How to split a video clip in iMovie 08

Sep 2007

iMovie HD (06) has a nice little function that splits the video clip at any point you want.

With iMovie 08 there is very little reason you would want to split the clip, so the oh-eight doesn’t have this option. But if you really want to do it, there is a way around. The entire work is done in the event pane, the lower half of the screen.

Here is a clip that we want to split in two.

First, we need to spread the clip wide in order to enhance the selection precision, so in the lower right corner of the screen you need to select 2 sec or shorter time.

Now we click on the clip where we’d like to split it…

…then click and drag one side of the selector towards the other so we actually select the shortest possible time, e.g. 0.1 sec.

Right clicking the selection gives us the contextual menu, so we select Reject Selection

Dropping only one frame results in the clip being split in two.

Simple as that.

Software, Tips

Comments

Richard Kimber

September 20th, 2007 at 5:21 AM

Nice one thanks. That had me stumped.
Richard Kimber

September 20th, 2007 at 5:26 AM

One problem. If you try and drag one of the two new clips into a second event, the other follows.
Richard Kimber

September 20th, 2007 at 6:17 AM

Sorry for the multiple posts. The final step is to send rejected clips to the trash. This separates the source files.
Rick K

July 20th, 2008 at 9:12 AM

So, this tip – is awesome. It saved me about an hour. Thank you tons!
Martin

August 26th, 2008 at 11:24 PM

“With iMovie 08 there is very little reason you would want to split the clip”. Typical. Rather than admit a Mac product is defective because it isn’t designed to do what it’s supposed to do properly, the apologists try to pretend that the user is at fault for doing something ‘unnecessary’, or unlikely to be necessary.

Here’s a reason – I’m making a DVD. The material is too large for one DVD so I need to make a part 1 and part 2. The place where I want to make the cut falls in the middle of one of the clips. That’s a perfectly good reason. Why isn’t clip splitting designed in? Pathetic.

I have to work with a Mac. I’m really getting fed up with the insistent ‘Macs are the future, Macs are so much better’. I don’t mind progress, but they’re NOT! Macs are advertised as being ‘good at the fun stuff’ (Mac vs PC ads), like video editing for example. But you’re saying iMovie 08 doesn’t have a clip splitting feature? You’re having a laugh – this is REALLY basic stuff!

Its constant niggles like this which are convincing me that the Mac is not better for advanced users who want to do things properly, UNLESS you’re prepared to splash on FCP, but that isn’t a fair comparison is it! (and clip splitting is NOT advanced)
ungeziefer

December 5th, 2008 at 3:09 PM

While I disagree with Margin about Macs in general, I have to say that iMovie 08 really annoys me. In all honesty, it’s almost easier to use Final Cut than monkey around with the new version of iMovie. The old version was SO simple and easy to use, like most Mac software. Ironically, it seems like this new version is targeted primarily at home movie makers — yet the software is more complicated and difficult to use…

The fact that there is (apparently) no way to stop the playhead at any given point is just infuriating. And, yes, splitting clips is a basic function.

(To be fair, you can split clips, you just have to select a region first. But since you can’t even add in/out markers, this makes precise editing quite difficult…)

This is a good tip — it seems overly complicated, though, especially when all you had to do before was hit Command-T… Ah well. I’ll give it a shot.

Thanks.
Richard S

January 19th, 2009 at 4:49 PM

This will take a very long time in iMovie ’08 with large files.

The .dv files I am working with are up to 2 hours in length (about 22 gigs). As stated the original file remains unsplit until the rejected selections are sent to trash, for me that takes about 30 minutes of pinwheeling to complete.

Behind the scenes, the source file (.dv file in my case) is moved to a temp directory within the event folder, then the new clips are copied out of it into new .MOV file. After all the clips are copied out, the temp folder is sent to the trash. You can watch files in the event folder appear and grow in size during the process.

iMovie HD appeared (keyword appear) to split the .dv files much much quicker, however it wasn’t splitting the source data at all, and only changing pointers in the project file to the source media. As far as I could tell as the original .dv file in the media folder was never touched, even when you selected empty trash, and clicked ok to the warning about irreversible consequences the source .dv file remained intact in the media folder. The splits and clips were all just pointers within the project that referenced the original media non-destructively. I guess that if ALL clips referencing the media were trashed, maybe then and only then the entire source media file would be trashed.