Creating special effects

Adding special effects to your video is pretty easy too. Here’s one that makes a video clip look like it came from a really old reel of film:

1. Click a clip in the storyboard to select it. If you’re following along using the sample clips from the companion CD-ROM, choose Clip 02, which is probably the last clip in your storyboard.
2. Open the list of video effects in your video-editing program. In iMovie, click the Effects button under the browser window. In Windows Movie Maker, click Video Effects under Collections on the left side of the screen.
3. Click an Aged Film effect to select it. In iMovie, there is only one Aged Film effect. In Windows Movie Maker, scroll down in the list of effects and choose one of the Film Age effects. It doesn’t matter if you choose Old, Older, or Oldest.
4. Apply the effect to the clip. In iMovie, click Apply at the top of the effects window. In Windows Movie Maker, click-and-drag the effect onto the clip on the storyboard.
5. Click Play in the preview window to preview the effect

Again, if you’re using iMovie, you will probably have to wait for the tiny red progress bar on the clip to finish before you can preview the effect. These are just a couple of the cool things you can do with digital video. Part III of this book helps you explore the wonders of video editing in greater detail. So break out your director’s chair and get ready to make some movie magic!