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| Quickstart Guide
to iMovie 3 |
This page covers the details of using
iMovie 3 as it is specifically set up at most of the video editing
stations at Bryn Mawr and some of the basic principles of the software.
There are many features not covered in this outline, but most features
of iMovie are extremely easy to learn simply by exploring the software.
After opening the iMovie applications, you will either be asked
to create a new project or someone else's project will appear. Create
a new project or your own by clicking the Create project
button or by going to the File menu and selecting New Project.
You should create a folder for yourself in the external blue hard
drive and save your project there. If you save your files on the
computer's main hard drive or especially the desktop, they could
possibly be deleted. |
| Importing Clips
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1. Turn on the VHS and DVD players. Make sure the VHS
deck is set to "L1" for input by pushing the round dial
in and turning until 'L1" appears in the display.
2.Make sure the slider at the bottom left is set to camera mode.
3. Insert a cassette into the VCR or a DVD into the DVD player
and press start. The video should appear in the iMovie application.
If it does not, try setting the VCR to "F1".
 4.
Click the import button just below the viewer window to
begin capturing a clip. Always make sure to capture a longer clip
than you intend to use. It is much easier to shorten a clip in
iMovie than to re-capture it. While the button is blue, the clip
is being captured and the length of the clip can be seen above
the thumbnail image of the clip in the clips bin area of
the screen.
5. When finished capturing clips, stop the VCR or DVD player
and switch the slider back to the film icon (to the right).
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To preview any of your clips, you may highlight it by clicking
on it once in the clips bin area. The clip should appear in the
viewer window. Press the play button or the spacebar to view the
clip.
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| Editing Video |
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 Arranging
and cropping video clips
1. Drag the clips down into the timeline area. Don't worry that
you haven't edited them yet. You can do this after placing them
in the proper order. There are two different possible views of
the timeline. One shows the clips as thumbnails and is useful
for arranging clips. The other view shows the video and audio
tracks for the clips, allowing you to edit the audio levels and
view the relative lengths of each of the clips. Highlight one
of the clips to edit that clip in the viewer window. 
2. Clicking and dragging below the scrubber bar will cause
two triangular crop markers to appear. Drag the crop markers to
where you want the clip to begin and end. When you release the
mouse button, part of the scrubber bar has changed from blue to
yellow. The portions outside of the crop markers will be deleted
when you crop the clip.
3. To increase or decrease the edited area frame by frame, click
either crop marker once, then press the Right Arrow or Left Arrow
key on the keyboard to move the crop marker.
4. Choose Crop from the Edit menu.The excess footage has
been removed from your clip.
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 Note:
To remove a section in the middle of the clip, instead of
selecting the area you want to keep, select the area you want
to delete with the crop markers, then choose Clear from the
Edit menu.
The area between the crop markers is removed. |
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Splitting video clips
 1. Select the clip you want
to split in the clip viewer. On the scrubber bar, drag the playhead
to the splitting point. Use the left and right arrow keys on the
keyboard to move the playhead in small increments.
2. Choose Split Videoclip at Playhead from the edit menu. |
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Saving a picture or creating a still-image
clip
To save a picture from your clip, scrub to the frame in clip
and choose Save Frame as from the File menu.
Still-image clips can be used as a background for an opening
title or if you need to use the same picture later on in your
movie.
To create a still-image clip, scrub to the frame in clip and choose
Create Still Clip from the edit
menu.
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Exporting to QuickTime or to VHS tape
You can save your movie as a QuickTime file so that you
can play it on computers and put it on a webpage, a CD, or your
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