Filter Out iMovie Malaise

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Posted 01/29/2007 at 9:17:44pm | by Niko Coucouvanis

1. Drag the time-crop markers to filter only part of a clip.
2. Select your clip in the Timeline (go back to the Clips drawer if the Timeline is empty).
3. Click here or here to apply the effect.
4. Find the filters here.
5. Or find filters here.
6. Set the effect's in- and out-timing and any parameters here.

WHAT YOU NEED

> iMovie HD 6.0.3 (part of iLife '06, $79, www.apple.com)

It's easy enough to make your home movies look presentable - cinematic, even. iMovie has the editing tools if you have the heart to trim out that five-minute segment of Uncle Joe lobbing olives skyward without catching a single one in his gaping maw. Sure, it's hilarious, and it'd be a crime to leave such a gem on the virtual cutting-room floor - but you should jazz it up a bit. Speed it up, British-comedy style. Trip it out with color effects that change over time. Add some earthquake-level rumbling. Or go nuts with Core Video effetcs like Funhouse Mirror and Bump Distortion. It's no cliche to say that the possibilities are endless.

Here's a primer on the effects included with iMovie, as well as some cool third-party filters that you can add to your FX arsenal. Although we don't give a hoot what others think of our overfiltered video mess-terpieces, keep in mind that it's easy to get carried away with special effects. They certainly are an acquired taste.

Step 1: Your First Filter

If you haven't dabbled with iMovie's built-in effects filters, you're in for a treat. The basic controls and real-time preview in the main window add up to a learning curve of zero. Plus, some of iMovie's filters are incredibly cool. To get started, drag a clip (or several) from the Clips drawer into the Timeline, click the Editing tab, and select Video FX. To apply a filter to an entire clip, click the film-frame icon to enter Clip view, select a clip (Shift-click to select multiple ones), choose an effect from the list, and click Apply. To apply effects to only specific parts of a clip, switch to Timeline view (click the clock icon), drag the crop markers around the part you want affected, select your effect, and click Apply.

Click and drag your mouse in the preview window to reposition distortion and spot effects, such as Electricity.

Step 2: Fine-Tune the Timing

Although you can spot-apply effects via the Timeline crop markers, you can further control the timing with the Effect In and Effect Out sliders. Say you want to slowly raise the exposure until the bright parts blow out, then pause the effect to heighten the suspense. Select your target clip in the Timeline and pick Exposure Adjust from the Quartz Composer subset of Video FX. Use the lower slider (EV: Exposure Value) to set the max amount of exposure tweak, then use the Effect In slider to specify the point in your selected footage at which the effect maxes out; move it to the right for a slow buildup, or to the left to have the effect start immediately. Now use the Effect Out slider to specify how quickly the effect fades-the associated value is the number of seconds from the end of your clip or selection that the effect will disappear

With Effect In and Effect Out both set to 0, the effect lasts the entire length of the clip.

Step 3: Defect? De-Effect

Movie has Undo, but it's sequential. So if you add an effect and then make 30 other changes to the project, you'd have to hit Command-Z (Edit > Undo) 30 times to undo that effect, then reapply the other 30 changes. Plan B: iMovie stacks effects on clips in the order that you apply them, so if you apply Rain, then Lens Flare, then Electricity, and then you decide the Lens Flare needs more adjustment, you have to remove the Electricity effect; then remove, adjust, and reapply the Lens Flare; then reapply Electricity. Click a clip's thumbnail in the Timeline's Clip view and press Delete to remove the most recently applied filter. Press Delete again to remove another, and so on. If you're hyperorganized, make a list of which filters you've applied to which clips-otherwise there's no way to know which one came first.

The number 8 means we've piled eight effects onto this scene.

Step 4: Bend Time to Your Will

Smooth-action video runs at around 30 frames per second. But in the case of Uncle Joe and his olives, cranking up the speed can exaggerate the tediousness of a too-long segment. (Don't bother looking for iMovie's turtle-and-rabbit speed-adjust icon - it disappeared in version 6.) To warp time, use the Fast/Slow/Reverse effect. If you're really crafty, isolate one moment with iMovie's crop markers and slow it down to exaggerate the motion, then speed up the rest of the segment.

Here we've used the clip-crop markers to speed up one clip and parts of two others.

Step 5: Mix and Match

What's that? You're already bored with iMovie's built-in effects? We don't think so. Besides all of the adjustment parameters, there's another way to tweak the filter effects: Apply filters on top of filters. For example, if you tweak the color (or Saturation, Gamma, Hue, Exposure, and so on) and then tweak it again, either with the same effect or a different one, each successive filter tweaks the result of any filters you've already applied. The Electric bolt, for example, can add a flash of blue to a scene that you've already turned black and white. (Note: This is prime territory for the filter-overload syndrome that we warned you about in the introduction.)

Black and white looks cooler if you tweak the original colors first and then add a blue flash, as we did here.

Step 6: Filter Out Bad Footage

Sorry, there's no filter to retroactively remedy your sloppy videography, but if your footage comes out of the camera looking less than optimal, pile on some effects to make it look like you intended it to look that way - it'll be our little secret. Camera shake? That's no match for the Earthquake effect. Forgot to set the white balance? Adjust it with White Point Adjust. Crappy camera (or camera operator)? Exaggerate poor quality with the Aged Film effect. And if your footage looks really, really bad, go Impressionist style by laying on Water Color, Edges, or one of the distortion options, which include Glass, Bump, and Circle Splash.

Add a little Aged Film juju, and nobody has to know that you don't yet know how to use all of the controls on your camcorder.

BONUS TIP: Tap the Aftermarket

iMovie uses a plug-in architecture, which allows you to create your own effect plug-ins - or more likely, to use plug-ins created by software developers. Here are some of our favorites.

Stone Design's Videator ($49, www.stone.com). This plug-in lets you apply a Polka Dot filter effect, among many others. Besides movies, Videator works on live video feeds, handy for the VJs out there.

GeeThree's Slick plug-ins ($29.95 and up, www.geethree.com). Now in its 10th volume, the Slick family of iMovie plug-ins covers everything from chroma-keying and compositing to lighting effects, 3D transitions, and the time-honored Page Curl.

ShearLight's Effect Shop ($35, www.shearlight.com). You can add keyframing, for better control of effects over time, and compositing tricks like chroma- and color-keying, for that weatherman-in-front-of-the-map effect.

Videator lets you save strings of configured effects - otherwise, we'd never be able to re-create this exact mess, er, effect.

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