My young son loves to talk with my mother over iChat, but we're about to move to another time zone that will make scheduling their virtual face time a lot tougher. Can we use our iMac's iSight to record video messages and send them back and forth instead?
Sure! No need to keep Junior up past his bedtime to chat with Grandma on a school night. Instead they can each record videos for each other that can be watched at their leisure. Open iMovie, and click the camera button on the left side of the toolbar--it says Open Camera Import Window when you hover over it. (Or you can select File > Import From Camera or press Command-I.)
As long as you have iSight and you don’t have another camera connected to your Mac, iMovie will launch a window called Import From: Built-In iSight. You’ll see a preview of yourself--sit up straight, click the Capture button, name your new Event, and click the Capture button again. Now just chat away to Grandma, and click the Stop button when you’re done. You can record multiple clips, or just click the Done button to go back to the main iMovie window.
iMovie can capture video from your built-in iSight.
Your clips appear in the Event Library at the bottom of the screen. Click inside one of your clips, press Command-A to select the whole clip, and drag it up to the Project pane (top left). You can do more editing if you want, adding titles, transitions, and other effects (see Apple’s excellent iMovie tutorials by choosing Help > Video Tutorials). Or you can leave your project as is.
Either way, when you’re ready to export your clip, choose Share > iTunes, and select the Mobile size to get a video small enough to email. Click Publish, save your movie to your Desktop, and then attach it to an email that you’re sending to Grandma. Alternatively, you can post it to a MobileMe Gallery or even to YouTube from right within iMovie, but email is the most private option.
