Apple’s release of iMovie for free this past Friday has sent thousands of people rushing to Apple’s Web site to download the software. iMovie enables Power Mac G4s, FireWire-equipped PowerBook G3’s and numerous other Mac models not listed by the software’s system requirements the ability edit digital video imagery. Of course, downloading iMovie is only the first step — now the big question for many users is, "What do I do with it?"
The obvious answer is, "Make movies with it." But there are some resources that you might want to familiarize yourself with before you get started, to make the whole process a bit easier and a lot more fun. The first step is to spend some time on Apple’s iMovie Web site. In the months since Apple first introduce iMovie, the site has grown to include a variety of neat downloads that users can grab free. Apple has made available a Plug-in Pack that includes a number of new transitions and text effects that aren’t included with the original 19.2MB download. Included in the pack are new radial, wash and zoom transitions, subtitles, zoom titles, and several other nifty tricks. And all it’ll cost you is a minimal amount of download time — the Plug-in Pack is a whopping 54K, which should take less than a minute to download even on a slow dial-up connection. It’s easy to install, too — simply move the contents of the decompressed folder into the Plug-ins folder inside iMovie’s Resources folder.
That’s not all, either. The iMovie Web site is brimming with sound effects and music that you can download, as well — more than 58MB of files, total. Apple has a dozen different sets of sound effects you can grab that aren’t included with iMovie 1.0.2, ranging from animal sounds and nature noises to blasting lasers and spaceship sound effects. Four different samples of looping music are also available. Some of these files are quite large, however, so keep an eye on file sizes before going to download them. Apple also advises iMovie users to load only what they need for their specific projects — the more add-ons that iMovie has to keep track of, the slower it will load. You can use QuickTime Player to play back the effects before using them in iMovie, too.
Apple also has a variety of graphics background sets, as well — imagery of everything from curtains to pictures of nature and outer space. These sets can be used for backgrounds when you’re displaying credits and titles. Of course, nothing says that you have to be limited to Apple’s iMovie site — iMovie’s import capabilities will let you grab still images from Adobe Photoshop files to GIF and JPEG images. PICT and BMP formats are also supported, so if you’re using iMovie to create a business presentation that depends on the display of screenshots from Mac or PC systems, you should be in luck.
iMovie’s broad support for still images also makes the software well-suited for assembling still picture collages or business presentations into QuickTime movies that are complete with sound effects or music. This can make iMovie a useful tool even for Macs that can’t handle FireWire, like many iMac models, for example.
One of the most frequent questions we’ve been asked thus far involves iMovie’s compatibility with QuickTime movies — can iMovie import QuickTime? It can’t directly, but there is a way for users of QuickTime Pro to import QuickTime files into iMovie — it’s documented right in Apple’s Tech Info Library. In an article entitled Importing Non-DV QuickTime Movies, Apple describes the process, which involves exporting the QuickTime movie as a DV stream using QuickTime Player, then manually dragging the exported DV file into the Media folder of your iMovie project. It takes time, patience and enormous amounts of disk space, but it works.
We’ve now heard from users who were able to successfully use iMovie to import video through Macs that don’t include FireWire from the factory, including many older beige Macs that have been equipped with PCI-based FireWire cards, as well as PowerBook G3’s equipped with FireWire PC cards. If you have old tapes in other formats you’d like to edit using iMovie, there are a couple of ways to get the video to your Mac. Utilizing the analog A/V interface on your DV camcorder is one method to get the video into your Mac; another choice is Sony’s $500 DVMC-DA1. The DVMC-DA1 is an interface that converts analog video signals to FireWire or, as Sony likes to call it, i.LINK).
iMovie should be able to import any AIFF sound file directly, so if you have an old collection of sound effects on CD-ROM or perhaps some beep sounds archived on a Zip disk somewhere, you may be able to incorporate some custom sound effects for your home video projects. If you have sounds in other formats — let’s say MP3 or WAV, for example — and you’d like to convert them for iMovie, you can give Norman Franke’s inimitable freeware application SoundApp a try. The software has been around for years and is still actively supported and updated by Franke when he has time between other projects.
If you’ve already invested time in trying out iMovie and you’re still stumped about how to get the results you need, you may also want to consider forking over the US$19.99 for the iMovie CD itself — the CD sports a tutorial that will help you understand the ins and outs of Apple’s consumer video product. U.S. customers can order the iMovie CD by calling 800.293.6617. It’s ten dollars more if you’re in Canada — Canadians should call 888.295.0653. Apple is restricting this offer to North American consumers only, so I’m afraid we don’t have an international phone number to give other Mac users at this point.
Finally, if you’re aware of resources that are of particular interest to iMovie users — places where people can download other add-ons that improve the usefulness of this innovative application, or places where iMovie users can get more info on how to use their software — we encourage you to drop a line to pc****@*******ng.com with the info. As new information becomes available, we’ll continue to bring readers updates on where to find iMovie-compatible goodies. Have Fun!
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This article was last modified on June 30, 2023
This article was first published on May 1, 2000
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