How do you join clips in iMovie
The join clip is in the edit section of iMovie but I don't know how to use it.
Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)
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There is a "real clip" in your event file. Let's say it is 15 seconds long.
You can select and drag (say) a 5 second portion of the Event clip into your project. This is a virtual clip, because it does not physically move into your project. Your project just maintains a reference back to the real clip and the in and out points.
OK on to your question.
Lets say you take the whole real clip of 15 seconds into your project. You can select a portion of the clip and select EDIT/SPLIT CLIP. At this point, you have a 15 second real clip in the event file, and 2 or three virtual clips in the Project file. If you split the clip with a selection where either the left or right of the yellow border is on the far left or right of the real clip, you will get two clips. If neither the left or right sides of the yellow border are touching the borders of the real clip, you will get 3 virtual clips.
Join Clips reverses this operation. If it is more convenient for you to deal with the split clips as one clip, you can select them both, and EDIT/JOIN and they will be virtually back together.
Lets do this in frames.
The 15 second clip "A" in the event file has 15x30 = 450 frames.
In the project, it will say something like "Go find Clip A in Event X, and bring me frames 1 through 450."
When you split the clip, the Project will say, for example, "Go to Event X and bring me frames 1 through 200, and then bring me frames 201 through 450." These two virtual clips will play back-to-back, so on playback you can't tell they are two clips.
When you Join the clips in the project, the project will say, take these two clips from event x that go from frame 1 through 200 and frames 201 through 450, and represent them as a single clip from frames 1 through 450"
But let's say you split the clip so that it is three clips...frames 1-150, frames 151-223, and frames 224-450. Further, let's say that through your edit, you deleted the middle clip. So frames 151-223 are no longer in the project (but they still are on the real clip in the Event).
In this case, it does not make sense to "Join" clips 1 and three.
Clear as mud?
You can select and drag (say) a 5 second portion of the Event clip into your project. This is a virtual clip, because it does not physically move into your project. Your project just maintains a reference back to the real clip and the in and out points.
OK on to your question.
Lets say you take the whole real clip of 15 seconds into your project. You can select a portion of the clip and select EDIT/SPLIT CLIP. At this point, you have a 15 second real clip in the event file, and 2 or three virtual clips in the Project file. If you split the clip with a selection where either the left or right of the yellow border is on the far left or right of the real clip, you will get two clips. If neither the left or right sides of the yellow border are touching the borders of the real clip, you will get 3 virtual clips.
Join Clips reverses this operation. If it is more convenient for you to deal with the split clips as one clip, you can select them both, and EDIT/JOIN and they will be virtually back together.
Lets do this in frames.
The 15 second clip "A" in the event file has 15x30 = 450 frames.
In the project, it will say something like "Go find Clip A in Event X, and bring me frames 1 through 450."
When you split the clip, the Project will say, for example, "Go to Event X and bring me frames 1 through 200, and then bring me frames 201 through 450." These two virtual clips will play back-to-back, so on playback you can't tell they are two clips.
When you Join the clips in the project, the project will say, take these two clips from event x that go from frame 1 through 200 and frames 201 through 450, and represent them as a single clip from frames 1 through 450"
But let's say you split the clip so that it is three clips...frames 1-150, frames 151-223, and frames 224-450. Further, let's say that through your edit, you deleted the middle clip. So frames 151-223 are no longer in the project (but they still are on the real clip in the Event).
In this case, it does not make sense to "Join" clips 1 and three.
Clear as mud?
