Last week Steve Jobs announced the new iMacs and iLife 08 which included a complete rewrite of iMovie. 

You can view the special event here:
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/r27842e/event/index.html?test=q1wa2sz3x


Before I begin my review of Apple's new iMovie 8, readers should have this understanding. I have used iMovie since it's inception. While I have long ago graduated to Final Cut Pro and other more professional video editing apps. iMovie 6 HD still remains a favorite time saver and video editing app.  As I have made past contributions on iMovie here at Internet Video Mag, in the iMovie section  it only seems appropriate that I be the one to write this review.


Since Apple released iMovie 8 they must be working overtime listening to complaints from those who have come to love iMovie's timeline simplicity. Before you get excited, only to be disappointed. iMovie 8 is not
an upgrade to iMovie 6. It is like a weird cross breed between Windows Movie Faker and iPhoto.  In fact it should of just been called something else because - THIS IS NOT IMOVIE!


The system requirements for iMovie 8 eliminates anyone with a G4 Mac or older single processor G5.

iMovie8 requires a Mac with an Intel processor. That means a Power Mac G5 (dual 2.0GHz or faster), or an iMac G5 (1.9GHz or faster) I understand an older Single chip G5 Power Mac does not have enough power.


Putting this in perspective, my friend has a less then two year old G5 iMac still under Apple Care extended warranty.  He could run all of Apple's pro applications including Final Cut Pro, Aperture  Photoshop CS3,  Adobe After Effects, but not iMovie 8? No wonder so many mac users are not thrilled with this, better then 1/2 the installed user base of
currently running Macs - can't use it! What is Apple thinking?


iMovie 8 is completely rewritten. Clearly a whole new platform. To be fair to Apple, iMovie was never intended to be a full featured advanced video editing program. It is a way for the home user to simply and quickly take some video footage and post it online.

iMovie 8 meets that objective. The only logical explanation for killing the features previously present in iMovie is that Apple decided to take iMovie
back to basics. Previously all iMovie updates were that - updates and improvements, new features, added benefits. Not this time. With iMovie 8 - you get a whole lot less. (To some that may be more.) 


In my perspective, Apple just killed a perfectly good product. Then renamed a new product with the iMovie name. Who was the marketing genius who thought up new Coke? Take the #1 selling soft drink in the world and change it? Apple must have hired this clown in their marketing dept. Now we have Coke a Cola Classic. Could iMovie Classic be the fix for the predicament Apple has found themselves in?


Almost everyone I have spoke to that uses iMovie is NOT "upgrading" to 8. Apple apparently is listening to the uproar of complaints. They just announced a free version of iMovie 6HD for those who purchase iLife 08.


Gone is 3rd party plug in support, so any transitions or special effects you have for iMovie will not work with iMovie 8. Gone is the ability to use the rubber band effect for simple basic audio adjustments, Where
is the export BACK to my video camera? I can feed it in - but can't export it back out to my camera? How did this feature get overlooked? Or was it intentionally taken out?


 I was hoping Apple would announce a way to actually burn a HD video on a DVD. That would be a nice leap forward, and I'm sure it is coming. Because while you can edit HD footage in iMovie, the ONLY way to enjoy
true HD quality is to export the project back to your HD cam and then play it from your HD camera on your HD television set. Mac Superdrives with HD burning ability do not exist. All your HD editing ends up squished down to standard DV specs using iDVD. 


I kept looking for something I liked in iMovie 8, something new, different and useful.... so I would have something positive to write in this review.

 
There is a preset export option for the iPhone plus a few more new ones like for YouTube.  Just as iPhoto allows you to organize your photos, the new iMovie 8 will allow you to organize all your video footage under something new called "Events" this is kinda cool, but wait what is happening here - WHOA!!!! ALL my videos are showing up below - where the timeline use to be?


This would be great if I was a Mom and only had a limited amount of videos of the kids and holidays, it would all be there for me, But I have tons of video saved.... and no way do I want it all put before me to
re edit again. In my case this was almost comical as it just kept loading in. I like the idea of a video library application to keep all my video organized. But as a separate feature or application.

TIP* This is what I use for now. Movie Jukebox
http://www.mindjar.com/download.html Keep all your video organized. It is free, so download and try it out.


 If I wanted to import some footage from an old clip, Using iMovie 6HD that is already as easy finding the old saved clip in my movies folder,  drag and drop.  I don't view this as an improvement exactly.  The
skimming slide feature that allows you to view a clip in faster than real time, That is deserving of praise! Very smooth and fluid. However, in iMovie 6, you do have  a similar scrubbing feature. Although it would
be best described as frame by frame restricted, and more like a choppy flip book. Still it works, and I can't help but think this enriched "Skimming" feature could of been part of the iMovie 8 update that should
of been.


iMovie 8 also now wants to automatically adjust the colors of my video. I couldn't find any way to disable the auto color correction in the preferences pane. Gone also is any ability for the user to control or
modify any colors.

 Some have suggested this is Apple Computers way of forcing people to buy Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro.

I don't believe this is the case. Mom is not going to spend 1000.00 for editing software to edit footage of the kids from her 299.00 Best Buy consumer special video cam. She isn't going to spend 300.00 either for the express version. If she didn't know any better she will be thrilled with the stupid simple iMovie 8 interface to pop up a video on .mac or
YouTube for the family to view. She is going feel like a genius!


I once suggested to Apple that they had iMovie for free and Final Cut for $1000.00 bucks but nothing priced in between. Soon after a lite version of Final Cut dubbed Final Cut Express came out. I am sure it was not because of my sole suggestion, but I like to think that Apple was listening to me. I hope Steve Jobs reads this next part and is listening.


What should happen in my view, is the continuing evolution of the timeline based version of iMovie as users have come to know and love it. Support for third party plug ins absolutely must remain. It is the iMovie plug ins from companies such as GeeThree that make all the extra transitions, special effects, title effects etc... that convert the very basic iMovie into a spectacular, relatively easy to use beginner video
editing tool.

Many of these effects and transitions are NOT available for Final Cut or Adobe Premiere. They are also available for iMovie at a fraction of
the cost of say Boris FX. 

Apple blindsided the dozen or so companies that make these plug ins with iMovie 8.

While I understand Apple must be guarded in
releasing new product information in a very competitive landscape. The last thing that even the plug in developers expected with the release of iMovie 8 was to have their throats slit by Apple, all of whom are huge mac loyalist.  SLAP!!!!  No more 3rd party plug in support in the NEW version of iMovie. Not a very nice way to thank those who have been
contributing to your software application.


I spoke to Bruce Gee, Founder and CEO of GeeThree the other day and he suggested that he will be flipping hamburgers soon as his product (currently also found in Apple Stores) and any future contributions to
iMovie have essentially been cut off.

A message   http://geethree.com/slick/imovie8.html  regarding the iMovie 8 update says in highlighted red text " Long live iMovie 6" ... Gee Thanks.


Cutting to the core, I suspect Apple has also under estimated how many professional video editors like myself use iMovie... not for a final edit, but as a useful tool in their video tool chest. For example in my work flow, I almost always start my video edit in iMovie. Why?

Super fast & easy cut cut cut clip clip clip culling of all the best shots to use in my project in a simple timeline interface. No in and out points to set. Then I take my raw cut first edit into my pro app. This is a huge time saver in crunching down footage,  and my time is money. Often I will also find myself exporting out of FCP a small clip into a
.Mov file. Then put it back in iMovie just to create a unique transition not available for my Pro app and then I put the iMovie made clip back in my FCP project.


 So is this the end of iMovie as I and many others have come to know it? How can Steve Jobs make everyone happy?


As I stated above,  Apple should of called the new iMovie8 product something else, but they can't easily undo that now. What they can do is offer this limited flexibility new app as a freebie iMovie app,  part of
iLife 08 and keep the original intent of simplicity for novice users. Also make it free for the PC Windows users who have been stuck with Windows Media Maker. It works for that. (That is if their PC's have the power required to run a windows version of it.) Why not?

iTunes is for PC, Quicktime works on a Windows based PC and Safari for Windows is out. iMovie ( renamed Magic iMovie perhaps) for Widows seems like a smart move for Apple trying to win over new users and
customers.


At the same time rather then just completely throw away everything iMovie has become over the past decade. Perhaps Apple should take the original iMovie timeline based platform in a whole new direction...
one that would satisfy all of us "complainers" .  Plus provide a competitive video application in the 99.00 price range as many Windows based video editing applications are priced. A good example is Adobe
Premiere Elements 2.0 for Windows. A mac version is rumored to be in the works, and one would expect it to match the 99.00 PC version price point. Apple currently has nothing to compete at this price point.
Final Cut Express is 299.00


Continue the evolutionary path the timeline based iMovie has taken by offering iMoviePRO for 99 bucks. New improvements include 100 standard transitions and effects as opposed to the 10 or so standard. I'm sure
Bruce Gee will happily sell Apple a fat bundle of plug-ins to pre-install or more accurately make a part of every copy of iMoviePRO The time to develop this and bring it to market could be swift. 

Support for all third party plug ins is reinstated so users can choose from 100's more transitions, titles and special effects. Other new improved features may include. The ability to add up to 8 separate adjustable audio tracks. 16 would be sweet. The Mac Genius guys can figure out how to incorporate this in a few days. Keep the numerous features like chapter markers for iDVD, and the seamless flow between things like importing pictures from iPhoto or audio from iTunes. Simple rubber band style Audio adjustment. Expand upon the selection of available bumpers or themes. Give us the improved scrub thru "skimming feature", that alone would of made me happy. These are the kind of upgrades
iMovie users were looking for. Not the death of iMovie - and something new called iMovie.

Send your feedback to Apple here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/imovie.html 


This is a timeline of Apple's iMovie evolution.

Please note that there was no iMovie1 - it was just iMovie. Then came iMovie2,3,4,5,and 6. There is no such thing as iMovie 7, (which is also a good name for iMovie taking a step back) Just don't confuse that iMovie 8 is also called version 7.0