iMovie 08 is confusing

[jade]

So i opened up iMovie 08 today. Haven't used any iMovie since iMovie 06. I was totally and absolutely lost. Is it just me or is it really confusing. I though the clip viewer was the active area, it took a good 5 minutes to figure out why I couldn't drag my transition over to the new clips. It only started to make more sense when I took a still to incorporate in my movie, that i saw it go straight to the top (and when I tried to drag it like 4 times down to the bottom.)

That is so bizarre.

Another note, it might be hard to get the drag/place down with these new multitouch trackpads.

Ok done venting.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Actually iMovie '08 has had so many capabilities "simplified" and the emphasis thrown onto just uploading YouTube stuff, etc that there is a very large portion of iMovie users that have reverted to using iMovie HD (which is actually what 06 is called) for their relatively simple video work (and I am sure among them).

Try putting chapter markers in iMovie 08-- you can do it but not by Apple design, just through your choice of several "workaround" methods. Arrrgghh.

You have to figure that Apple saw the potential for resistance to the newest version since upgrading your iLife 06 suite to the iLife 08 suite replaced all the other iLife apps with their new versions, but kept iMovie HD in a folder called iMovie (previous version)--- and they made the full iMovie HD a free download on their site immediately upon the release of iLife 08!

At the same time, they reduced the price of the brand new version of Final Cut Express (iMovie 06's very much bigger brother) by $100 too.

Not to sound like a conspiracy head case, but I really think this was just a smart new marketing plan in Apple's video app line- having more people finding the new version far too simplified for the needs they used to do in HD and then seeing that all the cool features in Final Cut Express (that far exceeded HD) were more affordable so they would move upwards. Meanwhile new users of Macs that might have simple needs for putting together quick movies would find that 08 met them.

Oh well, I still use HD on some things and my new Final Cut Express 4 on some more advanced stuff-- and then there is always Final Cut Studio available if I move further into it........ Their marketing plan sucked me in!

 

[ltldrummerboy]

From what I've seen and heard, if you've used any other movie editor, iMovie '08 will seem completely different and unnatural from everything else. But if you've never used one, it will seem very easy and fluid. My first Mac came with Leopard and iLife '08, and was the computer I did my first video editing on. The first time I opened iMovie I knew what to do. It all fell into place and I made my video. I've also made a three-hour DVD with chapter markers courtesy of GarageBand. It's really not that hard once you've done it once. Also, in the most recent updates, Apple has added support for many more video types, including .avi files. For simple editing I think it's a great app.

 

[akm3]

I agree with the poster above me.

I got a Mac and did my first video editing project in iMovie 06. Then I upgraded to iLife 08 and did my second project in iMovie 08.

I realized that 06 could do a lot of 'stuff' that 08 couldn't * but I didn't care. iMovie 08 was just a lot easier to use, and it was MUCH easier to make the DVD of my childs photos to send to my Mom for Mother's Day. It went very fast, very intuitive, and the final result was fantastic. Was it a professional video? Of course not. It was a HOME user doing HOME things. This is what iMovie 08 is for. And it excels at it, in my opinion.

iMovie 06 had an awful learning curve, and doing a lot of the stuff that iMovie 08 does very easily was extremely convoluted.

However, the ability to set audio-level bands in iMovie 06 was really nice, as well as the additional transitions and effects. I suspect iMovie '09 or '10 will add a lot of the missing stuff back in, and I'll be in heaven.

 

[r.j.s]

The point of '08 is to make it easy for anyone to make a video, not just those that have used other video editing apps, and I think they have succeeded.

iMovie '08 is perfect - for what it is, but there are many people out there that would like it to be more than HD was - which pushes it into FCE territory.

Old-school editors vs. the YouTube generation.

 

[jade]

I wish more apps would take the same conventions and apply them cross platform. i use a PC regularly (at work) and there are so many little things that are really different that I have to stop and remind myself which computer I am using!

iMovie 08 seems unlike all other video apps, for better or worse, and that in itself confuses me. Might have to download the older version.

I am no video editor, but I guess some workflows are more intuitive to me than others. I'll stick it out with iMovie class stuff. But I am sad that 08 killed the distinct audio timeline. I found that really easy to figure out!