped).

Click on the play button to view your footage. At any time, you can rewind, fastforward, pause or continue.

Capturing Your Video Footage from your Video Camera
so that you can Edit

NOTE: Capture only the footage that you are going to include in your movie. Five minutes of captured video footage uses up 1 gigabyte of harddrive space so you can't afford to capture what you aren't going to use. It's important that you are familiar with your footage before you start to capture so that you know what you want to include in your final movie and can capture only that.

To begin capturing, you must have your camera connected and ready to play back.

Use the controls below the "Import" button or the VCR controls on your camera to rewind the tape in your camera to a few seconds before the point where you want to start importing.

Click on the play button (in the iMovie controls) to advance your tape.

Now click on the Import button. At the end of the scene you want to capture, click on the Import button again to stop importing. While you are importing, the Import button will be blue. When not importing, it is white.

Each imported clip will appear on the "Clips Pane" on the right side of the iMovie window. Click twice on the clip name to rename it.

Import all the clips you want to include in your movie and save your file.

Editing your movie:

Editing includes:

sequencing the various clips you captured into the order you want them to play in your final movie
trimming/cropping/deleting parts of the captured clips
Adding Titles and Credits

Before you can edit, you will need to make the captured clips part of your iMovie project, by dragging them from the "Clips Pane" to the Clip viewer or the Timeline Viewer (lower area of iMovie window).

The "Clip Viewer" displays clips in the sequence they occur in your movie. Each clip is represented by a similar icon, no matter how long the clip is or what type of clip it is.

The "Timeline Viewer" displays a clip's video (and audio) tracks proportionally according to clip duration. This mode also allows you to edit audio and configure "voice-over".

Sequencing your Clips

Click on the Clip Viewer icon to use that mode.
Click on a clip in the Clips Tray and drag it to the Clip Viewer.
You can drag the clips from the tray to the Clip Viewer in any order that you want.

Once clips are in the Clip Viewer, you can change their position in your movie by simply clicking and dragging them to the right or left in the clip viewer.

SAVE your work frequently. At a minimum, save every 5 minutes and/or everytime you complete a segment of your project.

Trimming/Cropping/Deleting parts of a video clip:

The easiest way to crop out a part of a clip is to make it a clip of its own and then delete it.

In the Timeline Viewer, cue up (move the playhead) to the part of the clip that you want to delete.
You can use your right and left arrow keys on your keyboard to cue to the exact frame.

Choose Edit/Split Video Clip at Playhead.
This will split the clip into 2 parts. Select (click on) the clip you don't want. Press the Delete key on your keyboard.

Titles and Credits

Click on the Editing button at the bottom of the Clips Pane.

Click on the Titles tab at the top of the Editing area.

Choose one of the titles from the list of titles, e.g., "Centered Title" and click on it to select it.
Type in your title in the 2+ rows below the list of titles.
If appropriate, pick a direction for the title (use round direction dial)
Select the color, font (Family), style (TypeFace) and size for your title.
Set a speed and pause duration of your title.
If you want your title over your video footage, leave the "Over black" option unchecked.
If you want your title on a black background, check the "Over black" option.
Drag the title NAME down to the clip viewer. If you want the title to appear over a video clip, place it before that clip.
Wait for rendering (horizontal red line crossing the clip).

Try "Scrolling" titles for lengthy credits at end of video.

Importing Still Images into iMovie

Still images must be in jpg, pict, or tiff format.

In iMovie, choose File/Import File.

Navigate to the image file you want to use.
Click on the Open button.

The image will appear in the clips pane and can be dragged to the clip viewer just as video can.

NOTE: if the image(s) is in iPhoto, you can access it from the "Media" area in iMovie.

Click on the Media icon. Click on the "Photos" button at the top of the Media area.
Your image file, or the folder it was in, should be included in the list of image files.
Click on the "Show Photo Settings" button. A window will appear which gives you control of zooming in on your image, panning your image and the duration of your image.

To change the duration of an imported still image, click the clip in the timeline viewer. In the Photo Settings window, move the speed slider (represented by turtle and hare) left or right depending on whether you want the clip to play slower or faster, or type in your preferred duration. Click on the Update button to make the new duration take effect.

Sharing your Movies with the Rest of the World

In order to make your iMovie project accessible or viewable to any audience, you can export your project file to a DVD (so that it will play in any DVD player) or to a QuickTime file, so that it will play on any computer.

Directions for making a DVD of your movie

Exporting your movie to QuickTime

QuickTime is a video format that can run on any computer, Macintosh or PC, provided that the QuickTime Player is installed on the computer. All Macintosh computers come w/the QuickTime Player. You can download the QT Player (free) for Windows pc's from Apple's web site:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/win.html

By exporting your iMovie file project to Quicktime, you can broaden your audience because you can then email (a lower quality version of) your movie or publish it to a web site.

Steps:

Save your movie. Choose File/Export...
Click on the QuickTime icon at the top of the window that appears.
Next to Compress movie for:, you have a number of choices that result in varying levels of compression. File compression decreases the quality of your video but also decreases file size. The "Email" option will result in the smallest file size, but the worst quality video also. The movie will appear pixel-y and the window through which you view the movie will be small. "Full Quality" will give you the best quality movie but the largest file size, probably too big to fit on a CD or to be sent through email. Select the option that is most appropriate for you.
Click on Share.
At the Save window, type in a file name for your QuickTime movie. Save the file to the desktop. Click on Save.
When the export is complete, you will find your QT file on the desktop. Double-click on it to open it.

Archiving your iMovie Projects and Files

While burning a DVD or creating a QT movie of your project are 2 methods of archiving, these methods archive only the finished product. There will be times when you need to archive a project so that you can resume work on it at a later date. In this context, you will want to save your entire iMovie project file. You can save the file to a DVD or, if it's small enough,to a CD. NOTE: this version of your project will NOT be playable on any DVD player. Finally, another option is to save it back to a mini dv-tape.

Burning your Project to Disc

Save your iMovie project.
Choose File/Burn Project to Disc...
At the "Create a Project Archive?" alert window, click on OK.
When the "Burn Disk" window appears, insert a DVD-R (preferred) or DVD+R or CD into your "Super Drive". Once the window says, "Ready to burn", click on the "Burn" button.

When the process is complete, you will see your project file on the top level of the DVD (or CD). That file can be copied back to any Macintosh computer so that you can resume work on your project.

Exporting your movie back to tape:

This archiving option is especially useful when you are quite sure the project is complete, or for large files that will not fit on a DVD (5.4 G limit) and when harddrive space is at a premium. Mini-dv tapes are easy to store and once your project is backed up on one, frees up significant space on your computer's harddrive. When the movie is on the mini dv tape, you can capture it back into an iMovie file at a later date. (You will lose the ability to edit your titles and other special effects in the usual way).