Jeff Carlson - The IMovie 11 Project Book

Stuff you can do with iMovie

Jeff Carlson

Peachpit Press
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Berkeley, CA 94710
510/524-2178
510/524-2221 (fax)

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Peachpit Press is a division of Pearson Education.

Copyright 2011 by Jeff Carlson

Editor: Clifford Colby
Copyeditor: Scout Festa
Production editor: Lisa Brazieal
Compositor: Jeff Carlson
Indexer: Ann Rogers
Cover design: Mimi Heft
Cover compositor: Andreas deDanaan
Interior design: Peachpit Press

Notice of Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For information on getting permission for reprints and excerpts, contact .

Notice of Liability

The information in this book is distributed on an As Is basis without warranty. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of the book, neither the author nor Peachpit shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the instructions contained in this book or by the computer software and hardware products described in it.

Trademarks

Apple, Apple TV, iMovie, iLife, iDVD, GarageBand, iPad, iPhoto, iPod touch, iTunes, and Safari are Trademarks of Apple Inc.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Peachpit was aware of a trademark claim, the designations appear as requested by the owner of the trademark. All other product names and services identified throughout this book are used in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies with no intention of infringement of the trademark. No such use, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with this book.

ISBN-13: 978-0-321-76819-3

ISBN-10: 0-321-76819-1

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed and bound in the United States of America

For Emily, Peter, Dana, David, Jennifer, Brett, Kellie, Jeff, Christine, Michael, Suzanne, Ty, and Kimberly

Jeff Carlson gave up an opportunity to intern at a design firm during college because they really just wanted someone tall to play on their volleyball team. In the intervening years, hes been a designer and writer, authoring best-selling books on the Macintosh, Web design, video editing, and digital photography. His most recent book is The iPad 2 Pocket Guide. Hes currently a columnist for the Seattle Times, a frequent contributor to Macworld , and a senior editor of TidBITS (www.tidbits.com), and he consumes almost too much coffee almost . Find more information about him at jeffcarlson.com and neverenoughcoffee.com; follow him on Twitter at @jeffcarlson.

Writing this book about iMovie projects was, as I hope you can imagine, quite the project itself. It wouldnt have been a successful project at all without the assistance of the following people:

Cliff Colby guided the project from the beginning and listened to both my ideas and my concerns (the latter usually when I wasnt properly caffeinated).

Jeff Tolbert helped immeasurably by writing sections of when I suddenly had to drop everything and write The iPad 2 Pocket Guide in the middle of production.

Lisa Brazieal is the coolest, calmest production editor on earth.

Ann Rogers turned my random writings into a useful index.

Scout Festa copyedited the book and kept me on my editing toes.

Kim and Ellie keep me sane and happy.

Agen Schmitz didnt actually work on this title, but he did update part of my iPad 2 book. I was so rushed to get it done that I didnt include him in the acknowledgments for that book, making me the worst-colleague-ever-who-now-owes-Agen-several-beers.

I love that Ive been able to write a book about projects in iMovie.

Editing video, after all, is a project in many ways. It often requires a good deal of time and attention to detail. Its something you elect to do, probably in your spare time, because you want to document what happened at an event, or preserve memories, or communicate something in a way that text or photos alone are incapable of doing.

And I also love that Ive been able to write a book about projects in iMovie . If you plucked a much younger me from the days when I first began editing video and showed me todays iMovie, my brain would have had trouble processing what I was seeing (not to mention dealing with the fact that somehow I had been pulled through time). For as little as $15, or free when you buy a new Mac, you have the capability to edit high-definition video in real time, using a friendly interface that genuinely makes editing fun.

And lets not even speculate how my brain would have reacted to editing HD video on the iPad, using iMovie for iOS.

Most of all, I love living in a time where these capabilities are available to millions of people who are willing to set aside some time and creativity. The future really is the best project.

I call it The iMovie 11 Project Book because I present the information in the form of projects: simple tasks you can do quickly that highlight an important concept or technique, and which you can build upon for your own video editing projects.

Ive divided the book into the following seven chapters:

A Primer on Shooting Video. It doesnt matter the equipment, the experience, or the budgetshooting poor footage leads to mediocre movies. Here are some tips for improving the experience in the field.

iMovie Fundamentals. Learn the building blocks of importing, editing, and working with features such as iMovies movie trailers.

Organize Your Video Library. Video projects start with lots of clips, which can easily get lost or overlooked when its time to start cutting them together. Learn how to store, move, and mark footage, and how to use keywords to find clips quickly.

iMovie Beyond the Basics. Replace clips, build a photo slideshow, correct color, adjust audio...find out how much more iMovie can do to make your video projects more interesting and enjoyable.

Creative iMovie Projects. Using the skills youve learned, stretch iMovies creativity by making a travel highlights movie, a sports highlights movie, a music video, green-screen special effects, and a soundtrack using GarageBand.

Share Your Movies. Dont let your videos sit inert on a hard drive. Burn them to DVDs, share them on the Web, or transfer them to an iOS device, including the Apple TV.

Edit Video on the iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. You no longer have to wait until you get back to your Mac to edit video. Learn all about working with the iMovie for iOS app.

Although Ive included a lot of great information, this book isnt an encyclopedic look at iMovie. Jump in, enjoy yourself, and create something.