iMovie Your Event (source) video may contain sections that you don’t like or that you might never want to use in a project. For example, there might be several frames where the image is blurry or chaotic, or frames where the imagery isn’t particularly captivating.
You can easily mark the clips you like and the clips you don’t like as you review your source video. When you’re ready to make a project, or play your video for your friends, you can focus on your best footage by choosing to display only your favorite video.
You can delete rejected video to free up space on your hard disk.
To mark video using basic tools:
In the Event browser, select a frame range, a clip, or multiple clips you want to mark.
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Do one of the following:
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If you like the video, press the F key or click the “Mark as Favorite” button.
In the Event browser, a green line appears at the top of frames you’ve marked as “favorite.”
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If you don’t like the video, press the R key, press the Delete key, or click the Reject button.
The marked video disappears from view. (If, however, you’ve chosen All Clips from the Show pop-up menu below the Event browser, you still see the rejected video.)
A red line appears at the top of frames you’ve marked as “rejected.”
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You can also mark video as “favorite” while you’re playing back footage in the Event browser. Move the playhead (the red vertical line) anywhere before the beginning of footage you want to mark, and then press the Space bar. Press the F key to mark the start of the favorite range, and press it again to mark the end of the range. Continue marking as much footage as you want as the video plays. To stop playback, press the Space bar again.
To mark video using Advanced Tools as you skim video:
You can make the pointer into a “tool” to mark any video you select as “favorite” or “rejected” as you skim it. Depending on how you like to work, this process can speed up how you sort video for just the best footage.
Make sure Advanced Tools are turned on.
Click to select the Event you want to mark in the Event Library.
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Click the “Mark as Favorite” (the solid star) or Reject (the red “x”) button.
Notice that the pointer’s appearance changes, indicating that it’s now a tool.
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In the Event browser, drag across the thumbnails of any clip to mark a range of frames, or Shift-click to mark an entire clip, as “favorite” or “rejected.”
You can do this as many times as you like.
If you want to switch markers (for example, if you want to change from marking video as “favorite” to marking it as “rejected”), click the other button, and then continue selecting video.
Note: If you select a frame range before clicking a tool button, the button icons change (a plus sign appears on the button), indicating that they’re not tool buttons, and the pointer functions as it does when Advanced Tools aren’t enabled. If the buttons are in this new state and you want to use Advanced Tools, click anywhere outside of the clips, and then click a tool button.
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When you’re finished with the tool, click the Pointer button to leave tool mode.
To unmark video:
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Make sure the video clips you want to see are showing in the Event browser.
You might need to choose a new option from the Show pop-up menu (shown below) below the Event browser so that all the clips you need to access are visible. (For example, if you need to see rejected clips, choose All Clips or Rejected Only.)
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Do one of the following:
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If Advanced Tools are turned off, in the Event browser, select the video you want to unmark as “favorite” or “rejected,” and then press the U key or click the Unmark button.
If Advanced Tools are turned on, in the Event browser, click the Unmark button (shown above), and then drag across the thumbnails of any clip to unmark a range of frames, or Shift-click to unmark an entire clip.
In both cases, the green or red line at the top of the video disappears.
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