iMovie Directions

You will be using a Firewire drive to back up you work after each session.
*Ask the lab assistant for the firewire drive for your class projects.
*You must always work from the local hard drive but keep the latest version of your project on the firewire drive! This will serve as a backup and also allow you to move your project to any computer for subsequent editing sessions.
*When moving the firewire drive, drag its desktop icon into the trash before unplugging to prevent damaging the drive.

Creating your movie file:

*Open up iMovie and select File in the menu bar and then New Project
IMPORTANT: Make sure that you close out any previous projects that may show up when iMovie is opened, before you begin to edit your own film. Not doing so may damage other students’ work!

*Choose a distinct and descriptive filename to save your work.

*Click on OK/Save to the Desktop

Capturing from Camcorder to iMovie:

*Ask the lab assistant for a "MINI-DV TO FIREWIRE CABLE" to connect your camcorder to the computer (any mac in the lab).

*Turn on the camcorder to VCR (playback) mode.

*Move the button in the middle bar of the iMovie screen from the scissor icon to the camera icon. You should see a message saying “Camera Connected.”

*Rewind to the beginning of your tape.

*Press play, when the first clip of your movie appears, click on IMPORT

*Allow film to fully import itself into iMovie

*When it is done (when your image stops playing) press stop.

*Move the button in the middle of the screen from the camera back to the scissor mode.

*Drag the “clips” that appeared on the right side of the screen (they’ll look like little slides) down to the blank banner at the bottom.

*Save your work!

*After all your work is saved, drag your file to the firewire drive to back up your work.

Editing your iMovie:

*Take the firewire drive with your file on it and plug it into any mac computer in the lab.

*Once the firewire drive is hooked up to the computer, find your file and drag it onto the desktop.

*You will be editing your film on the computer hard drive, but you will always back it up to the firewire drive when you have finished a session.

*There is an extensive help system in iMovie, which you can get to through the menu bar at the top of the screen. Click on the tutorial section of the Help menu, and it will lead you through different directions on how to edit your film and create numerous different effects.

Here are a few common tasks:
*Splitting a clip (in order to delete part of it, usually): Position the cursor, Edit --> Split Video Clip at Playhead

* Adding a voiceover: Use one of the USB headsets w/ microphone, click on the clock icon for Timeline Mode, Click on Audio button & record

Finished editing your movie?
*Save a copy of your project to of the firewire drive.