iMovie 3 will be available as part of iLife along with iPhoto 2, iDVD 3, and iTunes 3. iLife ships with every new Mac. iMovie will also be available as a separate download.


The revolutionary digital video application that helped Mac users create a million mini-documentaries seen by their friends and relatives around the world now brings several dazzling new features to your screen.

One of the things you’ll appreciate about the latest version of iMovie is how seamlessly it connects to the rest of the iLife applications to let you do even more with your digital video. That means you can, for instance, bring in and send out digital media content directly from application to application, import audio from iTunes and images from iPhoto, and create chapter markers in your movie that automatically turn into scene selection menus in iDVD.

New visual effects
You’ll love the iMovie 3 visual effects like Lens Flare, Aged Film, Letterbox, Thermograph and Electrical Arts. Want to sprinkle a glittering trail of fairy dust over a festive scene? iMovie 3 lets you do that, and even lets you decide at which point in the frame you want to use it. iMovie also lets you add haunting visual effects like fog and ghost trails to your movies in seconds. What’s more, you can bring your digital stills to life with professional documentary-style impact, using the Ken Burns pan and zoom effects you’ve seen in PBS specials.

Sophisticated audio controls
Now you can do even more with the powerful new audio controls in iMovie 3. For starters, you can have three audio tracks, counting your production sound (that is, the track that gets automatically recorded when you capture digital video footage on your camcorder). iMovie 3 offers flexible volume level customization on all three audio tracks. You can, for example, mute unwanted production sound, pump up the volume on poorly recorded audio tracks, and adjust the volume of entire tracks up or down. 

Convenient chapter markers
The fact that you can now add chapter markers to your movies is a benefit that extends beyond iMovie; it lets iDVD create scene selection menus so your viewers can jump directly to their favorite scenes. What’s more, adding chapter markers is as simple as placing the playhead wherever you want them and then clicking Add Chapter. That enables you to give your new chapter a title or a number for easy reference, and makes it easy for your friends and family to skip around and find their favorite scenes within iMovie. 

Send your iMovie to DVDs — instantly
The moment you save your movie, it’s ready for iDVD — no more export processes. Once you put in your chapter markers, click on the Create DVD project button, and you’ll be immediately taken to iDVD. No need to export your digital video footage to QuickTime first. iMovie 3 takes you directly to the iDVD environment. 

Stunning Skywalker Sound Effects
iMovie 3 comes with an exclusive collection of Skywalker Sound Effects from seven-time Academy Award winner Gary Rydstrom, sound designer and Director of Creative Operations at Skywalker Sound. Now you can score and mix your movies with sound effects created by the same sound wizards who revolutionized the audio industry, and created the incredible sound effects for just about every blockbuster movie in the last two decades — including Star Wars, Jurassic Park, Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Saving Private Ryan and Titanic, just to name a few.

Make your own movies
For the benefit of those of you who’ve never used this most appealing of applications (especially the legions of Windows users who are reading this), iMovie is a digital video editing application that’s so easy to use, you don’t need a manual to get started making your own movies. And if you’re wondering what you’ll make movies about, the answer is just about anything you’ve captured with your DV camcorder and digital camera. You can even use iMovie 3 with digital photos, pulling in all your favorites from iPhoto and creating your own documentary.

iMovie lets you import your digital video footage with one click, and automatically separates the scenes for you. And that’s when the fun starts. iMovie lets you pick out the good parts, snip out the slow or boring parts, shuffle scenes around to your heart’s content, and add sound. There are three ways to add sound to your movie: use one of the included sound effects, add a musical track from a CD or your own iTunes music library, or record your own voiceover. When you’re done editing, you can add text as end credits, rolling commentary or opening titles. You can choose from several styles, and decide on a text color and typeface. By then it will be time for sharing your movie — and for getting started on your next one. iMovie 3 has you covered there as well, with integration with iDVD. Soon your masterpieces will be beautifully displayed in your family’s DVD shelf right along with the Hollywood blockbusters.

iLife - $49.00
Available January 25th from the Apple Store.


check out http://www.apple.com/imovie/ for more info and demos