First iMovie steps: Importing video clips
Last week we took a broad look at iMovie’s interface. Now that you know your way around, let’s dig in and learn something about importing video into the application.
Creating a project and importing video from a camera
Start by launching iMovie and choosing File > New Project. A Project Themes sheet will appear. We’ll look into themed projects in another lesson, so for the time being just go with the default No Theme project, enter a name for your project in the Name field, choose Widescreen (16:9) from the Aspect Ratio pop-up menu if you’re using high-definition footage or Standard (4:3) if you’re importing video from an older camcorder, leave the frame rate set at 30 fps (frames per second), and click Create. iMovie will display an empty Project pane. As I explained last week, any clips you’ve already imported will be listed in the Event Library pane, and a preview of the clips within a selected event will be visible in the Event Browser.
Now let’s look at a few ways to bring video into your project.
Importing from a camcorder
To pull footage from your camcorder, you need to connect it physically to your Mac. Older tape-based camcorders use a FireWire connection whereas newer ones typically use USB. In some cases, when you make the connection and switch on the camcorder’s power, iMovie will automatically open an Import window. With some other camcorders you may have to initiate the process by switching on some variety of connection mode. For example, with my Sony HD camcorder I must enable its USB Connect mode. When I do that, up pops the Import window.
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