iMovie 6 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Introduction

Over the years, home movies have developed a bad name, one that’s not entirely undeserved. After all, you know what it’s like watching other people’s camcorder footage. You’re held prisoner on some neighbor’s couch after dessert to witness 60 excruciating, unedited minutes of their trip to Mexico, or maybe 25 too many minutes of the baby wearing the spaghetti bowl.

Deep down, most camcorder owners are aware that the viewing experience could be improved if the video were edited down to just the good parts. They just had no idea how to accomplish that. Until iMovie came along, editing camcorder footage on the computer required several thousand dollars’ worth of digitizing cards, extremely complicated editing software, and the highest-horsepower computer equipment available.

Some clever souls tried to edit their videos by buying two VCRs, wiring them together, and copying parts of one tape onto another. That worked great—if you didn’t mind the bursts of distortion and static at each splice point and the massive generational quality loss.

You know what? Unless there was a paycheck involved, editing footage under those circumstances just wasn’t worth it. The fast-forward button on the remote was a lot easier.

All of that changed when iMovie came along. It certainly wasn’t the first digital video (DV) editing software. But it was the first DV-editing software for nonprofessionals, people who have a life outside of video editing. Within six months of its release in October 1999, iMovie had become, in words of beaming iMovie papa (and Apple CEO) Steve Jobs, “the most popular video-editing software in the world.”

Apple only fanned the flames when it released iMovie 2 in July 2000 (for $50), iMovie 3 in January 2003 (for free), and then—as part of the iLife software suite—iMovie 4, iMovie HD, and iMovie 6 in successive Januaries.

Note

The icon and welcome screen for iMovie 6 still say “iMovie HD.” But that’s also what the previous version was called! To avoid completely confusing you, this book refers to the iLife ’06 version as iMovie 6, and the previous version as iMovie HD.

Meet iMovie

iMovie is video-editing software. It grabs a copy of the raw footage from your digital camcorder or still camera. Then it lets you edit this video easily, quickly, and creatively.

iMovie is the world’s least expensive version of what the Hollywood pros call nonlinear editing software for video, just like its much more powerful (and much more complex) rivals, like Final Cut Express ($300), Final Cut Pro ($1,000), and Avid editing suites ($100,000). The “nonlinear” part is that no tape is involved while you’re editing. There’s no rewinding or fast-forwarding; you jump instantly to any piece of footage as you put your movie together.

Your interest in video may be inspired by any number of ambitions. Maybe you want to create professional-looking shows for your local cable station’s public-access channel. Or you aspire to create the next Blair Witch Project (which was created by nonprofessionals using a camcorder and nonlinear editing software) or the next Tarnation, an iMovie project that was a hit at the Sundance and Cannes Film Festivals.

On the other hand, maybe all you want to do is make better home movies—much, much better home movies. Either way, iMovie can accommodate you.

The world of video is exploding. People are giving each other DVDs instead of greeting cards. People are watching each other via video on their Web sites. People are quitting their daily-grind jobs to become videographers for hire, making money filming weddings and creating living video scrapbooks. Video, in other words, is fast becoming a new standard document format for the new century.

If you have iMovie and a camcorder, you’ll be ready.