• Feb 24, 2011

• Importing Videos into iMovie'11

• by Rounik Sethi in iMovie

• Genre: Video
• Level: Beginner
• Time to Complete: 5-15 minutes
• 7 comments — Join Discussion

It's easy to gets your video clips and home movies into iMovie '11. You can capture directly from a Firewire video camera, an iSight camera, a tapeless video camera, or even import video files and old iMovie HD projects from your Mac.

Which ever way you choose to import movies clips into iMovie you'll be asked whether you wish to add these to an existing Event or create a new Event. Think of Events as folders used to store and organize your clips. Once you become familiar with Events you'll find they are a very flexible way to easily manage your digital video clips.

For now, let's focus on getting your footage into iMovie!

Importing from a FireWire tape-based Camera

Connect the camera and iMovie will automatically recognize it. The Import window will appear. You can use the transport controls to rewind, fast forward, stop and play the contents of the camera. Click on Automatic to rewind the tape and capture the whole tape's contents into iMovie. Choosing Manual will allow you to select and record just the parts of video that you wish.

If you connected the camera before iMovie was open, you may need to tell iMovie which camera to use. check that the correct camera is selected in the Import window:

If the Import window does not open automatically, click on the Camera Import button as shown below 

or choose File > Import from Camera...

Importing from your Mac's built-in iSight

Most recent Mac's have a built in iSight camera. In fact, to date, only the Mac Pro and Mac Mini do not include an iSght camera (also called "FaceTime camera" on a MacBook Air). You can use this to easily record live video into iMovie.

• Click on the Camera Import Button and select the Built-in iSight camera.
• Click on the Capture button to begin recording and click Done when finished.
• The clips appear in the iMovie Event area.

No Cuddly Toys or Animals were harmed in the making of this tutorial...

Importing Movie Files from your Computer

If you have already transferred movie files from a USB Camcorder to your Mac or you're working on movie files you didn't shoot, you can import Quicktime movie files into iMovie directly:
File > Import movies...

You can decide where to save the movie project to, whether to add it to an existing Event (similar to iPhoto's Events) or create a new Event.

Importing iMovie HD Archives into iMovie'11

For those of you jumping over to the world of iMovie'11 from an iMovie HD version (e.g. iMovie '06 HD), you can import your old projects! Simply choose: File > Import > iMovie HD Project...

• Custom transitions will be replaced by Cross Dissolves
• No Titles or Music will be imported
• No Video effects will be imported

Fortunately, iMovie'11 makes working with effects, transitions and titles a breeze. All of these are applied in real-time, so there's no waiting for a rendering progress bar to finish before continuing to edit your movie! This should make editing your iMovie HD project in iMovie'11 a much quicker process than you're used to. Remember to make a backup of your old legacy projects regardless!

And that's all there is to it! Check out these iMovie 101 tutorials to get the know-how on all that iMovie'11 has to offer.