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Looking to create outstanding marketing videos for your business? This blog on iMovie editing tips should help you master video creation on a Mac!
iMovie is a video editing software that was originally released way back in 1999 and was a competitor to Windows Movie Maker from Microsoft.
While iMovie isn’t being used on any big Hollywood productions, it should offer enough functionality and tools to make some great home movies. But for someone who is new to the world of video editing, and iMovie especially, it can all be a little overwhelming.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. So continue reading and we’ll walk you through the most important iMovie editing tips that you need to know about!
- Crop to Zoom In
Your smartphone can record videos at 720p, 1080p, or even 4k. This means that you’ve got pixels to spare if you’re making a film to share online. If you have a video clip that you wish was more zoomed in, then you can fix that easily.
In iMovie, you can zoom in on a part of the video frame. If you want, you can even use a Ken Burns zoom-and-pan effect, but most people use that effect on photos instead of videos.
If you want to zoom in on a video clip, then highlight that clip in your time. Then, click the crop button that’s in the top right, above the preview window.
Click on Ken Burns or Crop to Fill. Then, just drag to choose the part of the frame in the preview window that you wish to crop.
Click on the checkmark button in the top right and your changes will be put into effect.
- Add Photos With the Ken Burns Effect
One way to make your videos more dynamic and interesting is to add photos into the mix. To add a photo to your project, click on Photo Library which can be found in the Libraries section. This section is on the left side.
Once you’re in the Photo Library, drag the photos that you want to the timeline, just like how you would with video clips.
These photos are going to have a duration of four seconds by default. And they’ll get the Ken Burns effect.
You can change how long a photo lasts in the timeline by clicking on one of its edges and sliding the thumbnail. This is the same as with trimming video clips.
You can also double-click the photo and then change when the Ken Burns effect takes place.
- Add Some Music
You can make your videos more exciting by adding in some cool music. To do this, click on the Audio header that you can find on the left side. From there, you can choose a song that you made in GarageBand or select a song that you bought in iTunes.
When you find the song that you want, drag it into your timeline. It will then show up as a green audio track below your video. Just like with video clips, you can split and trim the audio track.
If you want to upload your video to YouTube, you might end up with a muted video if the song you chose is copyrighted.
You can add other audio tracks too, this way. For example, some voiceover you might have done. And recording audio onto your Mac is fairly simple, according to this link: https://setapp.com/how-to/how-to-record-sound-on-mac.
- Adjust Your Audio Levels
You might not like the default audio levels that iMove chooses for you. If you want, you can adjust both the music track and the audio track from your videos.
To do this, simply click on the horizontal line that runs through the middle of every audio track. You can then raise and lower that line to adjust the volume.
iMovie also has a really cool ducking feature. This tool lowers the volume of the music when a character in your video is speaking.
To do this, select the video clip in the timeline. Then, head over to the preview window and select the audio button. Check the box that says “Lower volume of other clips“.
- Fade Your Audio
When you cut from one video clip to another, it can be jarring if the audio goes from very loud to very quiet so quickly. You can make smoother transitions by gently fading the audio in and out.
To do this, mouse over an audio track (detached green or attached blue audio tracks) and drag the round button at the end or the start of the clip. Drag the button toward the middle of the clip so that you can make a gradual audio fade.
- Add Transitions
Another way to make your cuts smoother is to add video transitions. iMovie offers a lot of cool effects and styles when it comes to video transitions. Whether you want a comic book transition or a simple cross-fade, doing video transitions is fun and easy.
All you have to do is click on the Transitions header at the top of the screen. Then, move a transition in between two of your video clips on the timeline.
The transitions will be one second long, by default. You can change this length by double-clicking on the transition after you placed it in your timeline.
Putting These iMovie Editing Tips to Good Use
iMovie is a great tool for beginning and casual video editors. But it also a lot of features that new users might not know about. By making the most of these iMovie editing tips, you can truly elevate the quality of your videos and make them a lot more interesting.
Are you looking for other helpful tech articles? Check out the rest of our blog for more!
