iMovie HD (for intel mac) Basics:

Necessary equipment:

• Digital VideoCamera with firewire capability
• Firewire capable computer
• Apple computer with iMovie software
• Digital Video Tape

Getting Started:

• Using the firewire cable plug the camera, into the computer. Both the computer and the camera have both USB AND Firewire ports you have to use the Firewire cable. There is only one type of port that will accept the firewire cable so it shouldn’t be any problem.
• Turn the camera to the VTR setting. This is done to show the pre-recorded video.
• Open iMovie HD.
• If this is you first project iMovie will ask you to name your project. Choose the location and name of your new movie.
  *If a movie opens that is not your movie then choose FILE...New Project.

Capturing

• If your camera is connected correctly you should see a blue screen that says “Camera Connected”. This is the window in which you will view your videotape.
• Notice the slider control in the lower left, one end of it has an icon of a camera and the other has scissors. This controls whether you are viewing your videotape from the camera or editing your video on the computer. If you are viewing and importing film from your camera be sure it is to the left (camera icon) otherwise it will be do the right (scissor icon). The camera has a drop-down menu and one of the options will be “Built-in iSight” make sure to choose the other camera.
• The buttons located in the lower middle of the screen control your camera and allow you to view, rewind, pause, etc.
• The button located directly above the “play” button, is the “import” button. This is the button used to capture the parts of your video you wish to use in your new movie.
• To capture a clip simply navigate the tape to the part that you want then push the “play” button.
• Next push the Import button. Whatever you see on the screen will be saved onto the computer. This is done in “real time” and cannot be shortened if your video is 1 hour long it will take 1 hour to download it to disk.
• When you reach the end of the section you wish to capture push the “import” button again, this will stop the import.
• Continue this process until you have captured all the clips you wish to use to make your movie.
• As you create the clips you should see them appear to the right side of the screen in what’s called the bin. All the clips that you create will show up in the bin. If you make a mistake and create a clip you don’t want then just highlight it (click on the clip) and press the delete button on the keyboard (the delete under F13 is the one you want). The Bin can hold as many clips as you want

Now you are ready for editing.

Editing

Adding to the Time-Line:

• Drag the clips that you wish to use in your movie down onto the time-line. The time-line is located at the bottom of the window. You want to drag the clips in the order you want them to appear if possible. It is possible to change the order later if you need to.
• Once you have added your clips, the time-line will contain several clips in the order you placed them.
• You will also notice that the control in the lower left of the window is now slid to the right (scissors). This means that you are now viewing your edited movie, not what’s on the camera.
• There are several things that you can do to your movie at this time including adding titles, transitions, special effects and still photos. These tools are located under buttons under the bin.
• Each of these buttons will allow you to add these things to your video.

Themes:

• To view the different themes available in iMovie, click Themes. Use the pop-up menu at the top of the Themes pane to get a feel for what each theme looks like.
• Click on one of the themes to see preview what it will look like.
• In the Title 1 field, type a movie title. As the preview plays, you’ll see your title used at the end of the preview.
• Make sure the Drop Zone Editor is visible. If it is hidden, click the “Show Drop Zones” button.
• Drag video clips from your timeline into the drop zones labeled 1, 2, and 3. Notice the preview changes to include your new video in the.
• To add still clips click Media, and then click Photos. Drag a photo from your iPhoto Library to one of the drop zones. Watch as the preview updates to show your photo added to the theme. This will only work if you have already added your photos to the iPhoto library.
• Place your play head where you want this new theme to appear and click “Apply” to create a new video clip that uses your title, video, and photo.
• Congratulations! You’ve successfully applied your video, photos, and a title to two different theme elements. Continue experimenting with different theme elements to see how they can best be incorporated in your movies.

Photos:

• Click the “Media” button to open the iLife Media Browser. Choose “Photos” to see your iPhoto Library and click “Show Photo Settings” to see the Photo Settings window. The Photo Settings window allows you to set the Ken Burns Effect.
• Use the arrows to scroll through all the pictures in your library.
• You can import a photo by dragging your iPhoto Library to the clip viewer. Notice the photo will be imported into your iMovie project and placed on the timeline. Look at the top of the new clip in the timeline to see the duration associated with your photo.
• Double-click on the photo in the timeline to see information about it. Here you can give your photo a new name and change it’s. Click Set to see the changes take effect in the timeline.
• If you did not load photos into iPhoto but brought still images into iMovie using the import option you can use the Photos option to change the zoom, length and use the
• Ken Burn’s effect.
• The Ken Burn’s effect allows you to apply motion to an image. Put the slider to ”Start” and changing the size and speed then move the slider to “End” and change the setting again. When you preview or update your photo you will see how it gives the effect of motion.
• To change any setting on an image highlight the image, it will turn blue, then change the settings.
• The top slider, with the small picture and the large picture, is the zoom of the picture.
• The bottom slider, with the rabbit and turtle, controls how long the picture will appear on the screen. The number beside it is represented in seconds and frames. So 1:06 is 1 second and 6 frames.

Hint: When you use the “Import” command to bring photos into iMovie the pictures will have the settings that are set in “Photos”. Meaning that if the speed is 3:00, the zoom is 2.12 and the Ken Burn’s effect is off all imported photos will be 3 seconds long, be zoomed by 2.12 and there will be no Ken Burn’s effect

Audio: To add audio to your movie you must be in the “time” view. To view your tmeline in this manner choose the clock icon located at the bottom left corner of the viewing window. Once you choose this you will notice the two additional audio tracks beneath the video track.

• The audio controls allow you to add a preset sound, record your own voice, or add sounds, music, etc from a CD or the internet.
• Move the playhead to where you want the music to begin in the timeline.
• Click the Media button and then click the Audio button. Notice the source list showing you have audio available from GarageBand and iTunes, as well as sound effects that come with iMovie.
  To add a song from a CD you must either add it to the iTunes library first or use “File…Import” and browse to your CD and choose the track you want.
• Click the triangle to the left of an item to show further options. Click your library to see your iTunes music. Your songs will be displayed in the track list, right below the source list. You can resize the track list if needed.
• You can click on one of the songs and then click the Play button to listen to the song. Click the Place at Playhead button to import the song into your movie. One the song is imported; you'll see it added to an audio track in the timeline viewer.
• To adjust the volume of the track, use the clip volume controls underneath the audio tracks. Notice the percentage update to reflect your new volume.
• Adjust the length of the track by dragging the end of the song towards the middle. You may have to scroll to reach the end of the song.
• To place a soft fade at the new song ending, choose “View… Show Clip Volume Levels”. Your song will now show a line indicating it has a constant audio level setting for the entire song. To fade the end of the song, click the end of the clip level line and drag it to the bottom of the clip. Notice only the end of the line changes, indicated by the yellow color. This shows the volume is fading out at the new end of your song.
• If you have a microphone connected to your computer you will be able to record your voice. The computers in the lab have built-in microphones. Just click the “Record” button (round button with a red dot in the middle) and start talking. When you are finished recording click it again and it will stop recording.
• All of these sounds must be placed into the sound channels on the time-line. You can put two sounds in at the same time by placing them in two different sound channels. For example: you can have a voice-over with music playing in the background. Although there are only 2 sound channels you can overlap many sounds by stacking them in the same sound channel.

Titles:

• Click on the “Editing” button and then choose “Titles”.
• There are several types of titles to choose from, what you choose from the list will control what options you have. Some are just 2 lines and some will accept a paragraph of information.  To place a title in the movie type the text in the text box and drag the title type from the box above.
• Look for the clips to jump apart and a green + symbol to appear. It will put the title where the gap has formed.
  Hint: Before you drag a title onto the time-line you can preview it by clicking on the “Preview” button.
• You may change the speed of a Title either before or after you put it into the time-line. To do this move the slider next to the “Speed:” command on the window. Moving it further to the right slows the title and moving it to the left makes it faster. If you are changing a title you have already placed in the time-line then click on it so it is highlighted and then change the speed and then click on the “Update” button.
• There are also controls for color, font, size, and what text is desired.
• The box that is called “Over Black” will control whether the words for the title will appear over black or over the movie itself.
• The different types of titles will all allow for different amounts of text and different orientations. You may want to test a few to find the one that will match what you are doing the best.
• The “Pause:” control will control how much time elapses before the title appears or starts it’s animation.
• Titles can be changed once they are in the timeline by clicking on them, changing their settings and then clicking the “Update” button.
• You place the text you wish to add to your movie in the text box.
  If it does not fit or has too many lines then choose a different title.
  
  Hint: Once again remember to look for the jump and + symbol for placement of titles and remember that some of the titles will take some rendering that may take a few minutes.

Transitions:

• Click on the “Editing” button and then choose “Transitions”.
• This will bring up a window in which you can control your transitions.
• To add a transition to your movie you just choose the transition you want and then drag it onto to timeline into the place that you want it to be. Place it between the two clips you want to transition.
• Look for the clips to jump apart and a green + symbol to appear. It will apply the transition where the gap has formed.
  Hint: Before you drag a transition onto the time-line you can preview it by clicking on the “Preview” button.
• You may change the speed of a transition either before or after you put it into the time-line. To do this move the slider next to the “Speed:” command on the window. Moving it further to the right slows the transition and moving it to the left makes it faster. If you are changing a transition you have already placed in the time-line then click on it so it is highlighted and then change the speed and then click on the “Update” button.
• If you have a clip that is not long enough for the transition to work a message will appear:
  “You cannot apply a transition between two very short clips. They must each be at least 12:02 long.”
• You now have to lengthen the picture or shorten the duration of the transition until it works.
• If you wish to get rid of a transition just click on it to select it and then push the delete button on the keyboard.
  Hint: A red line will appear on the transition on the time-line until it has had time to render. The transition will look choppy until the red line has disappeared.

Video FX:

• These can be applied to the clips that are in the time-line. They are applied by choosing what you want to do and then clicking the “Apply” button. You may want to try these to achieve some different effects.
• Play with these to find all the things they do.
   If your video is too dark or light this is where you will find Brightness & Contrast. This is also where you will find ways to make your video play faster or slower or reverse the direction.

Audio FX:

• These can be applied to the audio clips that are in the time-line or to the audio that is attached to a video clip. They are applied by choosing what you want to do and then clicking the “Apply” button. You may want to try these to achieve some different effects.
• Play with these to find all the things they do.
• You can choose “Preview” to hear how your clip will sound.
• When you apply an effect to iMovie will split the audio from the video clip and place it on the audio track below. A red bar will show while the audio effect is being applied.
• Once the audio from the video clip has been spit you will notice a yellow pushpin on both the video clip and the audio clip. This is because even though the audio was extracted from the video clip, they are still "pinned" to one another.
  To be sure these two stay pinned always move the clips in the clip viewer (the icon in the lower left that looks like a piece of film.

Chapters:

• To set up chapters for your DVD choose “Chapters”.
• If you want to burn your movie to a DVD you will use iDVD.
• If your movie is long or has multiple sections you can create chapters.
• To add a chapter put the play-head, the place that is currently being viewed in the viewing window, where you want the chapter to start and choose “Add Marker”.
  Hint: If you have Titles at the beginnings of your sections iMovie will automatically name your chapter for you. Otherwise you can do it yourself.
• When you are completely finished with the movie be sure to save your project.
• To burn it to DVD choose “Share…iDVD”. This will open iDVD and allow you to create a DVD menu and burn a DVD that is playable on most commercial DVD players and computers.

Advanced Topics:

• To fine tune a clip once you have captured it you should stop the movie where in the clip you want to edit and then go to “Edit” on the top menubar and choose “Split Video at Playhead” this will split the clip and allow you to get rid of the part of the video you did not want by selecting it and then pushing the delete key on the keyboard.
  Hint: Be careful what is selected before you hit the delete button. The default is to highlight both of the new clips. To select just the one you want click somewhere else on the screen and then click on the part of the clip you want to delete.
• To get rid of the sound in a clip there are two options.
• First select the clip you wish to get rid of the sound in. Then you can either turn the volume on that clip down by moving the volume slider in the lower left of the time-line window all the way to the bottom.
• The second option for deleting a sound is to select the clip you want to work with then go up to the “Advanced” control on the top menu bar and choose “Extract Audio”. This will put the audio from that clip in the audio channel in the time-line window. You can now select the audio part of the clip and push the delete button on the keyboard.
• It is possible to create a still picture from a frame in a clip by stopping the clip at the picture you want and then choosing “Edit” control on the top menu bar and choose “Create Still Clip”. This clip will then appear in the “Bin” and you may drag it onto the time-line.
  The duration of the still clip in the time-line can be controlled by double-clicking on the still clip in the time-line and then changing the time in the control window that pops-up.
• To change the speed of a clip, for slow or fast motion effects, choose the clip you want to work with then go to the Effects button. Choose “Fast/Slow/Reverse” and then move the slider to the right or left or choose the “Reverse Direction” check box.
• To move clips around after they have been put into the timeline or to move a clip from the time-line back up to the bin click on the film clip icon located on the bottom left of the viewer window. This will allow you to view the time line by individual clips. You can now move the clips around or move a clip from the time-line to the bin for use later.

Exporting Your Movie:

When you are satisfied with your movie you want to export it in some form that you can use. Your choices are back to the camera and then to a VHS tape, to Quicktime, for use on a CD-ROM or webpage, iDVD as well as some other choices. We will cover 2 below.

Export to Camera:

• Save your movie
• Go to File...Share….
• Choose the “Videocamera” button and follow the instructions.
  Make sure the tape is at the beginning before you do this so that you can find your edited movie easily!
• Once your movie is on the tape you can take this tape and use the station that will tape from digital tape to VHS.

Export to Quicktime:

• Follow the same first two steps as above
• When you get the Export Movie window click on the “Quicktime” button.
• Now you are in the Quicktime screen. On the dropdown menu “Compress movie for:” choose what you want to do with your movie.
  Hint: The email movie is about 2” wide. The CD-ROM movie is 4” wide. Full quality will probably not fit on any kind of disk. Also, the larger the size the longer it will take to load on a webpage and the more disk space it will take.
• Now click on “Share”
• This process will take awhile depending on what kind of Quicktime you chose and how long your video is.