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Making Movies with iMovie HD

Feb 2, 2007

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Creating Titles

What’s a movie without titles? Incomplete. Almost any movie can benefit from text of some kind: opening and closing credits, the superimposed names of people and places, or simply the words “The End” at, well, the end.

iMovie HD’s Titles pane is your ticket to text. You have roughly 50 title styles from which to choose, with customizing opportunities aplenty.

Many of iMovie HD’s title styles are animated, and it isn’t difficult to transcend the bounds of good taste. Use restraint and lean toward classic title styles, such as Centered and Scrolling. When you want something a bit flashier, consider the Animated Gradient style within the Clip to Characters category.

Regardless of the style you choose, you’ll get the best results with sturdy fonts that remain legible despite the limited resolution of television. For example, at small text sizes, Arial Black often works better than Times, which has ornamental serifs that can break up when viewed on a TV set.

You’ll also get the best-looking titles if you choose colors conservatively. Avoid highly saturated hues, especially bright red, which can “bloom” when viewed on a standard-definition TV set. High-definition formats are less prone to these problems, but since your video may still end up being viewed on standard-definition TVs, a conservative approach is smart.

Roll the credits.

To Create a Title

Creating a title involves choosing the title style, specifying title settings, and then dragging the completed title to the timeline.

Step 1. Click the Editing button and then the Titles button to display the Titles pane.
Step 2. Choose the title style you want by clicking its name. Some title styles are grouped together in a category; to view them, click the triangle next to the category name.
Click to view larger image
Step 3. Specify the title settings.

See the opposite page for an overview of title settings.
Step 4. Add the title by dragging it to the timeline.

Click to view larger image

Changing a Title

Need to change an existing title? In the timeline, select the title. Next, display the Titles pane and make your changes. Finally, click the Update button in the Titles pane. You can also Control-click on a title and choose Edit Title Settings from the shortcut menu.

Click to view larger image

Tips for Titling

Choosing Colors

To choose a color for title text, click the Color button in the Titles pane. Click on the color palette to choose your hue. To match a color that appears in a clip, click the magnifying glass icon, position the pointer over the color you want to pick up, and then click.

To create a title over a colored background, create a color clip as described on page 274, then add the title to the color clip.

Photoshop Titles

You can use Adobe Photoshop or Photoshop Elements to make gorgeous, full-screen titles. You can add photos, create color gradients, shadow effects, and more.

To create a title in Photoshop, specify an image size appropriate to your project’s video format. For DV-format projects, use 720 by 528; for DV Widescreen, use 869 by 480. For iSight and MPEG-4 formats, use 640 by 480. For 720p HD, use 1280 by 720, and for 1080i HD, use 1920 by 1080.

Next, create your title, and avoid putting any text in the outer ten percent of the screen. (It might get cut off when the title appears on a TV set.) And to avoid flicker, make the thickness of any horizontal lines an even number of pixels (for example, 2, 4, 6).

To add the title to your movie, simply drag the Photoshop file’s icon into the Clips pane or directly to the timeline. Photoshop gurus: You don’t have to flatten a layered file first. iMovie HD accepts layered PSD files. You can even apply the Ken Burns effect to the title if you like.

You can combine Photoshop and iMovie HD’s built-in titling to create titles with text superimposed over a moving textured background. Make the background graphic much larger than your movie’s frame size so you have room to pan. Import the background graphic and apply a slow pan. Superimpose a title over the resulting clip.

You could also extract a page from an iPhoto book using the technique on page 193 and use it as a title background.

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