12 Cool Tips and Tricks for iMovie ’11

iLife ’11 is here, and with it comes a host of slick new features for iMovie, including a simple way to create your own Movie Trailers, all-new audio editing, one-step Effects, People Finder and Sports & News Themes. But those are just the marquee features to get everyone excited -- what about the smaller details that might make your daily use of iMovie ’11 a real pleasure?

Thankfully, your faithful friends at MacLife.com have torn the shrink wrap off a copy of iLife ’11 and put the new iMovie under the microscope, looking for the little things that Apple might not consider show-stopping features, but that both new and veteran users alike might appreciate.

Get Your Touch On
Apple may not feel that touchscreen computers are in its future, but they aren’t shy about adding multitouch gestures to their desktop apps for laptop users and those of us rocking a Magic Trackpad. iMovie ’11 is no exception, and features a trio of such gestures.

The first multitouch tip enables adding new media to your Project, which is done by first selecting a clip (or portion of a clip) in the Event browser and then using three fingers to swipe up on the trackpad. Just like magic, your selection is now added to the end of your project.The second gesture allows you to expand or contract filmstrips by moving the pointer over the Event or Project browser and pinching two fingers closed to contract or pinching two fingers open to expand -- a gesture that should be very familiar to users of the company’s iOS devices.

Finally, if you want to move a clip within your project to either the left or right of the clip next to it, simply select the desired clip and then swipe left or right with three fingers accordingly. Let’s see iMovie’s big brother, Final Cut Pro, do that!

Import Movies Directly from Your iPhone
Although the new desktop version of iMovie ’11 is sadly lacking in any interoperability with the stripped-down iOS version, there is one welcome iPhone-related change from iMovie ’09 -- you can now plug in your iPhone and iMovie will recognize it and offer to import any movies in your Camera Roll.

This newfound ability might not have been such a big deal in the iPhone 3GS days with its low-resolution SD camera, but it’s now a must-have for the iPhone 4’s 720p HD video -- especially for more ambitious projects that go beyond the scope of the mobile version of iMovie. (Note that import will also work on the 3GS, for those of you still rockin’ last year’s handset.)

Analyze This
iMovie ’09 added a very welcome Stabilization function to the program’s bag of tricks in order to help smooth out jumpy or handheld footage. That function first required a clip to be analyzed in order to perform its magic, which could be a lengthy process for longer pieces of video.

Now that Apple has added the People Finder feature to iMovie ’11, you’ll be happy to know that you can analyze clips for both Stabilization and People in one fell swoop -- along with the option to do only Stabilization or only People.

Clips that have already been analyzed for Stabilization can also now be marked for camera pans, noting when the camera moves left or right. Choose File > Analyze Video > Mark Camera Pans and now video with camera pans will be indicated with a blue line across the top of the clip, and you can even filter for those type of actions when your editing calls for it.

Viewing Your Timeline In A More Traditional Way

When iMovie ’08 was first released in mid-2007, many of us who were used to more traditional ways of editing were stymied by the way projects were now viewed in a stacked ribbon -- since the dawn of non-linear editing, timelines have mostly been viewed as one seemingly endless horizontal strip. Someone at Apple must have taken note of the fact that we still haven’t quite adjusted to it three years later, so now you can take matters into your own hands.

First navigate to iMovie>Preferences and turn on Show Advanced Tools under the General tab.

In the upper right corner of the Project window, you’ll now find a new Horizontal Display button to the left of the chapter mark tool. With a stacked view in your Project, click the Horizontal Display button and you’ll now see a nice clean, all-horizontal view of your project as you edit. Click it again to go back to the classic stacked view, but only if you must!

Making iMovie ’11 More Like Final Cut

These tips aren’t new to iMovie ’11, but f you want the program to look more like the traditional view of higher-end apps like Final Cut Pro.

Switch the timeline to the bottom of the screen and your unedited media to the top by selecting Window > Swap Events and Projects (or click the Swap button positioned between the windows, to the right of the Import button). After a fancy animated switcheroo, your Event Library and media now appear at the top of the display and your timeline resides at the bottom, a view that will likely be more comfortable to seasoned editors.

The horizontal timeline view and window swap tips work best If you also happen to have a second display attached to your computer. In iMovie ’11, you can select Window > Viewer on Other Display and move your view of the edited project to its own screen, giving you the entire top (or bottom) of the iMovie display to see your newly emancipated Project timeline -- and have a swanky editing setup just like the pros use.

Title Duplicate
If you spend a lot of time creating videos with iMovie, you’ll certainly appreciate some of the new version’s little niceties, many of which have been moved from the Edit menu and grouped into a new Clip menu along with the new one-step effects.

For instance, how many times have you created a project with a number of similar title cards, spending valuable time having to add a stock title each time and then editing it to match the length and font style of your previous one? Now all you need to do is select a clip (or range of frames) and choose Clip > Duplicate Last Title, edit the text to suit you and move on.

Inspecting Your Inspector
With your iMovie Preferences set up to edit a clip when you double-click on it (rather than Play the clip), the clip Inspector is always available quickly, same as in the previous iMovie ’09. But there are some cool new functions tucked away there that you may have overlooked.

In addition to now changing the speed of a clip without having to convert it first (by moving the slider or typing the speed you want as a percentage), you can now reverse it with a single click, a nifty tool which has been available on more sophisticated non-linear editors for some time.

iMovie ’11 also adds a new Rolling Shutter option which helps to cut down on wobbly or skewed video caused by the CMOS image sensor still prevalent on most consumer camcorders. Click on “Reduce motion distortion” to enable it for a clip and after your video is analyzed, use the pulldown to select an amount from None to Extra High. Apple recommends High or Extra High for footage shot with a Flip camcorder or a mobile phone that records video, which presumably includes the iPhone 4. (It did indeed look better in our quick, unscientific tests.)