iMovie '09 & iDVD: The Missing Manual

Menu Audio

Some of Apple's canned themes come with musical soundtracks, and some don't. If you'd like some music to play during, for example, the Shelves theme, you'll have to install it yourself.

You can also replace the music that comes with any of Apple's themes with a song you like better. In the case of musically challenged themes like Anime Pop, this ability is a true blessing, possibly saving lives and sanity. Installing a menu-screen soundtrack is a heck of a lot like installing a menu-screen background movie.

POWER USERS' CLINIC: Designing Video Loops in iMovie

Background videos don't have to jump between the end of one play-through and the beginning of the next. If you're willing to take a little time in iMovie, you can eliminate sudden visual changes that create unpleasant jumps. Consider these techniques:

Fade Out. Create a smooth fade-out at the end of the movie clip, and a smooth fade-in at the beginning, using the Fade Through Black transition style described in Chapter 5.

Use Cross Dissolve. If you prefer, you can design your movie so that the end cross-dissolves into the beginning each time it loops.

Use the Split Clip command in iMovie to break off the final 4:02 (four seconds, two frames) of your movie. Now drag this clip to the front of your movie, and add a 4-second cross dissolve between this clip and the original start of your movie; finally, export your work.

You can choose a different length for the crossfade; just make sure that the moved ending clip lasts at ...