In the last tutorial, we created a new iMovie from scratch, which is now very empty. Our next step is to start building our project from raw footage. Your raw footage can be imported in to the Event Library directly from your camera. If already on your hard drive, the footage should be listed in the Event Library as an Event. If you don’t see the video you need, it’s very easy to add it to the Event Library.

• In the Event Library, select the storage location for your video. Right- click on the appropriate drive and choose from several options from the pop-up menu. The most general option is Import Movies.
  
  
• When the window opens, select a file to open. You can choose to add the footage to an existing Event in the Event Library or Create a New Event and give it a name. You can also choose to copy the files or to move (and delete the existing file) the original footage.
  
  
• Finally, you need to tell iMovie to Optimize the video as Large or Full, which it will do before it adds it to the Event Library. Your choice here will determine the size of the file.
  
  
• You will see the event added to the Event Library and thumbnails of the footage will appear in the Event Browser, which is to the right.
  
  
• We won’t need the Event Library, so let’s close it by clicking the toggle button at the bottom of the panel. This will give use more space for the footage in the Event Browser.
  
  

Let’s take a look at the raw footage in the Event Browser. As you can see, iMovie has automatically created thumbnails of the footage. By default, each thumbnail represents 5 seconds of the footage. If you prefer to see more or less, use the slider control at the bottom right of the panel.

As you move the slider to the right, you will see less thumbnails and less frames of the footage because more frames are stacked inside each thumbnail. Drag to slider to the left to see more thumbnails, each representing fewer seconds of footage. As you increase the number of thumbnails, you will see more frames.

The button on the left of the slider toggles the audio waveforms, which represents the audio part of the footage. When togged on, the waveforms will be displayed underneath the thumbnails.

Above the Event Browser and on the right is the Viewer panel for previewing your project or the raw footage. To resize the Viewer smaller or larger, click Window - Viewer and choose small, medium or large.

To scan over the footage, move your cursor over the thumbnails. You will see a preview in the Viewer. This is called Skimming. As you move your cursor, you will also see the Playhead (vertical line) move with the cursor. The Playhead represents the current location of footage being displayed in the Viewer.

Now that we have our raw footage, we can begin to build our project by selecting the best of the footage and adding it to the project's timeline.

Apple, Motion, iBooks Author, GarageBand, TextEdit, Pages, iMovie and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. BellaOnline is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Screenshots used by permission.