Review: iMovie
May 21, 2018
Review: iMovie
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with iMovie
I used iMovie a bit in college, and then recently reoriented myself with the software to be more familiar with its use and modern practicality. iMovie can act as a quick internal software for fast video exporting. iMovie can also be used by amateur editors looking to learn a tiny bit about video production and editing workflows.
- iMovie is free for Mac users which makes it easily accessible for those interested.
- iMovie is a great tool for someone who has never touched editing software before. The interface is arguably not user-friendly, but for its purposes, it can get the job done.
- iMovie could be a viable option for someone who is looking to shoot some video and quickly drop it into a timeline. The caveat here being you won't want to do much editing at all inside of iMovie. If all you want to do is have a free editing application, maybe including a quick title or two, iMovie can get the job done.
- iMovie includes a library of sounds, transitions, and basic titles. This allows users to quickly use a pre-generated title or transition that looks somewhat professional. The downside is these are all terribly generic features and can be quickly spotted by anyone who has even a lick of video editing experience.
- iMovie does not make it easy to export videos. Users can share to online social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), export to an internal iMovie feature called "theatre", or export a generic file from the software. It's not possible to be specific in your export codec (i.e. you can't choose h.264 or others) and you definitely cannot choose if you'd like a .avc, .mp4, .mov file for export. It's all determined inside the software. A tiny bit of choice could make iMovie more viable, but as it stands, it's far too simplified for most kinds of professional use.
- I stated earlier that iMovie will shine for dropping a clip into the timeline and then heading to export. There is no razor blade tool here, so if you want to cut the video together, you'll need to duplicate your clip multiple times and trim it for jump cuts. If you want to place multiple clips next to each other, still no razor, but you can drop each full clip into the timeline and then trim it to your desired length. It's certainly a chore. There is an interface to do slightly more complicated editing, but it's jumbled and unintuitive.
- Importing isn't as easy as dragging and dropping clips into the editor. Of course, it wouldn't be! You'll need to import clips manually through the editor by navigating your computer's hard drive inside the software and finding what clips you need. To make matters worse, you can't import certain Sony video files, and you can't import Illustrator or Photoshop files like you could with Adobe products. Any sort of professional editing will devolve into a nightmare when using iMovie.
- iMovie is free, so if you just want to mess around with it, enjoy.
- iMovie will be far more work to learn and engage with than it's worth. In professional settings, please look for useful software.
iMovie is just not a professional software, and Apple doesn't advertise it as such.
You'll find the usability of something like Premiere Pro to be far more forgiving and useful than iMovie.
You'll find the usability of something like Premiere Pro to be far more forgiving and useful than iMovie.