I have to disagree.
Being a post-iMovie 08 switcher, I had no experience with either iMovies. I used iMovie 08. It was simple, easy, understandable, and, despite the lack of effects, more powerful. iMovie 06, on the other hand, was harder, more complex, and not as good (in my opinion).
I honestly don't care that they got rid of the effects. iMovie 08 is MUCH better than iMovie 06.
It's not just the effects. It's the way that putting together a movie and arranging sequences and such are done. It's just a confusing mess in iMovie '08.
Every time I try and do anything with iMovie '08, it does everything but what I want. It's either a severely messed up environment, or the learning curve is too high.
iMovie 6 was clean, simple, and didn't confuse me at all.
I just don't even get or understand what I'm looking at when I try and do something in '08. It's just too confusing.
iMovie 6 makes it extremely easy to get a movie to DVD and have it look very nice and professional.
iMovie '08 from what I can make of it is essentially iTube (great for making short clips to upload on the Internet). The thing is, I don't need any movie program to upload clips to the Internet. I can take them straight from my camera and upload the original camera files to do that.
To me, the interface is too messy. To many panels to work with. The appearance and the interface do not make it readily clear as to what you are trying to do with them.
Every time I open it, I feel like I just walked into a rats nest with stuff everywhere.
It's just not up to Apple's previous standard for a clean and clear interface.
It kind of feels as intuitive as the DOS Shell from MS-DOS 5.0. The only difference? I understood the DOS Shell.
I think Apple tried to combine Windows Media Player with Windows Movie Maker (the less capable XP version), and combined all that with a version of iPhoto designed for short videos, and came out with a program that is just to confusing to do anything serious with.
Sure, you can put movie clips in it. Sure, you can upload them to the Internet. Yes, there's a backwards way to get them to DVD. Yes, there's a backwards way to set chapters (through a music program no less).
It just feels like the wrong tool for the job. Too many hoops to jump through. To much confusion. And, no clear path to the intended destination.
It's kind of like I'm surrounded by clowns on the green, and trying to play golf with a toothpick.
In iMovie 6, I just import my videos. Drag them to the slides in the order I want them. Drag title screens (if wanted) to the location I want them. Click on the spots where I want chapters to start and place a marker. And, send it to iDVD to burn. It can all be done in mere minutes.
Sure, you can get all fancy with it, and spend a couple of hours really tweaking a movie to get all professional with it. And, I love that about it as well. I can create something comparable to a professional store purchased DVD if I want to.
But, with iMovie '08, I haven't yet managed to get any useful finished video out of it. All I've gotten for my time investment is more confused. Perhaps if all I wanted was to upload a movie to the Internet, then it would be fine. But, then I wouldn't use any version of iMovie to do that, I'd just upload straight from the camera.
Or, for web videos: if I wanted to crop them down or cut out certain spots, and perform light editing, I could do that with Quicktime Pro (and get it done much faster, and with less confusion).
The thing is, once you've used iMovie from version's 4 through 6, and seen how simple it is to create professional looking finished videos, iMovie '08 just feels like a mess.
Like I said, it's like playing golf with a toothpick while surrounded by clowns on the green. Even worse, is that one of the clowns keeps waving the flag around, and I can't see whether the hole is on the left or the right (is it behind clown A, clown B, or clown C? Perhaps it's behind the elephant?
Oh.... wait.... there it is, the Tiger just ran off with it in his mouth....
Are you sure this isn't miniature golf??????
I guess I missed something.
