James Reeson

How I used iMovie during my coursework

This image shows what iMovie looks like. In the bottom middle of the screen, is where I find all the clips stored on the computer that I took with the digital camera. The bottom right is where I can add transitions, text and music. The top is where I add clips to create a project, in this case my trailer. The top right plays a preview of what I have created so far.

When we uploaded footage from the camera, it wouldn’t play properly in iMovie, it was skipping and freezing, which meant we couldn’t preview what we had made. To get around this, I had to right click (two finger click on Mac) on a clip in the bottom section and then click optimize video. This will optimize the video for the video size on iMovie and allow for smooth playback, so that we could understand what we were creating.

James Reeson

How I used iMovie during my coursework

This message shows when iMovie is optimizing a clip for software. As mentioned before, it will allow for much smoother playback in iMovie, and that will enable us to actually watch what we have created and to determine whether we like what we have created.

iMovie is far more advanced than Movie Maker, and this shown by the ability to easily trim a clip that has been added to the project area. I did this by clicking on the clip, and then dragging it to the desired length. Once the yellow box appears around the clip, I right clicked and scrolled to Trim to Selection. Once I have clicked on that, the clip instantly cuts to the desired length. The fact that iMovie also plays the clip as I drag it, means that usually this editing is highly accurate.

James Reeson

How I used iMovie during my coursework

It is very easy to add a clip or a transition to iMovie. The ease in which I can do this makes iMovie convenient as a tool to use during my coursework. This screenshot shows me dragging a transition from the bottom right to the project section. It is as easy as that. On Movie Maker I would have to click on a menu and search for an image to perform the same task. This makes the use of iMovie a no-brainer.

I can also change the length of a clip by double clicking on it and changing the length by inputting how long it should go on for.

James Reeson

How I used iMovie during my coursework

Essentially, this clip shows the same process as adding a transition, only the difference is that I am adding a clip from the camera. To do that I select and drag the desired footage, and drag it to the project area. In the footage section, any footage that has been used in the project area, is automatically underlined in orange so that I don’t accidentally add the same footage twice.

James Reeson

How I used iMovie during my coursework

An important part of the trailer is the soundtrack, and I want to add the clip entitled ‘The Box’. To do that, I clicked on the clip, in the music section, and dragged it up until the background to the project section turned green. This then adds it as a soundtrack in its own right, rather than attached to a particular clip.

In the project section, the clip appears as a green box that I can drag around the trailer. I can access the clip trimmer to use only two seconds of the whole song. Our soundtrack mixes together different sound clips, to perfectly match the trailer, since we could not find one specific track that worked. That’s why there was such a great emphasis on using this clip trimmer tool. To access the clip trimmer, I hovered over the green box, until the gear icon appeared, and then clicked on it. Then I clicked clip trimmer.

James Reeson

How I used iMovie during my coursework

The screenshot shows how our soundtrack is made up. There are lots of individual sound clips, which is a different approach to many other people. It was the best way to create a suitable soundtrack for the clips in our trailer