Playing with iMovie and iDVD

Last Friday I got the chance to use iMovie and iDVD 08 for the first time. Friday morning we had Alexandra's pre-school graduation,* which I taped using our Sony Handycam. Judith also took some stills using my Sony DSC-P50 digital camera. (Both cameras are vintage 2001 but still work fine.)

After getting home I used iMovie to get the video off the Handycam onto Rohan via FireWire, then arranged the clips into a movie. I didn't do any editing, my skills aren't there yet. I did add several of the best still shots to the end of the movie. They fade in and out using a "Ken Burns" effect. Also, I added a couple of Allman Brothers songs to the movie: Blue Sky at the beginning and Little Martha at the end. It's amazing what a difference a soundtrack can make.

Once the movie was done I had to export/render it so I could burn it to disc using iDVD. The latter also enabled me to add a menu screen to the beginning, offering a choice of several different themes.

All in all the result came out great for my first home movie. I'm not going to post it to YouTube, but it made the wife happy. And when Momma's happy, everyone's happy. ;)


* {Grumpy Old Fart: When I was a kid we didn't have graduation for pre-school. Grumble. Grumble.}