How to Edit and Export Vertical Videos in iMovie?

Have you just recorded a video for Instagram or Snapchat, but can’t seem to edit your vertical video in iMovie?

Well, if you also can’t edit vertical videos for Instagram on your Mac, then you have come to the right place. Since iMovie is mostly used to edit videos for certain aspect ratios, it often leaves black bars on the sides of vertical videos. Thankfully, with a smart trick, you can easily remove black bars from a vertical video on iMovie and edit it as you like. Here, I will let you know how to edit vertical videos in iMovie on Mac without any hassle.

Part 1: What’s the Need for Editing Vertical Videos in iMovie?

With the rising use of apps like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook, vertical videos have become more common than ever. Since most people watch all kinds of videos on their smartphones, content creators are also focused on making vertical videos.

Though, smartphone video editors are still restricted or come with a heavy price tag. That’s why you can just use iMovie as a vertical video editor to meet your requirements. It is available for free and Mac users can utilize its inbuilt features to edit their videos.

Part 2: Can iMovie Edit Vertical Videos (without Black Bars)?

Ideally, you can edit all kinds of videos in iMovie on Mac. The only issue is that when users export vertical videos from iMovie on Mac, it leaves black borders on the sides. This is because iMovie has restricted resolutions and aspect ratios in which it can export videos.

Therefore, to remove black bars from a vertical video in iMovie, you can later trim the sides. The other trick is to simply rotate the video on iMovie, which would let you edit and export it without black borders. Let’s learn how can I turn my iMovie video vertical to get rid of black bars in the next section.

Part 3: How to Edit and Export Vertical Videos in iMovie on Mac?

Now when I have cleared your doubts regarding the vertical video editor for iMovie, you can easily meet your requirements. Although you can edit vertical videos in iMovie just like any other clip, there is a simple trick that you need to follow. To learn how to edit a vertical video in iMovie on Mac, you can simply go through these instructions.

Step 1: Import the Vertical Video in iMovie

To begin with, just launch iMovie on your Mac and choose to work on a new Movie Project. Now, click on the “+” or “Import” icon to browse your videos and load them on iMovie. You can also just drag and drop your videos from Finder to the iMovie interface.

Step 2: Rotate the Vertical Video before Editing

Once the video is added to iMovie, you can just drag and drop it to the timeline at the bottom to start editing. Beforehand, go to the preview window in the top-right corner and click on the crop icon to adjust the overall frame of the video.

You can also click on the Rotate-left or Rotate-right icons from here to automatically rotate the video to arbitrary angles.

Step 3: Edit the Vertical Video in iMovie

That’s it! Once you have rotated the video, you can use the inbuilt features of iMovie to edit it without any black borders. There are all kinds of transitions, filters, captions, and other effects that you can readily use in iMovie to edit your videos.

Step 4: Export Your Videos (and Rotate them again)

After, when you have edited vertical videos in iMovie on Mac, you can just click on the Export icon from the top-right corner. Click on the “File” option and simply save your video on the local storage of your Mac.

The only issue is that the edited video would still be rotated, and you might not be able to watch it correctly. To fix this, you can just open the edited video in the QuickTime Player and go to it Menu > Edit to Rotate the video in the left/right direction.

Part 4: Pro Tips on Editing Vertical Videos

As you can see, it is pretty easy to edit and export vertical videos in iMovie on Mac. Besides that, you can follow these smart tips to make your videos more appealing.

Tip 1: Consider the Target Platform while Editing

Most of the vertical videos are uploaded on social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and more. Though, the overall dimensions for one platform can be different from another. Therefore, to get the best results, you can crop or trim the media according to the dimension of the platform you want to post it on.

Tip 2: Edit the Video on the iMovie App

If you have basic editing needs, then you can also edit the vertical video on the iMovie app. Just launch the iMovie app on your iPhone and import the video you want to edit. There is also an inbuilt rotate option in iMovie that would let you easily edit your vertical videos without any black borders.

Tip 3: Use a Professional Video Editor

To get even better editing results than iMovie, you can consider using an advanced video editor like Wondershare Filmora. It is a user-friendly and professional video editor that offers a wide range of presets, filters, transitions, stock media, and so much more.

You can explore the range of editing options and even import/export your files in different formats. The best part is that you can easily edit videos on Mac for the social media platform of your choice and export the video in the preferred resolution as well.

By now, you would be able to edit vertical videos in iMovie on Mac as well. To make things easier for you, I have included a tutorial on how can I turn my iMovie videos vertical to get rid of black bars.

Just be sure to crop and rotate your videos to get the best results before you export a vertical video in iMovie on Mac. If you want, you can always use a better application like Wondershare Filmora to edit all kinds of videos like a pro.