Getting video into iMovie

Let me get right to it, getting videos from my iPhone to my iPad is a major pain in the ass! I love iMovie on my iPad but getting clips into my camera roll on the iPad is a hassle, you have 3 choices to import video to the iPad:

• Camera Connection Kit


• Import via iTunes


• Email yourself the video

I have tried to use Dropbox but it does not work with video, with photos I could use Dropbox and then save the image to my camera roll but that does not work with videos. I have also tried using other applications on my iPad such as GoodReader and I run into the same problem as I do with Dropbox, no way to save to the camera roll nor does it allow me to access iMovie using the 'Open In' feature. The problem with video is that is does not sync via PhotoStream on iOS devices and iMovie does not have iCloud support yet. Hopefully Apple will address this in the next few months, maybe with iOS 6? I would love to see iMovie sync not only with other iOS devices but also iMovie on my Mac. I am unsure why Apple is hesitant to allow this, maybe Apple is trying to save people from filling up the storage on their iOS devices considering how large HD video files are?

Camera Connection Kit:


Connect your iPhone or video camera via USB cable to the Camera Connection Kit¹ adapter then plug the adapter into the iPad, you will notice that the Photos application will open and you will see in the top menu bar that you are in 'Camera'. Now select each video or photo that you want to import to your camera roll and tap the blue 'Import' button. You can differentiate the photos from the videos by looking for the video camera icon, the icon will appear in the lower left of any video file in your camera roll. You will also be able to tell which videos you have selected for importing by the blue check mark in the lower right on the thumbnail.



 

 

 

Email:


Emailing your videos is an option but only if they are short videos, normally about 1 minute or less. If you try to email a larger video you will be greeted with the following message:



If you do not own the Camera Connection Kit and your video is really short it is simple to email it to yourself:

Open the Photos app on your iPhone >

Choose your Camera Roll album >

Locate your video >

In the top right you will notice a rectangle with an arrow bursting out of it, tap on that >

Now tap on the video you are wanting to email, you will know you have selected the video by looking at the lower right of the video file, you should see a red checkmark >

Tap the 'Share' button in the lower left >

Email >

Enter your email address, subject and any message you wish to include. You will notice that you have a video file link in the email as well, now just tap send. Please remember that emailing videos may take a tad longer than sending a normal email, but normally you should get it within a minute or two.



If you have the videos on your Mac and you are wanting to email those to yourself instead of syncing with iTunes you can easily do that by opening mail and then drag and drop your video into the subject area of the email and send.



 

 

 

Import via iTunes:


This is the old way of doing things but to be honest it is probably the best way to do them. I normally do not use iTunes for syncing anything to my iPad any longer, with iCloud and over-the-air (OTA) updating syncing with iTunes is not really needed unless I want to transfer video or movies. I really hope that this is something Apple addresses because the iPad is promoted as a post PC device yet I am still needing my 'PC' to use iMovie on my iPad.



First thing you will need to do is get your videos off of your iPhone or video camera. I am going to go in detail on getting them off of your iPhone, I use a Mac so that is what these instructions are for. I don't use Windows so I am unsure about what importing videos entails, getting them onto your iPad would be the same though.

In iPhoto:
Connect your iPhone to your Mac >
Open iPhoto >
Select your iPhone in the left panel>
Create a new event name, this makes it easier to find the folder when you are importing in iTunes >
Select your video or videos. You can either import all or hold 'Command' down on your keyboard and select each video then use either 'Import' or 'Import Selected' >
You either delete the video from your iPhone or keep them on there. You will be prompted to choose in iTunes >

In iTunes:
Now connect your iPad to your computer >
Open iTunes >
On the left, select your iPad under the 'Devices' tab >
In the top menu of iTunes select the 'Photo' tab >
Checkmark 'Sync Photos From' and in the drop down menu select iPhoto >
Now select the 'Selected albums, Events and Faces, make sure you also checkmark 'Include Videos' >
You should see 2 panels - 'Albums' and 'Events' >
Look for your newly created folder that you named in iPhoto >
Checkmark that folder >
Apply

That is it, now your videos will be in your Camera Roll on your iPad. Now when you open iMovie on your iPad you can start a new project and import your videos from the Camera Roll on your iPad.

 

UPDATE: You can also transfer videos using the File Sharing in iTunes as well.

¹ - Make sure you plug the Camera Connection Kit in the iPad not the iPhone. It will not work plugged into the iPhone.