PE2_iMovie

Hello again!!!

As I promise you, I will tell you about the tricks that I've used in iMovie.  But first, a good way to develop a good video or product is to write it or draw a storyboard on a piece of paper.  Also, you can have a "mental picture" of what your productions will look, once is finished.  Rhythm is a very important factor, if you want your production to be entertaining and not boring with long shots, unless is necessary or justifiable.  At the end of this blog, yes, you've guessed it!!!, I'll give you the video hint of the day.

One of the good things that I've found in iMovie is that you can select the video format you will use on your video.  If you are in the Americas, you can use the 30 fps (frames per second) NTSC format, the 25 fps PAL format if you live in Europe or the 24 fps format if you are using a camera that can record in a Cinema, 35mm format.  Cool, isn't it!!!! Take that Windows Movie Maker!!!

Here's a cool trick in iMovie.  If you have a video in which you are on camera describing a process, but you need to put images on top of the video leaving the audio narrating the images that you put on the timeline, you'll delete the audio track since you are replacing the video track that has the audio narration. The simple solution is to record the audio on Garage Band and import it to iMovie and you don't want to go through that process when you already have the audio, right?  

First, select the clip that has the audio part that you need.  Go to the clip and single click on top of it.  Next, you'll go to "Clip" and select "Detach Audio"

Once you click "Detach Audio" a purple track will appear under the clip.  This will tell you that the audio is separate from the video track.  You can proceed to delete the video track and put the images on top of the purple audio track.  Neat, isn't it???  I used this procedure when I was working on my Action Plan video. Look at iMovie's Chapter 7 on Lynda.com to learn how to work with audio tracks.  Remember, all applications comes with a "help" tab, if you have doubts on how to use an application and you can't find the solution in the tutorial or on the Internet, please, but please, please referred to the "help" tab.  Believe me it's a life saver!!!!

Now, for my video hint of the day:

For a fast pace video (Fight sequence, car chasing, sports), keep your shots to a 3 to 4 seconds minimum.  It takes 2 seconds for the human eye to register an image. Is not the rule, but you'll notice that your videos will have rhythm and will be more pleasant to the viewer, unless your shot involves a pan (moving camera from left to right or vice versa) or a tilt (moving camera up or down),