- Step 1: Open iMovie
- Step 2: Import Video Clips
- Step 3: Create a New Project in iMovie
- Step 4: Name and Save Your Project
- Step 5: Turn on Advanced Tools and Snap to Beat
- Step 6: Place a Song in the Project
- Step 7: Add Markers to the Soundtrack
- Step 8: Insert Video Clips at the Markers
- Step 9: Mute the Audio of the Inserted Video Clips
- Step 10: Fine-Tune the Video Project
- Final Notes
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Step 10: Fine-Tune the Video Project
Now that the project is assembled, you can improve the results with specific adjustments such as making slip edits, replacing individual clips, or enhancing the video. In this step, we'll examine some of these options.
Making Slip Edits
To adjust the selection of frames in a clip, but without changing the duration of the clip or the position of the clip's beginning and end, you can use a professional editing technique called a slip edit. Hover the mouse pointer over the clip you want to adjust, click the small gear icon, and select Clip Trimmer from the pop-up menu (see Figure 16).
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Figure 16 To perform a slip edit, click the small gear icon that appears when you hover the mouse pointer over a clip, and then choose Clip Trimmer.
The complete original clip is shown in the Clip Trimmer pane in the lower-left section of the iMovie window. The selection of video used in the project is highlighted in yellow (see Figure 17). Move the mouse pointer over the top or bottom border of the highlighted selection. When the cursor changes to a white hand with double-facing arrows, you can drag the border left or right to change the selection of frames. When you're happy with the adjustment, click the blue Done button on the right side of the Clip Trimmer pane's toolbar.
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Figure 17 Making a slip edit of video in the Clip Trimmer changes the selection of frames, but doesn't affect the duration of the clip at all.
Replacing Clips
You can replace a video clip in the project without disturbing the other clips. Select a range of video from the Event Library, and drag this selection over the clip in the Edit Project pane that you want to replace. As you hover the new selection over the existing clip, a green bubble with a plus sign appears, indicating that you're about to add video to the project (see Figure 18).
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Figure 18 When you drag a video selection from the Event Library on top of a video clip in your project, the pointer shows a green plus sign bubble to indicate that you're about to add video to the clip below.
Drop the clip in the desired position. A pop-up menu appears, offering a range of options for this action (see Figure 19). Choose Replace.
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Figure 19 This pop-up menu provides many options when you're adding new video to a clip.
Enhancing the Video
You can make all sorts of video enhancements to the clips in your project. Move the mouse pointer over a clip, and then click the small gear icon that appears. From the pop-up menu, choose Video Adjustments to open the Inspector shown in Figure 20. Click the Auto button at the bottom for a quick, automatic attempt to improve the appearance of the clip. If you don't like the results, click the Revert to Original button. You can experiment with the sliders to adjust various settings manually. Another option is to drag the dot in the middle of the color wheel to different positions, changing the color cast of the video.
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Figure 20 The Inspector provides various adjustments for clips, video, and audio. This example shows the Video pane selected.
To access even more options, click the Clip tab at the top of the Inspector. The Clip pane, shown in Figure 21, provides controls to adjust clip duration, add special video effects, reverse clip direction, and change the clip speed to several increments of slow motion or fast motion.
Click the blue Done button when you're finished making enhancements.
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Figure 21 The Clip pane provides special adjustments for video clips.