iMovie & iDVD Visual QuickStart Guide

Add a timestamp in iMovie

My latest Macworld Create column looks at a relatively simple feature: adding a timestamp to your footage. It's much better than the old days when cameras would burn the date and time directly onto your footage (and the typography is much better now). I also reveal how to fix footage that has the wrong date and time information embedded. See: How to time-stamp your video in iMovie.

Complete Green Screen Setup for $250

In the New York Times, David Pogue discovers that the Westcott uLite Green Screen Lighting Kit is an effective and affordable way to capture green screen footage. iMovie can then knock out the green and let you add other footage in its place.

Hollywood-Style Tricks on the Cheap

(Although I have a minor quibble: Pogue says that “A green screen, of course, is the oldest trick in the movie-making book.” Actually, it's a pretty recent invention, appearing I believe in the 1970s. But, whatever.)

Import Flip Video into iMovie for iOS

When I was reviewing iMovie 1.2 for iOS, I was surprised to discover that I could import video directly from my Flip MinoHD camcorder. During the tech edit, Macworld editor James Galbraith had a few questions (for him, he needed to plug his Flip into a powered hub for it to be recognized by the iPad 2). Following that, he's written up a quick how-to for importing Flip video: "Importing Flip video into iMovie for iOS" (Macworld).

Mastering iMovie Trailers at Macworld

When iMovie ’11 was released, the snazziest new feature was movie trailers, an easy way to create a short movie that had professional-quality editing and a soundtrack (recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, no less). But a movie trailer seemed like a one-shot distraction. Sure, it was fun, but was that it?

In my latest article for Macworld, I reveal that there's a lot more involved with movie trailers, including how to use them as a jumping-off point for editing longer movies. Read Mastering iMovie trailers for more.

Talking iMovie ’11 on MacVoices

On Tuesday I chatted with Chuck Joiner about what's new in iMovie ’11 and my TidBITS article, "15 Secrets of iMovie ’11" for the MacVoices podcast. Chuck is always great to talk to, and indulged me when I found myself having to back up and explain things like rolling shutter, CMOS camera sensors, and interlaced video footage.

Jeff Carlson has been spending lots of time with the new iMovie ‘11, and has discovered a number of useful, cool and largely undocumented features. Jeff discusses the under-publicized return of the timeline (even if it isn’t called a timeline), the usefulness of Movie Trailer and other effects, and then dives into things you didn’t know, including rolling shutter fix, morse code in a theme, and several other minor but tasteful additions. iMovie ‘11 still isn’t good with interlaced video; Jeff explains what that means to you and how to work around it, and why iMovie ‘11 is finally almost like the long-dead iMovie HD.

Catch the podcast here: MacVoices #10125: Jeff Carlson Looks At The Known and Unknown Features of iMovie ‘11

15 Secrets of iMovie ’11

There's a lot more going on with iMovie ’11 than movie trailers and audio editing. In this TidBITS article, I reveal several tips, trivia, and otherwise unknown aspects of Apple's video editor: "15 Secrets of iMovie ’11".

Here are a couple of items to tease you:

Made with Morse -- Speaking of trailers, you can choose which studio logo appears at the front. In the Signals Across the Globe trailer, the music that plays in the background is actually Morse code for "Made with iMovie."

Change All Title or Transition Styles -- If you decide to change the style of an existing title, you can drop a new style onto the section of the clip the title occupies (the video clip turns bright blue to indicate you're affecting the title). Now, when you replace a title style, iMovie asks if you'd like to replace just the one title or all titles in the project. The same option applies to replacing transitions, too.

First Look: iMovie ’11

So what's new in iMovie ’11? Check out my First Look: iMovie ’11 at Macworld for details.

The article was supposed to be only 600 words, but I easily doubled that. And, there are more features I didn't have room to include (more on these soon).

Premiere Elements 9 for Mac Review

Adobe introduced Premiere Elements 9 for Mac, the first time the video editing application is available on the Mac. My review is now online at Macworld.com: Premiere Elements 9.

Breen's Full Review of iMovie for iPhone

Christopher Breen has been busy, with his full review now online:

iMovie on the Mac will likely continue to be controversial, but if you have your expectations regarding iMovie for the iPhone screwed on just so, you’ll find very little to argue with.

And how might those expectations fit comfortably? By accepting that, in most cases, iMovie for the iPhone isn’t going to replace the full-blown video editing application on your Mac. While you can produce and deliver polished movies with the mobile version of iMovie, it’s very much an on-the-go editor that’s necessarily limited to help you work faster on a small-screen device.

Hands On: iMovie for iPhone, by Macworld

Christopher Breen shares his first impressions of iMovie for iPhone.