CREATING VIDEOS AND PODCASTS WITH IMOVIE HD Page 1 of 8
CREATING VIDEOS AND PODCASTS WITH IMOVIE HD
With iMovie HD, you can create video for use as podcasts, on DVDs, or for use in other editing programs. This overview focuses on the basics of using iMovie HD, including how to create a podcast‐friendly video file that is compatible with iTunes U at Georgia State University.
There are 3 essential parts to editing within iMovie: The iMovie monitor; the Shelf, and its accompanying menus; and the Timeline view and its alternate view option, the Clip Viewer.
THE IMOVIE MONITOR
The iMovie Monitor is where you will see the visual representation of the clips you have in the Timeline. The Monitor has 5 parts:
1. The View Window
2. The Master Timeline
3. Capture/Edit blue toggle
4. The Clip Controls: (left to right) Rewind/Back One Edit/ Play/ Play Full Screen/ and Fast Forward
5. Master Volume
The View Window is the 720x480 square where you can watch whatever is on the Timeline play.
The Master Timeline expands and shrinks based on the length of your piece. It has a downward pointing triangle (called a playhead) that you can use to scrub quickly through your piece with. A similar setup appears in the edit Timeline above your clips. The numbers next to the playhead (00:00 with no clips on the timeline) represent Minutes: Seconds of your project.
The Capture/Edit blue toggle switches between Capture and Edit modes.
The Clips Controls govern visual movement through the project.
The Master Volume governs the volume level of the project. Adjusting this level will not affect any volume adjustments you have made to individual clips.
THE SHELF
The Shelf has 4 parts to it:
1. The Shelf
2. Other Shelf functions
3. Free Space
4. Trash CREATING VIDEOS AND PODCASTS WITH IMOVIE HD Page 2 of 8
The Shelf holds all of your imported clips, from video to audio to still pictures. The Shelf is also where you will access controls for transitions, titles, effects, and sound effects/voice over audio.
Files are arrayed and named by the order in which they were captured. Activated (selected) clips will have a yellow border. You can change the name of a clip by selecting it, then clicking on the name.
Since the clips in the shelf do not have a Timeline assignment, they represent only potential footage for incorporation into your project. To make a clip a part of a project you must drag it from the Shelf onto the Timeline.
TRANSITIONS/TITLES/EFFECTS
All Transitions/Titles must be applied at breaks in a clip. If you want to apply Transitions/Titles where there is no break, simply move the Playhead to where you want the Transitions/Titles to be applied and select Split Video Clip at Playhead from the Edit menu in the Menu bar.
Effects also use clip beginnings and endings to determine when to apply an effect, so do the same there.
Splitting the clip will not damage your footage nor create a difference in your clip at all, it merely lets iMovie know that it can apply Transitions/Titles/Effects at those splits.
TRANSITIONS
Once you click on the Transition option on the Shelf, the list of transitions will appear. We will only look in depth at transitions, since the general rules for their application to clips apply equally to Titles. The window has 5 options:
1. Preview/Update
2. Preview window
3. Speed
4. Transition list
5. Direction
Pressing the Preview button will give you a preview of the transition you are thinking of applying, incorporating what is currently at the Playhead. Update will allow you to change the values of a transition that you have already applied to your project by first selecting it in the Timeline, changing its values via the Transition window, then pressing the Update button.
The Preview Window shows what the Transition or Update looks like in miniature, complete with a timecode.
The speed determines how long it takes for a Transition to start and end. The number on the left will be in frames, and the number on the right in seconds. All Transitions can run from 10 frames to 4 seconds in length. CREATING VIDEOS AND PODCASTS WITH IMOVIE HD Page 3 of 8
The Transition list lists all available Transitions. To apply a Transition, simply select the transition you want, edit its properties to your liking, then drag it to the segment of your project you want it applied to.
Direction, represented by the circle with up/down/left/right options determines from what direction a Transition will originate and finish. For example, with the push Transition we need to choose the direction that we want the incoming clip to push into the frame from.
TITLES
The Titles menu is a little different than the Transitions menu in that the following options are added:
1. Pause
2. Color/Over Black/QT Margins
3. Font/Font Size
4. Text box
The Pause option located under Speed allows you to establish how long a title pauses before the next one scrolls in. Hollywood movies will flash a title for 3 to 5 seconds, depending on the person’s importance to the film.
Color determines the color of the text. Default is off‐white, a good choice in most cases. Selecting Over Black will put your title on a black matte. Leaving it unchecked will run the title as an overlay on your video. QT Margins should be selected for your titles if and only if you will never export your project to a video tape. The margins for QuickTime and a television screen are different, and QT Margins will clip off part of your title if you play it through a television.
Font determines the font type. The small letter “a” to big letter “A” determines font size.The text box is where you type your text. There are segmented text boxes which appear in lines of 2, and single boxes that appear as one large box.
Example:
In some cases, but only where the line of 2 text boxes are the options, you may add or eliminate a text box, this is done with the blue + and – buttons that appear to the left of the text boxes.
EFFECTS
The effects menu brings in new options:
1. Apply/Restore Clip/Commit
2. Effect In/Effect Out CREATING VIDEOS AND PODCASTS WITH IMOVIE HD Page 4 of 8
3. Clip specific options
Apply will apply the effect to a clip. Restore Clip will restore a clip back to its original state. Commit will dump the original back‐up clip from memory, which means you cannot restore it.
Effect In and Out have sliders from 00:00‐>10:00. At 00:00 for Effect In, the Effect begins as soon as the clip does. At 2:00 the effect will begin after the clip has run for 2 seconds. For Effect Out, the slider determines how far from the end of the clip that the effect ends. So at 2:00, the effect will terminate 2 seconds before the clip ends.
The clip specific options change the dynamic of the effect.
Unlike transition and Titles, you do not have to drag Effects into your project, they are simply applied to the clip you have selected.
THE TIMELINE
The Timeline keeps track of all video, audio, and still images in your project. Everything in the Timeline is represented by a rectangular bar. Different media is color‐coded so you can glance at the timeline quickly and ascertain what type of media is present. Only Video, Transitions, and Titles change a different color when selected, however the other media colors do brighten when selected.
To best understand the Timeline, we need to understand everything on it. Use this example Timeline:
Along the top of the Timeline, iMovie Tutorial is the name of the Project. The 47:15 next to it means the project is 47 seconds and 15 frames long. The (NTSC) refers to what TV standard I am using. If I had a European version of iMovie, it would say (PAL). If I had a clip selected, It would give me the information in the center at the top of the Timeline. Beneath the project name is a 3 frames of film icon, a 1 and a 2 with speaker icons. These are my video and 2 audio tracks. Track 1 is left, Track 2 is right. Along the bottom is a menu that says “Auto (1x)”; changing this will change the magnification of your Timeline so that you can see the whole project, or only a single clip from it. The Faster Slower option affects the speed of a selected clip. The Fade In/ Fade Out check boxes with the slider are clip specific as well. They control whether an Audio track fades in or out. The checkboxes along the far right activate and deactivate the Video and Audio tracks. At the far left, the clock activates the Timeline you currently see, and the eyeball activates the Clip Viewer, which you can not see. CREATING VIDEOS AND PODCASTS WITH IMOVIE HD Page 5 of 8
THE CLIP VIEWER
The Clip Viewer gives a visual look at what clips you have in a project, as well as what Transitions/Titles you have. The Clip Viewer for the above Timeline looks like this:
The numbers at the top are the lengths of the clips. The names at the bottom are the names of the clips, which correspond to actual files in your media folder.
MENU BAR
The Menu Bar consists of the following options:
1. File
2. Edit
3. Advanced
4. Help
Under the File Menu are your New/Open/Save Project options, Export Movie/Save Frame As/Import File options, followed by Get Clip Info and Empty Trash.
1. New creates a new project. Open opens a project. And Save saves your project. It’s a good idea to save early in the process, and to save often.
2. Export Movie opens your menu for export options. Save Frame as allows you to save and export a still frame from your project in PICT or JPEG format. Import File allows you to import the file types discussed earlier.
3. Get Clip Info gives specific clip information for a selected clip
4. Empty trash empties the trash.
In the Edit menu are your Cut/Copy/Paste/Clear options, as well as the option for making a still frame, and the Split Clip at Playhead option discussed earlier.
The Advanced menu has options for extracting audio from video, reversing clip direction, and restoring a clip to its uncut state.
Work with these options to better understand them.
EXPORTING YOUR PROJECT CREATING VIDEOS AND PODCASTS WITH IMOVIE HD Page 6 of 8
To begin the export procedure, select Export Movie from File on the menu bar. There are 4 options for exporting your project:
1. To Podcast
2. To Camera
3. To QuickTime
4. To iDVD
EXPORT TO PODCAST
Podcast videos are useful even if you don’t plan to use iTunes U at Georgia State. They can be shared in other ways, too, and if you use the podcast format, you’ll have a video that’s compatible with a wide range of devices and computers. Highly recommended.
1. Once your project’s been saved (very important!), click on the Share menu at the top of your screen.
2. Choose the menu item iPod.
3. A box will drop down from the top edge of iMovie; click the Share button you see there.
4. iMovie will display a progress bar as it prepares your podcast‐formatted video. This can take a long time, depending on the length of your video.
5. iMovie will put your finished podcast into your iTunes program, on your computer, automatically. It’s ready to upload to iTunes U. Here’s how to find the actual file that you’ll need to upload:
a. Right‐click on the podcast video that was added to iTunes. It’ll probably be in “Movies”, in the iTunes Library.
b. Choose “Show in Finder”.
c. A window will open, in Finder, that shows the file, already highlighted as if you’d just clicked on it. That’s the file you need to upload. It’ll have the same name as your iMovie project, except that it ends with the file extension “.m4v”. CREATING VIDEOS AND PODCASTS WITH IMOVIE HD Page 7 of 8
To upload the file, you must log in to Georgia State University's iTunes U portal, http://www.gsu.edu/itunesu/ and choose the "Academic Login" option.
Information on uploading your content to Georgia State on iTunes U can be found under Using iTunes U at http://www.gsu.edu/itunesu/28420.html.
EXPORT TO CAMERA
To Camera gives you 4 options you need to pay attention to:
1. Render
2. Wait time for the camera to get ready
3. Amount of black pre‐roll
4. Amount of black post‐roll
If your project has items in it that need to be rendered, press the Render Now button. A second window will appear telling you what is being rendered and how long it will take. Once that is done, it will go back to the original To Camera menu and you can go from there. if your project requires no rendering, move along please.
The wait time for the camera to get ready is best left at 5 seconds. This gives you a chance to press record and allow the tape to get rolling before you record to it. With the JVC decks, you can skip this step if you use a mini‐DV to record to because pressing the export button will automatically roll the deck. If you are using VHS, you will have to press record manually.
Amount of black pre‐roll tells iMovie how much black to put on the tape before beginning your project. Amount of black post‐roll tells iMovie how much black to put on the tape after your project. Pre‐roll and post‐roll gives you a small “cushion” of blank video before and after your video, to make future editing easier. 10 seconds is nice.
TO QUICKTIME
Exporting to QuickTime creates a QuickTime movie of your project, a movie which can then be burned to CD/DVD disk, or taken to another Mac or PC to play or even to edit. QuickTime gives you a couple of compression options, depending on what you want to do with the file. There is a small version designed for the web which will be terrible in quality compared to the large full resolution video version. There is also a compression scheme designed for a CD‐R which makes sure your movie will fit on to a CD‐R. The choice is yours.
TO IDVD CREATING VIDEOS AND PODCASTS WITH IMOVIE HD Page 8 of 8
If you want to make a DVD of your movie, you will need to export your movie to iDVD. This encodes the movie in the DVD format standard MPEG2. iDVD can do this too, but if you know you’re going straight to DVD, this is the quickest route to a finished product.
If you choose To QuickTime or To iDVD, you will be asked to name your movie and select a save location. Name it what you want, but be sure to save it in your folder.