Digital Video Capture and Edit with Imovie

RESEARCH AND
INSTRUCTIONAL
SUPPORT

REVISED: JANUARY 2008

Digital Video Capture and Edit with iMovie

Project Management

Plan out your time and process before beginning the capture and edit. A few major items to keep in mind:

1. Uncompressed digital video files are VERY large. You will not be able to save the raw files for your project into any of your network spaces. In most cases your raw files will not even fit on a zip disk or CD.

Uncompressed video files require up 3.5 MB of space for every second of footage, thus:

-An empty 100MB zip disk will only hold about 25 seconds of uncompressed digital video.

-An empty CD -R will hold only about 2 and 1/2 minutes of uncompressed digital video clips. The best plan is to finish your project in one sitting by exporting your movie to either a QuickTime movie (for web or CD - 3 minute max!) or back out to a digital video camera (DV) before you leave the station.

2. Plan how you will use your finished movie before you begin. QuickTime movies can be
played on the web, sent through email, and posted to a Ella course. MiniDV can
be transferred to VHS by hooking the camera up to a VCR. Exported QuickTime movies
that are under 3 minutes should be small enough to save to a zip disk or to attach to an email
message.

Setting up

1.  Shut down the MAC station you will be using if it is already on. It is best to connect and turn on your DV camera before restart. The camera should have a DV Firewire cable in its bag. Check with Media Resources if you do not find one. The smaller end plugs into the camera (look for slot on camera) and the larger end plugs into the MAC (look for FireWire symbol ). Turn camera on (playback mode) and start up the MAC.

2.  After station has restarted, launch iMovie (from dock) and check iMovie configuration:

a.  In iMovie, from the iMovie menu, choose Preferences - Playback

b.  Make sure that the Play DV project video through to DV camera box is NOT checked.

c.  Click OK.

d.  Quite iMovie.

e.  Re-launch iMovie and proceed to Capturing.

Capturing (recording) a Video Clip

1.  Launch iMovie. From the File menu, choose New Project. The window below will appear.

2.  Name your project (folder) and make sure to save it to the desktop. This is a temporary place for iMovie to store your uncompressed video clips. This folder should be trashed after you export your final movie. You can choose the Aspect Ratio from Standard, Widescreen or iPhone.

3.  Click the camera icon shown below. A window will appear.

In the window that appears, select the camera you are using from the pull-down menu.

4.  When the toggle is placed on “Automatic”, iMovie will automatically import ALL the footages from your camera. If you only want to select part of the footages from your camera, make sure that you push the toggle to “Manual”. The following steps are instructions of importing clips manually.

5.  Cue up footage in camera to a few seconds before footage you want to capture. You
will be able to trim the excess off later. You should be able to see the paused movie
in the movie window on your computer.

6.  When you are ready to begin recording, press play on the camera and click the Import button in the iMovie window (shown above). The window below will appear.

Select the location to save your video, and choose a name for the Event, and click Okay.

7.  To stop recording, click on the Stop button. The movie clip will be placed under the name of the Event that you chose, and can be found under “Event Library” located on the top-left corner in the iMovie window.

8.  Repeat the capture process, starting with step 4 above, for any additional clips. Click on Done when you finish all importing.

Editing Clips

The editing area is located beside the Project Library, where you can change the speed, direction and order of your clips. You can also split clips and add titles and transitions between clips to
replace jump cuts. Audio sounds can be added from built-in sound effects, CDs, and voice
recordings.

Placing and Cropping a Clip

1.  Select your event in the Event Library. Your imported video clips will appear beside the Event Library. To make a selection of the clips, place your cursor at where you want your selection to start, hold the left key of the mouse and drag through the clip. The content of the clips is shown automatically in the video window as you move your cursor to help you locate your selection. Release the mouse at where you want your selection to end. The selected part will be highlighted.

2.  You need to make ONE selection at a time, because the previous selection will be cancelled out by your next selection. When you finish making a selecting, place your cursor over the highlighted clip, hold the left key of the mouse and drag the clip to the editing area to the right of the Project Library, and release your mouse. You can bring multiple clips to the editing area in this fashion

3.  When you are ready to edit the clip, place your cursor over the clip in the editing area. Making the selection is the same process with the above.

4.  When you have highlighted your selection, go to the Edit menu and choose Trim to Selection. This will trim the movie clip to the portion that you selected (the highlighted part).

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Splitting Clips

You can split single clips into two clips. This is useful if you want to keep an unused
portion of a clip on the shelf for later editing. It will save you from having to recapture
content.

1.  In your iMovie project, place your cursor where you want to split. Hold the left key of the mouse and drag to the end of the clip.

2.  From the Edit menu, select Split Clip. The clip will split into two individual clips.

3.  If you select a frame range beginning and ending in the middle of the clip, the clip will split into three parts.

Creating a Still Clip (single frame shot)

1.  Let the cursor hover over the video frame that you want to extract as a still image.

2.  Right click the mouse to open the menu, and then choose “Add Still Frame to Project.” The image will be added to the end of your project as a four second clip.

3.  To change the duration of the frame, hover your cursor over the frame and right click the mouse to open the menu, and then choose “Set Duration”. Enter a time for the Duration, and click OK.

Adding Titles

Titles add descriptive text to your movie. You can use a variety of title styles, fonts, and colors. Titles can be superimposed over portions of clips or added over black as a separate clip. You can also modify titles after creating them. To access the title editing options, click on the T icon at the bottom right of the video window.

Adding a Title Over a Video Clip

1.  Drag a title to the project and let it hover over the video where you want it to appear. As the title hovers over the video, a purple shadow appears, representing the frames that the title will cover.

2.  Click “Show Fonts” to choose a font for your title from the font popup menu.

3.  Type the text for your title. Depending on the style, there will be different options in the number of text fields, direction of entry, etc.

4.  A blue title icon appears above the video clips to indicate where the titles appear in the viewer.

1. Adjust the length of the blue title icon to adjust the duration of the title. To adjust the length, hover your cursor over the end of the blue bar, and wait till you cursor becomes like . Then drag the blue bar to lengthen or shorten it.

Adding a Title over Black

1.  If you want the title to appear over black video, drag it between clips or to the beginning or end of your project. The vertical green bar that appears indicates where the black video clip and title will appear.

2.  Continue with steps 2-4 as described under Adding a Title Over a Video Clip above.

Editing Titles

1. Click the blue title icon to select the title.

2. You can make the desired changes in the video window.

4. Click the Done button on the top right corner.

Transitions

Transitions smooth the cuts between the clips. They can be added either to the beginning or
the end of a clip or between two clips. To access transitions, click on the button
located on the bottom right corner.

Creating a Transition

1.  Click on the button located on the bottom right corner.

2.  Select a transition and drag it between two adjacent clips in your project. A black transition icon appears.

Editing a Transition

1.  Click on the transition icon in your project to select it.

2.  Right click on the transition icon, select “Set Duration”, type in the time of the Duration, and click OK.

3.  If you don’t like the effect of the transition you’ve added and want to change it, drag a different transition over the current one.

Inserting Pre-Recorded Sounds

1.  Click on the button located beneath the video window.

2.  Choose one of the audio sources from the pull-down menu. You can choose from built-in sound effects, Garage Band, or your iTunes library and play lists. Choose the sound track that you wish to insert.

3.  Drag and drop the sound track to your project. The sound track is represented by a green or purple icon at the back of the video clips.

Note: To use music from a CD, you must first import the song into iTunes.

Inserting your own recorded voice

1.  Click on the microphone icon located beneath the video window.

2.  The window below will appear, and you can select the device you wish to use for recording, the input volume, and noise reduction.

3.  When you are ready to record, hover your cursor over the video clips, locate where you wish the audio to begin, and click to start recording. Once you click on the clip, you will have 3 seconds to get ready before the recording starts.

4.  Click again to stop recording. A purple title icon will show up below the video clips to represent the audio that you record.

5.  You can adjust the length of the purple bar to adjust the duration of the audio. On how to adjust the length, please refer to step 5 on page 6.

Editing the Audio

Controlling the volume within an audio clip

1.  Select the desired audio clip in the project by clicking on the purple bar.

2.  Click on the icon.

3.  The following window will appear.

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4.  You can adjust the volume of the audio clip, and set Fade In and Fade Out effects for the audio clip.

Extracting the audio from a clip

1.  Select the frames with the audio you want from a video clip in one of your iMovie projects or Events.

2.  Hold down the Command and Shift keys as you drag the selection over the video clip in the project where you want the sound to play.

3.  A green sound effect icon appears below the video clip where you placed it.

Editing the size of an audio clip

1.  Select the bar that represents the audio clip that you would like to edit by clicking on it.

2.  Adjust the length of the bar.

Adding photos

1.  Click the Photos button.

2.  Select the iPhoto library, an album, or a folder in the pull-down menu. The photos in the selected folder or library will appear in the list at the bottom of the pane. Scroll through the pictures to find the one you want.

3.  After you’ve found the photo you like, drag it between any two video clips in your project.

4.  To change how long you want the photo to appear in your project, right click on the photo in your project, and select Set Duration. (See below.)

5.  Put in the time of the duration, and click OK.

Output to iDVD, CD (Web) or QuickTime (.mov)

1.  Click on the Share menu and choose the format in which you want to output your movie. Among other options, you can output it to a tape in a video camera, burn an iDVD, or save it as a QuickTime movie.

2.  You can choose to Export Movie or Export Using QuickTime.

3.  When you choose Export Movie, the following window will appear. You can choose to export the video in size Tiny, Mobile, Medium or Large. The dots indicate whether the size could be used on a device specified.

4.  You can also choose to Export Using QuickTime. When the following window appears, use the pull-downs menus within the dialogue box to set specs for your movie output. Note: Export uncompressed QuickTime (.mov) file for use in other editing programs like Final Cut Pro, After Effects or Motion.

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