Add a Camcorder Effect in iMovie With Keynote

Some apps and Final Cut Pro allow you to add a camcorder overlay to make video look like it was recorded on an old video camera. You can do the same in iMovie using an overlay created in Keynote. With this approach, you can highly customize the camcorder overlay. Once you create your Keynote template, you can continue to customize and adjust it for future use.

Comments: 8 Responses to “Add a Camcorder Effect in iMovie With Keynote”

    Jean-Claude
    5 years ago

    Love your videos. Clear and useful explanations, no time wasted!

    David Watts Smith
    5 years ago

    I like the full customization available using Keynote for this effect. I do own Final Cut Pro, and when I imported the camcorder effect movie (the one I made in Keynote), the red dot is not full intensity. There are multiple "Blending" options in the FCP inspector, but I could not find one that showed full colors of the overlaid clip.

    Using iMovie, the overlaid clip looks fantastic, full red, looks great. Can you find the trick to use this clip in FCP? Thanks.

    5 years ago

    David: I wouldn't choose any blending option. You want the overlay to be normal and at 100%.

    David Watts Smith
    5 years ago

    Thanks Gary. As you said, blending was not the problem. I kept blending as "normal", then chose "use original/optimized" instead of "proxy" video. The transparency worked as expected. Thanks again.

    5 years ago

    David: If the issue was using the proxy video, then it should look fine when you export. It is just faster to edit with the proxy video.

    Rob
    5 years ago

    Dang but this is clever.

    Michael McIntyre
    5 years ago

    I'm using imovie 8.0.6 in El Capitan. I have also installed a new HD. However, I unable to use png files for transparency images. Is there a special graphics setting within the new HD? whats your suggestion. Thank you

    5 years ago

    Michael: iMovie version 8 is a very very old version -- 10 years old! Lots of changes since then. Try it with the current version from the Mac App Store. And make sure those PNGs are transparent too. If you are also using an old version of Keynote, there may be some differences there as well.

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