A Visual Guide to PACT Video Exporting This guide will give step by step instructions on how to navigate imovie and export your video with screenshots of each step. The guide was written using one of the Media Center Apple computers available for student use in the CSU, Chico Meriam Library Lobby Lab. There are two of these computers located on the left hand side of the lab. Simply ask a lab monitor to turn one on for you. These directions apply to the Canon ZR800 and Canon ZR930 camcorders. Please read through the entire set of directions before you begin. Note: The exporting process can take a significant amount of time. At minimum it takes more than twice as much time as the footage you are planning to turn export to the computer. For example, 20 minutes of video will take at minimum 40 minutes. I recommend planning at least 2 to 3 hours to complete this process the first time you go through it. Step 1: Your first step is going to be to open imovie. You can do this from the desktop by clicking on the icon circled below. You can also find it listed in the Applications folder inside the Mac HD.
Step 2: Check to make sure that imovie is set to widescreen mode. The two screen shots below show how to get to the menu to check this. First select Project Properties in the File tab, then look at Aspect Ratio and set it to Widescreen (16:9) if it is not already. This step will prevent problems like letterboxing later.
Step 3: Connect your camcorder to the Firewire port of the computer. Both media center computers have a Firewire cord already connected to the computer, with the camcorder side of the connection sitting on the desk. Turn the camcorder to play. This should bring up the import window shown below in imovie. You can bring this window up manually by clicking on the icon that looks like a camcorder located on the middle left side of the imovie screen. Move the switch to manual on the circled area below to display camcorder controls within the import window.
STEP 4: Use the controls (play/fast forward/rewind) to get your tape the point you wish to begin importing from. Step 5: Click Import to begin importing footage to your computer. Importing runs at real time. This means that if you are going to capture 10 minutes of footage, it will take 10 minutes.
Step 6: When you click Import it will prompt you to name the event you are importing. You can just ignore this window (or name it whatever you want) and click OK. You will then see the importing screen. Step 7: The circled area in the screenshot below shows a timer which lets you know how many minutes of footage you are importing. Click Stop when you have captured the entire length of video you want. You may now repeat from Step 4 if there is another segment of video elsewhere on the tape that you wish to capture.
Step 8: Once you are done importing click Done and you will be returned to the main imovie screen. It should look similar to the screen below. Step 9: Holding down the left click on your mouse, highlight the section of the footage you wish to use to create your final video. The yellow box will show what portion of your video you have highlighted, as well as how long it is. Once you have made your selection, drag it to the storyboard in the top box.
Step 10: Repeat this process with all of the clips you wish to have in your final video. The storyboard box displays all video clips that you have chosen to include in your final video. The circled time below shows the length of the entire video clip arrangement.
Step 11: Once you have arranged your video to your satisfaction it is time to export and compress your project. This will create your final file, which will be small enough to fit on a flash drive for storage purposes. Click the Share tab at the top of the screen and select Export using Quicktime Step 12: The following window will pop up. There are two things that you will need to change. The Where tab should be changed to Desktop and the Use: tab should be changed to Broadband Medium.
This screenshot shows the Where: tab being changed to Desktop. Note: Do not select your flash drive in this step, as that will make the compression process take significantly longer. This screenshot shows the Use: tab being changed to Broadband Medium. Note: On some older versions of imovie this will look slightly different. Choose Streaming Internet or a similar designation if broadband Medium is not available.
Step 13: Click Save once you have named your movie and made the changes to Where: and Use:. You will see the following screen as the video is saved and compressed. This process will take roughly as much time as your movie is long. For example: if you are creating a 10 minute movie, expect it to take about 10 minutes to compress and save. Note: Move the mouse every few minutes while this process is running. The library computers are set to go into standby mode after a certain period of time with no user input. If the computer goes into standby you may lose everything you have done so far.
Step 14: After the project finishes saving you may close imovie. Your movie file will be on the desktop. I recommend that you open it and watch it play through to make sure it is all OK. Connect your flash drive and drag the file into the flash drive. Double check to make sure that it is saved in the flash drive as it would be a shame to lose it at this point and have to start over. Right click on your flash drive and choose Eject in order to safely disconnect it.
Step 15: Congratulations! You have completed the process of exporting and saving your film. However, there is one more thing to take care of. After you have double checked once more to make sure that the file is properly saved onto your flash drive you will need to delete all footage off of the computer. This is to ensure that all confidentiality laws are followed. Right click on the file on the desktop and select Move to Trash. Open imovie and delete all footage off of the story board. Also, right click on each event and choose Move Event to Trash Congratulations! Now you are done!