iMovie: The Missing Manual
by David Pogue

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Book Reviews of iMovie: The Missing Manual

Book Review: Don't Miss This "Missing Manual"
Summary: 5 Stars

Summary of iMovie: The Missing Manual

Using this cleverly designed program, you can transfer DV footage from camcorder to hard drive; trim and rearrange scenes; and add crossfades, credits, and multiple sound tracks. In fact, iMovie includes almost everything you need to produce pro-quality video--except a manual.

That's where iMovie:The Missing Manual comes in. This entertaining guide takes you through every step of iMovie video production, from choosing and using a digital camcorder to burning your finished work onto CDs. The book's philosophy: giving someone iMovie without also teaching basic film technique is like giving a map to a teenager without teaching him to drive.

Far deeper and more detailed than the meager set of online help screens included with iMovie, the book helps iMovie users realize the software's potential as a breakthrough in reducing the cost, complexity, and difficulty of desktop video production. The book explains, for example, how to run iMovie on any recent Mac model (not just the iMac DV); uncovers the two secret clip-editing techniques that Apple's online help doesn't even mention; and provides a powerful workaround for iMovie's weak soundtrack-editing feature.

This series is known for giving a lot of information at a bargain price, and this book is no exception. The text gets right to the point while leaving room for background info and tips that anticipate potential problems. Reading it is like listening to someone who has already worked through the steps.

The first three chapters show how to prepare your video before using iMovie and include lots of professional filmmaking advice. The chapters on editing are the heart of the book. They systematically take you through each feature and menu--working with clips; adding transitions, titles, and sound; and saving and exporting your work. Since this isn't an official manual, Pogue is free to point out iMovie's shortcomings. In sidebars, he shows how to exploit features iMovie does have to mimic features you get only with more expensive software--for example, how to create multiple simultaneously superimposed titles (great for wild typographic experiments) or how to "pot down" the soundtrack music to allow a voiceover.

To make better choices while saving your movie, the book discusses each of the save options, as well as how QuickTime works--in detail. Also, the book doesn't just suggest what software to use to burn a QuickTime movie onto a CD-ROM, it also shows how to make a Video CD. It even includes the HTML necessary to embed your movie into a Web page. In fact, this book contains an impressive amount of info. It's easy to jump in at any point in the text and discover some idea so exciting that you just have to boot up iMovie right away and get creative. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Complete user's-manual instructions for iMovie, including detailed descriptions of each menu, command, and feature. The book gives help on shooting and preparing video for capture (including professional filmmaking advice); editing clips; adding transitions, sound, and titles; saving and exporting movies (including help choosing formats); using professional video-editing software; and troubleshooting.

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