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Yeah, for casual use, iMovie is great. For splicing together a few clips, I don't know why anyone would want software they have to pay for.

For big jobs, then pick your poison. But for small family type stuff, nothing compares.
 
iMovie 11 Sucks

I videotape dance concerts, and I have also made a movie that won 3 film festival awards. I did it with Final Cut Express, which, aside from superb editing capability, allows me to make chapters, and export to iDVD.

I recently purchased a tapeless camcorder, which only uploads to iMovie 11. But iMovie 11 doesn't have nearly the editing capabilities of Final Cut Express, and their sharing options are laughable. I didn't pay $3,500 for a camcorder, just to make a 15 minute movie to be put on YouTube, a cell phone, or sent to iCloud. That's stupid!

I find iMovie 11 to be totally unusable for my purposes, and I don't understand why Apple is no longer supporting Final Cut Express and iDVD, which were really fine for what I do. I still have these apps on my computer, and I will find a way to get a movie from iMovie 11 to Final Cut Express, so that I can edit it for real, and export it to something useful.

But I worry about the future, when my computer eventually dies. Is Apple now run by idiots, who think all we do is walk around, staring at smart phones? I don't make movies for smart phones, or for YouTube. I'd go to the competition, but I figure they are just as bad.
 
iMovie 11 Sucks Continued

I don't understand iMovie's obsession with cutting up a clip into a thousand pieces, and making a thumbnail of each. WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LEAVE AN IMPORTED CLIP ALONE, and let me do the editing? Software is supposed to facilitate things, not make them harder. Not only am I wasting an enormous amount of time, putting their jigsaw puzzle back together, there's almost certainty that a piece or two will end up missing, or in the wrong place. At least iMovie 6 let you specify, in the User Preferences, that you don't want them to slice-up your clip. But Apple doesn't want me to use that, with my new camcorder. Neither do they want me to use Final Cut Express, the most user-friendly software that they created and now don't support.
 
I videotape dance concerts, and I have also made a movie that won 3 film festival awards. I did it with Final Cut Express, which, aside from superb editing capability, allows me to make chapters, and export to iDVD.

I recently purchased a tapeless camcorder, which only uploads to iMovie 11. But iMovie 11 doesn't have nearly the editing capabilities of Final Cut Express, and their sharing options are laughable. I didn't pay $3,500 for a camcorder, just to make a 15 minute movie to be put on YouTube, a cell phone, or sent to iCloud. That's stupid!
Are you talking about iMovie11, which is in fact iMovie v9, or the latest iMovie sometimes called iMovie13, which is iMovie v10?

iMovie11 does all that you say that you do with FCE; ie, excellent editing capability, the use of chapters and the ability to export to iDVD.
 
I videotape dance concerts, and I have also made a movie that won 3 film festival awards. I did it with Final Cut Express, which, aside from superb editing capability, allows me to make chapters, and export to iDVD.

I recently purchased a tapeless camcorder, which only uploads to iMovie 11. But iMovie 11 doesn't have nearly the editing capabilities of Final Cut Express, and their sharing options are laughable. I didn't pay $3,500 for a camcorder, just to make a 15 minute movie to be put on YouTube, a cell phone, or sent to iCloud. That's stupid!

So, you paid $3500 dollars for a camera so you could cut the resolution by 75% with iDVD? I'm sorry, I know I'm being snarky, but seriously, you need Final Cut Pro X.

iMovie is great software. It takes a little getting used to, but it is very powerful for the price.

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I don't understand iMovie's obsession with cutting up a clip into a thousand pieces, and making a thumbnail of each. WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LEAVE AN IMPORTED CLIP ALONE, and let me do the editing? Software is supposed to facilitate things, not make them harder. Not only am I wasting an enormous amount of time, putting their jigsaw puzzle back together, there's almost certainty that a piece or two will end up missing, or in the wrong place. At least iMovie 6 let you specify, in the User Preferences, that you don't want them to slice-up your clip. But Apple doesn't want me to use that, with my new camcorder. Neither do they want me to use Final Cut Express, the most user-friendly software that they created and now don't support.

Personally, I think splitting the clips on import is a feature, not a hassle. You don't film in one long chunk, why would you want to edit that way? It's far easier to trim and edit a bunch of clips if they're already split up.
 
I wasn't hoping to get into a tit-for-tat argument about how good iMovie is/isn't, I just wanted to know if there was an alternative.

But then you encountered Apple Fan Boyism, oops.

I agree, iMovie used to be point and click simple, no manual needed. I can make little sense of it now, and have been avoiding it for that reason. I appreciate this thread, as I was thinking of starting one just like it myself.

In fairness to Apple, Google does this too. They start off a project with a simple clean and clear interface, and then they start "improving" it, and the end result is often a confusing over designed muddle.

Both companies were founded on the genius of simplicity, but they often forget that.

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I don't understand iMovie's obsession with cutting up a clip into a thousand pieces, and making a thumbnail of each. WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LEAVE AN IMPORTED CLIP ALONE, and let me do the editing?

Yes, that's it, well said, I hate it too.
 
Eureka!

I've just had an excellent one-to-one training session. The trainer told me, that before iMovie 11 chops-up my clips into pieces, and makes thumbnails of each (for no ****ing reason), it converts the footage from my camcorder to .mov format for editing. I can then transfer the .mov clips directly to Final Cut Express, without having to wait 2 hours for Final Cut Express to convert the footage from the iMovie output of MP4 back to .mov for editing. That should also result in fewer glitches, which iMovie does a lot! Now, I don't have to deal with ANY of the iMovie ********. And I can make J-Pegs from the movie, create chapters, and easily import it into iDVD.

By the way, iMovie 11 does NOT create chapters. iMovie 9 did. Apparently, Apple decided that chapters would be too user friendly, and not in line with their current policy of making things difficult for the consumer (if not impossible).

I only wish the training manuals had this information. It would save consumers a lot of grief.
 
Your posts have me wondering if it's still possible to obtain and install the earlier versions of iMovie. I remember loving the earlier versions, and like you, I do not love the current version. I don't love it enough that I never use it.

I'm a much more casual user of video editing software than you, and can't recall which old version of iMovie was the best, and still usable on Snow Leopard.

Might downgrading be the solution here? I think it would be for me anyway. Any advice on how to do that?
 
You could take a look at the video editing capabilities of Blender. It's open source and free. It has been used for some pretty serious projects like Big Buck Bunny.

I have played with Blender a little and edited some of my family videos. The learning curve for anything in Blender is similar to learning brain surgery. Complicated but rewarding.

How you know Blender was used for Bunny video? Source?
 
iMovie 6 works fine on Mavericks

Felasco: I have both iMovie 6 and Final Cut Express on my new computer, and they work fine. In fact, better than ever, probably due to the higher speeds. They were on a previous computer, that crashed. But I had them transferred over.

Probably the only way you can get them nowadays, is to find an older Mac that has them, and get them transferred. Don't worry about the new computer not having firewire. You can get adapters for using the thunderbolt connection with firewire, which I understand is also faster.
 
iMovie 11 does NOT create chapters.
Not by itself it doesn't, but YOU can insert Chapter Markers anywhere you wish. Just ensure that you have the "Show Advanced Tools" option in iMovie Preferences>General ticked. You'll then see the Chapter Marker icon.

Screenshot2013-03-10at203833_zps39b38bc6.png
 
iMovie 11 is more like a virus, than software

Software is supposed to facilitate and make things easier. Yet, for some reason, iMovie vandalizes my clips - cutting them into pieces and creating endless thumbnails that make the movie almost incomprehensible. Editing is still possible, but unnecessarily difficult. It doesn't have the ease of use and all the tools of Final Cut Express (which Apple no longer supports), you can't do as much with the sound or the titles, you can't make J-pegs, you have to keep the movie on your hard drive because you can't export it back to the camcorder, and the output is a load of laughs - 6 options that are all the same (MPeg4). Apparently, Apple thinks everybody creates movies that are less than 15 minutes, to post on YouTube, Facebook, or whatever. Totally untrue! But iMovie output is useless, even for that. There are no options for setting the frame rate or deciding how often you want the reference frame, necessary for posting if you want the video and sound to be in sync. The Quick Time Movie created from Final Cut Express was in .mov format, which was relatively uncompressed, and could be used for anything you wanted - including MPeg4 that you could control. The mysterious MPeg4 format of iMovie needs to be decompressed, before you can use it in anything. And what's up with those stupid "themes?" Why would anybody use footage that isn't theirs to make their own movie? iMovie 11 is more like a virus, than software.
 
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