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Apple's iMovie helps you create and then share your own video creations, giving you the tools to edit clips, add transitions and effects, and choose a soundtrack before you premiere your polished work.
Easy to add or import media: You can choose photos and video clips from Photos, iPhoto, and Aperture right from within iMovie; use iMovie's import command to add footage; or just drag files from your Mac to an event in iMovie.
Easy to add photos and video clips: To get started on your movie, drag a photo or video clip into the timeline. To replace an existing clip, drag a new one on top of it in the timeline.
Tools for turning clips into a movie: Of course, iMovie lets you trim your clips, shift them around in the timeline, and split them in two. And iMovie comes with a collection of themes -- including titles and transitions -- for giving your movies a polished look.
Effects: iMovie is loaded with tools and effects to touch up your movies. The Enhance tool can improve the video and audio in a clip. You can manually adjust the color of a clip or have iMovie try to correct it automatically. You can crop, rotate, and stabilize clips. Apply the Ken Burns effect to a clip and add filters. And you can create a freeze frame; slow or speed up a clip; and rewind or replay a clip.
Music and sound clips: iMovie comes with a library of sound effects and music tracks to add to your video. You can also record your own voiceover in iMovie.
Let iMovie do the work: If creating a movie still seems like too much work, then produce a trailer. By using one of the more than two dozen iMovie trailer templates -- from romance to adventure -- you can have iMovie do the heavy lifting. Each template includes a storyboard and shot list, titles, effects and transitions, and a soundtrack -- so all you do is drag videos and photos into the template and click play.
Share or export: To show off your finished work, you can share to iTunes, export as a QuickTime file, or publish to a video site, such as YouTube.
Intended for the theatre: Many of the movie themes and trailers have a cinematic feel. If you are looking to create something less artistic -- say, for a classroom project -- you may have to do a bit of shoehorning to get it to fit your style.
Read the help files: You can certainly jump in and start building a movie. But iMovie is not as obvious to figure out as you'd expect from an Apple app, so glancing through iMovie's help files before you start may save you some time.
iMovie is a great way to turn rough video clips and photos into a polished movie, and its trailer templates are an especially easy and fun way to produce engaging home movies. With iMovie's cinematic templates, Apple helps you along, but if you want something less theatrical, you may need to improvise a bit.
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