In my last article on iMovie, I led you through how to import your video into an iMovie project. But we are a long way from getting the video online if I leave you right there. In this, the second part of my series on using Apple’s iMovie for preparing streaming video, I will walk you through the basics of editing.

To edit in iMovie, simply drag the clip from the Shelf to the Clip Viewer.

Of course, a lot of the editing process is about creative choices. You decide how to arrange your clips in a way that communicates exactly what you want to say. That is what makes your streaming movie distinctly yours. So at this point in the process, you begin to leave behind the technical side and become a true artist. But if one of your goals is to stream your video over the Web, you can make some creative choices that are better than others. That will be the subtopic to this article. Not only will you be able to edit your video with iMovie, but you will also be able to edit a video so it will stream well.

Of course, this article cannot be a complete reference to iMovie. I will show you some basic steps. But as I recommended in my last installment of this series, I encourage you to spend a little time going through Apple’s built-in iMovie tutorial. Once you have acquainted yourself with the program, you can use this article as the basis of your first real world practice.

Not Just For iMovie
While this article will be specific to iMovie, a basic video editing application that ships with pretty much every Macintosh now sold, that does not meant that you cannot apply it to your personal editing system. You might have to do a little extra research but many of the tips and techniques will apply no matter what tools you have at your disposal.

So with the ground rules now set, it is time to get down to business. On to editing…