04-13-2012, 07:46 AM

I am going to move to a Mac soon and one thing I want to do is manage some home video stuff I have.

Most of it has been taken on an iPhone so formats won't be a problem. I don't want to do much other than stitch together individual but related clips and add some basic titles etc.

Will iMovie do everything I need it to? What are the pros and cons of looking at something like Premiere Elements instead?

One other question I would like some advice on if possible is how to deal with some of my wife's camerawork. She has a habit of videoing things on the iPhone in portrait. Sometimes in the middle of recording she will switch to landscape. Will iMovie be able to rotate video as needed? Is this a common problem have to deal with?

Thanks in advance.

04-13-2012, 08:33 AM

iMovie should do what you need it to do. in any case, before buying anything at least give it a try.

In dealing with video that swaps from portrait to landscape, while you can rotate the video, I dont recommend it. try it, you will see why.

04-13-2012, 08:38 AM

I want to rotate some video because the orientation is wrong. I have video files which have people standing left to right rather than upright.

04-13-2012, 10:19 AM

I understand, it is just you will see when you rotate the video, the aspect will change. That video will not remain in widescreen format, and it will really mess up once that portrait part comes in.

again, once you try putting it together and rotating those parts, you will see.

04-13-2012, 10:39 AM

If I don't rotate it then I need to turn my head 90 degrees to see what is happening.

04-13-2012, 10:52 AM

the issue is the video goes from 16:9 widescreen to 9:16 tall.

04-13-2012, 11:05 AM

Yes - but at least it is the right way up.

Surely I can't be alone on not wanting to have to turn my head to the side to watch something?

04-13-2012, 11:09 AM

the biggest hurdle will be to get the wife to film the right way...

And again, while the video can be flipped right side up, it may not look very good anyway. Again, as I said way above, you will need to try it and see.

04-13-2012, 11:12 AM

I have some video from our honeymoon like this - I really just want to make the most of it.

04-13-2012, 04:34 PM

As Deckyon says, rotate the camera, not the video.

04-13-2012, 05:58 PM

Originally Posted by MightyGem

As Deckyon says, rotate the camera, not the video.

OK - as I said I already have footage of my honeymoon that I want to process.

I can't rotate the camera for what I have already taken.

Thanks for your input anyway.

04-13-2012, 06:04 PM

Don't worry about Deckyon -- he's correct but you're just not getting what he's saying. I'm sure rotating the video in iMovie (you may need to crop it a little as well) will be more than good enough for your purposes. He's just saying you lose quality when you rotate video in software. I imagine you already knew that.

For *future* reference, the camera should always be held so that the orientation is landscape so that you preserve the full quality of what you shot.

04-13-2012, 06:10 PM

Originally Posted by chas_m

Don't worry about Deckyon -- he's correct but you're just not getting what he's saying. I'm sure rotating the video in iMovie (you may need to crop it a little as well) will be more than good enough for your purposes. He's just saying you lose quality when you rotate video in software. I imagine you already knew that.

For *future* reference, the camera should always be held so that the orientation is landscape so that you preserve the full quality of what you shot.

No I am getting what he is saying. Most of these video clips start in portrait before I remind my wife to switch to landscape.

However with it being our honeymoon there isn't the opportunity to go back and do it again. The footage I have is what it is - I just want to make the best of what I have.

04-15-2012, 01:57 AM

Originally Posted by Sue de Nimes

No I am getting what he is saying. Most of these video clips start in portrait before I remind my wife to switch to landscape.

Yeah, I hear ya. A friend of mine caught an incredible street incident and turned the camera halfway through.

What I had to do was cut out the small section where the camera was actually turning and do a quick (.5 second) cross-fade to cover that. It wasn't seamless but it was less disruptive than leaving the camera-turning in.

04-15-2012, 08:54 PM

If you have Quicktime 7 Pro you can easily rotate any video and then export it.

Open your video in Quicktime 7. Go up to the "Window" menu and select the "Show movie properties" option.


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When the video properties menu pops up, select the "video track" option in the top window. The buttons underneath will change to reflect the video track selection. Next, click on the "Visual Settings" button. This will show you all of the properties of the video on the right site. Toward the bottom of the right pane, there's an option to rotate the video orientation. You can then select how you want your video to be rotated.



Once you have done this, you can then close the video properties pane. Then you can go up to "File" and then save or export the video.

You should then be able to import it into iMovie that way.
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If that doesn't work for you, there are a few apps that can also do it through drag and drop methods.

$2.99 Mac App Store - Video Rotate

$Free Mac App Store - Movie Effects