iMovie 2 Solutions: Tips, Tricks, and Special Effects

You can do much more with iMovie than you might think. iMovie 2 Solutions goes well beyond straight-ahead how-to, instead focusing on bringing tips, tricks and special effects to the iMovie community with easy-to-follow projects, step-by-step instructions, and companion sample videos. Whether you're a hobbyist, a budding producer, or a dedicated video prosumer, iMovie 2 Solutions will help you create unique and exciting videos on a budget.

Inside, noted author Erica Sadun shows you the ins and outs of a wide variety of iMovie techniques, including:

* Adding logos and watermarks to your movies

* Producing picture-in-picture effects

* Creating larger and more dynamic title sequences

* Combining animated elements with your iMovie footage

* Making slide shows with great special effects, including camera pans

* Designing interactive QuickTime skins that surround your iMovie videos

* Converting your PowerPoint presentations into iMovie form

* Authoring captions and subtitles for your movies

Does that mean you're stuck? Have you reached the absolute limits of iMovie? Are you forever wondering in a morass of lifeless titling and yearnings for a few special effects? Heck no, if you're willing to mess around with a couple other programs for a bit. Of course saying you're not stuck and showing you how to unstick yourself are two different things. So, you'll have to trust me, you're not stuck. That tidbit should be worth a nickel. To actually get unstuck you'll have to pony up $40.00 for iMovie 2 Solutions . With this handy offering by Erica Sadun you'll be pleasantly surprised at just how much you can get out of iMovie if don't mind mixing in a few other apps.

iMovie 2 Solutions is not really so much about iMovie, it's more about extending iMovie with the careful use of a few programs. That is not to say iMovie 2 Solutions doesn't have iMovie specific info, it does in spades (want to change the default "My Great Movie Title"? See page 4). Most of the iMovie specific tips are redundant or of little value. The value lies in combining iMovie with programs such as QuicktimePro, Adobe Photoshop Elements (nee Photoshop LE, I suspect if you have a copy of Photoshop LE most of the tricks will still work) and a few other assorted programs. It might seem strange to buy a book ostensibly about iMovie that focuses so heavily on other programs. Trust me again when I say it's money well spent as long as you realize iMovie 2 Solutions is in no way an iMovie tutorial or reference but indispensable if you want to trick out your movies to the maximum level of Jurassic Parkness..

By now the interested reader will begin wondering: "Just what kind of stuff will this book show me how to do?" I can't list all the tricks iMovie 2 Solutions covers (that's a lie, I could actually list all the tricks, but this is a review not an index) but I can point out a few that seemed particularly cool to me. Ones I particularly include: the "Big Titles" trick, See through Big Title trick, Movie in Movie trick and customized QuickTime skin playback tip. and, my uber fave, use iMovie to work on a silver screen sized movie instead of the default TV sized screen (a tip worth $999 clams for those who posses nice cameras but not Final Cut Pro). The aforementioned tips just scratch the surface of iMovie 2 Solutions there is plenty more movie making goodness contained within the wraparound softcover.

So we have established the book contains useful tips and/or tricks. Hence it's time to get down to style and presentation. After all, the world's most clever tip isn't worth much if it is presented in an obscure incomprehensible format. This is not a problem with iMovie 2 Solutions. The tips are presented in easy to follow steps illustrated with small thumbnail sized photos. The average number of steps seems to be about ten but range up to a still manageable twenty actions to get the desired effect. The writing is fairly comprehensible providing you know a bit about iMovie a little about Photoshop and a smidgen of QuicktimePro. If you don't know much about those programs I strongly suggest you read the book from the very beginning, it makes the going much easier.

iMovie 2 Solutions also comes with a super nifty CD that contains every program the author asks you to use to augment iMovie and a visual tutorial of each chapter. If you're on a 56k connection the 40-dollar price tag is worth the disc alone. If you're a Mac user from way back the disc is reminiscent of the floppies that came with the earliest Mac Bibles. By that I mean the disc is chock full of nifty utilities and such. You can have plenty of fun with the stuff on the disc without bothering to read the book.

Summation time: This book shows you plenty of stuff you never thought you could with iMovie at a reasonable price and gives you the tools to follow through.

MacMice Rating: 5 out of 5 *Power iMovie Users MacMice Rating: 3.5 out of 5 *Average iMovie Users


Step beyond the beginner's guides   August 24, 2002
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book covers so many useful tricks that every iMovie owner should invest in it. Owning Quicktime Pro is essential for many of the tricks - as is paint program - but it's money well spent. Everything from picture-in-picture effects to professional-style cuts and edits are covered in extremely well illustrated step-by-step guides. Of course there are some very cheesy effects that no-one should use in anything other than an ironic style, but there are also essentials such as J and L edits, better titles, overlays.. This book can help postpone the time you need to step up to Final Cut Pro - so effectively you're saving yourself $ ;-)


Great Book!   July 17, 2002
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

The format of the book does an excellent job of separating the "you can do this ... " stuff from "Here's HOW to do this ... " stuff; something far too few manuals handle well. After a tiny bit of off-line coaching from Sadun (who was very helpful and courteous), I had no difficulty stacking a video clip inside a clip inside another clip, and learned more about QuickTime than I'd ever known before. I found that it is not for a complete novice; the book has some hidden assumptions about the reader's proficiency, mainly that the reader is more proficient than a rank beginner and can leap into the process. All things considered, I am more than satisfied with my purchase!


Promotes other software products   July 8, 2002
 1 out of 5 found this review helpful

I understand that this is a tips and tricks book, not a user manual, but I was disappointed by the frequent referals to other software packages like Final Cut Pro, Quicktime Pro and other products. Tell me what I can and can't do with the product I already own!

The manual could do a much better job covering the basics.
The novice iMovie and iDVD user is faced with understanding where one product leaves off and the other begins. To an experienced user, this may be obvious, but for me, at least, it took a long time to figure out that something as simple as chapter buttons are are not available through either product. (The iMac help desk expalined this to me).

If you're a sophisticated user, I suppose this book has some cool ideas. As a novice, I'm very disappointed.