When you cut a clip and insert another in iMovie, its audio is cut at the same time. But if you watch any movie, you’ll notice that this isn’t what usually happens: a scene between two people takes place, the action cuts between a shot of one to another before the first person has finished speaking, yet you can still hear them.
Perform advanced split editing techniques with the help of the Precision Editor.
This is known as a split edit. It is used extensively throughout the industry and is a great way to improve a shot. It offers immense flexibility since you get to use the audio that works best for your current situation. Split edits are obviously easy to achieve with professional editing suites, but how would you manage with a consumer-level program? If you were working with the original iMovie, you’d be out of luck. Even with a version as recent as the one released in 2009, you’d have to create complicated workarounds like detaching the audio and extending it, leading to potential disaster should that audio track move out of sync with the video it came from.
iMovie Quick Tip: Stay in the Precision Editor and jump from one edit point to the next by clicking on those little gray circles.
That option is still available in iMovie ’11, but thankfully, the latest version also introduced many very powerful audio features (some of which had been missing since iMovie 6 HD). These include being able to see a clip’s audio waveforms, alter just a segment of it, and even see at a glance which part could be peaking and lead to distorted sound, making it easier to fix, or cut out of your project. Another addition is the split edit and we’ll show you how it’s a lot easier to create than it appears.
