iMovie Synchronizing video with audio lets you create exciting, memorable moments in your projects. It also lets you create types of projects that pair music and video together to their fullest effect. For example, you could add a beat marker at a powerful moment near the beginning of your favorite song, and then set the title of your movie to appear at exactly that moment.
If you want to pace video in your project with beats in the background music track, go to this topic instead: Synchronize video clips with background music using “Snap to Beats”.
To synchronize project elements with beat markers:
Beat markers appear in the Clip Trimmer and in the Project browser as thin vertical lines with a small dot.
Do one of the following:
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In the Project browser, drag an element in your project, such as a title, a cutaway clip, or a voiceover, so that its beginning aligns with a beat marker.
You drag the colored bar that represents the element you’re moving and align its left edge to the beat marker.
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In the Project browser, move your pointer over a video clip that has elements you want to align with a beat marker, and then choose Precision Editor from the Action pop-up menu (looks like a gear) that appears in the lower-left corner of the clip.
Click the Extras button, shown below. The other elements attached to the clip, such as titles, voiceover clips, and so on, appear. Drag the colored bar for any element to align its left edge with a beat marker.
You can play back your work at any time by moving the playhead (the red vertical line) to the left of the clip you want to see and then pressing the Space bar. Press it again to stop playback.