Editing+iMovie

=Post Production= You've taped your footage, it is time to start putting the video together. If you have stuck to your original plan, your storyboards will be useful in bringing together the final product.

The Process
This process will vary depending upon the project, but the following will probably work in most cases.
 * 1) Import all of your footage and photographs into iMovie (unless you have limited hard drive space, then watch your footage only import the portions that you need).
 * 2) Delete unnecessary clips.
 * 3) Trim excess footage from clips and place them on the timeline - use your storyboards as a reference.
 * 4) Add titles, translations, and other text to video.
 * 5) Determine audio needs (narration or music?). Import audio. Adjust audio and/or footage for length.
 * 6) Insert transitions where needed.
 * 7) Finally do as much fine tuning as necessary.
 * 8) Export your video as a .mov or .wmv.
 * 9) Upload to YouTube and post it on the blog.

Some Thoughts on Editing
Editing is an art. Know exactly when to cut takes time and takes some thought. Here are a few topics to think about:
 * 1) Simplicity - Just because iMovie or Windows Movie Maker can spin your scene around and add glitter, doesn't mean you have to use those special effects. Less is more.
 * 2) Cuts #1 - Have a reason to cut, it should be helping tell your story.
 * 3) Cuts #2 - If possible, try and cut "in movement"
 * 4) Cuts #3 - Within a scene, most of your transitions, will actually just be cuts. You are trying to give the appearance of a continuous time line - even if the footage is not continuous. Use fades and dissolves to change scenes or show that time has passed.
 * 5) Trimming - When trimming your clips, leave a little room, especially if you aren't sure where to cut the clip. You can always trim more later.
 * 6) Scenes - Within a scene keep consistent.
 * 7) Adding Music - Be careful about how you add music. It either needs to be "background" music - meaning lower key and unobtrusive or "narrative" music - which helps tell the story.

Editing Overview
iMovie is a straightfoward video editing program that allows you do basic video editing. While Apple has added new features with each release version of iMovie it still lacks many sophisticated features. Programs such as Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premier are siginificantly more powerful, however, the complexity of these programs can be overwhelming.

Here are some basic tasks we will review as a group before starting in on your video projects.
 * iMovie interface
 * Trimming, cropping, and spliting video clips
 * Importing photos from iPhoto
 * Ken Burns Effect
 * Importing audio clips from iTunes
 * Extracting an audio clip
 * Controlling the volume of an audio clip
 * Adding and editing titles

Resources

 * General**
 * [|Apple iMovie Help Forum]
 * [|Atomic Learning]


 * External Audio**
 * [|SoundSnap] - An amazing collection of FREE sounds - music, animals, etc.
 * [|Internet Audio Archive] - A large collection of public domain audio recordings from old radio shows to Grateful Dead concerts to great speeches.
 * [|The Free Sound Project] - More open source music and sound effects.
 * [|CCmixter] - Yet another great site with lots of free music.
 * [|FreePlayMusic.com] - Another great source of music for music. Provides clips of varied lengths, a lot of good mood music. However, they do have licensing restrictions - no public access on YouTube for music from this site.
 * [|Magnatune] - Open Source music for as low as $5.00 an album.