PE3_iMovie

PE3_iMovie_Beat Marker

Ok, Beat Marker sounded cool to me from the start, soooooo…….

Actually, Beat Marker was a technique to synchronize the showing of still photos or Video footage in iMovie to the “beats” of the audio track in the movie…… (It’s much easier than it sounds, I assure you…)

Open up a new project in iMovie and Make sure NO Transitions are preselected when you start out. The reason I will explain later as it will make more sense then.

Find a track in the iMovie Jingles that you like and drag into your Project Library. click the gear in the top left corner to open the inspector where you can adjust audio and video clips. Select Clip Trimmer.  

Press spacebar to play music and insert Beat Mark Marker where you hear a drum, or a Beat. The Button for a beat marker looks like a music note, 

but you can also insert a marker by just pressing the letter “m” when you get to a point where you want to insert a marker.

(Note: It is important to insert markers, but not too crucial that you get it exact….if you are having trouble look for the “peaks” or the “Spikes” in the waveform of the audio. The tutorial suggested that you play the audio, and insert by clicking “m”. this worked for me because I could then focus solely on where I heart a beat and insert accordingly.)

You can now add video in your Event Library or Stills from iPhoto to your Project library. The video or still photos automatically snap to the beat markers where you inserting them. 

Play the movie to try it out.

Reminder: check project properties and make sure No Transitions are preselected. The reason for this is that any transitions will override any beat Markers you place in the audio.

If you don’t want to Snap to Beats, got to View menu and de-select Snap to Beats If you don’t want to use the markers anymore, go back to audio in the clip Trimmer and Right Click (or Contrl Click) on audio track and select remove all beat markers

This tutorial isn’t one that could just be shown simply as screen shots so I am also attaching a small video sample that I did for this exercise. 

JCIII