iLife '09: Real-world test

iMovie
Did you feel shafted when Apple removed features between iMovie '06 and iMovie '08? Good news -- this is the upgrade you've been waiting for. Back are timelines, dynamic themes, a heap of video effects, speed and reserve play options, and a pack of new title animations. Can we get a whoop whoop?

iMovie has always been fun, but it's climbed a new rung on the ladder of merriment with this revision. A brand new drag and drop editing system makes chopping clips like editing text: highlight the bit you want within your captured clip, then drag it to where you want it in the project timeline. It is, without question, the simplest video editing in history.

More precise editing is handled with a new Precision Editor, should you need more advanced control, which lets you zoom in on your timeline and look at the clip you're working on and the one just before it. It allows you to select the exact moment you want the scene in your movie to transition, and it works beautifully.

True, iMovie is still no pro's tool, and budding film-makers are eventually going to feel patronised by the application's simplicity. But it's a disguise for what is, more than ever, a powerful consumer video editor.

For example, you can easily select, say, 5 seconds of captured footage to use as a cutaway in any scene you're working on. Just plonk it into your project timeline exactly where you want it and a drop-down context menu appears. You can choose to insert it into the current clip or replace the current clip. Or, since we're working on a cutaway scene here, you can just choose to insert the video over the existing audio, or even opt for picture-in-picture.

Green-screening your movies is now possible as well, but the final new feature we want to talk about is video stabilisation. Plug-ins for older software and standalone applications have offered some degree of image stabilisation before now, but iMovie '09 hopes to solve the problem natively.

iMovie's algorithm analyses every frame of your video, processes the difference between one and the next, and compensates for the difference. The result is -- or should be (this is a series of extensive real-world tests for another day) -- a more stable piece of footage, keeping your subjects in the centre of the frame even if your hand was bouncing up and down at the time of filming.

Overall, iMovie is, to us at least, the best reason for upgrading to iLife '09. It might not be sold as the flagship iLife application, but its new features, incredible ease of use and sheer pleasantness to use speak volumes. It'll leave the pros wanting more, but for you and us it makes video editing simple and professional-looking, and anything you make is a couple of clicks away from being on your iPod, iPhone or DVD.