Editing Tips for Apple's Mobile iMovie App

To take advantage of the video recording capabilities of the iPhone 4 and the latest iPod touch, Apple introduced a new iOS app for editing video: iMovie 1.1 for iPhone 4 and iPod touch (4th generation). iMovie is fairly easy to use, but it also carries expectations based on what iMovie for Mac (or really any video editor) can do. Being a mobile app, some capabilities aren’t available—or are they? Here are some tips for expanding the editing features of iMovie 1.1. The steps below assume a basic knowledge of how to use the app.

Split a Clip

Before the iMovie 1.1′s video clip splitting  feature is not obvious at all. But once you know how to do it, the action becomes obvious.

In the timeline,  scroll the clip you want to split so that the playhead is at the split point, and then select the clip.

Next, swipe vertically with one finger from the top of the clip to the bottom along the playhead, like you’re slicing a strip of film with a blade (which is actually how film clips are split).

You end up with two clips separated by an empty transition icon—no transition effect appears when you play the movie unless you specify a transition style for that icon.

Display a title on just part of a clip
If you add a title to a clip, it appears over the entire clip; you can’t just add a title for the first 10 seconds of a movie, for example, if the opening clip is long. To make a title appear on just a portion of a clip, first split the clip (as described above) and then apply the title to the fragment. Double-tap the clip to view the Clip Settings dialog, tap the Title Style option, and choose either Opening, Middle, or Ending. You can then type the title’s text.

Swipe for easier editing
When you navigate through the clips in your movie, you swipe the timeline left or right. However, don’t feel like you need to get your finger just over the timeline area. Swiping across the preview area also scrolls the timeline.

Here’s another non-obvious tip: To fit more of a clip onto the screen, pinch inward with two fingers; items on the timeline compress horizontally. Pinch outward to expand the clips and view more thumbnails.

Fade in or fade out
A common editing technique is to start or end a movie with a fade: a completely black screen fades into the first clip, for instance, or the last clip fades into black or white. In the Mac version of iMovie, you accomplish this by adding a Cross Dissolve transition to the start or end of a project, but the iMovie app only sets transitions between clips. Here’s a workaround:

1. Cover the lens with something solid to prevent light from leaking to the sensor and record a 5-second clip of black footage. (You can also record something completely white, like a sheet of paper held up to a light.) Don’t worry about the audio that’s recorded.
2. Import the clip and place it where you want the fade to occur.
3. Trim the clip to a short duration, depending on how much empty screen you want to appear before the transition begins.
4. Double-tap the clip to bring up the Clip Settings dialog, and switch the Audio option to Off to mute the clip. Tap Done.
5. Double-tap the transition that appears next to the clip, and in the Transition Settings dialog, make sure Cross Dissolve is selected and specify a duration (between 0.5 seconds and 2.0 seconds).
6. Tap the Done button and play back the movie to view your fade.

The first clip in the movie is just black footage, with a Cross Dissolve transition to provide the fade in effect.

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