Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

iMovie HD: Initial Impressions

I upgraded my iLife applications to iLife ’08 several weeks ago, but until this week hadn’t had an opportunity to work with iMovie HD (the new version of iMovie included in iLife ’08) with much depth. This past Thursday night, I taught a workshop for teachers in Mid-Del Schools on using both Garageband ’08 and iMovie HD for digital storytelling projects, and today (Saturday) I used the new iMovie HD to create a sixteen minute highlight movie of my middle daughter’s (Sarah’s) theater performance which she participated in at the Fine Arts Institute of Edmond on Friday night. I’m sharing that video as a password-protected web movie in my .Mac media gallery.

As I shared with the teachers in Mid-Del on Thursday night, the first question to ask when considering whether or not you want to use iMovie HD or GarageBand is which software environment is the best for the project you want to create. Garageband is excellent if you want to create:

  • An audio-only podcast.
  • An enhanced podcast including still pictures, picture titles and links to referenced websites.
  • A digital story which includes background audio, intro, transition, and/or outro audio, in addition to voiceover narration.

Sarah’s “great book story” about “China’s Bravest Girl” is an example of an enhanced podcast made with Garageband, which includes links to Creative Commons licensed Flickr images utilized in her digital story.

iMovie HD is a completely different program compared to previous versions of iMovie. The timeline, which has been the anchor and central editing environment of the program since it came out in 1999, is GONE. For those of us who have been using iMovie for the past eight years, jumping into the iMovie HD environment is a dive into new and uncharted waters. While the previous functionalities of iMovie are for the most part preserved in iMovie HD, the interface has been completely redesigned and techniques for using different effects are entirely different. Many of the new features are cool, and while it’s easy to lament such a big change, I found I really like several of the new features and workflow procedures of iMovie HD. It certainly takes some getting used to, so if you’re a previous iMovie user, get ready for a new learning curve with iMovie HD.

iMovie HD is a great digital storytelling tool if you want to create:

  • A project which integrates video footage as well as still images.
  • You want to include “Ken Burns” style zooms and pans with still images.
  • You want to use custom titles and transitions between movie elements.

There are good reasons to use both Garageband and iMovie for a digital storytelling project. Several Mid-Del teachers participating in the Oklahoma Digital Centennial Project (soon to be renamed “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices”) are editing together audio clips recorded with iPod Nanos and iTalk Pro microphones. Voiceover narration is being added, along with music, in these projects. Since iMovie HD is not configured for multi-track audio editing, projects of this type call for Garageband to make the complete audio soundtrack, and iMovie HD to add the video, image, title and transition elements. From the GarageBand ’08 menu, choose SHARE – EXPORT PODCAST TO DISK and select the MP3 export option:

GarageBand direct export to mp3

The resulting MP3 file can be imported as background audio in an iMovie HD project.

In Mid-Del Schools on Thursday night, the free, online iLife Tutorials for iMovie were a life saver. As as specific example, the short tutorial video for “Adding Music” to iMovie HD provided us with the steps we needed to know how to add a background audio track. The one thing we couldn’t figure out together, and I still haven’t learned, is how to REMOVE an audio track from an iMovie HD project once it’s been inserted.

If you have other QuickTime movie files you’d like to import into an iMovie HD project, the program will readily import these and perform the requisite “convert to DV” procedures which in earlier versions of iMovie required users to have QuickTime Pro to complete. This functionality is welcome.

The basic steps for importing a clip into iMovie HD by skimming and trimming is very different from past versions of the program. When using iMovie HD, I’ve been thinking this version of the program is sort of a more consumer-level crossgrade rather than an upgrade. Certainly some of the features like real-time skimming of video are cool, but the missing special effects and just the timeline itself in iMovie are hard to get used to. I’m thinking the Apple developers are wanting to not only further empower amateur videographers who may not have prior experience creating videos, but also get more experienced amateurs (like me) to look seriously at Final Cut Express HD. To date I’ve not used that program at all. (I did use Final Cut Pro for a 12 video project related to the Texas Technology Leadership Academy / Gates Grant project in 2003.) As a result of these changes in iMovie HD, I may take a serious look at Final Cut Express.

The main feature I’m wishing iMovie HD supported, which I haven’t figured out yet (if it’s possible) is saving your project to an external hard drive. From what I can tell, projects created with iMovie HD MUST be saved on the local hard drive used to boot up the computer. That’s a pain for someone like me with very limited free hard drive space on my laptop.

It is nice that “no saving” is required when you are working on an iMovie HD project: All the file saving takes place automatically in the background. I also think there is value in having a more limited number of transitions and titling options, since too many choices can be confusing and/or intimidating for first-time iMovie users.

One of the best features of the SHARE options in iMovie HD is this helpful menu, which guides users in deciding which file size is appropriate both for the media utilized in their project and the final screen on which their movie will be shown / delivered:

iMovie HD SHARE - EXPORT MOVIE options

In the example above, low resolution images were used, which makes the final video only appropriate for the “tiny” and “mobile” screen options. I REALLY think this feature is excellent, since many people need guidance when deciding the final file size to use when publishing their videos.

Overall I am pleased with iMovie HD. Since I own a previous version of iLife (iLife ’06) the older version of iMovie (iMovie ’06) is still available for me to use on my computer. People using brand new Macintosh computers, however, with iLife ’08 (like the teachers in Mid-Del) do NOT have access to the legacy version of iMovie. For that reason, during our workshop Thursday night, it was NOT possible to just “use the old version of iMovie.”

Change is often disruptive and almost always difficult, and learning a new video editing interface after being used to a different one for eight years certainly demonstrates these ideas. Do I wish iMovie ’08 wasn’t such a huge interface change? Yes, probably. I’m comfortable with the previous interface and workflow process, and the new version forces me to learn new techniques.

This situation, however, exemplifies something that is true more generally in our information landscape in 2007. We all have to continue to be LEARNERS. Just because we have learned to do something one way, does not mean we will be able to persist in doing that function the same way forever. We have to change. We have to learn new techniques. We must continue to evolve in our personal, digital skill set to utilize new tools as well as remain relevant in continually changing contexts. While our workshop Thursday WAS about digital storytelling, GarageBand and iMovie, it was also about HOW WE CAN LEARN together in a dynamic information context. While I didn’t go into the workshop session as an “expert” on iMovie HD, I did emerge from our time together with better knowledge and skills about how to tell digital stories using the program. I think our workshop participants did as well.

Although I’m a big fan of GarageBand and iMovie, I continue to be most enthused about the web-based digital storytelling tool VoiceThread. Although digital stories created with VoiceThread are not technically “podcasts” since they are not individual files linked within a subscribable “web feed,” VoiceThread digital stories ARE:

  • Immediately shared on the web for MODERATED, interactive feedback.
  • Cross-platform accessible for both authors/creators as well as viewers.
  • Completely free for educators.

I’m a vocal advocate for the thoughtful, creative and appropriate use of digital storytelling across the PK-20 curriculum. GarageBand and iMovie HD (on the Mac side) join PhotoStory and Windows MovieMaker (on the Windows side) as compelling and FREE software tools for digital storytelling. Audacity is a great tool as well for audio-only digital storytelling, but VoiceThread continues to be the MOST compelling tool for digital storytelling in my opinion– at this point, for most learners, in most contexts.

If you’re interested in viewing more examples of student-created digital stories using VoiceThread, check out the “Listen and See” page of the “Great Book Stories” project. If you and your students would like to contribute to this open project, check out the project FAQ page. For more tutorials and resources related to digital storytelling, check out the free workshop curriculum resources on teachdigital.pbwiki.com/digitalstorytelling.

If you’ve had experiences, good or bad, using the new iMovie HD software, I’d love to hear about them.

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4 responses to “iMovie HD: Initial Impressions”

  1. Ken Pendergrass Avatar

    Wesley-

    I thought at first I would miss the features in the early version of iMovie, but the new version of iMovie HD is pretty great for all the reasons you mentioned…I recently did a Veteran’s Day mashup that only had pictures and titles that were lyrics with a corresponding sound track. I needed to set the titles to come up at various intervals in time with the lyrics. I found on several occasions after I set the duration in the edit window, if I went back and added a picture or changed a picture duration, title durations tended to change at will…a bit frustrating, but I was pleased with the final “close captioned” sing along for our assembly.
    -Ken

  2. Mathew Avatar

    I started using Final Cut Pro and have had to learn iMovie in environments with newbies and kids.

    I find that ’08 is easier to use than iMovie ’06 because you can fine-tune edits easier. I find ’06 to be a bit finicky in terms of how how you trim clips. I say this from working with kids and seeing them struggle slightly dragging clips to where they want them in ’06.

    I guess Final Cut (pro or express) is intimidating to some but it’s actually easier than both programs in that you can precisely choose your in and out points and you can stretch still images to whatever length you want.

  3. Dean Mattson Avatar

    My reaction to the new iMovie is much the same as yours. It was very disconcerting at first and I couldn’t figure out how to do the simplest things. It took awhile to relearn everything. But I think the way you select clips and insert them into a movie will be much faster in the new version. I also like the export options.

    By the way, the old version is availble as a free download to people “who have purchased and installed iLife ’08.” (That seems to imply it’s not available for those who have iLife ’08 preinstalled on a new computer.) Details here: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/imovieHD6.html

  4. Wesley Fryer Avatar

    Dean: I did NOT realize iMovie ’06 was available to iLife ’08 owners as a free download. That is great news! Thanks!