Adding Video to Your Project
You can add as much video as you like to a video project, selecting it from a single
Event or several Events, and put it together in any order you like. When you add a
frame range to your project, it appears as a whole clip within your project even if it was
only part of a source video clip.
When you add video from an Event to your project, iMovie doesn’t move or duplicate
the video. Instead, it simply references the source video. For this reason, if your source
video is stored on an external hard disk, the disk must be connected to your computer
whenever you work in a project that references it. It also means you can add the same
video segment more than once if you want to duplicate it in your project, or add the
same video to multiple projects. In each instance, the video will function as a free-
standing clip.
To create a video slideshow, you’ll want to make all your project clips the same size,
or nearly the same size. Using clips of equal size evens the pacing of your movie.
It’s easy to do with the auto selection feature in iMovie, which always selects the same
amount of source video in a single click.
To add clips to your project:
1
Click a source video clip to select a frame range that you want to include in your
project.
Four seconds of video are automatically selected.
2
Click the “Add to Project” button in the middle of the iMovie toolbar to add video to
the end of your project, or drag the video selection to where you want it to appear in
your project.
“Add to Project” button
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Chapter 2
Learn iMovie
3
Continue selecting video and adding it to your project.
4
In the project, drag the clips around to rearrange them in any order you want.
You can preview your project by playing it one of the following ways:
To play a selected project from the beginning:
m
Click the Play Project button below the Project Library, or press the Backslash (\) key.
To play a selected project from any point:
m
Press the Space bar or double-click the frame where you want to begin playing.
To stop playing your project video:
m
Press the Space bar or click anywhere in the iMovie window.
To play a selected clip or frame range in your project:
m
Press the Slash (/) key.
To play a selected project full screen:
1
Choose where you want to begin playing the project:
 To begin playing from wherever the pointer is resting, press Command (x)-G.
 To play a project from the beginning, select any clip in the project and click the Play
Full Screen button below the Project Library.
2
Move the pointer and click the filmstrip that appears, and then skim forward and
backward through the video.
3
Press the Escape key to exit full-screen mode.
As you work on your project, you can expand and contract the project filmstrips to see
more or fewer frames within each clip as you work. Your project filmstrips and source
video filmstrips don’t have to be expanded to the same setting.
To expand or contract project filmstrips:
m
Drag the project thumbnail slider directly below your project.