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iMovie guru needed...

M

mikebatho

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
807
2
Greater Manchester UK
Anyone out there a bit tasty on iMovie?

I have a small project do complete fairly quickly. I've had to record a little promo video. It's under 4 mins, and just features me sitting at a table talking about a project I'm involved with.

I need to make it look a bit smarter. I'm pretty uncomfortable in front of the camera, and there are a few awkward pauses, where I'm thinking I could maybe do a cut to a still or something?

I'd also like to add an opening still shot and one at the end, just something put together in illustrator/photoshop giving the thing a title, then a thank you & web address at the end. Is that complicated? Also, I guess it would have to be a certain size & resolution?

I'm going to start looking for answers myself, but I need to get this done in the next few hours, and thought I'd post it here as I've found the members very helpful in the past.

Thanks.
 
simsaladimbamba

simsaladimbamba

Guest
Nov 28, 2010
22,670
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located
What version of iMovie do you use and what kind of footage do you have (SD or HD)?
And yes, cutaways would be quite good, maybe show animated stills of what you talk about (if those are yours, some rights issue).
 
M

mikebatho

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
807
2
Greater Manchester UK
iMovie version 7.1.4

The folder I dragged from my camcorder says SD Video. It's one of these little JVC jobs with an internal hard drive, so I've had to convert the raw files to MP4, which I've done ok....

Can't use any animations or anything, what might be an option is, as I address key points in the video, I could have a a still page with a question, like where I'm talking about XYZ, have a caption page beforehand saying "What made you decide to do XYZ?"

That could work if it isn't too complicated, I might need about 4 caption pages....
 
D

daybreak

macrumors 6502a
Sep 4, 2009
531
0
If you only got a few hours i cant see you getting it finished. If you know your lay out with iMovie, just say what you want regards errors and then use the editing software and edit. The same with any cutaways you want to use.
"SIMPLE" task
 
M

mikebatho

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
807
2
Greater Manchester UK
daybreak said:
If you only got a few hours i cant see you getting it finished. If you know your lay out with iMovie, just say what you want regards errors and then use the editing software and edit. The same with any cutaways you want to use.
"SIMPLE" task
Click to expand...

Sorry, I didn't understand any of that...
 
D

daybreak

macrumors 6502a
Sep 4, 2009
531
0
Sorry miss read your post.
Have you got any cutaway shoots sitting in iPhoto?. For fast work regards still cutaways bring them in into iPhoto and iMovie should handle the resolution.
 
M

mikebatho

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
807
2
Greater Manchester UK
daybreak said:
Sorry miss read your post.
Have you got any cutaway shoots sitting in iPhoto?. For fast work regards still cutaways bring them in into iPhoto and iMovie should handle the resolution.
Click to expand...

No, I don't have any pics in iphoto I'm afraid, but I've kind of decided I want flat colour screens with captions, which can be dropped in though out....like a blank blue screen with the caption "How did you come up with this idea?" then I go on to explain in the video. Just need to know what kind of file I need to create. I seem to have a dim memory from years ago having to create a Targa file for someone making a vid...does that still stand?

Cheers.
 
I

imurdaddy

macrumors member
Nov 6, 2012
42
0
mikebatho said:
No, I don't have any pics in iphoto I'm afraid, but I've kind of decided I want flat colour screens with captions, which can be dropped in though out....like a blank blue screen with the caption "How did you come up with this idea?" then I go on to explain in the video. Just need to know what kind of file I need to create. I seem to have a dim memory from years ago having to create a Targa file for someone making a vid...does that still stand?

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Use titles...set your background color...pick a style and font...set your duration.
 
M

mikebatho

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
807
2
Greater Manchester UK
Nope. I'm struggling with this. I've only just figured out how to cut the right amount of footage from my imported movie into a new project. I've got hold of a copy of iLife for Dummies but it seems very outdated....
 
M

mikebatho

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
807
2
Greater Manchester UK
I've now got the TITLES menu up.

I select 'centred' but can't see what to do next. When I drag it up to the start of my project it drops it over the top of the movie for about a minute, displaying as blue bars for about a dozen rows, and I can't see how to adjust it so it just hangs for a few seconds at the start before my video kicks in with a solid background.

I'm exhausted now, if someone could PM me to take me through this I'd be really grateful - it's way overdue.

Thanks.
 
M

mikebatho

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
807
2
Greater Manchester UK
OK, the only way I'm gonna get this done is by dropping my caption pages in as pictures. I'm trying to do it by learning from tutorials, but I'm having some problems.

I've created a title page and dropped it into iphoto. I thought I'd concentrate on getting this in place correctly, then go back & create my other caption pages armed with the know how.

When I click the iMovie PHOTO icon and it opens the photo library window, my title screen pic is there - cool. I drag it to the start of my project until it pops up a little green line to say it's going in at the start, but when I drop it there, it leaves 2 shots of the screen instead of just one, and the only icon within that is 'crop', not time or anything else I need. And then, i don't know how to stitch the pic to the rest of my movie so it plays through - it just stops after it's played the photo.

HELP PLEASE?? :confused::confused::confused:
 
Dave Braine

Dave Braine

macrumors 68040
Mar 19, 2008
3,990
352
Warrington, UK
When I drag it up to the start of my project it drops it over the top of the movie for about a minute, displaying as blue bars for about a dozen rows, and I can't see how to adjust it so it just hangs for a few seconds at the start before my video kicks in with a solid background.
Click to expand...
You should be able to drop it at the front of your video. Just drag it to the very end and look for that verticle green line.

it leaves 2 shots of the screen instead of just one,
Click to expand...
Not quite sure what you mean by that.

when I drop it there, it leaves 2 shots of the screen instead of just one, and the only icon within that is 'crop', not time or anything else I need.
Click to expand...
Either double click on it to open he Inspector, or click once and then click on the gearwheel on the lefthand side and choose Clip Adjustments.
 
M

mikebatho

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
807
2
Greater Manchester UK
Dave Braine said:
You should be able to drop it at the front of your video. Just drag it to the very end and look for that verticle green line.


Not quite sure what you mean by that.


Either double click on it to open he Inspector, or click once and then click on the gearwheel on the lefthand side and choose Clip Adjustments.
Click to expand...

I've cobbled it together as best I could, thanks. The problem was, when I double clicked on the images, they didn't bring up the inspector. Strange bloody app....

Thanks though..;)
 
M

mikebatho

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 1, 2004
807
2
Greater Manchester UK
Back to the drawing board. Gah!! (Don't ask)

Ok, so now I sorta have a handle on cutting my clips together. One problem I have though, is when I add a still photo, it's doing this fancy slow zoom thing. Very nice, but I don't want it. How do I switch that off? It does it automatically with every pic I drop in.

Thanks.
 
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