Great iMovie Tip

iDVD Submenus and Scenes
By Christopher Breen (mac911@macworld.com)

Mac 911 Tip of the Week

This past week in the Mac 911 blog, I discussed the trials of turning iMovie chapters into individual iDVD clips.
Read the tip

Brand-new forum visitor, wired35, had a follow-up question on the subject, writing: "Can these new videos have their own chapter markers and allow a submenu to select individual scenes in just that video? [I shoot weddings and] I would like to make the ceremony one separate video with a few chapter markers in it and the reception as another separate video with a few chapter markers in it. Then the DVD would have both separate ceremony and reception videos rather than playing just one long movie of the entire event. I'd then like to be able to make a submenu of chapter selections for each video."

The answer is yes. All you need to do is to create the separate scenes in another iMovie project -- the ceremony, for example --add chapter markers, add appropriate fades at the beginning and end, save the iMovie project, and add it to your iDVD project.

Specifically, in the iDVD project, create a location for your scene. For example, if you have a bunch of these scenes -- Ceremony, Reception, and Consummation, for instance -- create a new submenu in the project's main screen and call it Scenes From a Marriage. Open this submenu by double-clicking on it and then drag the iMovie project built around this scene from the Finder into the iDVD window. (Note that you can't create a scene in iMovie, choose Share -> iDVD, and expect the scene to be added to an open iDVD project. iDVD will create a new project if you try to do this. When you drag an iMovie project file into iDVD, it will be added to the current project.)

The name of the scene or theme will appear in this screen followed by two commands -- Play Movie and Scene Selection. Like all menu items within your project, you can rename these. If the bride and groom care to watch that scene from beginning to end, they'll select Play Movie. While watching this scene they'll be able to quickly jump to the next chapter using the Next button on their DVD player's remote. If they choose Scene Selection and press Select, they'll be taken to a screen that lists the chapters within the scene. They then select the chapter they want to play, press Select, and relive just those specific treasured moments.