PE1_iMovie: I LUV Lynda!!!

Hi everyone! It's now time for me to share what I've learned this week. My class has been focusing on practical experiences with the iMovie software by Apple. This post  is part of a three part series detailing what I gained out of my interactions with this software as well as my new favorite Web 2.0 tool  :0) Now before you go getting worried about my post, The Lynda I'm talking about is a part of the dot com family and is a lovely website dedicated to teaching and training people in a safe web environment about all things Web 2.0 and beyond. I met Lynda.com this month and I must say that I am in love! The site is totally organized in to categories of various program and software training videos that you can access with a Lynda.com membership. I have already learned so much from watching expert created content which in my opinion has been broken down in easy to understand and easy to absorb portions like this:

I already knew a little bit about creating videos with iMovie from some of my previous courses but what I really like about this training is that even from the introduction I began to learn tips and tricks about my video making that will cut my production time in half.  I had no earthly idea what certain buttons were for and I avoided them for fear of ruining my projects or creating a problem I couldn't undo. For example, I like the feature that allows me to have more workspace for editing by reversing the edit and events screens like this:

Notice the difference? I think this feature is awesome especially for longer video content that needs more room  for visible thumbnails or images or for more critical/detail editing. I definitely wish I had known about this feature two months ago!

Another thing I found in this iMovie tutorial is the feature dealing with adding clips to my editor section. I have been so frustrated with trying to drag and drop video clips from the events section to the editor that I almost gave up "filmmaking". I really like the highlight and "e" button shortcut som much that now I don't do it any other way. Here is where I started working on my commercial video focusing on a Web 2.0 tool I decided to try. The event doesn't match right now but I just wanted to demonstrate the amazing "e" shortcut that has totally changed the way I see iMovie. Just click on the little screenflow below and don't laugh at my dis-techability (Ok you can laugh if you want to):

 

Well, this is all for now but I will return to give you a little more of what Lynda.com has taught me about iMovie. Let me know what you think of what's happening while I learn to Make IT work 4 me.