How to display clip duration in iMovie 10?

The only way I can achieve it is to:

1. Drag the outpoint (Yellow Handle) to your desired in point. (Because outpoint displays total duration while you drag.)

2. Then drag the in point (Yellow Handle) to the new outpoint position. (Same in and out position)

3. Then drag the outpoint (Yellow Handle) to your desired outpoint or whatever duration your require.

As a professional video editor, this is the only logical way to achieve it, when you have a long (60 minute) source clip.

Not ideal. But I guess they want us to pay for Final Cut Pro X.

I just "upgraded" my Mac and got iMovie 10. It's worse than the previous version. I just imported a 4-minute clip and the entire thing is packed into a single frame....I can't see anything in it or edit anything in it because it just looks like a snapshot. So aside from the lack of precision in clip editing, can anyone tell me how to see some of the frames in my movie at all? This is really insane!

Go to the right side of the timeline under the viewer and you will see a slider you can drag to expand the timeline display. This will allow you to see more of your clips and you can step through a clip frame by frame using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

iMovie 10 is unfortunately lacking any precise playhead time display. However, if you only want to save a segment of a video you can do this using Quicktime Player. I find Quicktime player 7 Pro best but it can also be done with the current Quicktime Player version (see for example QuickTime Player 10.x: Shorten a movie or a movie clip

Both display playhead time to the nearest second and the right and left shift keys advance/retard one frame per click.

Geoff.

I won't comment on how offensive it is to end users for Apple to remove such basic functionality. It seems as if the days of a Mac providing useful functionality out of the box without extra and expensive software are on their way out. This isn't even an advanced feature - and it used to be present.

This is one of the many reasons why so many people use iMovie HD 06. The display head time is always visible.

You can also use Final Cut Pro X.

It's really unbelievable that the software designers of iMovie 10 would have left this very valuable feature out - esp. as the app is touted as being "FXPro-lite". Well, not really. I spent half an hour in frustration looking for a way to see where I was in a 30 min. clip. Totally absurd, at an Alice in Wonderland level really, that this very basic and very essential editor's need couldn't be a feature of a program that has other attractive and useful functions. What were they thinking? I haven't seen later versions, but I'm guessing some developer has been fired and replaced if time display is back. Oh no, I'm not about to spend $250 on FXP at the moment.

Yes, I too find I have to go to my earlier iMac with iMovie 6 to be able to have clip duration displayed at the playhead. But it's practically like going back to the 6th grade, with what that program's limitations are in the trade-off.

Bottom line: iMovie 10 is not worthy of Apple quality.

PS the titling capability is strictly amateur...but see YouTube for a few time-consuming workarounds.

Yes it is back. iMovie 10.1:

The duration of a clip is displayed as one scrubs over it:

Geoff.

Thanks, that should be helpful, though even this appears to only be for individual clip duration, not duration of combined clips over the program length as Timecode or even basic time display would allow. And that would seem to be a feature of even the most rudimentary NLE, so it's mystifying as to why they've eliminated it here to this extent. My guess is that Apple is following the trend to streamline and simplify, even at the expense of functionality - a sorry state of affairs. I thought the 'secret' was to at least have full manual control in a set of hidden controls...Likely, that exist$ in FCP-X.

No, the Playhead position (first screenshot) has the format <time in minutes & seconds since beginning of project> / <total duration of project> . the only thing that is missing is number of frames which is shown in FCP X.

Yes, it's there indeed, Geoff. Many thanks again. I think I'm going to like this iteration. With the L-R arrow keys one can go back and forth between the seconds to count frames.

BTW, any thoughts on open-source NLEs out there? I had a cursory glance at Lightworks, and will look for reviews of some of these.

Not sure where I can award Green Stars for your help, but you've certainly made my day, all the same.

Best holiday wishes!

"any thoughts on open-source NLEs out there?"

Sorry, no, I have only used iMovie and FCP X.

If you want to indicate that a post was helpful just click on the 'This helped me' at he foot of the post. 'Solved' can only be awarded by the original poster.

Glad to have helped

Geoff.

Thanks. That solved it. I guess that slider should have been obvious, but somehow I missed it. Still it's odd that a movie project opens by default with only one frame.