12 cool tips and tricks for imovie ’11

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12 Cool Tips and Tricks for iMovie ’11Created 2010-10-25 11:59

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12 Cool Tips and Tricks for iMovie ’11 http://www.maclife.com/print/8665

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12 Cool Tips and Tricks for iMovie ’11Posted 10/25/2010 at 11:59:02am | by J.R. Bookwalter

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iLife ’11 is here, and with it comes a host of slick new features for iMovie, including a simple way to createyour own Movie Trailers, all-new audio editing, one-step Effects, People Finder and Sports & News Themes.But those are just the marquee features to get everyone excited -- what about the smaller details that mightmake your daily use of iMovie ’11 a real pleasure?

Thankfully, your faithful friends at MacLife.com have torn the shrink wrap off a copy of iLife ’11 and put thenew iMovie under the microscope, looking for the little things that Apple might not consider show-stoppingfeatures, but that both new and veteran users alike might appreciate.

Get Your Touch On

Apple may not feel that touchscreen computers are in its future, but they aren’t shy about adding multitouchgestures to their desktop apps for laptop users and those of us rocking a Magic Trackpad. iMovie ’11 is noexception, and features a trio of such gestures.


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The first multitouch tip enables adding new media to your Project, which is done by first selecting a clip (orportion of a clip) in the Event browser and then using three fingers to swipe up on the trackpad. Just likemagic, your selection is now added to the end of your project.

The second gesture allows you to expand or contract filmstrips by moving the pointer over the Event orProject browser and pinching two fingers closed to contract or pinching two fingers open to expand -- agesture that should be very familiar to users of the company’s iOS devices.

Finally, if you want to move a clip within your project to either the left or right of the clip next to it, simplyselect the desired clip and then swipe left or right with three fingers accordingly. Let’s see iMovie’s bigbrother, Final Cut Pro, do that!

Import Movies Directly from Your iPhone

Although the new desktop version of iMovie ’11 is sadly lacking in any interoperability with thestripped-down iOS version, there is one welcome iPhone-related change from iMovie ’09 -- you can nowplug in your iPhone and iMovie will recognize it and offer to import any movies in your Camera Roll.


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This newfound ability might not have been such a big deal in the iPhone 3GS days with its low-resolutionSD camera, but it’s now a must-have for the iPhone 4’s 720p HD video -- especially for more ambitiousprojects that go beyond the scope of the mobile version of iMovie. (Note that import will also work on the3GS, for those of you still rockin’ last year’s handset.)

Analyze This

iMovie ’09 added a very welcome Stabilization function to the program’s bag of tricks in order to helpsmooth out jumpy or handheld footage. That function first required a clip to be analyzed in order to performits magic, which could be a lengthy process for longer pieces of video.


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Now that Apple has added the People Finder feature to iMovie ’11, you’ll be happy to know that you cananalyze clips for both Stabilization and People in one fell swoop -- along with the option to do onlyStabilization or only People.

Clips that have already been analyzed for Stabilization can also now be marked for camera pans, notingwhen the camera moves left or right. Choose File > Analyze Video > Mark Camera Pans and now video withcamera pans will be indicated with a blue line across the top of the clip, and you can even filter for those typeof actions when your editing calls for it.

Viewing Your Timeline In A More Traditional Way


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When iMovie ’08 was first released in mid-2007, many of us who were used to more traditional ways ofediting were stymied by the way projects were now viewed in a stacked ribbon -- since the dawn ofnon-linear editing, timelines have mostly been viewed as one seemingly endless horizontal strip. Someone atApple must have taken note of the fact that we still haven’t quite adjusted to it three years later, so now youcan take matters into your own hands.

First navigate to iMovie>Preferences and turn on Show Advanced Tools under the General tab.


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In the upper right corner of the Project window, you’ll now find a new Horizontal Display button to the leftof the chapter mark tool. With a stacked view in your Project, click the Horizontal Display button and you’llnow see a nice clean, all-horizontal view of your project as you edit. Click it again to go back to the classicstacked view, but only if you must!

Making iMovie ’11 More Like Final Cut


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These tips aren’t new to iMovie ’11, but f you want the program to look more like the traditional view ofhigher-end apps like Final Cut Pro.

Switch the timeline to the bottom of the screen and your unedited media to the top by selecting Window >Swap Events and Projects (or click the Swap button positioned between the windows, to the right of theImport button). After a fancy animated switcheroo, your Event Library and media now appear at the top ofthe display and your timeline resides at the bottom, a view that will likely be more comfortable to seasonededitors.

The horizontal timeline view and window swap tips work best If you also happen to have a second displayattached to your computer. In iMovie ’11, you can select Window > Viewer on Other Display and move yourview of the edited project to its own screen, giving you the entire top (or bottom) of the iMovie display to seeyour newly emancipated Project timeline -- and have a swanky editing setup just like the pros use.


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Title Duplicate

If you spend a lot of time creating videos with iMovie, you’ll certainly appreciate some of the new version’slittle niceties, many of which have been moved from the Edit menu and grouped into a new Clip menu alongwith the new one-step effects.

For instance, how many times have you created a project with a number of similar title cards, spendingvaluable time having to add a stock title each time and then editing it to match the length and font style ofyour previous one? Now all you need to do is select a clip (or range of frames) and choose Clip > DuplicateLast Title, edit the text to suit you and move on.

Inspecting Your Inspector

With your iMovie Preferences set up to edit a clip when you double-click on it (rather than Play the clip), theclip Inspector is always available quickly, same as in the previous iMovie ’09. But there are some cool newfunctions tucked away there that you may have overlooked.


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In addition to now changing the speed of a clip without having to convert it first (by moving the slider ortyping the speed you want as a percentage), you can now reverse it with a single click, a nifty tool which hasbeen available on more sophisticated non-linear editors for some time.

iMovie ’11 also adds a new Rolling Shutter option which helps to cut down on wobbly or skewed videocaused by the CMOS image sensor still prevalent on most consumer camcorders. Click on “Reduce motiondistortion” to enable it for a clip and after your video is analyzed, use the pulldown to select an amount fromNone to Extra High. Apple recommends High or Extra High for footage shot with a Flip camcorder or amobile phone that records video, which presumably includes the iPhone 4. (It did indeed look better in ourquick, unscientific tests.)


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Equalize Your iLife

Audio is a big focus of iMovie ’11, with most of the spotlight on the slick new audio waveform mode toadjust levels and see color-coded warnings where the sound might be too overpowering. But Apple has alsobeefed up audio options in the Inspector as well, including a new Equalizer.

Open the clip in question, select the Audio tab on the Inspector and you’ll see the new Equalizer function,which you can customize entirely on your own or pick from one of nine presets, including Voice Enhance,Music Enhance and Hum Reduction, which should help tame less than dynamic audio recordings and keepannoying electrical line hums at bay.

Apple’s engineers didn’t stop there, also adding an audio Enhance mode -- click on “Reduce backgroundnoise by” and adjust the slider, then listen to the results. We tried it on some clips recorded near a busyhighway and it worked quite well, bringing down the unwanted background noise and making peoplespeaking in the foreground that much more audible.

Audio Effects

While iMovie ’09 had some very capable video effects, this year’s release adds an equal number of audioeffects to spice up most any production.

To get to the audio effects, select a clip. Click on the Inspector button or go to Window>Clip Adjustment inthe Menu Bar.


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Click on Audio Effect in the Clip tab.


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In addition to specialized effects such as Robot, Cosmic and Telephone, you also have the ability to addEcho, four sizes of Room Echo and four variations of Pitch Down or Pitch Up.

Integrate with Facebook


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Thanks to the updated iPhoto, the whole iLife ’11 benefits from deeper integration with the social networkeveryone loves to hate, Facebook. That integration also carries over to iMovie, where you can now choosefrom your online Facebook photos to import into a project, as well as the traditional iPhoto and PhotoBoothoptions.

Keep in mind that you’ll first need to open iPhoto ’11 and let the program sync with Facebook, which willthen carry those photo albums into your iLife Media Browser and make them available to all supportedprograms.

Contextual Menus

Apple hasn’t forgotten about the ever-handy contextual menus in iMovie ’11; functions such as LoopSelection and the ability to both Analyze and Optimize clips have been added to adjust clips within a Project,as well as the aforementioned new Duplicate Last Title and options to Arrange Music Tracks and select yourProject Theme.

Event browser clips can also now be looped or have their video analyzed -- for Stabilization and People,Stabilization only, People only to to Mark Camera Pans. There is also the ability to Split Event Before Clipas well as the same shortcut to make adjustments to your Project Theme.


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In addition to the contextual menus we've all come to love and depend on, you can launch the Inspectordirectly from a clip and put iMovie '11 in Precision editor Mode by clicking on the gear that appears whenyou hover over a clip.

Storyboard Like a Pro

iMovie ’11 is touting a Movie Trailers mode, giving you the ability to create short, Hollywood-stylepreviews with just a few clicks. But you can also use the animatics provided by the Movie Trailers feature torough out your own project, and then swap them out for footage you shoot later.

Go to Window > Maps, Backgrounds and Animatics (which used to be called just Maps & Backgrounds) andscroll down to find 16 animatics, which are essentially motion-enabled dummy clips for various cameraangles, such as Closeup, Medium, Wide, Landscape and Animal.

iMovie ’11 provides a mix of clips for males or females -- simply drag & drop one of them to your timelineand you’ll have a filler clip that can later be replaced with a real clip by dragging the new clip onto theanimatic. Release your mouse button and click Replace, and the job is done. Animatics are a great way toorganize your thoughts and plan for footage you haven’t had time to shoot, but still be able to see if yourconcept fits into your work-in-progress.

*****


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With an even lower price of entry at only $49 for the iLife ’11 bundle ($79 Family Pack), there’s no excuseto fire it up on your computer and get busy turning those bland home movies into mini-Hollywood epics --and share them with the world.

Follow this article’s author, J.R. Bookwalter on Twitter

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12 cool tips and tricks for imovie ’11

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