just want to make a simple movie

So frustrated. I so do not enjou the basic programs which are beyond my comprehension. In pc I can use photoshop, dreamweaver, acdc etc.. my point is im computer saavy.

But with the mac I feel so so so so so frustrated. I have images and video from a camera. I just want to make a movie but IMPORTING it seems impossible!!! I have it in IPHOTO and it is NOT an event so how can i get it into IMOVIE and then burn a cd or into IDVD and burn a DVD?

IS idvd a joke as I really need some other programs to convert it to the mpg4 format for DVD?

THis just all seems ridiculous !!! I have my photos in IMOVIE but not my avi or mpg.

So far life with MAC is not better !!! Only more frustrating!

I just tried importing an AVI into iMovie and it worked fine. Where exactly in the process are things breaking down for you?

You may need to use Quicktime Pro (which came with your Mac) to export your AVI as a mov file. Just open QTP, open the AVI and choose "Export" from the file menu, and choose your MOV settings. Then import it into iMovie like normal. I just tried it and it works. When your movie is saved for sharing in iMovie, it should appear in your media browser in iDVD.

If QT doesn't give you the results you want, there are other free converters, like Divx Doctor: DivX Doctor II - AVI to MOV Convertor

or Perian.

Again, you can't expect to start using a new program on a new OS without having to learn new ways of doing things, no matter how computer savvy you are. So far many of the solutions you've sought have been available to you the whole time... you just have to take the time to find them.

I've been kind of following your threads on and off - I'm sorry to see you're having such trouble with this transition.

You say you have video and images from a camera -

how did you get the video into the system?

Are you using a hard drive based video camera or tape based camera?

Are you capturing the video via firewire, or if you are using a hard drive based camera copying the video files over?

What format are the photos (tiff, tga, png, gif, jpg, other)?

If the video was somehow transfered as files already (say from your previous pc) what format are they in?

I don't use iDVD, but have you tried watching the appropriate tutorials and looking over the manual under "Help" in iDVD? If this is your first time getting to know this software, you'll need time to learn how things are done, especially if you are still comparing things them to how they're done on a PC.

Are you importing your images and videos into iPhoto from your camera? Until you're more comfortable and confident with iPhoto, I would just import everything into regular folders and avoid iPhoto altogether for now.

Maybe you should explain exactly what you're doing from start to end, it might shed a little more light on things.

Hi yes I have photos and video from my pc. Photos are jpgs videos are avi.
So my photos are in IPHOTO so from I photo I movie no problem . But then how to get my video's?

I have watched and read tutorials and feel so dumb as I am pc literate and computer savvy.. ..

So for IMOVIE my photos must come from IPHOTO?
From IMOVIE can I then open in IDVD and make a dvd?

THanks so much.

Do you get any errors when you try to import the files? Does it say file is not supported or something else?

There are a few things I can think of off hand that might be causing you grief; my first thought is you don't have a codec to be able to read that avi file (you can try to get perian if you haven't already, although i don't know if that will help you at all when it comes to imovie).

An easy solution would be to get a video transcoder and convert the file from avi to mov or (I'm pretty sure imovie also supports) mp4.

But I'd think it would be helpful to know what imovie is saying if you try to do an import.

When it comes to stuff like this, it would probably help to go to the Apple Store and see what one of the Genius guys says. It's easier to show someone exactly what you're doing and they even offer short in-store demos you can attend to learn exactly how to use the iLife apps.

Honestly, 9 times out of 10 the solution to these kinds of things are way easier than you think. Even some of the advice I've gotten here has been overkill. I've gone crazy looking for the answers to some problems and gotten really complicated workarounds for things that ended up being really simple.

the movie plays fine in quicktime. I just cant import it in imovie. nothing happens no error message nothing. I got to import movie and I click on it and it appears to process it and nothing shows up.

Im in Phuket, Thailand. We have no istore nor geniuses here hence a heavy dependency on this forum

This all sounds much more complicated then a pc. What is the advantage of mac? ? I just want to take a movie in avi format as all movies from a digital camera are in avi format.

What step am I missing?

Ok,

I went home and have done some experimenting to get you an answer that I hope will help.

Here are your general options:

1) Instead of dragging video footage from your camera (assuming an hard drive recorder camera where you are dragging a file off the camera onto your comp) capture via firewire

2) If you are using video footage previously captured in windows or you don't want to capture via firewire, your options change in how you need to handle it - from here you can:

a) If you just want to use imovie, you will need to convert the file - to convert the file into something imovie will like you can use:
mpegstreamclip ( http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15466/mpeg-streamclip ) - free app to convert
VLC ( http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/5758/vlc-media-player ) (has an option to save/convert video) - free app
ffmpegx ( http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/8988/ffmpegx ) used to be free I guess, but is currently shareware to get rid of nag screen, $15.00 (there are some instructions here: imovie problems - macosx.com that give a step by step)
Quicktime Pro (purchaseable from apple here: Apple - QuickTime - QuickTime Pro ) costs $29.95 and will also convert between formats.

You need to get your video into a .mov or a dv stream to be able to edit in imovie - it's a limitation of the program from everything I've read (I use a different app most of the time, and imovie, I just play with) Considering the price of the ilife package, that's not a huge surprise on a limitation (moviemaker on windows has similar limitations)

b) If you don't want to use imovie, you can look into getting a bigger package like:
Final Cut Express ($199), I couldn't afford FCP right now, so I'm using FCE until I can. I can drag and drop divx avi files into it without an issue
Final Cut Pro ($~1500 I think) Top end editing tool from apple
Adobe Premiere (there is an elements version that's like $140, but I don't know if it will work on OSX or not)

------- Photos and imovie

Now with regard to photos - you don't necessarily have to have them in iphoto to use the images in imovie. I don't use iphoto at all. I just opened the folder where my images were and dragged the jpgs right into the imovie project.

Hopefully that will help you get going.

Expatgirl, I think I may know what the problem is, but let me see if I understand what you're saying.

Are you trying to import your AVI clips from iPhoto into iMovie? If so, you should leave iPhoto out of the equation completely for now. I'm sure there's a way to get video clips from iPhoto to iMovie, but it's really an unnecessary extra step. Import the video footage from your camera or hard drive directly into iMovie. Let's start from the beginning and again, just forget that iPhoto even exists for now. Make sure you're doing things this way first.

1) Connect your camera to the computer, open iMovie and click the Camera Import button (the first button in the middle bar with a camera icon on it). If the AVI footage is already stored somewhere on your computer, choose "Import" from the File menu and bring it in from there. DO NOT try to import anything using iPhoto!

2) Your footage should now appear in the bottom half where your events are. You'll see the footage in rows in the main pane. But simply dragging the footage up to the project pane from there will not work. You must SELECT the portions of video that you want first. You can right click on a clip and choose "Select All" if you want the whole clip, or drag around a portion of the clip that you want. A yellow border will appear around the footage you selected.

I know it says "Drag media here to create a new project" but there is this extra step. You CAN'T just drag the footage from the bottom up to the top, you MUST select the portions you want FIRST, then drag them up and the footage will appear in the Project pane.

I use Final Cut Pro, so I actually had to open up iMovie for the first time to try this out. (In fact, I had used Windows Movie Maker for years and I see that Final Cut is more similar to it than iMovie is.)

I had AVI clips already on my computer which I imported into iMovie via "Import" from the File menu with no problem; no conversion required. Once the footage appeared at the bottom, my first instinct was to drag the footage from the bottom pane to the project pane because, after all, that's what it says to do. But nothing would stay in the project pane, it would just snap back down to the event pane. Then I tried selecting and THEN dragging the footage, and it was added to the project with no problem.

So try this first and see how that goes.

Remember, SKIP IPHOTO. You never HAVE to use iPhoto to get to your pictures and video, it's just an organization tool. (In fact, I always put them into folders first and then choose what I want to import into iPhoto or wherever.) Get the AVI from your hard drive or directly from the camera into iMovie.

Then be sure to SELECT the footage you want to use in your project BEFORE trying to drag it up to the project pane. See how that goes and let us know how you do and we'll go from there. Remember that iMovie is NOTHING like Windows Movie Maker. Years of PC proficiency will not help in this case at all, it's a totally different creature.

I wonder what video codec in the AVI your file was using. I know the one I was testing was a DivX and it wouldn't do a direct conversion (imovie 08).

Hey Nethfel, didn't realize your post was directed at me. When I open the movie in Quicktime and open the movie properties window, it says the format is Motion JPEG OpenDML. Does that sound right to you?


OH, and I forgot to mention that if you're trying to get video footage off of a digital camera rather than a video camera, it would probably be better to get it onto your hard drive directly rather than through iMovie. iMovie wasn't recognizing my digital camera, so it probably only works through Firewire (or it could be that my digital camera is really old).

expatgirl said:

the movie plays fine in quicktime. I just cant import it in imovie. nothing happens no error message nothing. I got to import movie and I click on it and it appears to process it and nothing shows up.

Im in Phuket, Thailand. We have no istore nor geniuses here hence a heavy dependency on this forum

This all sounds much more complicated then a pc. What is the advantage of mac? ? I just want to take a movie in avi format as all movies from a digital camera are in avi format.

What step am I missing?

Click to expand...

I import avi files into iMovie all the time. Which version of iMovie are you using?

Choose File -> import -> movies... Select the movies you want and put them in a new event. The new event should be displayed in the lower half of the window after the import finishes. From there you can select portions of the movies and add them to the project.

Does the new event get added to the event library after you import the movies?