Apple’s iMovie, has reinvented itself all over again. Apple’s new version of iMovie is sleek and sophisticated both on the Mac and on iOS devices. It retains a lot of advanced features from prior versions, but keeps its interface clutter- and confusion-free for newer users. And it’s added a new avenue for easily sharing movies to your computer and Apple TV.
The welcome box that shows up on the first run of Apple's entry-level video editing program touts the following as highlights of the new iMovie for Mac:
- New design
- Quick Sharing
- Movies and Trailers (referring to new themes for your video projects)
- Enhanced editing tools
- iMovie Theater (a new iCloud capability that lets you watch your movies on any of your Apple devices remotely)
Apple has moved the action buttons around in the interface, instead of a row of tool buttons in the middle of the interface between the preview and timeline, editing buttons appear above the video preview window. These include buttons for color balance, color correction, cropping, stabilization, volume, noise reduction, equalizer, and video and audio effects. At bottom left of the screen, you'll now see the Transitions, Titles, Maps & Backgrounds, iTunes, Sound Effects, and Garageband choices. This move of these below the source clips is a move towards a more pro video editing approach, in which transitions and titles are types of source content.
The program's method for adding clips to your movie has been improved. In the previous version of iMovie, when you tapped the cursor on a clip in source, it would select a seemingly random-size subclip, and double-clicking showed the Clip Inspector. Now, a Plus sign appears when you click on a clip, making adding it or part of it to the project much simpler. .
As in Final Cut Pro, iMovie's timeline is "magnetic," meaning whenever you add or trim a clip, the rest of the movie ripples into place, and no gaps are left. There was no way to change this behavior that I could see, in case you want to have blank space to hold for later use. Most consumers, however, will be well served by iMovie's behavior.
Importing and Organizing
iMovie's import window snaps into action when you plug in video media. But instead of creating new events based on the content's date and time the way iPhoto does, iMovie simply imported files to the same Event that the last import unless I changed the Import to:" box to New Event." The new Import down-arrow button at the top of the program window makes importing easier in cases when the window doesn't open by itself.
I successfully got the program to import .MOV, .MPG, .MTS, and .MP4 files, but not WMV files. Direct video capture video from the Mac's built-in FaceTime camera is another option. You can skim thumbnails of videos you're importing to preview them. A free media converter to use if you are using files other than these.
Audio
From the bottom left panel, choosing Sound Effects offers hundreds of sounds and background music options, from nature environments to electro beeps. If those aren't enough, you can choose anything from your iTunes library as well.
You can also apply effects to your clips' existing audio, from the Adjust toolbar's Video and Audio Effects button. Some cool tricks like robot voice, pitch raise or lower, or different room acoustics—even Cathedral—are available. Like the Video Effects, these aren't adjustable, just presets.
Voiceovers are still a cinch, with the Window ' Record Voiceover menu option adding a microphone icon to the preview window. When you hit the mic, a 3-2-1 countdown helpfully tells you when to start yakking.
Sharing—iMovie Theater
Clicking on the northeast-pointing share icon reveals a box of expected sharing outputs: Email, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, and many more. You can also share with yourself through iTunes or by saving a video file locally. But the big new choice is iMovie Theater, and there's a whole tab for it in the app. Switching it to Theater view shows "posters" of videos you've shared to it from iMovie.
The key to Theater is that anything you place there will be viewable on any of your other Apple devices—including iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches, Macs, and Apple TVs. That last one is a big deal when you're talking about watching movies! It's sort of like an iCloud Photo Stream for video. And like Photo Stream, one place you won't be able to see the movie is in a Web browser: it's not added to your iCloud.com page. And iOS devices will need to have the iMovie app installed to watch Theater. The video is sized appropriately for each device, and looked great on my iPhone 5.
Like most digital resources, the key to success with iMovie will be you playing around with it. As a basic media outlet and creating tool it is still the market leader. If you would like to organise a one to one PD session with me regarding this resource I'm happy to oblige!
Some useful links to other iMovie tutorials.
iMovie on Mobile devices:
Shaun.
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