Switching back and forth between clips in iMovie

Hi,

Is there any way of cutting back and forth between two videos in iMovie? I have two cameras synced from the same event, and I want to do live cuts back and forth, without having to worry about start and end points for each one. Is that possible in iMovie? Or do I need Final Cut Pro/Express?

Since they removed the timeline I can't see a way of doing it...

Thanks!

:-Joe

MacBook (1g), iMac G5 (17” iSight), PM G4 (MDD), PM G4 (AGP), Mac OS X (10.6), iPhone 3GS

Posted on Jul 4, 2010 5:48 AM

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4 replies

Jul 4, 2010 8:52 AM in response to Jowie

The playhead in the events window will show you the time at which the clip was taken, if you play both and note a point at which the two are in sync (a clapper board is ideal, but you can do something else like drop a book on a table), then work out the time difference between the two clips since the timecode on each camera is unlikely to be in sync, you then have reference points.

The playhead in the project window denotes elapsed time, so by referencing this to the event timecodes you can insert what you want when you want.

For example: You take two shots of the same scene. Analyse the clips and note that Johnny picks up a cup which can clearly be seen in both clips. You note the time this occurred in both clips, lets say 10.00.03.00 in clip A and 10.00.04.00 in clip B, you now know the two clips are 1.00 secs adrift in terms of timecode.

Clip A is your base video and it started at 10.00.00.00, Clip B starts at 10.00.01.00, which is a second later but since the time codes are a second out the sync is now 2 secs out relatively speaking.

You then find a point in the project at which you want to do a cut away, drop a comment marker, let's say it's at 5.00 seconds elapsed time which we know is 10.00.05.00 on the original time code, we can then relate this to 10.00.07.00 on clip B. We can then select the part of the clip we want and drop it onto clip A, zooming in the timescale will allow us to adjust this more accurately afterwards. You then detach the audio and delete it.

If you have your timing wrong (as I may have in this example), it will be noticeable and a little trial and error might be needed. Once you have your time difference for one cut away you can use them for others.

Of course your times are unlikely to be as round as the examples which make it all a little more difficult and you may want to base your cut out points from clip B instead of clip A which needs a slightly different procedure.

Personally I'd get Final Cut, which is what I did, but it can be done in iMovie.

Jul 4, 2010 9:02 AM in response to Winston Churchill

Yes... It sounds like that's the way to go! Or downgrade to iMovie 6 😉

My videos don't have correct timecode because they've been ripped from some home movie DVDs, so there's no way of getting their precise times. Not to mention that doing it this way I don't have the flexibility of changing the cut points easily.

Final Cut looks like the best choice. Thanks!

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Switching back and forth between clips in iMovie

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