iMovie will not recognize my camera

So I have a Sony HDR camera. My mac has no trouble recognizing and importing video. Howevver, when I plug my camera into my mac book pro, only iPhoto opens up, and iMovie does not even recognize that it has been plugged in and only allows me to import video from my "facetime" camera. I was wondering how to get iMovie to recognize my camera. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Kaylyn Wiese