How to Edit Videos in iMovie on Mac?

Liza Brown

Aug 18, 2022• Proven solutions

There are few Apple video editing software that is used by many of the professional filmmakers out there. These programs come with several great features which enable you to edit the videos with ease, so you can easily post them on social media sites. If you're looking for free software for editing videos then the iMovie is considered as one of the best editing software that offers highly advanced features that give your videos a new enhanced look. It comes preinstalled in the Mac operating system computers and iOS devices. In this article, we are going to let you know how to edit videos on iMovie software and the best alternative to the iMovie video editor.

Part 1: How to edit videos on iMovie on Mac

iMovie a video editor and video player application that is preinstalled in all iOS devices and helps you to playback the videos on the Mac and iOS devise even you can do editing of your videos using the iMovie application. Though the application doesn’t have a very complicated interface, so everyone can easily edit videos on iMovie even if you are not a tech-savvy person. iMovie comes with a very good interface that allows you to beautify your videos with ease without doing any effort. You can apply filters, effects, backgrounds, and many more other elements of your videos with the help of iMovie even you can cut or crop the videos with the help of this software.

Open up the iMovie application on your Mac. You can find this application on the home screen of your desktop or in the application folder. You can create three kinds of project with this software that is Media, projects, and theater. These all are mentioned on the top of the window screen. Before starting with the tutorial on how to edit videos on iMovie let’s understand the above three terms.

• Media- Media is a library that keeps the clips, pictures, and videos that you can easily access to edit.
• Projects- This is mainly the workspace, where you perform the video editing of the videos and movies.
• Theater- Theater has all your completed projects that from here you can watch the edited videos and make changes in the name of the video. You can also remove the file from cloud storage.

How to Edit Videos on iMovie on Mac

Let’s understand step by step, how to edit videos on iMovie as it would give you a clear understanding of how to use iMovie to edit videos.

Step 1. Prepare workspace for the project

iMovie allows you to create two kinds of videos first is the trailer and the other one is the movie. Creating trailer movies is quite fun. You can create short movies using the templates. Here, we will let you know about how to create videos and movies with iMovie video editing software so let’s get into it.

Now to create movies, click on “create” and then choose the “Movie” option. This will take you to the project workspace. The video editing contains a timeline that consists of the film from the left-right. It all contains the video's visuals and sound. Through the video timeline, you can perform the editing of sound and visuals. iMovie video editing software is quite easy for naive users to use.

Step 2. Cut video clips

You can go through each clip of the video. With the help of a space bar, you can play or stop the video where you want. By dragging the mouse you can easily shift the bar to the exact position where you want to make the changes in the video. You can also trim the video clips as per your need. There should be no confusion between the horizontal and vertical videos as you have to perform the same steps to understand how to edit vertical videos in iMovie.

Step 3. Add music to the videos

A video without any music doesn’t seem to be interesting at all. Therefore, if you want your audience to view your work then you must add music to it. To help you with this, iMovie has various inbuilt tracks that you can use in your videos. In case you are making a video that has voice over then you must take care if the music is not overshadowing the voice of the speaker as it can lose the interest of the viewers to watch your videos.

Step 4. Add transitions to your videos

These transitions are used when you are merging two different videos into one. There are many transitions that are there in iMovie video editing software that you can use in your work. Don’t put too many flashy transitions as it can be quite irritating for the viewers. Try to keep it simple and keep few titles when putting transitions in between the videos.

Step 5. Put titles in your project

This is one of the most important aspects of your video that will keep the interest in your audience. Therefore, write the titles wisely as if any of your viewers will first look at the title part of your video which will play a massive role in engaging your audience.

Step 6. Export your project

Once you are done with the editing of the videos or movie you can go through the whole video to check if everything is properly done or not. Once you are satisfied with your work, click on the export icon which is present at the right corner of the window screen. As you click on the Export icon, it will give you an option to share it to different platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. iMovie video editing software mac can be one of the best options for all the film and video makers out there as it allows you to use as many features as required to make a perfect video.

Part 2: How to Edit Videos on Mac with Wondershare Filmora Easily

Wondershare Filmora is the best alternative program that is available for Mac and Windows operating system computers.

It is the best software which is easy to use and offers you powerful features as compared to the iMovie. Therefore, you can easily use it as it has a user-friendly interface, so it’s easy for beginners to handle video editing. In comparison to iMovie, Filmora for Mac offers all the basic as well as advanced editing tools that would let you perform video editing. It allows you to easily edit, merge, split, crop, and rotate the videos in just a few clicks. You can add music, voice-overs, texts, and many more other things to enhance the video. This will also help you keep the interest of your audience for your videos.

You can add different filters that would give a more beautiful and attractive look to your videos. Filmora has different transitions from where you can choose any of them you like. You can add more special effects to your work.

Steps to Edit Videos with Wondershare Filmora:

Step 1. Download and install the program

Firstly, download and install the program on your Mac computer and then run it. Once it is started, you will see the main interface of the software.

Step 2. Add media to the timeline

After running the program, now you can start editing your videos. This software offers you two ways to add the media. Choose the file and then drag and drop the file to the location where you want on the time. The other method is to press right-click +Ctrl key on the media you want to place on the timeline and choose any of the options given below.

Step 3. Trim video clips

If you want to trim the videos you can do it from the beginning or end of the video. To trim videos you can move the mouse to the left or right position from wherever you want to trim the video. You can also trim the video from the middle of the clip.

Step 4. Split video clips

To split the clip place the play head on the timeline at the exact position from where you want to split the video. Once you place the play head on the exact position of the timeline, right-click on it to open the menu. Choose the split option from the menu to divide the video into two. Other than split operation you can perform other operations like crop, rotate or flip the video to make the movie more interesting and attractive to engage the audience.

Step 5. Share your video

Wondershare Filmora software allows you to share your videos in any video format you want to. You can save your video in MP4, FLV, AVI, VOB, 3GP, etc. formats. So, once you are done with the editing of your software you can save it in any of the video formats. Save the video file in your system so that it could be played on your laptop or mobile phone. You can upload the edited video on any of the social media platforms like YouTube and Vimeo.

As soon as you finish the project, click on the “Export” option. Once you click on it, choose any of the mentioned options given in the picture.

Format: Save your work in any of the file formats that allow you to play video on your computer.

Device: Save the video to the file format that lets you play your video on mobile devices, game consoles.

YouTube: You can share your work on YouTube in any file format.

DVD: Save your video to a DVD or save it as an ISO image file.

Conclusion

This is the information about how to edit videos on iMovie with the help of iMovie itself and the best alternative. iMovie is a good option for you to do basic editing of your videos, but if you need more advanced features, you can use Wondershare Filmora for Mac. With the help of Filmora, you can create singing, dancing, cooking, and sports videos. Therefore, this application gives you flexibility in almost all aspects. After iMovie, Filmora works best for all the professionals there. You can create videos with Filmora Mac to show your creativity.

Liza Brown

Liza Brown is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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