Can anyone help with iMovie

Question

Can anyone help with iMovie

Totally frustrated! I find it impossible to cut and paste parts of my video clips or to merge video clips or to move parts of a clip.Isn't that what video editing is supposed to be all about?

The help topics for iMovie aren't even in an understandable/make sense kiind of language.

Can soneone help with some simple procedures to do the above? Or do they not exist?

Thanks for any help. I'm ready to give up.

Also, why is there no iMovie 11 anywhere? I've seen references to it, but all the App Store has is 10.

iMovie '11, OS X Mavericks (10.9), iMovie 10 - can't seem to find 11

Posted on Nov 25, 2013 5:10 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Alan Cook2

Level 3

913 points

Nov 25, 2013 5:34 PM in response to fredfrommccormick

There is no version 11. The latest version of iMovie is 10.0.1. iMovie 9 shipped as part of iLife 11, so some people mistakenly call it iMovie 11.

I'm not really understanding why you can't copy and paste or cut and paste clips or parts of clips from one part of the timeline to another. Click on a clip. Choose copy or cut from the edit menu. Click on the timeline where you want the clip pasted, and choose paste from the edit menu. If you want to copy/cut a segment of video, click and hold where you want to begin, then drag to the right until you've selected the segment you want to cut or copy. Then click in the timeline where you want it pasted.

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Answer 2

Nov 25, 2013 8:06 PM in response to Alan Cook2

Thanks Alan,

The info about 10 vs 11 is helpful.

On the rest, that's helpful too. It kind of tells me I must be off base somehow. I've tried all the copying, cutting, pasting and dragging and none of it works because when I drag a selected part or all of a clip, it doesn't work and when I copy a part and then click to paste it, nothing happens and the cut and the paste and the insert are always grayed out. It makes sense what you're saying about the selecting and cutting or copying or pasting. That's always standard procedure. That's why I'm so frustrated.

Maybe I don't know exactly what the "timeline" is. ???

What I have is 5 clips from one stage show that I converted to .mov files and 6 clips from another that I also converted. Then I imported them into iMovie as 2 new events and I tried doing the editing on each of the events, deleting some frames and trying to copy some from one to the other. That didn't work, so I put both shows (events) together in the updated projects folder and nothing still worked.

I remember when I did this last year, I made it work somehow, but I sure don't get it now. I guess maybe another part that I'm missing is how to get them into a project and then to a finalized movie. None of the pieces seem to fit this time.

I sure appreciate any more help you can give me.

Thanks so much

Fred

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Answer 3

Nov 25, 2013 9:03 PM in response to fredfrommccormick

Fred,

Just want to add to Alan's comments.

Have you created a Project? Most of iMovies editing capapbilities can only be used in a Project not on Events.

Matt

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Answer 4

Nov 26, 2013 1:53 AM in response to fredfrommccormick

Sound like, as Matthew says, you haven't yet created a project. Go to File menu and choose New Movie or just click the big plus sign with Create under it. That will give you a timeline like you see in the screenshot. You can then drag clips from an event into the timeline of the project.

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Answer 5

hughmass

Level 3

592 points

Nov 26, 2013 5:34 AM in response to fredfrommccormick

http://www.izzyvideo.com/imovie-tutorial/

Here is a free tutorial series on iMovie, the last version before iMovie 10. I have found it useful. I have no connection to Izzy Video, just think it is great.

Hugh

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Answer 6

Nov 26, 2013 6:05 AM in response to Matthew Morgan

Thanks so much, Matthew. So simple and yet so unclear in the app.

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Answer 7

Nov 26, 2013 6:06 AM in response to Alan Cook2

Thanks so much, Alan.

Can I drag 2 whole events into the Project also and then merge and edit them and move parts around?

I really appreicate your help.

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Answer 8

Nov 26, 2013 6:07 AM in response to hughmass

Thanks so much, Hugh. I'll check it out right now.

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Answer 9

Nov 26, 2013 6:15 AM in response to fredfrommccormick

You can probably do a select all and select all the clips in an event and drag them to the timeline. I think the preferred way to do it is clip by clip though so you can fine tune as you go. But, whatever works for you. :-)

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Answer 10

Nov 26, 2013 8:11 AM in response to Alan Cook2

Thanks again, Alan

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Answer 11

Apr 25, 2015 10:19 PM in response to fredfrommccormick

Just a quick note to thank Fred for asking the questions here. (I know the post was made a couple years back).

iMovie can be very confusing and the replies in here are quite helpful. There are other confusing areas of course, but the ones asked about in this thread bedevil me each new time I try to use iMovie, starting with iMovie '08. Prior versions were much more intuitive to the occasional user.

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Answer 12

azerkix

Level 1

4 points

May 27, 2016 1:10 AM in response to Matthew Morgan

"... If you want to copy/cut a segment of video, click and hold where you want to begin, then drag to the right until you've selected the segment you want to cut or copy. "

I have been trying to copy part of the video in iMovie 10 for 2 days until gave up and started to look on forums. Looks like user experience has been changed totally compared to iMovie 9.x and you have to study EVERYTHING from scratch in iMovie 10.

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