Exporting your Edited Movie
Now that you have edited your video, it is time to tell iMovie to convert it to a format ready for the Web. Your edited video, in its raw format, is far too big in file size to use on the Web. In converting it, you will be making a lot of compromises. These compromises will make it possible for an average Web user to see your movie. The screen size will be smaller. The quality of the video and audio will not be as good. But the thing to remember is that putting your video on the Web makes it accessible. So in streaming your video, you trade easy access to your content for the quality of the viewing experience.

Click the pop-up to toggle from Camera to QuickTime export mode.

Pull down the File menu and choose Export Movie… from the menu. This will start iMovie's conversion process and launch a wizard that will guide you through the process. The first screen that pops up assumes that you wish to export your edited movie back to your camera. So click the popup menu next to Export to: and choose QuickTime. QuickTime is a digital media system that, among other things, can be used for streaming your video on the Web. Your audience will need to have the QuickTime player installed on their computer to see your edited video. I'll get to that detail later.

Depending on how you wish to use the movie, there are a number of QuickTime options available to you during the export process. I'm going to cover two easy built-in iMovie approaches that work well for your first streaming projects. But as you grow more comfortable with putting your work online, I encourage you to come back to Streaming Media World for tutorials on additional conversion techniques that will allow you to get more streaming quality out of your video.