Even the most ardent Apple fanboi couldn't deny the colossal mis-step Apple made with iMovie 08. In one fell swoop, Apple took a brilliant and simple consumer video editing application, iMovie 06, and removed almost all the decent functionality and replaced it with an application that was so woefully inadequate that Apple had to make the old version available to those who upgraded too hastily. That was 18 months ago and iMovie 09 seeks to repair the damage.

iMovie 09 is part of Apple's iLife suite and is included on all new Macs. iLife can also be purchased separately for $129 or in a box set with iWork 09 (Apple's answer to Microsoft Office) and Leopard, the current incarnation of OS X, for $279. iMovie 09 is not available as a standalone purchase. Installation is straightforward and there are no annoying serial numbers or product activation to deal with. Just pop the DVD into your Mac (I tested it on a 20" iMac with a Core 2 Duo 2GHz with 4GB of RAM and about 150GB of available disk) and grab some coffee while the installer does its thing. My test camera is a Panasonic NV-GS180 and I connected it over Firewire 400 even though Apple is now phasing Firewire 400 out of its notebook range in preference to USB 2.0 very processor intensive. On my system it took about six hours to process 50 minutes of footage. Even on shorter clips, I found that it took about seven minutes to perform stabilisation on each minute of footage. The results are quite spectacular.

My suggestion is to analyse and process the clips that require stabilisation rather than all footage, particularly if you use a tripod. Footage that has been altered by the stabiliser is identified with a red squiggle. Apple has retained many elements of the maligned iMovie 08 user interface. Perhaps I'm just a little set in my ways but I simply don't like the arrangement of footage, the preview and editing tools on the screen. Apple did listen to the vociferous wailings of its users and has added the Precision Editor - a way of executing fine control, down to the frame, over each frame. You can now adjust the sound level of the original footage and add some background music (with iMovie 08 it was either one or the other but not both) but there's still no decent timeline. While that might not bother beginners, those accustomed to most other entry level tools might find themselves a little confused.

One of my favourite new features is the brilliant implementation of picture-in-picture. All I needed to do was drag and drop our footage over the video that I was
- a poor decision in my view. iMovie 09 recognised the camera as soon as I connected it - no need to restart the computer, install drivers or any of that stuff. Just plug and play. When footage is imported, you have a choice as to whether to import it directly or to have iMovie 09's image stabilisation tool perform its magic on your footage. I imported some video shot at a 21st birthday where the camera was being handheld and walked around the room. If you've got a disk-based camera, you can choose which clips to import - no need to download all 40GB if all you're after is five minutes for Australia's Funniest Home Videos.

Image stabilisation, probably the key feature of iMovie 09 is working on and I could then easily adjust the size and position. The feature is not enabled by default but is easily activated by turning on the advanced properties in the iMovie 09 preferences. In addition to the stabilisation, there are a stack of other adjustments that can be made. Footage can be adjusted for brightness, contrast, exposure and saturation. There's an auto mode that fixes things automagically but it didn't seem to be all that useful with our test footage. You can also easily apply effects to clips such as "Romantic", "Bleach Bypass" and "Negative" and add titles, transitions and all the other bits and pieces you need. Integrating other media, like music and photos is dead simple as all of Apple's software uses the same Media Browser that accesses iPhoto, iTunes and Aperture libraries.

iMovie is certainly not pitched at professional or advanced movie makers so to compare it to the likes of Vegas or Final Cut Pro isn't an apples to apple comparison.
In many ways it surpasses its predecessors and really does make creating and sharing movies extremely easy. Sure, it lacks some of the tools experienced movie makers expect but those editing movies for the first time will find the interface appealing and easy to use. The application comes with well written help and there are many online video tutorials on Apple's web site.
 

Note: Anthony Caruana©  Permission to copy or quote extracts from this article may only be done with the written permission of the author.

Reprinted from the March 2009 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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