iMovie questions

Glenn Chan · October 25th, 2004, 04:16 PM

You may need to convert the .mov files to .mov files using the DV stream format, which is what iMovie records in.

Try whatever you have first, but if that doesn't work then you need the DV stream format. I can't remember if iMovie needed it or not.

Joshua Starnes · October 26th, 2004, 09:50 AM

<<<-- Originally posted by Glenn Chan : You may need to convert the .mov files to .mov files using the DV stream format, which is what iMovie records in.

Try whatever you have first, but if that doesn't work then you need the DV stream format. I can't remember if iMovie needed it or not. -->>>

I have imported .mov files directly into iMovie before - it can do it. However, it will only export DV stream format QT files.

Wills Petti · January 5th, 2005, 11:34 PM

Does anyone know if you can use this music on film and enter it into a film fest without getting permission to use in movie score.

Any help would be helpful

Willis

Stylianos Moschapidakis · January 7th, 2005, 01:48 PM

Wills, I'm not an entertainment lawyer but it is my understanding that as long as you're showing your work at a film festival only and not making any profit, you may use a copyrighted music piece. Now, some festivals require that you provide music clearances when submitting your film but many festivals do not.

Jeff Bilman · January 8th, 2005, 03:21 AM

I edited a 100 clip short film in iMovie 4 on a friends imac. The plan was to transfer it to an editor friends mac to do the finishing touches in FCP 4. It seems we've transferred the project over to his external drive and Mac okay as he tells me he can open the project in iMovie.

Problem is, he can't open the project in FCP. He gets the error "Insufficient content for edit". Any ideas why?

I read this statement on the web:
"Final Cut Pro also relies on the padding at the beginning and end of each clip to adjust the edits in the timeline. If you receive the error message “Insufficient content for edit” It means that you do not have enough overlap padding between each of the clips you are working with. Try to mark the in and out points of your source clips in the viewer with at least one second of pad to facilitate the following editing tools."

When we were happy with our edit in iMovie we trashed the other clips. I believe this has the effect of also cutting the clips on the timeline to their exact edit points (ie. you can't drag them out any further). Does the statement above relate to this, or does it relate to transitions as discussed below?

We have about 4 transitions we did in iMovie. Could they be causing the problem?? Most of the stuff I've read on the web in relation to this error message relates to applying transitions.

The only other thing I can think of is the audio. We had to extract and clean the iMovie audio so it now takes up one the audio tracks in iMovie. We also got some background sound that we extracted and stuck on the end of the timeline with no accompanying video for later when we had the luxury of having 99 tracks of audio in FCP to play with. Finally, I'm not 100% sure all our audio sources are 48KHz (if that makes any difference).

Any help appreciated. I've spent so long on this project and this latest setback has me really deflated.

Patricia Kim · January 9th, 2005, 08:20 PM

Have you checked at apple/support/discussions? It's been my understanding that FCP can import from iMovie, but not edited (transitions, effects, titles, etc.) versions. Haven't kept up with the discussions, but this may still be the issue. You could try undoing your transitions. Though I have to say from my past experience that what you sometimes get, depending on the transition, could end up giving you the same message in FCP. (Sometimes, having undone transitions, I ended up with 1 and 2 second "clips." I suspect FCP might not like those.)

Jeff Bilman · January 11th, 2005, 12:55 AM

Patricia,
you were right on the money. It was the transitions, once we got rid of them everything has (so far) worked really well.

Thanks,
Jeff

David Bermejo · January 13th, 2005, 09:00 PM

The New iMovie HD...sounds a little too much power at first...("hey I thought this was a basic program?")

I have edited in iMovie 4 plenty of times. Now this...has anyone taken a tour of it at an Apple Store?

I can't wait till iMovie has the multiple video track feature available.

Patricia Kim · January 14th, 2005, 04:31 PM

One of the most attractive features seems to be its promised relationship with FCE HD - you will be able, supposedly, to import into FCE HD edited (including transitions, titles) footage from iMovie HD. If it works, it will make it easier for people to make the step up to FCE HD. Apple must have liked what it learned about potential customers from its iPod sales. Let's just say I ordered the FCE HD upgrade and iLife5 a day or so ago.

Rhett Allen · January 14th, 2005, 04:46 PM

I doubt iMovie will ever have a multi track editing format, that's reserved for FCExpress and above (why give it away when you can sell it). Besides, iMovie is supposed to be a beginners program and beginners are easily confused when you give them too many choices... Of course HD for beginners sounds a little surreal.

David Slingerland · January 15th, 2005, 01:03 PM

Have you noticed that FCE HD seems to be able to handle HDV and not the panasonic HD? When are they going to do that for FCPHD ? Will it be an upgrade for free? I hope so and it would only seem fair...

David C. Scott · January 22nd, 2005, 02:57 PM

I feel foolish but I can't get iMovie HD to import HD footage from my JVC HD-1. HD tapes play fine on the camcorder's screen but the iMovie window displays huge pixels instead of a recognizable picture. I've studied iMovie "preferences" but assume the app knows what's being fed to it and acts accordingly. I've also reread the HD-1 instruction manual and believe I have all playback settings appropriately adjusted (e.g., DV/MPEG2 set to MPEG2). I'm prepared to be embarrassed if someone will point out what I'm missing. (I'm doing all of this on a Mac G5 and older Cinema display). And, yes, I've tried adjusting iMovie's playback options to "Standard" but still get garbled pixels. Has anyone simply hooked up an HD-1 and immediately been rewarded with a successful import?

David C. Scott · January 22nd, 2005, 03:41 PM

Since writing my previous message, I continued playing with the HD-1/G5 connections and got the import to work by 1) unplugging the Firewire cable, 2) switching the I.Link Out switch on the HD-1 to "DV", then back again to "MPEG2", 3) reconnecting the Firewire cable. This somehow "wakes up" the proper connection to the Mac G5. Am I the the only chump to have run into this little challege or is it simply more evidence that I'm slow-witted? Just out of curiousity, does this happen on the new Sony FX-1, too? DCS

Frederic Lumiere · January 22nd, 2005, 03:46 PM

David,

Yes, it seems that the firewire MPEG/DV switchability is temperamental. Disconnecting the firewire cable and switching modes back and forth seems to do the trick.

Glad you figured it out.

Frederic

David C. Scott · January 22nd, 2005, 06:34 PM

Thanks, Frederic. I thought I was losing it. However, that glitch aside, I must admit it is very cool to have the ability to effortlessly edit JVC HD footage in iMovie. I'm assuming that output back to a DV tape will preserve all HD quality, edits and all. I guess I'll find out later tonight.

January 5th, 2005, 11:34 PM	#138
Wills Petti New Boot Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 7	iMovie default music Does anyone know if you can use this music on film and enter it into a film fest without getting permission to use in movie score. Any help would be helpful Willis

January 7th, 2005, 01:48 PM	#139
Stylianos Moschapidakis Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Cambridge, MA/Crete, Greece Posts: 189	Wills, I'm not an entertainment lawyer but it is my understanding that as long as you're showing your work at a film festival only and not making any profit, you may use a copyrighted music piece. Now, some festivals require that you provide music clearances when submitting your film but many festivals do not. __________________ Stelios G.M.

January 8th, 2005, 03:21 AM	#140
Jeff Bilman New Boot Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 9	New problem between iMovie and FCP? I edited a 100 clip short film in iMovie 4 on a friends imac. The plan was to transfer it to an editor friends mac to do the finishing touches in FCP 4. It seems we've transferred the project over to his external drive and Mac okay as he tells me he can open the project in iMovie. Problem is, he can't open the project in FCP. He gets the error "Insufficient content for edit". Any ideas why? I read this statement on the web: "Final Cut Pro also relies on the padding at the beginning and end of each clip to adjust the edits in the timeline. If you receive the error message “Insufficient content for edit” It means that you do not have enough overlap padding between each of the clips you are working with. Try to mark the in and out points of your source clips in the viewer with at least one second of pad to facilitate the following editing tools." When we were happy with our edit in iMovie we trashed the other clips. I believe this has the effect of also cutting the clips on the timeline to their exact edit points (ie. you can't drag them out any further). Does the statement above relate to this, or does it relate to transitions as discussed below? We have about 4 transitions we did in iMovie. Could they be causing the problem?? Most of the stuff I've read on the web in relation to this error message relates to applying transitions. The only other thing I can think of is the audio. We had to extract and clean the iMovie audio so it now takes up one the audio tracks in iMovie. We also got some background sound that we extracted and stuck on the end of the timeline with no accompanying video for later when we had the luxury of having 99 tracks of audio in FCP to play with. Finally, I'm not 100% sure all our audio sources are 48KHz (if that makes any difference). Any help appreciated. I've spent so long on this project and this latest setback has me really deflated.

January 13th, 2005, 09:00 PM	#143
David Bermejo Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Orlando, Florida Posts: 36	iMovie HD The New iMovie HD...sounds a little too much power at first...("hey I thought this was a basic program?") I have edited in iMovie 4 plenty of times. Now this...has anyone taken a tour of it at an Apple Store? I can't wait till iMovie has the multiple video track feature available. __________________ I love camera booms!! Never underestimate the power of a video camera!

January 15th, 2005, 01:03 PM	#146
David Slingerland Major Player Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Soest ,Holland Posts: 307	HDV for FCE Have you noticed that FCE HD seems to be able to handle HDV and not the panasonic HD? When are they going to do that for FCPHD ? Will it be an upgrade for free? I hope so and it would only seem fair... __________________ D.Slingerland director/cameraman http://www.slingerlandproductions.nl

October 25th, 2004, 04:16 PM	#136
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	You may need to convert the .mov files to .mov files using the DV stream format, which is what iMovie records in. Try whatever you have first, but if that doesn't work then you need the DV stream format. I can't remember if iMovie needed it or not.

October 26th, 2004, 09:50 AM	#137
Joshua Starnes Major Player Join Date: Jun 2004 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 356	<<<-- Originally posted by Glenn Chan : You may need to convert the .mov files to .mov files using the DV stream format, which is what iMovie records in. Try whatever you have first, but if that doesn't work then you need the DV stream format. I can't remember if iMovie needed it or not. -->>> I have imported .mov files directly into iMovie before - it can do it. However, it will only export DV stream format QT files.

January 9th, 2005, 08:20 PM	#141
Patricia Kim Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Honolulu, Hawaii Posts: 453	Have you checked at apple/support/discussions? It's been my understanding that FCP can import from iMovie, but not edited (transitions, effects, titles, etc.) versions. Haven't kept up with the discussions, but this may still be the issue. You could try undoing your transitions. Though I have to say from my past experience that what you sometimes get, depending on the transition, could end up giving you the same message in FCP. (Sometimes, having undone transitions, I ended up with 1 and 2 second "clips." I suspect FCP might not like those.)

January 11th, 2005, 12:55 AM	#142
Jeff Bilman New Boot Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 9	Patricia, you were right on the money. It was the transitions, once we got rid of them everything has (so far) worked really well. Thanks, Jeff

January 14th, 2005, 04:31 PM	#144
Patricia Kim Major Player Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Honolulu, Hawaii Posts: 453	One of the most attractive features seems to be its promised relationship with FCE HD - you will be able, supposedly, to import into FCE HD edited (including transitions, titles) footage from iMovie HD. If it works, it will make it easier for people to make the step up to FCE HD. Apple must have liked what it learned about potential customers from its iPod sales. Let's just say I ordered the FCE HD upgrade and iLife5 a day or so ago.

January 14th, 2005, 04:46 PM	#145
Rhett Allen Major Player Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 607	I doubt iMovie will ever have a multi track editing format, that's reserved for FCExpress and above (why give it away when you can sell it). Besides, iMovie is supposed to be a beginners program and beginners are easily confused when you give them too many choices... Of course HD for beginners sounds a little surreal.

January 22nd, 2005, 02:57 PM	#147
David C. Scott Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 43	iMovie HD and JVC HD-1 - What Am I Overlooking? I feel foolish but I can't get iMovie HD to import HD footage from my JVC HD-1. HD tapes play fine on the camcorder's screen but the iMovie window displays huge pixels instead of a recognizable picture. I've studied iMovie "preferences" but assume the app knows what's being fed to it and acts accordingly. I've also reread the HD-1 instruction manual and believe I have all playback settings appropriately adjusted (e.g., DV/MPEG2 set to MPEG2). I'm prepared to be embarrassed if someone will point out what I'm missing. (I'm doing all of this on a Mac G5 and older Cinema display). And, yes, I've tried adjusting iMovie's playback options to "Standard" but still get garbled pixels. Has anyone simply hooked up an HD-1 and immediately been rewarded with a successful import? __________________ David C. Scott

January 22nd, 2005, 03:41 PM	#148
David C. Scott Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 43	HD-1/iMovieHD Now Working Since writing my previous message, I continued playing with the HD-1/G5 connections and got the import to work by 1) unplugging the Firewire cable, 2) switching the I.Link Out switch on the HD-1 to "DV", then back again to "MPEG2", 3) reconnecting the Firewire cable. This somehow "wakes up" the proper connection to the Mac G5. Am I the the only chump to have run into this little challege or is it simply more evidence that I'm slow-witted? Just out of curiousity, does this happen on the new Sony FX-1, too? DCS __________________ David C. Scott

January 22nd, 2005, 03:46 PM	#149
Frederic Lumiere Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Point Pleasant, NJ Posts: 437	David, Yes, it seems that the firewire MPEG/DV switchability is temperamental. Disconnecting the firewire cable and switching modes back and forth seems to do the trick. Glad you figured it out. Frederic

January 22nd, 2005, 06:34 PM	#150
David C. Scott Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 43	Thanks, Frederic. I thought I was losing it. However, that glitch aside, I must admit it is very cool to have the ability to effortlessly edit JVC HD footage in iMovie. I'm assuming that output back to a DV tape will preserve all HD quality, edits and all. I guess I'll find out later tonight. __________________ David C. Scott