MacMost: iMovie

Learn some quick and simple tricks you can use to enhance your next iMovie video project. You can adjust iMovie's backgrounds to make them unique or bring in your own. Add audio narration and adjust the fade in and out of any audio. Use cropping to zoom in and special effects like freeze frame and instant replay.

If you want to go beyond the title text feature in iMovie, you can create your own styled text in Keynote or any image editing tool and use the resulting image as an overlay. Then you can use picture-in-picture keyframes in iMovie to animate the text popping in from one side or scale as it moves. You can use this technique with any transparent image for a variety of effects.

You can use the Ken Burns cropping effect to zoom in to a portion of your video in iMovie. However, this cropping effect will continue over the entire length of your clip. To zoom in starting at a certain point and then to stay at the same zoom level for a while afterwards, you need to split the clip at the right places and use a trick to keep the video zoomed out at the end.

It can be difficult to get text to look good in iMovie since you can only choose from a limited number of title options. But you can use a graphics app or Keynote to create any text you want, and then overlay that text on your video. By copying a frame of your video, you can adjust the text to look good in Keynote, and then export just the text as a transparent image. This text can fit the video perfectly, or be used as a resizable and moveable element to position in iMovie.

You can use speed ramping to speed up or slow down portions of a video clip, with the change in speed occurring smoothly. This is commonly used in movies to create a better pace for action sequences. You can use it to shorten long portions of your video or highlight bits of action.

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.

The opening and closing slides of a presentation are often on the screen for a while, so why not make them more interesting than just some text? You can easily add a video as a background to a keynote slide. With iMovie you can create a few different backgrounds that you can reuse.

You can't resize or position an overlay and also apply a green screen effect in iMovie at the same time. However, you can do the scaling positioning over a green background, export, and then use the resulting video in another project to get the same result.

You can create professional-looking video end credits with Keynote using only a single simple animation on a single slide. You can incorporate a long list of names, and add shapes, photos or other elements into a group. The result is easily modified and exported as a video to bring into iMovie, Final Cut or any other video editing app.

When you have several clips that you want to use in the same project in iMovie, sometimes you have to deal with different sound levels in each clip. You can use the Auto Loudness button to quickly adjust the volume in each clip. You can also manually adjust the volume in a clip or part of a clip. You can also use noise reduction improve the sound quality in a clip.

If you need to rotate video a small amount to correct a camera tilt or create a special effect, you can't do it with iMovie or QuickTime Player. However, you can use Keynote to rotate video. This involves a small Keynote project with just the video, plus a rotation, and then an export. You need to make adjustments to avoid leaving blank corners.

If you have video recorded in the wrong orientation, you can rotate it after you add it to the iMovie timeline. You can also change the original file by opening it in QuickTime Player, rotating it, and saving a new version. If you need to rotate video in Photos, you'll have to export the video, rotate it in QuickTime Player, and then import the new version back into Photos.

You can export a still frame image from a video many different ways with the software that comes with your Mac. If you are already in iMovie, you can use the sharing function to export an image from the current frame in the timeline or a library clip. In Photos you can save a frame in a video to your Photos library as a picture, and you can also copy the current frame and paste it into another app. The easiest way is with QuickTime Player where you can copy the current frame and then paste it into Preview or any other app that handles images.

In iMovie you can force a video clip to more closely resemble another clip by using the Match Color tool. This simply adjusts the color of the first clip to match the colors in the second. You can use this to prevent jarring transitions between very different clips, or to match similar scenes that were shot using different light. You can also use Match Color with images or between video clips and images.

If you add a piece of background music to your iMovie project, the length of the music may be longer than your video. You can set the music to fade out at the appropriate time by dragging the Fade Out dot to the left. You can use this technique whether you use iMovie's special background music track or attach the music to a clip in the main part of the timeline. You can also fade in and add other changes in volume at any point.

In the past it has been tricky to select an entire clip or a range inside a clip in iMovie. With the latest version of iMovie, just clicking on a clip gives you the entire clip, and holding down the R key allows you to select a precise range from within the clip. This works in the timeline as well. The i and o keys can be used to adjust a range start and end.

When you make a series of adjustments to a clip in the timeline in iMovie, it can be hard to replicate the exact same changes to another clip. You can use Paste Adjustments to copy one or all adjustments from clip to clip. This makes it easy to implement consistent settings across different parts of your project.

If you need a transparent image, like a circle, arrow or piece of text, you would usually create it in a graphics app. However, there is a way to create transparent images quickly using only Keynote. You can then use these as overlays on other images in Preview or in iMovie.

You can combine two different techniques in iMovie to create a mirror effect where the same clip is displayed as a mirror image on the left and right.

The Freeze Frame feature in iMovie allows you to easily stop the action and create several seconds of a still image in the middle of your video. You can use this for dramatic effect. You can also cut out the freeze frame portion and apply a filter or other effect.