Can I do this with iMovie???

[Grandpaw]

I will be going to Disney World on the 16th and I want to shoot the fireworks with the video on my Nikon D7000. There will be background music and narration playing during the fireworks while I am getting it on video.

My question is if while I am shooting the fireworks with my d7000 on a tripod can I also use my D90 to take some video of my grand kids and keep the sound continuous from the D7000 and add some video from the D90 to make it more interesting.

Also can I keep the sound from the D7000 and edit in the video and audio from the D90 and hear both audio tracks at the same time? Thanks for any tips or ideas that you may have to offer, Jeff

[Skyman]

yes, but it might be a bit fiddly. Once you start multi tracking audio and video is where the base level editing programs start to fall over. Most of them let you play the sound from the visible video track only plus a music track as continuous. You might find that it is easiest to import the audio into garage band and mix it how you want it, then import that back into Imovie as the music track. This would allow you to have a continuous piece of audio that wasn't affected by the editing of the video.

A program like premier elements or final cut pro X will allow you to layer as much video as you want and give and you would have more accurate control over volume levels etc so you can balance the audio more effectively. Personally I would recommend final cut pro x but premiere elements is half the price and will still do a great job, including allowing you to export to dvd or for Iphones

[Grandpaw]

I haven't made a movie before, is this more than a beginner would be able to handle? I do have garage band but have never used it either. Thanks for your reply, Jeff

[Skyman]

There is no such thing as "more than a beginner can handle"

Yes, it is more than a beginner would normally do but this is more a reflection of the fact that most beginners don't have a narrative in mind when they sit down to edit. This results in people just cutting out the really bad footage from their video rather than using the footage they have to tell a story.

Also I am sure I movie can do this, but there might be a less than obvious way to achieve it - the garage band option is probably just one way of doing it. There would most certainly be several others, much like in photoshop you can get similar results through a variety of different tools

I have Imovie, although my mac is dieing at the moment and I cant afford to fix it, but I tend not to use Imovie as I have access to premier pro at work and I get frustrated by the limitations of imovie. This doesn't mean that Imovie isn't a very capable program, more that I have been trained with more advanced applications and I the differences irritate me.

The idea to cut shots of your grand kids reactions to the fireworks into the video of the fireworks is a great

[Grandpaw]

I think the smartest thing I can do at this late date is to shoot with both cameras and figure it out after I get back. If I have the footage to work with it really won't mater how long it takes me to figure it out and get it done, Jeff

[Skyman]

Sounds like a plan!