Wow. I feel about 200 years old right now.

[kate]

So one of the things I love about Macs is how (for me) they are so very intuitive. They just... do what I want them to do. They make sense with the way my brain works. (I can work a Windows machine well enough, but I'm never going to do anything super fancy with my computers, and basically I just want them to work in a way that makes my brain happy. Macs do that. Also, I am not curious about the inner workings of my computer, so I'm happy to let it do a lot of the thinking for me.)

Aaaaaaaanyway... I've decided to start trying to do stuff in iMovie as a prelude to (maaaaaaaaaybe) vidding.

And the first thing I've decided to do is to clip my favorite dances from So You Think You Can Dance into one giant "Kate's favorite" file, so I can watch it whenever I want dancing. (I will probably include Robot Love Story from LXD, too, because :DDDDDDD MADD CHADD.)

So I had my eps lined up with notes on where the clips I wanted were, and I opened iMovie, and I got a project started, and I imported the first ep into my library and... I cannot figure out how to cut it. Like, at all. I have tried everything I could think of. I googled tutorials. When I asked for "beginner" the internet said: "I do not think that word means what you think it means."

So then I tried "for idiots" because now I feel about three inches tall, and guess what. There are apparently no impolite people on the internet because there is not one "idiot's guide" in all of the listings. I just get the same tutorials that I got for "beginner." Which is frustrating, because when I go through the "this is how you open the program" and "this is how you start a new project" and am all *eyeroll* because THAT shit I can figure out... then the guys are all like "so you just grab this clip here and put it in!" and I say: HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GRAB THAT? My screen does not look like that. It does not do that (and yes, I checked the versions etc.).

5-year-olds do this shit with their eyes closed and I cannot actually clip one little bit of a longer movie. I feel so incredibly fucking stupid and old right now. And yes, I'm weepy (at least partially because it's that time of the month). So I'll be over here, doing something I know I can do: writing. Possibly on paper with a pen because holy shit I do not feel like looking at a computer right now.

Please note: While I'm leaving comments on because I am not *that* fragile a blossom, I don't actually want help with this. Help will not lessen my frustration (it will in fact increase it). I have calmly set aside the program (if you know me, you know this is an impressive feat (because it did not result in my computer being thrown across the room)) and will leave it alone until I can get home to my wife and have her watch things over my shoulder. I don't want to think about this anymore. I'm not giving up permanently, I am just giving up for the week. Thanks.

Comments

[cesperanza]

FYI if it makes you feel better I am also a mac person and I also found Imovie totally unintuitive and unusable and closed it. And I can edit in FCP!

[silverflight8]

I have loathed iMovie for almost precisely that reason for ages. In general, movie editing programs: ewwww. I don't like Macs though.

[asecretchord]

You have described my relationship with Photoshop perfectly. Few things make me want to hurl my computer across the room in frustration, but that one? Does.

[silverflight8]

*nods* It frustrates me because I can use Lightroom really well and it makes perfect sense to me, but somehow I'm struggling SO HARD to make the jump to Photoshop. And Lightroom = Photoshop Lightroom. I just don't know, man! Sometimes stuff just don't click easy I guess.

[grammarwoman]

...Can I let out a small cheer for you vidding, and maybe sharing your results sometime when you're finished kicking iMovie's ass?

[synecdochic]

The process in iMovie is so bad (it's not really designed for video editing or what we think of as "vidding", it's more designed for "I want to put my home videos on DVD") that there are, in fact, many other programs that were created just to fill in the gaps of what iMovie does so poorly. Heh.

(I find it so funny that I could figure out Adobe Premiere in like 3.2 seconds, but iMovie and Final Cut Pro both baffled me for years. I guess I just think like Adobe.)

[marina]

*ALLLLL THE HUGS*

As people above have already said, this is really not you being terrible at figuring stuff out, it's stuff being impossible to figure out. I could write out a TIRADE (and once actually did write a long post) about how incredibly difficult vidding is to get into because you need to figure out so much stuff and there are NO good resources for basic things and you end up using a whole bunch of programs and it's just... it can be REALLY difficult to get started unless you have someone experienced right next to you to tell you what to do. It's a huge problem, IMO, because it's a real barrier to people getting into vidding, especially people who aren't from places with a high concentration of fan people.

So, I am so sorry, vidding is terrible, you are wonderful, you did all the right things.

[recessional]

This is definitely why I have never got into vidding, despite being rather entranced with the medium. I look at everything, get overwhelmed and have my head explode, and then go write something instead because I can do THAT in freaking Notepad if I have to. >.>

[jesse_the_k]

And the "something for Idiots" folks are fierce about enforcing their copyright AND trademarks, which is why you couldn't find it online.

[lunesque]

I ended up using VirtualDub to clip for my vids. But then again, I use Windows MovieMaker Live to put everything together, so that's kind of embarrassing. /o\

[which]

iMovie used to be less bad than it is. They seem to be doing that thing where mac programs start out intuitive and as they get more complicated the interface changes to mimic the interface of some more popular program, generally for Windows (I have no idea what program that might be. It just happens a lot with mac programs).

[laisserais]

iMovie, as with most Apple branded products, in their extreme hubris, has very little helpful documentation. It's like, it's so easy, it's actually hard. Every time I figure out something, I smack my forehead and get resentful. lol

iMovie's interface's metaphor makes very little sense, imo

FWIW, it's easiesr to chop up vid files in Quicktime, if you are looking at an entire ep, and then import them into iMovie. If you are working with smaller files, they're much easier to see. (eta: I mean, smaller files are easier to see laid out in iMovie, rather than a whole ep's file. Because the frames lay out from left to right.)

Also hooray for vidding! :D

[which]

I'm a graphic designer, and I mostly work in print, but I've gotten a few assignments in iMovie based on the principle of "Huh - you can make the blinky box do things."

I do wonder if I would have been able to in the current version.

[adafrog]

ITA about macs being great. And really, my mom in her 70s can totally make movies and shit, and I can't even use Garage Band. *rolls eyes at self*