Cut your first feature with iMovie

Get to grips with movie editing in this quick-start guide

REQUIRES iMovie 10 for Mac, some video footage you will learn How to cut together your footage, and add transitions and titles. IT WILL TAKE 60 minutes

If you thought iMovie was for turning your amateur footage into equally amateur faux movie-trailers, think again. Stick to its templates and filters and you’ll achieve somewhat hackneyed results. But aim a little higher and you’ll find a competent video editor that makes it easy to cut together a great video.

That’s not all, though – adding picture overlays, audio and transitions are all simple to do. Even tasks that normally take more advanced (and expensive) editors, such as stabilising a shaky clip, are often little more than a click away.

For this tutorial, we’re going to cut together a movie from a selection of clips. So, shoot a variety of clips of about five seconds each, then import them into Photos – iMovie links up seamlessly with that app, enabling you to import directly from its library. Once your clips are in that app, follow our quick-start guide. Let’s get to work! Dave Stevenson