Imovie Movie Editing Software Mac

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Whether you're using a Mac or an iOS device, it's never been easier to make it in the movies. Just choose your clips, then add titles, music, and effects. IMovie even supports 4K video for stunning cinema-quality films. Best Free Video Editing Software for Mac and iOS. If you are a Mac user, Apple iMovie is a classic free video editor to use. It's a user-friendly tool for basic video editing with support for 4k resolutions with a wide range of features.

The basics: How to Edit Videos on Your Mac with iMovie

Once you open up iMovie, the free video editing software on your Mac, you will be able to create three kinds of projects: Media, Projects, Theater, found on the top bar.

  • Media: here is your library of different footage clips, stills, and audio to create your videos; for ease of use photos have a camera icon and audio tracks are colored green
  • Projects: this is where you work on creating your movie: the main workspace
  • Theater: here are your finished projects – you can play them, or use the little icon on the lower right to play, delete, rename or remove them from the cloud storage. You can also distribute it from here, we will come back to this later

1. Prepare the Project Workspace

When you click Project, two options are available: Movie and Trailer.

Trailer is a fun way of creating a little teaser for a movie or combining short clips. It prompts you to create a satisfying short video using templates.

In this article, we are going to look at the Movie method of editing video. These basics apply to Trailer too, and if you have accomplished them, making trailers will be quite easy.

Click on Create New > Movie.

This will take you into the Project workspace. Video editing consists of a Timeline, which is the film going from left to right, with tracks for visuals and audio. There is also an area for media, and windows for playing either the clip or the edited sequence.

The media are your building blocks. The timeline is where you edit visuals, sound, music, effects, and titles to make a satisfying video. iMovie is quite easy for beginners to use.

Drag and drop your media into the timeline to create your video. You can move them around and rearrange by dragging.

Modern video editing is 'non-destructive', that is you can play around with everything to your heart's content, without ruining the originals, so you can go back if you do something you don't like.

Cmd+Z undoes the last action.

2. Cutting Video Clips

You can see each clip in the Preview window (or panel). Hitting the space bar plays/stops playing the clip or you can drag the mouse across the timeline to where you want to be.

iMovie editing tips: most clips won't be the right length. You can edit visuals (still or moving), audio, or music independently. You can also trim clips to the exact duration needed.

How to split a clip in iMovie

You often want to remove the beginning or end of a clip. It is an old rule-of-thumb in film-making to start the camera rolling early and finish late so you capture all the action. That means there is excess to trim in the editing stage.

Move the vertical line with the mouse to where you want to edit, right-click to split the clip into two. Then you can press delete to remove it. You can scrub around in the preview window to find the exact place to cut.

Audio clips can be edited in exactly the same way. You can use the Settings slider to zoom in and out on the timeline. The audio shows the sound graphically. If you look carefully you can see where a particular sound finishes. For example, if you have an interview with someone, and you have asked questions, you can cut them out so the person just appears to be talking continuously.

Editing Videos in iMovie on iPhone or iPad

This article has covered the basics of editing using a laptop or desktop mac. You can also edit videos using iMovie on the iPhone or iPad mobile apps. It is very similar to the way that you edit on your desktop, although some of the methods have been streamlined to make it easier to produce a movie using these platforms.

3. Add Music to iMovie

You can't really do without music. If you are making a simple movie about your holiday, you might want to get some stock background music (Apple includes various tracks in iMovie). Simply lay that in an audio track. You can fade in and out by dragging on the beginning or end.

Note: if you are making a more complex production – for example with interviews or voice-over – you should not let the music overwhelm the audio. Fade it under the narration – it is actually better to err on the quiet side. Viewers find it quite annoying if they can't hear what is being said.

4. Add Transitions to Video Clips

These are where two clips merge into each other. In the Transitions menu (on the top bar) you can find plenty of fun ways to go from one visual to the next. All you have to do is drag them into your movie at the appropriate place on the timeline. Note that lots of flashy transitions can become quite irritating to the viewer. The ordinary cut is the standard way. Transitions can be particularly effective when used with titles to introduce the video.

5. Add Titles to Project

Probably the first thing on screen in your film will be the title sequence. This is where you let your audience know that they are going to see something interesting, so think about them carefully. A good title, even if it lasts only a few seconds, primes the viewers for the film.

PRO TIP: People often watch videos on social media with the sound off, and many viewers are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Rev closed-captioning is a service available to produce subtitles for iMovie projects.

6. Export Your Project in iMovie

Once you have finished your project and viewed it through a couple of times to check everything is OK, you can go to the very top right-hand corner of the screen and there is an export icon. This allows you to finalize your video for Theater, Email, iTunes, YouTube, Facebook, and various others.

If you plan to put it up on YouTube, click on that icon and a panel comes up which lets you set various parameters of the film, such as description, resolution, and category. Private means only you can see it. You may want to ensure it is ready in your channel before you make it public and distribute it to the world.

If Theater is checked, then it will automatically add it to your Theater and the iCloud.

When you click Next you will be prompted to log in to your YouTube account and upload the movie. That's all, folks!

Add Captions and Subtitles to Your iMovie Projects

Although Apple doesn't currently support importing caption files directly into their free editing software, you can add titles in iMovie with your captions files, or you can add SRT files to videos exported from iMovie.

With either method, you'll want to have Rev produce your captions files. It'll save you time and reduce the headache of formatting your own SRT file. Plus, you can use it on platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Vimeo!

Videos play an increasingly important role in modern society. More and more people tend to record their lives, ideas, talents, and memories in the form of video. To produce a quality and pretty professional-looking video, they have to learn some video editing techniques. As a result, video editing software has blown up in the last few years. With so many video editing programs and tools out there for a variety of budgets and skill levels, how to choose the best video editing software for mac users? Is there any free Mac video editing software for enthusiastic amateurs or people who are merely trying to keep project costs to a minimum?

On this page, we have collected some of the best free video editing software for mac users. Now, you can choose one of them according to your video editing skill level!

Part 1. Top 3 Best Free Video Editing Software for Beginners

1. Apple iMovie

Apple iMovie, a software developed by Apple Inc. for Mac and iOS devices. It is a simple video editor and has all basic editing tools that allow you to make a good-looking video. With this powerful and easy program, you can rotate/trim/crop/split videos. It supports 50+ video formats and 300+ amazing effects. After you create a video, you can share your great masterpiece with your family or friends or post them online. All in all, iMovie is an ideal video-editor for people who are interested in doing some basic editing to movie clips.

Features:

  • Supports 4k & HD video
  • Supports working together with iMovie for iOS
  • Supports open multiple projects simultaneously

Pros: User-friendly layout; Available on iPhone/iPad; Easy sharing; No watermark.
Cons: It doesn't have the full capabilities of a full video editor.

Imovie Movie Editing Software Mac

2. OpenShot

OpenShot is a simple and powerful video maker for Mac, Windows, and Linux. With this editing software, beginners can easily create an excellent video. If you are an amateur and want to do some basic editing, OpenShot is what you need. Apart from doing basic video editing, this application also contains many other amazing features, including an unlimited number of layers, no watermark, 70+ languages, and more.

Features:

  • Supports for many videos, audio, and image formats
  • Supports scaling, trimming, rotation, alpha, snapping, and adjusting X, Y location
  • Video transitions with real-time previews
  • Supports 70+ languages

Imovie Movie Editing Software Mac Download

Pros: Powerful curve-based keyframe animations; unlimited tracks/layers; Supports 3D animated titles (and effect); No watermark.
Cons: Crashes very often; Video rendering speed is not very fast.

3. Shotcut

Shotcut is an open-source free video editor that can be used to turn video clips into a fantastic movie. Similar to the free video editors we introduced above, Shotcut also allows video with no watermark, free trial, and necessary editing tools. Although Shotcut is not as professional as its competitors, it has a robust framework behind its simple layout. Moreover, this editing software boasts many other impressive features, such as video and audio effects, wide format support, codec, and cross-platform independent, etc. If you are looking for a simple free video music maker that can make the editing process smooth and easy, Shotcut is a good choice worth considering.

Features:

  • Support a variety of format
  • Multiple audio features
  • Editing features and video effects
  • Cross-platform

Pros: Support edit and render 4K videos; Contains advanced features like multiple track editing timeline; Video rendering is fast.
Cons: Can't preview filters; Unstable.

Top 3 Best Free Video Editing Software for Semi-Professionals/Professionals

1. HitFilm Express

HitFilm Express is a free all-in-one video editor that aims at indie filmmakers with great tools and powerful features. This free program allows users to create realistic shotgun effects, import and animate complex 3D Models, recreate and enhance the iconic head-up displays, etc. It is an ideal free video editor for semi-pros.

Features:

  • Zoomable preview window
  • A separate trimmer
  • Easily export
  • Advanced tracking and screen simulation

Pros: Excellent effects and transitions; Support 3D models.
Cons: Users have to share a link to social media to download the video; Limited export formats; Need a powerful processor to run it.

2. Blender

Blender is considered as one of the best free video makers for Mac, thanks to a wide variety of editing tools and advanced features. It has some basic editing features like rendering, rigging, editing, masking, compositing, modeling, etc. Beyond the basic features, it also boasts many advanced features like volumetric, subsurface scattering, screen-space reflections, and refractions, etc. Besides, it is a free 3D graphics program that can be used for modeling, UV unwrapping, rigging, skinning, animating, texturing, water and smoke simulations, and rendering. If you are looking for a professional video editor that can do some complex editing tasks, this excellent editing software for Mac is the best option for you.

Imovie Movie Editing Software Mac

Features:

  • Rendering, rigging, editing, masking, compositing, modeling
  • Game creation
  • Integrate with pipeline tools
  • It is excellent for animation

Pros: Free and open-source; Contains many advanced features; Allows to export blender files to different file formats; Allows to render with GPU instead of CPU.
Cons: Painful animation management when you have over 15 animations; Lack of proper motion capture support; Unintuitive layers system.

Free Mac Video Editing Software

3. Adobe Premiere Pro CC

Adobe Premiere Pro CC is one of the best professional non-linear video editing programs for mac users. Currently, it has been widely used in various video platforms. If you have basic knowledge of editing and want to make your video look like a Hollywood film without spending a fortune, don't miss free and powerful this video editor.

Features:

  • Multiple video types
  • Multiple formats support
  • VR rotate sphere/editing

Pros: High-quality video and audio editing; Built-in non-linear video editing; Support Flash video, HD, HDV, and many other formats; Advanced tools; Plenty of built-in effects.
Cons: Complex interface; Works for free only 30 days

Part 3. Extra Recommendation: EaseUS Video Editor - an Excellent Free Video Editor for Beginners and Professionals

As we introduced above, there are a lot of free and creative Mac video editors for you to choose from. However, most free video editor without watermark is a trial version with limited features. If you want to get full functions, you have to purchase it. However, as we all know, Mac apps are more expensive than PC. If you have a limited budget for your project, we recommend you use a video maker for Windows, such as EaseUS Video Editor, which costs you less for the same features. EaseUS Video Editor is a powerful video maker created by EaseUS Inc., which is an internet company committed to data recovery, computer backup, and disk partition. This free application supports a variety of effects and allows you to export the video to MP4/MP3, actually to any format. It is easy to use and simple to learn.

With this free video editor, you can:

  • Clip footages with video shoots, images, audio files, and text files
  • Multi-tracking edits with advanced clipping features like trim, split, rotate, mix audio, zoom, mosaic, etc
  • Use 50+transitions, 40+filters, and 30+ overlays
  • Share videos with your family or friends with only 1-click or post it on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, RecCloud, Dropbox, etc., platforms
Notice:
It charges for exporting videos with no watermark. Besides, there are many other features you need to make a quality movie, now you can download one to make a unique video.

The Bottom Line

On this page, we collected 6 free Mac video editing software for beginners, semi-professionals, and professionals to create great movies. You can choose the perfect one based on your editing skill level and demands. If you don't want to pay a fortune to buy its full version, just choose EaseUS Video Editor to help you make a perfect video.





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