Clip connections and the magnetic timeline

After the practical focus of the keyboard shortcuts earlier in the chapter, it’s time to return to a little bit of editing theory to help you understand the intentions behind the way that iMovie is designed. In this section, we’ll be looking at how Apple’s timelines differ from other NLEs, and how its “connected media” works in practice.

Timelines – tracks versus connections

So far in this book, you may have noticed me talking about “tracks”, often in the case of audio that we have added to a QuickTime movie, a Magic Movie project, or to the background of a Movie mode project. In editing, a track is a layer that isn’t physically connected to anything above or below it—a track acts like a see-through shelf that media sits on.

You have already used a track-based editing program: QuickTime Player. There is one video track, rigidly set in place. If you add audio, it...