Making a Movie with iPad 2 and iMovie App

One of the features of the iPad 2 that is not available on the original iPad is the camera mode, which allows you to take video clips or photos. With these video clips and photos you and iMovie app available in the iTunes App store, you can edit and share these video clips with others.

My granddaughters were here for a visit yesterday and I thought I might try out the new iPad 2 video taking features. Of course, I am not one to read instructions and usually find it more fun to explore apps and devices by the trial and error method. So I took out the new iPad 2 and clicked on the camera icon, moving the icon button on the right hand side of the screen to the video position. I then clicked on the record button in the center of the app to start recording. I realized early on in the recording that holding the iPad 2 in the landscape mode that I was not getting the full range of the action of my granddaughter performing her gymnastic maneuvers. So I rotated the camera to the portrait mode to finish recording her acrobatic and jump rope maneuvers.

When I played back the recorded video, I soon realized that I had part in portrait mode and part in landscape mode, which did not look right. As I had purchased the new iMovie app and had not tried it out yet, I was elated to realize that somehow Apple had realized that many of us novice camera operators would make this mistake. It wasn't obvious to me how to edit out goofs (delete, split and rotate clips). I tried all the obvious icon buttons in the iMovie app, tapping the clips, etc.

I noticed the "i" on the left side of the iMovie app screen and was pleasantly surprised to see all the things I wished to do with this first video production to make it tolerable for viewing and sharing with others. The app has a nice help built in, one of the things that Apple has always been great at providing for us novice or beginners.

Within a few minutes I was splitting, deleting and rotating clip sections, and adding theme music and sharing with youtube.

Here is a sample of the video. The quality of the video is pretty good as well. I find that when I use the iPad 2 to take a photo or video and the lighting is good the clip is good, when the lighting is poor the video or photo is grainy.