Creating a Video Project Using iMovie: Getting Started
Creating a Video Project Using iMovie: Getting Started
This video tutorial, by the Rowan University Libraries Digital Scholarship Center, introduces users to creating videos using iMovie, a free video editing application by Apple. This easy to use software can help you quickly create student projects and instructional videos for online or blended learning. This specific video tutorial introduces learners to iMovie's interface and importing media files.
Closed captions available through the video's 
button. The transcript appears below.
Transcript:
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Hello my name is Mike Benson
and today we're going to explore
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creating a video project
using Apple's free video editing
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software
called iMovie. iMovie is
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an entry-level video editing application
and it's available
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only with Apple products such as Apple
computers
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the iPad and iPhone. If you're using a
Windows computer
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you might take a look at Windows Movie
Maker,
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Wondershare Filmora, or Adobe Premiere
Elements, which may require a modest fee
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to use. You might also want to consider
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professional products such as
HitFilm Pro
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and Adobe Premiere Pro, which both
require a fee
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for both mac and pc users. You can also
use ClipChamp, which offers a free
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web-based video editing application.
For more information on using ClipChamp
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check our video tutorials.
If you're new to video editing or just
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need to create a video quickly,
iMovie is a great choice. The software is
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easy to use,
and it's also very powerful.
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You can quickly create video projects,
videos for online learning,
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or create course assignments, where
students become creators,
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share their voice, and learn media design
skills.
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Using iMovie you can quickly import
photos, audio,
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and video from a variety of free online
sources
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or you can import files from your camera,
including your mobile phone or
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tablet. iMovie is generally installed
as a standard application on Apple
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computers.
The software can be found within your
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hard drive
inside the Applications folder. If you
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don't see the software, you can also
download it from the Apple App store.
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Once you open the software you will see
this screen,
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which will let you create a new project.
Let's select the "Create New" button.
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We'll then select the "Movie" option.
This window will open showing the entire
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iMovie workspace.
This area on the left is called the
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"Library Pane"
or "Event Browser." It provides access to
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all
imported footage and works sort of like
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a media browser.
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This section is called the "Events
Browser" or just the "Browser,"
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and it's where you import and access
your files.
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Let's add a photo and a video by
selecting
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this icon. We'll select this jpeg
and this mp4 video file.
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The files then appears in the Events
Browser.
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We'll use these files in a couple of
minutes.
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To continue our tour of iMovie's
interface
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we have the "Viewer," which plays our
footage
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as you edit. If you select a file
in your Browser it will appear in the
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Viewer.
From here you can make adjustments using
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these icons at the top of the Viewer.
For example, let's adjust this photo
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of a beach. We can adjust the contrast
and brightness,
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the hue, and we can explore a variety of
presets
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for photos. Icons related to video and
audio
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are not available. If we select the video
we can make additional adjustments to
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the audio
and video
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This area at the bottom of the interface
is the "Project Timeline."
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This is where you will edit your video
project.
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To add a file to the Timeline select the
file here
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and drag it to the Timeline. By default
photos are automatically assigned 4
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seconds,
and video is imported at the length of
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the clip.
For example this photo is set to 4
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seconds
and this video clip is 33.4
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seconds long. Once a file is in the
timeline
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you can edit the clip by moving this
left bar
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or this right part. If it is a photo
you can make the time very short or
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very long.
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For a video, you can make a clip shorter
but you can't make it longer unless you
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add another clip.
You can also make edits to the file
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using these icons.
above the Viewer. Video files that
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include
audio will include a sound wave at the
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bottom.
We can increase the volume of the clip
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by dragging this line
up or down.
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We can also make adjustments to the
audio using the icons
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above the viewer
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If you select a clip while also holding
the control key
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you can access this menu which includes
options
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such as "Splitting a clip" and "Showing the
clip trimmer,"
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which allows you to make more precise
clips.
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Above the Browser you can see five tabs
which are used to manage your files
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and to add text, backgrounds, and
transitions.
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We will learn more about these tools in
another video.
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Concerning saving your project iMovie
automatically saves your work within a
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file called
an iMovie Library. These files are
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located
in your account's Movie folder. We will
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need to name our project by selecting
the "Projects"
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tab located here. Let's call this project
"The Beach."
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When we come back to the project it will
appear within the projects
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window.
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In the next iMovie tutorial we will
explore preparing
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and importing files to our project and
we'll also
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use some of the more common iMovie tools.
Thanks for watching!