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Cannot Freely Movie Video Clip

To add on to my previous post, I really no longer understand what I'm doing wrong. I deleted iMovie and reinstalled.


I add a video clip. I add an audio clip. I try to freely move the video clip left and right but when I do so it moves the video clip AND the audio clip at the same time.


Please help.

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 11.2

Posted on Jun 24, 2021 4:59 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 24, 2021 6:04 PM

Here's a link to a good online help tutorial with a good search feature. You might find it helpful to refer to it to help explain the features of iMovie 10.


https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/


In answer to your question, the reason that the audio clip moves when you move the video clip is because the audio clip is attached to the video clip with a little attachment handle.



To separate the audio clip from the video clip, place your cursor on the audio clip and, while pressing down, pull the clip straight down into a lower audio well until you see the handle pull off of the video clip.



Now you will be able to move the video clip independently of the the audio clip.


-- Rich



8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 24, 2021 6:04 PM in response to Ryan_Christman

Here's a link to a good online help tutorial with a good search feature. You might find it helpful to refer to it to help explain the features of iMovie 10.


https://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.1/


In answer to your question, the reason that the audio clip moves when you move the video clip is because the audio clip is attached to the video clip with a little attachment handle.



To separate the audio clip from the video clip, place your cursor on the audio clip and, while pressing down, pull the clip straight down into a lower audio well until you see the handle pull off of the video clip.



Now you will be able to move the video clip independently of the the audio clip.


-- Rich



Jun 25, 2021 2:43 PM in response to Ryan_Christman

You are correct. The clips in the main timeline snap together like they were magnetized and cannot be freely moved around. To move the clips around freely, place them in upper timeline. What some people do is put a black background in the main timeline and drag out its duration to cover the range that you want. Then put the video clips in the upper time line above the black background.




Jun 25, 2021 2:03 PM in response to Rich839

Okay so now the problem I'm having is that I have the audio and video separated, but I can only move the audio file freely, not the video file. If I try to move the video, it keeps snapping back to the left side of the screen. This is a problem because eventually I will be adding in a second video file. I will not be able to align the audio and video by moving the audio file because the two video clips were taken with the same camera, but as different takes. So won't they have different start and stop times?


Let me know if I'm missing something.

Jun 25, 2021 9:05 PM in response to Rich839

One thing that you can try is to add a black background clip as a spacer to move the position of a video clip. So, for example, if you insert a black background clip at the front of the movie you can adjust its duration to move the video clip that follows it.


For the most part, when syncing audio to video one moves the audio clip. The work flow is to add your video and edits, then sync the audio last.


— Rich

Cannot Freely Movie Video Clip

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