iMovie 4 and iDVD 4 for Mac OS X [Paperback]

Jeff Carlson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 10, 2004

One makes cinematographers out of the masses; the other gives the masses a medium on which to distribute their masterworks--and that's just the beginning of what Apple's iMovie 4 and iDVD 4 are capable of. This task-based guide is the key to using them effectively and creatively. In friendly Visual QuickStart fashion, this volume uses step-by-step instructions and loads of illustrations to get you up to speed quickly in the process of making movies with iMovie 4 and creating Hollywood-quality DVDs on which to share them (as well as photos, music, and more). You'll find all the basics covered here--from shooting and capturing footage, viewing clips, and working in the iMovie timeline to dragging and dropping iMovies into new iDVD projects and adding GarageBand-created songs to your newly created DVDs. You'll also find detailed explanations of all of the programs' niftiest new features, including iDVD's more than 20 new themes (from Wedding to Drive In!) and iMovie's in-timeline editing capabilities.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

One makes cinematographers out of the masses; the other gives the masses a medium on which to distribute their masterworks--and that's just the beginning of what Apple's iMovie 4 and iDVD 4 are capable of. This task-based guide is the key to using them effectively and creatively. In friendly Visual QuickStart fashion, this volume uses step-by-step instructions and loads of illustrations to get you up to speed quickly in the process of making movies with iMovie 4 and creating Hollywood-quality DVDs on which to share them (as well as photos, music, and more). You'll find all the basics covered here--from shooting and capturing footage, viewing clips, and working in the iMovie timeline to dragging and dropping iMovies into new iDVD projects and adding GarageBand-created songs to your newly created DVDs. You'll also find detailed explanations of all of the programs' niftiest new features, including iDVD's more than 20 new themes (from Wedding to Drive In!) and iMovie's in-timeline editing capabilities.

About the Author

Jeff Carlson divides his time between his Seattle Web design company, Never Enough Coffee Creations (necoffee.com), and writing for publications such as Macworld and HOW Magazine. He is the managing editor of the weekly electronic newsletter TidBITS (www.tidbits.com), author of iMovie 3 for Mac OS X and Palm Organizers: Visual QuickStart Guide, and co-author of Real World Adobe GoLive.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 3 Sub edition (May 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321246632
• ISBN-13: 978-0321246639
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,022,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Computers & Technology > Apple > iMovie + iDVD

More About the Author

I'm a freelance writer and designer. I've authored and edited a number of best-selling books about video editing, Web design, the Mac, and Palm devices. I'm a columnist for The Seattle Times, contribute regularly to magazines such as Macworld, HOW Magazine, and Photoshop Elements Techniques. The closest thing I have to a real job is Managing Editor of TidBITS.

See my personal weblog at http://www.jeffcarlson.com/, and my iMovie/video editing weblog at http://www.jeffcarlson.com/imovievqs/. More information about my work and current projects can be found at http://www.necoffee.com/.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Learning iMovie & iDVD, November 3, 2004

By 

V. Maciulski - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: iMovie 4 and iDVD 4 for Mac OS X (Paperback)

iMovie and iDVD are two of the iLife programs that ship with your Macs. Many folks think that, because they are the "simple or basic" programs, that they don't have a lot of features or can't do professional looking movies.

The fact is, you can get VERY nice results with these applications. There was a fellow who won a prize at Sundance Film Festival for a movie he made entirely with a cheap miniDV camera and iMovie. If you have budding aspirations as a filmmaker, or you just want to video a birthday party or wedding, you can get great results, too.

Jeff Carlson's book is aimed at beginner-to-intermediate users. It takes a visual, step-by-step approach. Everything is explained well and accompanied by lots of photos.

I was really pleased to see that he devotes the first 50 pages of the book to explaining how to use the DV camera, including how to take good video to start out with. He covers focus, depth-of-field, lighting, composing your shots, how and when to move the camera, etc. The term "garbage-in-garbage-out" was invented for computers, but it is really true with video and photography, as well.

Part 2 covers iMovie in logical order. He starts with an overview, then tells you how to import footage, edit video, edit still pictures for video, edit audio. He pays nice attention to the audio portion, including how to adjust the audio that came with the video, adding sound effects, music from iTunes and GarageBand, and adding audio from other sources. He also covers transitions, adding titles and making them look good on-screen, and adding visual effects to the movie.

Carlson calls Part 3 "Sharing." He tells you how to get your finished movie back to video tape or export it in other formats, such as QuickTime. Depending on the QuickTime compression scheme, you can put your movie on a CD, the web or send it via e-mail. And ... of course, you can send it to iDVD, complete with chapter markers.

Part 4 tells you everything you need to know to make a DVD. He tells you how to apply themes, customize them, create sub-menus, add chapters to an existing iDVD project, and creating slide shows with background audio. Then, he shows you how to create a project archive and burn the DVD. He finishes up with a chapter on troubleshooting.