EXCLUSIVES

By Chris Rhoadhouse

It has never been easier to make you own movies. With the introduction of iMovie, Apple has provided the average user with a powerful means to edit his own high quality movies. The best part is, its so easy that anyone can do it. With these straight-forward instructions, anyone can be the next great director.

Getting started in iMovie.

The first thing you need to do is assemble your footage. If you have a digital camcorder with Firewire, all you need to do is plug the camera into your Mac, turn the camera on, and launch iMovie. iMovie should see the attached camera and display a "Camera Connected" message in the main screen. If you don't see that message, make sure you have the slider at the bottom of the video window switched to DV. You then click the import button and iMovie will automatically start importing the footage that you have on your camera and store it in the Clips window. After you are done importing footage from your camera, switch back from the DV icon to the filmstrip icon.

iMovie can also import graphics stored on your computer. iMovie supports JPEG, GIF, BMP, Photoshop, and PICT graphic files. iMovie can also import existing movies that are on your hard drive, but they have to be in the DV Stream format. If you have the Pro version of Quicktime you can use Quicktime Player to convert your video clips into DV Stream video. You can save the files into the project folder that iMovie created.

Now, if you still have an older style camcorder that lacks Firewire, that doesn't mean you are out of luck. You can still import video into your computer by using a product like Dazzle's Hollywood DV-Bridge (www.dazzle.com). This device will take the analog signal from your camcorder and convert it into a digital signal that iMovie can import.

Start editing your movie.

Now that you have everything you need, it is time to start editing your final movie. Everything that you brought into iMovie will be in the Clips panel. If you want only a portion of a video clip that you imported to be in your movie, you can edit it. Click on the clip you want to edit. Move the playhead to the start of the part you want, hold down the Shift key, and move the playhead to the end of the part you want. Then choose Split Video at Playhead under the Edit menu. This will put a new clip in your Clips pane that only contains the section of the video you want.

Now drag and drop the clips you want into the time line at the bottom of the screen. If you want to see a more accurate view of the movie timeline, click on the tab with the clock on it. If you wish to add still photos, drag them into the timeline just like you did with the video files. You can also adjust how long the still photos will appear in your movie by changing the time setting at the top of the timeline.

Add some music.

We have the video and still images we want in our iMovie. Now it's time to add audio. iMovie supports AIFF audio import. If you have a sound file in another format such as MP3, you will have to first convert it to AIFF. You can do this using the Pro version of QuickTime Player. Open the file in Quicktime player then choose export and selection AIFF in the export dialog box. When you import the audio file it will automatically drop into the first audio channel in the time line. There are two audio channels in the timeline, so you can have background music, and sound from the video clips playing at the same time. A great source for music is right on your iDisk; just go to Software/Extras/Freeplay Music. There you have hours of royalty-free music in a wide selection of musical styles.

Transitions

If you have multiple clips in your movie, you may wish to add transitions between the clips. To do this, click on the Transitions button on the Clips panel. Here you will see the different transition options. Select one you like and drag it down into the timeline between the two clips that you want to transition between. It will take iMovie a couple seconds to render the transition. If at any time you decide you don't like the transition, you can simply click on it in the time line and press the Delete key to remove it.

Effects

If you want to really show off, you may wish to add some effects to your movie. Select a clip you want to change in the timeline and then click the Effects button in the Clips pane. Here you will see the different effect options. You can, of course, click on an effect and preview the result just like you could with the transitions. Once you have picked an effect you like, click on the Apply button at the top of the pane.

Title your masterpiece

Now let's add a title to our movie. Go to the Clips pane and click on the Titles button. Here you will see all the title effect options. Pick one you like and add your text in the space provided near the bottom of the pane. You can click on the preview button in the pane to see how the title will look. Once you have it to your liking drag the blue T icon next to your preferred title style into the timeline and place it where you want the title to appear. It will take iMovie a few seconds to render the title. You can now play through the movie and see your title.

Finishing up

Now we have all our clips in. We edited them, arranged them in the timeline, added music, transitions, effects, and titles. Now it's time to show your creation off to the world. Go to Edit and choose Export Movie. This will bring up a dialog box giving you three choices. We can export it back into our digital video camera. You might want to do this if you plan to use the video out capabilities of your camera to record your movie to tape, or show it direct from the camera on your TV. We can also export it to QuickTime. This would be a good choice if you wish to only view your movie on your computer or perhaps post your movie on the web. Finally we have the choice of exporting the movie to Apple's iDVD application. If you have a Mac with a SuperDrive installed you can use iDVD to burn your movie to a DVD. See you in Hollywood.