Tips

Easily undo changes you made

You want to work fluidly with your footage to create a great movie. Sometimes you might make a few edits and decide you don’t like them. With iMovie you can undo as many changes as you want. Simply choose Undo from the Edit menu as many times as you want between saves.

Trimmed portions of clips are never deleted

When you use direct trimming, the unused portion of your clip is simply rolled up underneath your clip. You can always unroll the footage back out if you change your mind about which footage you want to use. You can also choose Revert Clip to Original from the Advanced menu.

Cropping and deleting portions of a clip

Besides direct trimming, you can select precisely which parts of your clips you want to show in your movie by using Crop or Clear. Select a portion of a clip in the clip viewer by dragging the crop markers below the scrubber bar to indicate where you want your clip to begin and end. Next, go to the Edit menu and choose Crop or Clear to remove a section. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move frame by frame through your footage, or hold down the Shift key while pressing the arrow key to move ten frames at a time.

Change two clips at once

You can use a roll edit to edit the ending point of one clip and the beginning point of the next clip. A roll edit adjusts the out point and in point of two adjacent clips simultaneously. If you like where two clips are placed in the timeline, but you want to change when the cut point happens, you can use the Roll tool. Hold down the Command key as you drag from the center of one clip toward the next clip, effectively trimming the adjacent clip. No clips move in the Timeline as a result; only the edit point between the two clips moves.

View waveforms when you use direct trimming with audio

When you want to be precise with your audio editing in the timeline, go to the View menu and choose Show Audio Waveforms. Select an audio clip and use the Up and Down Arrow keys to enlarge or shrink the view of the waveforms. This way, when you edit in the timeline you can see exactly where your sound starts and stops, and even see where the beats occur.

Ripple your clips down the timeline

In the timeline view, position your pointer in the center of a clip, and then click and drag your mouse to the right. All of the clips in the timeline, beginning with the clip you selected, move to the right, leaving a gap in the timeline. You can fill this gap with another clip, a photo, or even a title.

Add color clips in your movie

With iMovie, you can create clips in the timeline that don’t contain video footage, but fill the frame with black or another color. This can help you create interesting transitions and give you dramatic backgrounds for titles. In the timeline, simply drag a clip from the center to the right to insert space before your clip. Switch to Clip view and notice a black clip appears before your selected clip. To change the color, just double-click the clip. In the window that appears, you can set the clip’s color and duration.

Steps

Trim your clips to include the best parts

1. In the clip viewer, select a clip and play it to approximately halfway through the clip.  Use the red line to monitor where the playhead is in the clip.
2. From the Edit menu, choose Split Video Clip at Playhead. This will cut your video clip into two pieces. Notice the second clip has a new video thumbnail to display its first frame. This helps you identify what video is associated with your clips after they’ve been cut.
3. Use the Left and Right Arrow keys to move back and forth between the two clips. Follow along by watching the playhead as it moves between the two clips.
4. Choose Undo from the Edit menu to undo this cut and join the two clips back together. Leave the clip selected. Now we’ll apply an edit using a different method.
5. Switch to the timeline view by clicking the timeline viewer button. Notice your clips expand to show their relative length. Also notice the ends of the clips have slightly rounded edges. This indicates they are full clips and haven’t been edited yet.
6. Move the arrow to the end of the selected clip until it changes to a vertical line with an arrow pointing left. This indicates you are positioned to do direct trimming.
7. Drag the end of the clip towards the center. The clip shortens as you roll up the video. Release the mouse to complete the roll edit. Notice the clip edge now shows a straight line instead of a rounded edge. This indicates the clip was rolled up underneath.
8. To show how you can adjust a roll edit, drag the right edge of the clip back to its original starting point.
9. Now that you understand the basics of applying cuts and roll edits to your video, practice editing your video to include only the best parts.