First Edition

So, I'm already behind on my blog assignment, but that's ok, I'll make good on it.

Furthermore, I'm pretty glad I don't have the latest version of imovie, because I saw my professor struggling with it today, and by combining his complaints along with my own observations I have concluded that indeed seems kind of awful... shame. But you can read more about that here.

So, let us celebrate by my writing a basic "getting started" tutorial regarding imovie 6 (because that's what I have). This will be for macs by the way, not that it will make a great difference.

Now, once you have found imovie in your applications folder
(this is its icon, I just felt like having it there)












you have 3 options.

create a new project:

This is your standard project, empty and devoid of stuff.

open an existing project:
well, if this is your first time, you won't have any...duh

make a magic imovie:
According to the help files a magic imovie is pretty much an automated process. You import your video, add sound (or music) etc, etc.
For now, I'm going to click on "create a new project." iMovie makes you save right off the bat, before you actually begin anything, which I find nice.
Here's the window:

I messed with some things I'd never seen before and learned some new stuff.

In the bottom right area you see some buttons titled: Clips, Themes, Media, Editing, and Chapters.

Clips are the footage or images that you'll be providing, in my case, I simply dragged in a drawing that was sitting on my desktop.

The next one is Themes. This is like a template in a sense... more than a sense actually. After you click on the Themes button you will see at the top of that menu a drop down bar that I noticed just this second. This allows you to select some different themes. Below that are the "Theme elements" which are the actual templates.

Select one and a preview will begin playing. You'll also notice that at the bottom left appears transparent black menu labeled "drop zones." In these drop zones you're able to drag in clips, and it will apply them to the template.

It looks like this for example:















You can put titles to these. There is also a button labeled hide drop zones, and I wonder when one might use it...

Once you have put something on the theme element click the button labeled apply and it will composite the entire thing and place it on the timeline.

Well, that's it for today, I shall find something new tomorrow.