With iMovie '11 how do I split a clip into two?

Right-click (or Control-click) when the playhead (red vertical line) is at the exact cut point. Select Split Clip from the pop-up menu.

John

A bit more info for you: To split out a segment of video from a clip, so that you are splitting at both ends of the segment in one operation, click and drag across the segment so that it is highlighted with a yellow border. Now right-click and select Split Clip. This is a quick way to split long video clips into segments. You can then shorten segments by dragging the ends inwards. Or click on the icon at either end and you will see an orange border around the beginning or end of the clip segment - drag this inwards to trim 1 frame at a time. You may have to have Advanced Tools turned on in iMovie>Preferences (not in iMovie at the moment).

John

John Cogdell wrote:

A bit more info for you: .....

and there's the key-short-cut

Apple-shift-s (=as S_plit)

set the red playhead (=one split), or make a selection (=splits before and after selection).

this is handy, when you navigate the playhead frame-by-frame with the cursor-keys ...-

Split Clip only works in a project. Have you created a project by dragging clips or parts of clips to the project?

That's how iMovie is designed - there is no problem with the way it works! You simply create your projects by selecting the desired segments from the Event or Events in the Events Library and dragging to the project. You can drag clips (or segments) from any Event into a single project. Why would you want to split an Event - that simply holds the imported media. The project references that media and allows you to edit it in a non destructive way, so that the source files remain intact.

In the View menu you can Group Events by Month and Show Separate Days in Events. If you need to break up an Event into separate Events, use the command you mentioned (Split Event before Clip).

Hope this clarifies things for you!

John

PS. To create a project select File>New Project from iMovie's menu.

Message was edited by: John Cogdell - added PS

A bit more about selecting segments from an Event. Click and drag across the clip thumbnails to highlight the segment, then release the mouse button (if using a mouse). A grab hand will appear - drag the highlighted section to the project. You can also press the E key on the keyboard - this will place the segment in the project.

I'll look up some tutorials for you and post links here shortly (unless of course you know how to proceed from here).

John

Hi again peterpatter - thought you might find these useful -

iMovie '11 Video Tutorials:

http://help.apple.com/imovie/index.html?lang=en#button-0

Ken Stone's iMovie '09 Tutorial (mostly still applicable to iMovie '11):

http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/imovie_09_stone.html

iMovie '09 Video Tutorials:

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/movies/

John

peterpatter wrote:

I am still learning, and confused clips in iMovie with events in iPhoto as they both have yellow surrounds. I recently switched over from a PC and am learning every day.

No worries Peter (our last posts crossed paths). It takes a while to get used to iMovie '11 - it has a unique interface compared to traditional editing programs. But it is a very powerful program - there is a lot hidden beneath the surface - you just have to dig around a bit! Hope you find the tutorials useful.

Don't hesitate to ask questions here - we all had to start somewhere. You will find iMovie Help very useful (accessible from Help in iMovie's menu - includes some videos too).

Good luck with iMovie!

John

Karsten Schlüter wrote:

and there's the key-short-cut

Apple-shift-s (=as S_plit)

set the red playhead (=one split), or make a selection (=splits before and after selection).

this is handy, when you navigate the playhead frame-by-frame with the cursor-keys ...-

Thanks Karsten - I tend not to use many shortcuts. I notice that one is in the menu but shown as Shift-Command-S. Same thing of course, but you must be using an antiquated keyboard (Apple=Command now). 🙂

John

John Cogdell wrote:

.... but you must be using an antiquated keyboard (Apple=Command now).

hey, hey, hey! old, but fully functional!! ...

you're right ... 😉

the advice is mainly meant for those, who notice the playhead 'moving' when strolling with the cursor from the Project to the Menu Bar (is it still a Menu Bar..? ) ....

hey, hey, hey! old, but fully functional!! ...

Yep, just like me! 😉

(is it still a Menu Bar..? ) ....

That's what I call it (or simply iMovie's Menu). Talking of menus, we had a great lunch at Hahndorf on Saturday. My son had the full German spread - Kransky sausage, sauerkraut etc. - very enjoyable! But we are talking stereotypes again. 😝

Regards

John

Hi

May I put in an observation to this that - is close but not 100%

Had this problem where a Clip was partially recorded 90° wrongly then rotated right a bit in.

Now I was OK with missing the rotation piece - so I Split it into three parts - deleted mid section with rotation

and then rotated first one anti-90°.

Result - Last part also rotated -

So I made a Copy and rotated this.

Result - Original and Copy was now rotated

Only solution I came up with was to - Export out as a QuickTime mov and re-import this as a separate clip

then using one part of this and one part from the original.

Is there any better solution - Copy to make a new individually free clip not linked to original ?

Yes I finally made it in FCE/P and key-framed the rotation and could in this way keep 100% of recording and rotation

resulted in a nice twist to the take-up.

But this was done in iMovie'09 and it goes for all need of alterations to a part of a clip. Color, Size etc. and Export / Import as new is only solution that I've come up with.

Yours Bengt W

Hi Bengt - that is very interesting. I imagine that iMovie '11 behaves in the same way. You would think that if you split a clip into several segments, each piece could be edited independently - including rotating.

I will try a short test, perhaps using the Flip effect as well as Rotation. Your suggestion (to export then re-import) sounds like the best way to fix the problem.

John