After you capture great footage with your FireWire camcorder, you’re ready to make a movie. First you’ll need to connect your camcorder to your Mac, and then copy footage from the camcorder into iMovie, a process known as importing.

iMovie makes importing easy. When you import video into an iMovie project, it automatically divides your video into individual clips, making it easy to edit.

Steps

Import your camcorder video into a new project

1. Use a FireWire cable to connect your camcorder to the FireWire port on your Mac, then switch your camcorder to VCR, VTR, or Play mode.
2. Open iMovie and create a new project by clicking the Create a New Project button or by going to the File menu and then choosing New.
3. Type a name for your project and choose a location. By default, iMovie chooses the Movies folder on your hard disk.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to select a video format. You’ll probably want to use DV, unless you’re using an HDV camera, an iSight, or you shot your video in widescreen format. Click Create.
5. iMovie will open your new project in camera mode and display the message Camera Connected.
6. Use the playback controls in iMovie to rewind to where you want to start importing your video.
7. Click the Import button. Watch as the clips appear in the iMovie Clips pane. iMovie will create a new clip whenever you stopped the camcorder while recording. This helps you easily identify scene breaks.
8. When you’re finished importing, click the Import button again to stop the import process.
9. To review your imported video, select a video clip in the Clips pane and click the Play button.
10. Save your project by choosing Save Project from the File menu.