Apple Mad Libs (a.k.a. iMovie 11 “Trailers”)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Every summer my family would pile in a van with the grandparents and drive north for a day and a half from Florida to my great grandmother’s house up in Indiana. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my Grandma Williams and visiting her was always a treat BUT it was the trip in the car that I loved most. Car trips meant C.D. players and coloring books, candy from the corner store when we stopped to get gas, but most of all it meant “Road Games.” We’d play the silliest of games, from tracking the alphabet on the back of license plates, to Roadside Bingo, to counting cows. BUT my absolute favorite of all time had to be the Mad Libs. As a kid addicted to reading and words, Mad Libs was pure genius. I now realize how much my family must have loved my 7 year-old self, who annoyingly sat at the back of the van with my fuchsia marker calling for random words and then laughing hysterically to myself as I popped another jolly rancher in my mouth and turned the page to start the process all over again. Thanks for putting up with me guys.

So, Imagine my delight when Apple announced iLife 11 this past week. Sure learning how to play guitar or piano on GarageBand would make me a much more well rounded person.  And yes I absolutely adore that iPhoto is now full screen but lets be honest with ourselves…it was the changes to iMovie that had the kid in me squealing in joy. No wait. That was my adult self we all just heard. Yep there it is again… You see I’ve been editing on FCP for 8 years now and I am, how should we put this, a bit addicted. Like Warcraft addicted. You know, like sit in your chair for 16 hours a day to get one scene right, eat all meals at your desk and sometimes skip showering cause it might interrupt your flow, kind of addicted.

Putting a story together is an amazing high. Admit it! I don’t think people realize how much fun editors are really having. Even though we complain about the hours, the lack of good office chairs, and how we just can’t find time to cook anymore, we get to make magic every freakin’ day! I don’t know about everyone else but I love having magic in my life.  Cue the music. And Enter iMovie Trailers….Where you can just fill in the blanks and add footage just like you would a Mad Lib.

I got iLife in the mail Friday and had it installed by 1. By 1:15 I had a project and 5 minutes of clips imported. By 2:00 I learned how to make my iMovie Trailer into a standalone project but still retain the template timeline. By 2:30 I learned to adjust the times of my clips within the template and how to change font, color and a ton of other cool “surprises.” (see below)  By 3:00 I had a trailer for a short film I had shot with some friends a few months back while testing out a lens we rented from Samy’s. Now I must admit this is my first time ever opening iMovie. I got my start on Pinnacle Studio during the part in my life I like to call “The Frustration with Computers before Apple came into my Life” years. I went straight into FCP with my first Mac and have never looked back. Now if you know me, you know I have been cheating on FCP with MOTION for some time now. I love the way Motion is set up. I love the interface. It just works for my brain. iPhoto has similiar characteristics as well. So when I saw that iMovie has the same said pop up controls with a ton of really cool features I was thrilled.  Simple and Accessible is good.  Having a fun trailer in under 2 hours, is just crazy.

Let’s be honest here everyone….when was the last time you saw a really REALLY cool movie trailer? (besides the new Mortal Kombat one….i know i know it WAS amazing) It doesn’t happen that often does it? It’s just well….trailers have become very formulaic. Shall we say “campy” even?  But that doesn’t mean we can’t love them! An boy do I love me some camp, just like I now love me some  iMovie Trailers. It’s fun. And I cling to fun when I can get it.  I will say that making it into a full fledged project was really what changed the game for me and opened up several customizable options that I believe could be a turned into a time saving template for some situations. Editing takes a lot of time and time is very important to me as I have so little of it trying to juggle lots of projects at a time. I always tell people who want to get into editing that it’s one part story telling, one part time management and organizational skills.  iMovie Trailers might just fall under the time management tab because when it comes down to it it’s not what program you use or the kind of camera you shot it on but how you use your medium to tell the story that counts. And I believe iMovie Trailer Templates are great story telling tools.

Fun Surprises:

- Pop Up Effects/Video/Audio Tab lets you directly customize each clip on the  timeline
- There’s VIDEO Effects: Changes color of clip by genre-esque options: Heatwave, X-ray Vision, Sepia, Cartoon, Sci fi…20 instant video effects in all
- There’s AUDIO Effects: Adds audio filters to the soundtrack or sound FX clip like Muffled, Robot, Small Room, Pitch Up, Telephone, and various others, also 20 instant audio effects;

You can also change the Length of the clip, the speed of the clip, and get this: Stabilization. That’s right, it stabilizes the clip for you. It has a Zoom option, and last but not least some kind of “Reduce the Rolling Shutter” filter…. Interesting. This one needs further research.

- In the Video Tab, You can also effect Color Saturation, Exposure, Brightness/Contrast, Hue, White Balance, and an Auto option.

- In the Audio Tab, You can reduce background noise, normalize the audio, use the equalizer, adjust the volume on a whole, add fade in and fade outs or directly edit the levels on each individual clip via the clips visible waveform’s.

-You can also change out the Titles and Fonts and font colors. There are several interchangeable transition options, voice over recording feature; interchangeable score music options. Hell, the score options alone are worth the 50$!

I’m sure you can do a ton of other things within this program that I’m missing out on at first glance. The best part is that I can’t wait to figure them out and dabble some more.  Now I won’t be turning away from FCP to edit any professional trailers  anytime soon but for new editors iMovie is definitely a great program to figure out the basic fundamentals of storytelling. It’s even got some nice toys that the Pro’s can crush on. My favorite part is how easy it is. Ever closer are the days of holographic editing akin to Minority Report where I just move images in the air with my hands. Kids are especially going to love this aspect of the program and they can do really great things when given the tools. iMovie is definitely one of those tools and I can’t wait to see what people can come up with. Educators and parents rejoice! Oh, and for the Pro’s, I don’t think iMovie is going to be stealing any of your business anytime soon. We’ll still be making movie magic in FCP… but I know where I’ll be headed the next time my family wants me to just “edit them up a little something something” of prom or Aunt Sophie’s 100th Birthday Bash. I can just plug and play in iMovie and still give them something well produced that we can both be proud of.  (Just kidding Aunt Sophie, I worked for HOURS on that “highlight” video…..love the bracelet!)

Using iMovies Trailers takes me back to being a kid again sitting in the back of the family van with my Mad Libs.  The end result of throwing random footage into a familiar template comes out a lot like a Mad Lib reads: It resembles a story we know, but with a few unintentional laughs thrown in when you least expect it.

-DSLRGIRL

P.S. Here’s my trailer for our short, Trigger. Shot on a t2i with a Canon 24-70mm Lens utilizing the Noir Template and the HARD LIGHT Video Effect.