Note: There is a list of iMovie tutorials online at the bottom of this page that are extremely helpful. Be sure to check them out!
Here's a brief video that covers how to start a project, import footage, do a quick trim, then export the movie; click on the '+' magnifier icon to view chapter bookmarks, which allow you to jump to a certain segment of the video.
In today's quick tutorial we will find out how to use fade in and out effects with iMovie. This software is available on many Apple devices but I will discuss how to create these effects on Mac (the solution might be similar for iPhones and iPads). Do you want to learn how to export videos using iMovie? This is what you will learn in this tutorial and how to share the videos with family and friends on social media like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc. Quick Navigation: How to Export a Video in iMovie; How to Fix 'iMovie Export Failed' Errors. .THANKS FOR 6K LIKES!. Get into a new Way of Learning Apple iMovie 2017 for Mac. Getting started, basics. 🔥MORE at There is n. To record video directly into iMovie: Click Import Media. Choose Display iSight in the upper left. A new window will open. IMovie will record what is shown in the window. Click the red button to start recording. Click the red button again when you are ready to stop. After you download iMovie from the App Store and open it for the first time, you'll get a prompt asking you to choose between working on a Movie or a Trailer. The latter is a fun feature that puts a few clips together into a Hollywood-style movie trailer.
iMovie more in depth
- Editing your media
- Speed controls for your media
- Exporting your media
iMovie interface
iMovie is organized into 3 thematic areas, generally found at the top of the screen unless you have already opened up a project:
- Media: Where you store your content; may have different libraries that contain different media.
- Projects: A collection of your edited projects. Sometimes it's useful to duplicate a project here if you're doing a different edit on a project. When you create a new project, you'll be prompted to choose either a Movie or Trailer project; choose Movie.
- Theater: View movies you have exported/shared, or create a new movie or trailer here as well.
Generally, iMovie opens your last edited project. If you haven't created a project, create one by choosing File/New Movie. iMovie will then bring you into the project view for your new project. In this project view, iMovie is broken up into 3 distinct areas.
- Project Media. On the left side of your screen is the media for your project. This will include your collection of media that you may have imported, as well as quick views into your iPhoto library, and any music from your iTunes library and GarageBand. iMovie arranges media into libraries, which you can find here. You can also find titles, backgrounds, and transitions in this area.
- Media Viewer. On the right side is a media viewing area of either your the media in your timeline, or media you have selected in your project media area. The media viewer has a number of color- and audio-correction options above it, so you can perform adjustments to color, crop an image, apply a Ken Burns effect on a media clip, and a number of other helpful editing options.
- Timeline. The bottom is your timeline of edited media; you can trim video clips in the timeline as well as adjust audio.
Organizing your media
Generally you should create a new library for your project, as otherwise you may eventually have several project's media in your main iMovie Library. This can become rather cumbersome to sift through several years of different project's media.
Within your iMovie library, media is organized into events, which are organized by date. Quick screensaving real estate tip: You can hide the events names by unclicking the 'Show Separate Days in Events' in the View menu.
While reviewing video clips, you may find a good section within the clip. You can favorite that portion of the clip by choosing Mark/Favorite, or hitting the F keyboard shortcut. Inversely, if you find a bad section within a clip, you can reject that portion of the clip by choosing Mark/Delete, or hitting the delete button on your keyboard. Later, you can sort your media by looking at only the clips you've favorited, which can be helpful when sifting through dozens of clips.
Importing your media into iMovie
Generally you can drag-and-drop your media from anywhere on your computer onto your project's timeline, and the media will get copied to your iMovie project library.
Importing your media from the Photos app
You may have imported video or photos into the Photos app. You can easily add these into your project by these steps:
- To import videos, click on Photos Library in the Project Media section, under Libraries, and choose the My Media tab. Select your content in a variety of ways; one way is to select Albums, then select Videos. Drag the video onto your project's timeline.
- To import photos, click on the Photos Library, and select the My Media tab. Select your content in a variety of ways; one way is to select Years, then locate your photo(s) to import, and drag them onto your project's timeline.
Editing your media
iMovie has several tools to edit your video; here are a few of the more common ones to use.
Video overlay tool
There are a few ways that iMovie can displays videos or images that are stacked on top of each other in a timeline. These changes are found in the Video Overlay settings, located above the main viewing screen of your footage when you have selected a video or image on the top layer. For convenience sake, we will refer to the format as video, but images can apply here as well. The image below shows the location of the video overlay tool, with Cutaway selected.
The cutaway. The default format for displaying two videos that are on top of each other is the cutaway, which takes the top video and covers the entire frame, hiding the bottom frame.
Picture-in-picture. You can change the video overlay to show a picture-in-picture. You can also move the top video around in the frame, as well as resize it. The image below shows the video overlay tool, with the picture-in-picture tool in use. Note how the smaller video image can be resized and moved about.
Animating media
You can animate media by zooming in/out of an image by choosing the Ken Burns effect. This is found by selecting the Cropping tool in the Media Viewer when the media is selected.
You can choose when the image start and end sizes from this view. Additionally, you can apply this effect to movies, though the zoomed movie may become 'fuzzy' depending on your export settings.
Speed controls for your media
You can slow, speed up, or freeze a portion of your movie, among other actions. These controls can be accessed in two ways. You can either choose the top menu item Modify, then choose the appropriate control (slow motion, fast forward, add freeze frame, etc), indicated by the rectangle highlighted below.
Or. you can choose the Speed tool in the media viewer's toolbar, indicated by the arrow in the image below.
To use the freeze frame tool, select your clip then choose the freeze frame option. The freeze frame will be noted in your timeline with the hand icon, indicated below.
Using the Freeze Frame tool
You can then adjust the freeze frame duration by dragging on the left or right dot, indicated by the red rectangle in the image below. Dragging the right button icon to the right would increase the duration of the freeze frame.
Editing a lecture using iMovie with Zoom and Powerpoint footage
View this page for tips on editing your zoom/powerpoint footage in imovie.
Exporting (aka sharing) your movies
Export your edited movie by clicking on the share icon on the top right of the iMovie interface.
Or, you can choose File/Share, and choose the File option.
- Video resolution: Choose the largest size available if this is your final project.
- Quality: Choose High
- Compression speed: Choose Better Quality.
After making these options, the File/Share dialog box will also give you a sense of how long the video will take to export, as well as the estimated file size.
Sending movie files to people
If sharing files for a course, read these instructions on using Reed's Ensemble media server to share your content.
Movie files tend to be too large to email people. We recommend using a Reed application called Filerobot, which allows sending of large files (up to 2 GB). Read more about Filerobot.
Moving your project or media between computers
iMovie stores all its projects by default into the username/Movies directory on your mac's hard drive as a file aptly named 'iMovie Library.' This file contains all your media in one place. As you grow your movie projects, you may want to start breaking them up into smaller projects or libraries.
- If you need to move your project or library to an external hard drive, follow these instructions.
- If you need to move media between libraries, follow these instructions.
iMovie Keyboard shortcuts
Here's a few iMovie keyboard shortcuts that you might find useful:
Command-C and Command-V: Copy and paste clips.
Space bar: Plays or stops media in the timeline or event selected.
Split clip into two: Command-B: One of the most common tasks in iMovie is splitting a clip into two clips where the playhead is located.
Arrow keys: Sometimes you want to nudge the playhead left or right. The left- and right-arrow keys are the ones to use, rather than trying to use your mouse. Using the up-arrow key will take you to the beginning of the clip your playhead is on, then the end of any preceding clips or transitions; down-arrow will take you to the end of the clip, then the start of the next clip or transition in the timeline.
Imovie Tutorial On Mac
iMovie online tutorials
Apple has an extensive amount of documentation on using iMovie. There's these tutorials as well.
- Tutorial 1
- Tutorial 2 Uses screenshots to walk thru steps. Covers most of the common editing tasks such as adding titles, transitions, backgrounds, performing color correction, cropping images, and more.
- Tutorial 3 Talks briefly about the whole process: storyboard, production, editing. Also covers most of the common editing tasks such as adding titles, transitions, backgrounds, performing color correction, cropping images, and more.
Wondering how to speed up a video on iMovie? Regardless if you are trying to create a stunning time-lapse travel video for social media or adding a special effect to a part of your vlog video, we have the tutorials to help you do just that.
As iMovie can be used across all multiple Apple devices, we have catered the tutorials specifically for each device – iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Imovie Quick Tutorial Video Any Version
Let's get started.
Part 1: How to Speed Up a Video on iMovie
If you are an Apple user, you probably have heard of this popular video editing software – iMovie.
Free (yes, we are not kidding), easy to use and loaded with powerful features, iMovie is one of the favourite video editing software that professionals and non-professionals alike use.
If you own more than one Apple device, this software can work seamlessly across any iPhone, iPad, or Mac! Perfect for editing on the go! How awesome!
Intuitive (like most Apple products), it is perfect for beginners who are new to video editing or are not tech savvy. Choose from the comprehensive suite of powerful features to complete simple to complex video editing tasks.
Here we will start with the basics: Speeding up a Video.
1How to Speed Up a Video on iMovie on iPhone
Shooting something interesting for social media or trying to add a special effect into a funny video you shot with your friends on a whim? Using iMovie on iPhone is ideal for content creating on the go!
As of February 2021, the latest version of iMovie for iOS is 2.3.2. Although the speed control feature has been around since early versions, the newer versions have brought in the concept of ranges. Basically, this allows you to apply effects to specific parts of your clip instead of the entire clip. Older versions of iMovie for iOS had the freezeframe feature but there wasn't much you could do in terms of picking a specific part of the timeline and editing that for speed changes. With iMovie for iOS 2.3.2, such granular changes are possible.
Here is a simple guide on how to go about speeding up your video using iMovie on iPhone:
Download the iMovie app video editing app from the App store on your iPhone for free.
Open up the app – A 'New Project' screen should pop up. You will be expected to choose between Movie (custom create your own movie with photos, videos and music) or Trailer (provides a template to create your Hollywood-style movie trailer).
For the purpose of speeding up existing video footage, select 'Movie' to proceed. You will be prompted to browse through your albums. Select the video clip you want to speed up and it will be imported into the video editor.
Simply click on the video clip on the timeline to select. A toolbar will appear at the bottom of the screen.
To speed up, click on the 'Speed' button (looks like a half clock symbol) to reveal a slider. Slide left to slow it down and right to speed up the video up to 2x speed.
Need to speed up different parts of your video clip? It's easy - In the inspector, tap outside the current range or tap Add. Then, drag the slider for the new range to the right to speed up that portion of the video. As you drag it, you'll see the number below the video clip change. That's it! You can dismiss the inspector by tapping outside it.
2How to Speed Up a Video on iMovie on iPad
With a larger interface on the iPad you can make more fine-tuned adjustments to the clips!
Here is a simple guide on how to go about speeding up your video using iMovie on iPad:
Imovie Tutorial Ipad
Download the iMovie app video editing app from the App store on your iPad for free.
The process is similar to that of the iPhone with another way to speed up different parts of the clip.
Instead of tapping 'Add' to add another speed range, you can simply tap another part of the clip outside of the currently selected part. This will prompt a yellow range handle where you can adjust the duration of the clip you want to adjust the speed for.
3How to Speed Up a Video on iMovie for Mac
For the best result, and of course a larger screen, it would be preferable to work on speeding up your video on a Mac. This is ideal for professional video editors or if you are working on a particularly important video for work or your website.
iMovie for Mac brings even more flexibility to desktop video editing, but iMovie 10 completely rewrote the script when compared to iMovie 9. First, iMovie was written for 64-bit systems, which was a game-changer and in line with Apple's strategy of completely doing away with older 32-bit applications. iMovie 10 also brought in a new library file system, which is very similar to the one in Final Cut Pro X.
With regard to speed control, the whole approach was changed, with the newer version being far more intuitive, especially when changing speed of multiple parts of a video clip. You can see from the following steps how it's become much easier with the newer version.
Change Video Speed in iMovie 9
Select a video from the Event Library preview area and drag it to the Project Library on the top left.
Select the project and hit the ‘i' key to bring up the Inspector pane.
Here, click Convert Entire Clip to process the video, then move the slider to the right when you see the speed controls.
Change Video Speed in iMovie 10
Changing the speed of a video in iMovie 10 got much simpler, as you'll see.
Add a clip to your timeline and simply click the Speed icon.
When you see the speed controls, you can choose one of the presets or choose a percentage.
After you do this, you'll see either a rabbit icon or a turtle icon on the video clip, which indicates whether the video has been sped up or slowed down.
You'll also see a slider for that clip, which you can move left or right to fine-tune the speed.
If you don't want the audio track to be sped up as well, select the checkbox that says Preserve Pitch after clicking the speedometer icon in the first step above.
4Practical Tips You Shouldn't Miss!
1. Speed up part of a video clip with iMovie
If you have a long video, and you just want to speed up a part of it, you can create a range by holding down the R button while selecting the relevant portion in the timeline.
After that, click the speedometer icon and choose Fast from the speed pop-up menu. You can also select Custom to apply different speeds to different ranges. This will keep the speed change of the first range the same when you add new ranges. To add new ranges, hold R again and select a different range, and repeat the speed change actions. Click outside the range to exit the speed pop-up menu.
2. Speed up video without changing pitch in iMovie
As we saw in the steps for iMovie 10, if you select the Preserve Pitch checkbox, your audio will continue to play at the same speed as before you made the speed change to the video. This is useful if you want the old audio but want a faster video. Of course, you need to keep in mind that the audio track will stop playing when the video is over, so you'll lose the end bit. To avoid this, you can trim the edges of the audio track to match the duration of the video clip after speeding it up.
3. Change the video speed but not audio
This requirement is slightly different because, if you want to speed up just a portion of your clip, you will still want to retain the audio at its original speed so the other parts don't go out of sync. For this, just right-click a clip and choose Detach Audio. You can also use the (⌥⌘B) shortcut for this. If you want to adjust the audio after the modified clip, just use the Split function to split the audio track at that point and adjust it to sync with the remainder of the video.
4. Reverse Video Clips in iMovie
Reversing a clip, or playing the clip in reverse, is equally simple in iMovie 10. Similar to the checkbox for Preserve Pitch, there's a checkbox that says Reverse. Tick that box and play the video, and it will play from the end to the beginning. Again, as with the previous tip, if you want to retain the audio as is, you can detach it from the video before applying the reverse effect.
Part 2: Best Alternative Video Editor for Win & Mac – iMyFone Filme
If you do not have an Apple device, not to fear! Introducing iMyFone Filme, a great beginner friendly video editing tool for Windows and Mac!
iMyFone Filme Video Editor offers users a simple way to edit videos quickly and efficiently with the following convenient features:
Speed Adjustment: Speed up or slow down videos from 0.1x-16x, you can correct it to 2 decimal places.
Fast Video Mode: Create a video with a click of a button!
Cool Effects: A whole range of effects and filters to enhance your video.
Text Options: Use cinematic titles or subtitles to better convey your message.
Instant Preview: Preview your video as you create it.
How to Speed Up a Video using iMyFone Filme
Here is a quick and simple tutorial to teach you how:
Step 1: Download your copy of iMyFone Filme on their official site.
Step 2: Import your clip that you would like to speed up into the video editor.
Step 3: Start changing the speed by clicking to select the footage and click the 'Speed' button on the toolbar (beside the crop button).
Step 4: Move the slider to the left to slow down and right to speed up the video!
Step 5: To confirm the new speed, just click OK to set. There you have it – a sped up video ready to be exported for your use!
Speed Up Your Videos Easily Starting Now!
We hope we have been helpful in teaching you how to create your speedy videos! If you are looking more interesting video editing features, you might want to consider iMyFone Filme to help you with your other video editing needs too!
