Before you can add titles, transitions, or additional audio to your video, you first create a video project. Changes you make to video in the project don’t affect the video in your source video library.

To start a new video project in iMovie:

1) Choose File > New Project or click the Plus (+) button in the Project Library, and then type a name for the project.

2) Choose a screen format from the Aspect Ratio pop-up menu:

· Widescreen (16:9): Makes the movie appear much wider than it is high. Widescreen movies are optimized for viewing on high-definition (HD) TVs. When viewed on a standard television or computer monitor, they appear with black areas above and below (sometimes referred to as “letterbox”).

· iPhone (3:2): Produces a movie of the best size for viewing on an iPhone.

· Standard (4:3): Makes the movie more square in shape. When viewed on a standard TV or computer monitor, these movies can fill the screen. When viewed on an HD TV, they appear with black areas on the left and right of the video (sometimes referred to as “pillarbox”).

3) To include titles and transitions styled after Apple-designed themes in your project, choose a theme. You can choose Photo Album, Bulletin Board, Comic Book, Scrapbook, or Filmstrip. Move the pointer over a theme to see a preview.

· If you choose a theme, you can still include standard, non-themed transitions and titles in your project.

· You can always set or change the theme for your project if you change your mind later.

4) If you want to set your project to automatically include transition effects between video clips as you add them, do one of the following:

• · If you didn’t choose a theme for your project, select “Automatically add,” and then choose a transition style from the pop-up menu.
• · As you add clips to your project, iMovie automatically inserts the selected transition style between clips.
• · If you chose a theme for your project, transitions are automatically added by default.
• · As you add video clips to your project, iMovie automatically inserts cross-dissolve transitions and transitions based on the theme between clips. And iMovie also adds a theme-styled introductory title over the first clip in your project, and a theme-styled credits title over the last clip.
• · If you don’t want transitions and beginning and end titles to be added automatically, deselect “Automatically add transitions and titles.”

5) Click Create.

6) To add video to your project, select some video frames from a clip in one of your Events, and then drag the selected frames into the project. Or click the “Add to Project” button or press E. Continue adding as much video as you want.

© 2010 StoryGuide | Drew Keller

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