trim video but leave audio?

Hours / days spent looking for a solution for this already. Hopefully you folks can show me what I'm missing. Here's the drill:

- drag a video (containing audio) into the project

- detach audio

- drag audio down to Audio lane (or whatever it's called in iMovie)


Now, I want to be able to trim the front and / or back of the video and not have the audio move OR have the video slip from it's relation with the audio track. In a way it's like a SMPTE lock.


This is all a work around for that fact that I can't get iMovie's Fade in / Fade out or Fade To Black work in any way that I'd consider useful.


There's tons of "how do I split audio" or "how do you trim audio" questions / answers out there, but that's not what I need. It's video that's giving me grief.


I'm obviously missing something!


Many thanks!


MacOS 10.13.5

iMovie 10.1.9

Posted on Jun 26, 2018 2:08 PM

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Posted on Jun 26, 2018 2:58 PM

When you detach audio from a clip iMovie makes the audio a connected clip under the video. The default connection point is at the beginning of the video clip, but you can change that by holding down the command and option keys and clicking on the audio where you want the connection to be. This will allow you to trim the video clip without affecting the audio synch with the video. The fade to command under modify can also then be used without synch issues.

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Jun 26, 2018 2:58 PM in response to musicalbox23

When you detach audio from a clip iMovie makes the audio a connected clip under the video. The default connection point is at the beginning of the video clip, but you can change that by holding down the command and option keys and clicking on the audio where you want the connection to be. This will allow you to trim the video clip without affecting the audio synch with the video. The fade to command under modify can also then be used without synch issues.

Jun 28, 2018 7:02 PM in response to Rich839

Thanks for the (continued) support and ideas. I'm still banging on this, but I think I've discovered a thing or two:

The bottom lane of video seems to be the "anchor" of the project. If you delete it, all the lanes are cleared.


BUT - if you:

- Start the project with a picture (for instance, a still frame of pure black) in the bottom video lane.

- Set the duration of that picture to the length you want the project to be

- THEN add audio and additional lanes of video


it seems you can do the (surprisingly challenging) video trimming that way.


FWIW, and thanks!

Jun 27, 2018 2:01 PM in response to Jim Wanamaker

Thank you for the reply! I must be doing something wrong still. Cmnd-Opt-Click on the audio track does relocate the green connection point (but only if the audio is still attached and not in the separate audio lane). However, no matter where I relocate it to, I can trim the audio without the video moving, but not the other way around, which is what I want.


I want to have the music start at the top of the video, have a title appear then fade, then have the video content (in sync with the music) fade in at a rate that I determine. Same thing at the end.


Also...Fade To... (black & white, sepia, dream) only lets me do that; fade to a different color scheme. Cool effect, but not what I'm looking for.


Thanks again!

Jun 27, 2018 2:04 PM in response to Rich839

Thanks for the reply! Yes, that is what I want. Music plays with black screen, fade in / out a title sequence, then fade in the video component. Then I want to fade out the video (at a rate I choose) at the end.


If I want a 4 second fade in I get an error message saying "The clips do not have enough media available to change the length of this transition."


Thanks!

Jun 27, 2018 5:48 PM in response to musicalbox23

If you keep fiddling with this I am sure that you will get the final product that you want. iMovie 10 does not have a fade in transition like iMovie 6 did, so it is a bit more difficult. As for the error message, you can make that go away by trimming off a little of the video clip. The part of a clip that is trimmed off, the "residual", still remains in the project even though you can't see it. Transitions attach to the residual., that are like handles. The error message is telling you that you do not have enough available residual. A 2-second transition will attach (one second on the clip on each side of the transition) but if you want a longer duration transition you will need to trim off some of the video clip on each side so that the transition has sufficient available residual to attach to.


Hope this helps.


Best,

-- Rich

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trim video but leave audio?

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