How do I speed up a video in iMovie 11?

Click on the small gear icon (cogwheel) at the start of the clip and select Clip Adjustments from the pop-up menu. In the Inspector that opens, in the Clip tab about halfway down you will see a slider named "Speed". It's best to choose a speed from one of the slider settings, that is, 12.5%, 25%, 50%, 100%, 200%, 400% or 800%. Typing in your own custom speeds may cause audio glitches in your exported movie - however, these may not be apparent in preview. This was an issue with iMovie '09 and may still prevail in iMovie '11, but I've not seen any posts about it in the iMovie '11 forum, so it may be safe to use custom settings now. But better to be safe than sorry I guess!

Note that just under the Speed slider there is a Direction check box labelled Reverse. Check (tick) the box to reverse the clip.

John

My pleasure!

Another way is to go to iMovie's menu (after selecting a clip or range of clips), click on Clip then in the drop-down menu select either Slow Motion or Fast Forward. Slow Motion has choices for 50%, 25% and 10%. Fast Forward has choices for 2x, 4x, 8x and 20x.

iMovie's Help explains all this very clearly. In the menu select Help, click on iMovie Help, then search on "Speed Slider". You will see a range of topics, including one labelled "Slow down or speed up video". Both options I've given you are described here.

John

Hello, I have following problem: Need to speed up the video for more then 2000% (20x), for me ideal would be 50x, but he imovie doesnt allow this. Is there a way how to speed up the movie more then preset? If I just retype the number in clip adjustments, it goes automatically back to 2000%. Thanks for your tips.

Another solution would be to isolate the vid(make another project) you want sped up to 20x, Export, Re import and speed it up AGAIN. Do this sequence as many times as needed to achieve your result.

You can also use JES Deinterlacer.(freeware)

Good luck!

By any chance does iMovie 08 have this feature. If not I guess I will have to try and get iLife '11.

By any chance does iMovie 08 have this feature. If not I guess I will have to try and get iLife '11.

Sorry, but I can't recall if iMovie '08 has a speed adjustment feature. But try the free JES Deinterlacer suggested by iNewbie4Now. It's available for download from the Apple Downloads site - see here:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/jesdeinterlacer.html

John

Link to download is broken on the apple site.

Link to download is broken on the apple site.

Sorry, I should have tested that link before posting it. I usually post the same link as Tom Wolsky has posted, but thought you might be more comfortable using a link from the Apple downloads site.

John

It's not difficult to find. It shows at the top of every search engine.