If you’re like us, you return from vacations and special events having filmed loads of video, with grand ambitions of one day compiling all your clips into brilliant home movies. But once you return to the daily grind, the task can suddenly seem too time consuming or technically daunting, so the videos sit untouched. Well, what if we said you could make that home movie in about 10 minutes, and that it would look awesome? That’s what iMovie’s handy movie-trailer templates can do for you. You simply pick the best bits from your footage (nobody would really want to watch the filler, anyway), pop them into pre-designated spots, type in a few titles, and presto--you’ve got yourself a slick and snappy keepsake of your trip to Disneyland. Our instructions will walk you through the quick-and-easy process, and although we’ll be focusing on the iPad version of iMovie ($4.99, not compatible with first-generation models), the same general tips can also be applied on the Mac.

1. Pick a Theme

Launch iMovie, tap the “+” symbol, and select New Trailer. There are nine different themes to choose from, but let’s go with Retro, which includes 16 different shots in just under a minute. To preview a demo, select Retro from the carousel and tap the Play icon; if you’re ready to proceed, tap Create in the top-right corner.

2. Type Your Titles

Tap the Storyboard tab to open Editing mode. Blue bars indicate animated titles with editable text fields; tap them to type in whatever words you’d like to appear in the trailer.

3. Add the Clips

Now let’s add the first video clip. The storyboard includes empty video wells that guide you when choosing a shot (Close, Medium, Wide) and display how long it will be onscreen. Your video clips appear in the bottom-right quadrant, the Video Browser. Scroll up or down until you find the clip you want; tap to select and a portion of the clip that fits the length of the video well will be outlined in yellow. To mark exactly where the clip should start playing, touch and hold until a vertical red line appears, then drag left or right. When everything looks good, tap the blue arrow and your clip will fly up into the empty video well. After the first video well is filled, iMovie prompts you for the next one. Don’t get too bogged down searching for the perfect clips--just continue filling the remaining empty video wells.

4. Pickups

Stuck without decent video for one or more empty wells? With any of them selected, tap the Camera button below the Video Browser to enter Video Camera mode. Line up a shot, tap the red Record button, and iMovie gives you a three-second countdown before recording starts. By default, iMovie records video to fit the selected well, plus an extra three-second handle for making adjustments. If the first attempt was no good, tap Undo and try again; otherwise, you can continue to shoot video for each empty well or tap the Filmstrip icon to continue editing.

5. Preview Your Project

When all empty wells are filled with video, you’re ready to look at the first draft of your trailer. At the bottom left of the Preview window is a Play button with a rounded square--tap it and your trailer will begin playing full-screen on your iPad, complete with volume and scrubbing controls. Congratulations--you just made a movie trailer!