Importing QuickTime Movies
iMovie can import more than still images. It can also import existing digital movies, which you can then incorporate into your footage.
Maybe you’ve created such QuickTime movies yourself, using other Macs or other software. Maybe you’ve grabbed a QuickTime movie from a CD-ROM or Web site. Or maybe you’ve used the Movie mode of your digital still camera to “film” some short scenes.
In any case, here are three ways to get digital movies into an iMovie project:
If they’re lying on your hard drive, drag their icons directly into the Clips pane or Movie Track of the iMovie window.
Choose File → Import (Shift-⌘-I). In the Open File dialog box, navigate to and open the QuickTime movie you want to import.
If you used iPhoto to import the movies, you’ll find them nestled among the still photos in iMovie’s Photos pane. See Figure 9-9 for details.
With movies stored in iPhoto, you can also drag the thumbnails out of that program’s window and into the Clips pane or Movie Track of iMovie. (Of course, you have to first position the windows so that you can see both at once.)
It may take iMovie some time to process the incoming movie. Behind the scenes, it’s converting the QuickTime movie into DV format, just like the clips that come from your camcorder. A progress bar keeps you posted.
When it’s complete, a new clip appears in your Clips pane, which you can manipulate just as you would any movie clip.
Using the Imported QuickTime Clip
Most of the world’s QuickTime movies ...
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