New controls in iMovie '08!
iMovie '08 is not an application that I explore a lot because I nearly always use Final Cut Pro. But, it still happens that I just want to get something done really quickly and that iMovie is enough for what I am looking for. While doing a quick video for the web last week, I discovered something that I didn't know was in iMovie. I assume it is because it came with the 7.1 update and I just never really used it enough since then, but I still think it is pretty cool (cool enough to mention it as a tip!). Now, when you are skimming over a video in the timeline, six small controls appear. Four of them were already possible with other buttons: audio adjustments, video adjustments, crop and trim. There are two however, that let you precisely readjust the length of the clip, by trimming from the beginning or from the end. In the past, I reselected the whole clip by skimming and clicking over it and used the trim feature. This is much quicker and much more precise. The controls are the ones in the lower left and lower right corner of the clip when you skim over it:
When you click on it, it switches to this and lets you trim it just like in a pro application like Final Cut:
I also just want to remind everyone that tomorrow is the MacWorld Expo Keynote with Steve Jobs, so some great fun tomorrow with new products and maybe even new software.
When you click on it, it switches to this and lets you trim it just like in a pro application like Final Cut:
I also just want to remind everyone that tomorrow is the MacWorld Expo Keynote with Steve Jobs, so some great fun tomorrow with new products and maybe even new software.
posted by Frederic Tremblay at
1/15/2008
4 Comments:
This is a great addition to iMovie. I love this feature. I believe it allows you to take the footage one second forward or backward (in other words, add a second or delete a second). But if you do it once, then do it again, you can remove or add another second (and so on).
A lot of people were down on the new iMovie when it came out, but for ease of use and the ability to crank out edited footage, there is nothing like it. I think this is the perfect entry-level movie-making application.
Matt, with a positive comment like that, I may just give iMovie 08 a shot. I never touched it despite getting the iLife upgrade due to the endless bashings on forums. Way to give it a chance... right?
Ha ha, thanks for the tip!
Greg Loesch
http://greg-loesch.com
Greg,
Even if you're an old school iMovie user, or a Final Cut Pro user, if you have a lot of footage that you need to cut down quickly, there is nothing that can compete with the new iMovie. The way it works only makes sense. Normally I'll take about an hour of footage from a family trip and want to trim it to 5-15 minutes. Rather than having to try to delete 45 minutes of film, the new iMovie allows me to just select the clips I want to add to the project.
And I believe it has a built-in feature that allows you to export your trimmed footage directly to Final Cut Pro to clean it up. The only draw back I see to the current iMovie is that it doesn't have a fast motion/slow motion feature. I just assumed they would add that in a future update. I kind of miss the themes from the earlier iMovie HD, but I never used half of the transitions and effects that the iMovie HD offered. Generally I think movies are better when they are kept simpler (see Napoleon Dynamite :))
I've produced more family footage in the last few months than I did over the previous two years with the old iMovie. I just can't believe it's getting such a bad rap from most of the bloggers and Mac techies out there, but maybe those people are just too technical for it. It's a perfect iLife app, designed for home users like myself.
Sorry to ramble. I'll stop for good now.
I really like leopard it is a big step forward from tiger but the one thing i hate about it is imovie so use the old imovie instead. Luckly i have final cut HD Express so i don't need to worry about imovie anymore...
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