Making Documentaries with iMovie (without filming anything)

Think of iMovie as the glue that can stick together all sorts of media--video, narration, still images, and music--into one project. Equally exciting is the control that you have over the look and sounds of your creation. For these kinds of projects, you do not need to use a video camera. Once students have completed their plan (script or storyboard) and found media from places such as United Streaming, Corbis Images, and archive.org, they arrive at the point when the need to combine them.

Note: When making documentaries, I find it easier at first to drop media into the clip viewer. But for fine tuning, like setting duration times, I switch into timeline mode.

I. Collecting Media A. Import (File > Import) or drag video into the clip pane. Remember video should be in QuickTime format (.mov) for compatibility rea- sons. iMovie will not accept Windows media files or Real media. B. Still images can also be imported in this way, though you might consider importing them into iPhoto first, where you can edit them before using them in your iMovie project. C. Audio can be dragged directly into the timeline or imported into iTunes. D. Consider naming your clips and stills at this point. II. Recording Narration (?) A. Depending on the nature of the project, many teachers have students first re- cord their narration, based on their script. Often it will require several takes until they get volume level and intonation just right. Once this track is laid down, they then know how much time they need to fill with the visual elements. B. You can record narration directly in iMovie. Click on the Media button below the clip pane and then click on the Audio button at the top of the pane. Drag the playhead to the spot on the timeline where you’d like the narration to be inserted. Get your script ready, place your mouth about six to ten inches from the internal micro- phone and click on the red record button. Hit the same button to stop the recording. Listen to your recording for loudness and other issues. C. GarageBand can also be used to record narrations. Create a new podcast epi- sode and record your voice on the appropriate voice track. One of the advan- tages of using GarageBand is that you can add sound effects, not available in iMovie. Once you are finished, click on the Share menu in GarageBand and send the composition to iTunes. You can then access it through Media > Audio > iTunes. III. Video and Stills A. Based on your storyboard or your recorded narration, you can now begin to edit video clips and stills for your video track. B. Many video clips will be too long for your project. Select the clip in the clip pane. Review the clip and determine which part or parts you want. Crop it down using the crop markers (the little yellow triangles). Select Edit > Crop to save the yel- low portion of the clip. Now drag the clip or still from the clip pane down into the clip viewer or time- line. If you think you’ll want to use more than one portion of this clip in your project, hold down the op- tion key while you drag the clip from clip pane. If you forget, no biggie: select the clip in the time- line or clip viewer and option drag it back to the clip pane. If you’d like the clip back to its original length, select it and go to the Ad- vanced menu and choose Revert Clip to Original. C. You also have some choices when it comes to stills. Access your iPhoto images through Media > Photos. You can drag your stills directly into the clip viewer or timeline. Click on the Show Photo Settings button to play with the Ken Burns pan- ning effect. To change the length of the still clip, either double-click on it and enter a new duration, or lengthen or shorten by dragging the edges of the clip in the time- line. Note: make sure that you are not viewing volume levels (View > uncheck Show Clip Volume Levels) or you will be unable to adjust the duration of the clip in the timeline. IV. Audio A. In iMovie, you have one video track and two audio tracks for narration, music and other audio. First, you might want to disable to audio from video clips you imported. If you don’t think that you will use any of that audio, turn off audio on the entire video track by unchecking it. To disable it a clip at a time, select the clip, Advanced menu > Extract Audio, select the audio tracks that appeared in the timeline after extrac- tion and delete them. B. Get other audio from iTunes or drag it in from a Finder window. Again, Media pane > Audio > iTunes. Much like image duration above, drag the edges of the audio clip to adjust its length. To adjust the volume level of the entire clip, select the clip and drag the volume slider up or down. To fade in or out, click on the View menu > Show Volume Clip Levels, and add volume markers to the horizontal line in the audio clip. Drag these markers up to increase volume or down to decrease it. V. Final Touches A. To add titles to your movie, click on the Editing button and then Titles. Choose an appropriate title for your purpose--enjoy the previews! You can can either have the title over black or over a clip. Once you have picked a title, enter the text and adjust any settings. Drag the title icon where you want the title to go or click on the Add button. It may take a few seconds to render. You are not stuck with that title or its settings. To change it, just select it, make your adjustments and click on the Update button. B. Transitions can be accessed through Editing > Transi- tions. Much like Titles, preview the transitions and drag into place after you’ve chosen just the right one and adjusted its settings. Please do not include too many transitions in your iMovie--distracting! VI. Showtime! A. Have students con- nect to a projector and click on the play full screen button. B. Students can archive their project to a CD by clicking File > Export > QuickTime > CD-ROM. When it’s done compressing, burn it onto a CD. C. With the help of your librarian or Tech Specialist, you can burn your project as a DVD. Ask them!