Moving Camera
     
 
This iMovie exercise teaches:
 


● How to use an animatic to prevision action in a movie.
● How to pace a tracking shot.

(Instructions for Windows Movie Maker are here).
 
  1. Download these images to your computer. (They show stages of a tracking shot entering the set of Cabiria.  
  2. In iMovie, create a new standard aspect ratio movie. Title it, "Cabiria Tracking Shot." In File>Project Properties>Timing>Photo Duration, select "Applies when added to Project" and select "Fit In Frame." Click OK.  
  3. In sequence, now drag Cabiria1.jpg into iMovie. Repeat the process with Cabiria2,3,4,5,6,and 7jpg. (CabiriaThumbnails.jpg illustrates the correct sequence.)  
  4. Double click one of the seven images. Set duration at 12 seconds. Click "Applies to all stills."  
  5. Double click the first still image. In Window>Cropping, Ken Burns & Rotation. In the project window, select Ken Burns. Set the beginning of the shot (the green rectangle) near the outside perimeter of the image. Shrink the end of the shot (the red rectangle) into a smaller rectangle that encloses a detail of the image. Click Done.
 
  6. Using the Ken Burns process, set a beginning and an ending rectangle for each of the seven images.
  
  7. Drag a cross dissolve between each image. Double click any one of the cross dissolves. Set duration to 1.0 (seconds). Click "Applies to all transitions."  
  8. Preview your animatic. It runs one minute twenty four seconds.
  
  9. To alter the pace that the animatic simulates,, double click any one of the images. Set the duration now to 6.0 (seconds). Select "Applies to all stills." Preview again. The animatic now runs forty six seconds.  
  10. To accelerate or slow the pace in specific regions of your tracking shot, double click an image or images. Set the duration for any value other than six seconds. Unclick Applies to all stills. (The extreme close-up final image showing Giuseppe Tornatore's face works well for this purpose.)
  
  11. You're done. Want to play more?  
  12. Add sound. Drag this sawing and this hammering on top of the first image. Drag this crowd (or a different one) atop the fifth image. Drag this 1904 Enrico Caruso wax cylinder opera recording into the work area. Make the studio sound like 1915.  
  13. Export your animatic movie to the world. It may resemble this Cabiria tracking shot animatic.