Step Six: Add Titles and Text
No movie is complete without a title, and all the great movies have credits at the end.
You can add titles, credits, and other text to add to the overall polish of your movie.
Text doesn’t have to just sit there, either. You might have text bounce in, do a
cartwheel, or even change color and shine. iMovie HD offers you many choices of title
styles. In this step, you’ll add a title to your movie and learn how to place it over a
background or over a video clip.
The Titles pane, shown below, provides all the options you can select for different
title styles.
You can place titles and text directly over a portion of video, or you can create black
clips or color clips that provide a solid background for the text. If you add a black or
color clip, remember that you are also adding a bit more length to the movie.
To add a title:
1
Click the Editing button, then click the Titles button at the top of the Editing pane.
2
Select a title style in the list.
A preview appears in the iMovie monitor. Experiment with different styles until you find
one you like.
∏
Tip: You can move the playhead along the scrubber in the iMovie monitor to control
the preview. To preview the effect repeatedly, select the Loop checkbox.
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iMovie HD Tutorial
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3
Type the text you want to appear in the text fields below the list of titles.
If the title style can have more lines of text, you see a plus sign (+) next to the text field.
Click it to add another line of text. You can do this as many times as you need to, or
until the plus signs stop appearing. To remove lines of text, click in the field you want
to remove and click the minus sign (–).
4
Choose a font style from the Family pop-up menu. Try different fonts until you find one
you like.
5
Choose a style for the title (for example, bold or italic) from the TypeFace pop-up menu.
6
Move the Size slider left or right to set the font size.
7
Click the Color box to open the Colors window, shown below. Then click colors in the
Colors window until you find one you want. Close the Colors window when you’re
done.
Depending on the title style, you may have other options as well. For example, if the
title has motion, use the arrow buttons to the left of the text fields to choose the
direction the title moves. When the title or text is set up how you want it, you can place
it in your movie.
8
Select the clip in the clip viewer where you want to place the title.
9
Select the “Over black” checkbox if you want to add the title over a black clip. To add it
directly over the video clip, make sure “Over black” is not selected.
10
Click Add.
If your video clip is longer than the duration of the title, iMovie HD splits the clip at the
point where the title ends. You can delete the split-off portion of the original clip or use
it in your movie.
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iMovie HD Tutorial
To change the color of a black clip:
1
Select the black clip and choose File > Show Info.
2
Click the Color box.
3
Choose the color you want in the Colors window.
4
Click Set.
Once you add a title to your movie, you can always make changes to it. Just select the
title clip in your movie, make the changes you want, and click Update. To remove a title,
select the title clip and press the Delete key once. If you need to make the same
change to more than one clip with text, select them all, and make the change once.