iLife '04: The Missing Manual

Importing iTunes Music

Nothing adds emotional impact to a piece of video like music. Slow, romantic music makes the difference between a sad story and one that actually makes viewers cry. Fast, driving music makes viewers’ hearts beat faster—scientists have proven it. Music is so integral to movies these days that, as you walk out of the theater, you may not even be aware that a movie had music, but virtually every movie does, and you were emotionally manipulated by it.

Home movies are no exception. Music adds a new dimension to your movie, so much so that some iMovie fans edit to music. They choose a song, lay it down in the audio track, and then cut the video footage to fit the beats, words, or sections of the music.

Tip

Even if you don’t synchronize your video to the music in this way, you might still want to experiment with a music-only soundtrack. That is, turn off the camcorder sound, so that your movie is silent except for the music. The effect is haunting, powerful, and often used in Hollywood movies during montage sequences.

If you’ve been using iTunes to manage your music collection, you’re in for a real treat. iMovie is well integrated with the other programs in its iLife software suite—including iTunes. (If you’ve created homemade songs in GarageBand, this feature is your ticket to importing them into iMovie, too. They show up in the iTunes playlist named after you.)

Here’s how you go about choosing an iTunes track for your movie:

1. Click the Audio button, if necessary (Figure ...