PE2_iMovie

In this second blog about iMovie we move into the editing features...or playing as I like to call it.  This is where you start trying to figure out what direction you want your video to take.  I decided to take some video we shot of our dogs' first Christmas and put it into a video to share with family and friends.

I had already uploaded the video into iMovie, so now I just needed to look through and start adding the sections that I wanted.  I could arrange the clips easily by just dropping and dragging them.

Selecting clips is easy

I decided to choose a theme for my project and the photo album theme seemed the most logical.  When choosing a theme, it is best to keep the automatic transitions so that it stays with the flow of the theme.

Theme selection page

Even though the transitions and titles are added for you, you still have the option of personalizing and editing them to fit your needs.  Below you can see where I added the title and then customized how I wanted the first transition to look.

Title Screen

First Transition

iMovie also allows you to edit your video in various ways after adding it.  You can adjust the speed of your video, stabilize your video, add an effect to your video, and edit the audio of your video clip...all with a few clicks of the mouse!

Inspector for clip adjustment

Choose a video effect

Adjust your audio

I chose not to add a video effect, but if you do, all you have to do is copy that effect and you can paste it onto all your other slides without having to go into the inspector for each clip (very user friendly).  As you can see from my above audio picture.  I chose to turn the volume of my clip completely down or off.  There were lots of background noise, my boyfriend and I were talking to each other, the dogs were barking...it just was messy.  Instead I am adding background music throughout the video.  I also want to point out here that you have the choice of fading in and out, ducking the volume (making it lower while someone is talking) and normalizing the audio...as with everything in iMovie, if you don't like what you did, click revert to original and start again!

After working with the video, I decided to add still photos to the project as well.  The great thing about iMovie and still photos is that you can import easily from iPhoto, and you are able to adjust how the photos look (the Ken Burns effects).  The Ken Burns effects are how the photo is zoomed in during playback.

Editing Still Photos is Easy as Well

Editing the Ken Burn Effects

After editing how you want the picture to zoom, you can preview and then click done.

The final thing I wanted to do was add music.  I found a free Christmas music site: www.feelslikechristmas.com, where new artists upload their music for you to download and use royalty free.  There were a few restrictions, but private personal use was allowed.  I chose a song that was at least as long as my video, chose it from my iTunes library and then dropped it into the event.  If you didn't have music you wanted to use on your computer, iMovie has a great gallery of music and sounds you can use to customize your video.

In the next blog, I will show you the different sharing options and my final project!

-Heather

PE1_iMovie

Let's Get Started!

This week our task was to learn all of the major features of iMovie through Lynda.com.  I have watched excerpts of this training as I have needed them previously, but this will be the first time I sit down and go through the entire course.  I am excited to learn all about how I can make my movies appear more professional!

First we learn how to import our video/photo files.  We were taught how to import from memory based cameras as well as tape cameras (which I found interesting as tape cameras are becoming more obsolete).  You also have the option of importing from the camera on your Macbook Pro (where you can film the video right then and subsequently import).

After we have imported our video, we are taught how to manage our video library.

Here we learn the basics of navigating though our library.  The new knowledge I learned here was how to merge and split events.  I had imported several videos on the same day, and not all were related.  This section taught me how to split the event into two distinct sections so that I would have an easier time working with the clips.  I didn't realize it was as easy as a few clicks!!

I also learned how to mark favorite clips or discard clips.  When I looked in my library, I realized that I had a lot of rejected clips taking up space.  Now I know how to move them to the system trash and save room for all the new clips I am importing or will be importing.

Here you can see that in this section alone, I had a little over 9 minutes of rejected clips.

This brings me to the end of my first blog on iMovie.  In the next blog we will begin playing with the great features iMovie has to offer!

-Heather