Learn - iMovie 10 Edition 4+

I didn’t get past the first few minutes of the narration when I decided this program is not for me. I listened through the speakers and then switched to headphones. I find the audio is difficult to understand. Either it’s the recording or the narrator or both. I have no trouble understanding the audio of the Tutor for Lion and Tutor for Maverick from Noteboom Productions. I will buy theirs and take the loss.

I had used iMovie a few times and had managed to create some movies, but I found the iMovie interface unintuitive in places (for example, if you have a second video, it is anchored to the first one with a blue pointer. I’ve spent hours trying to move the blue pointer—trick is to just highlight and drag the whole video where you want it—simple, but not obvious). I was looking for a product that would get me from “I can make it work fairly well” to “I know exactly what this product can do and how to make it do it.” This course filled the bill. The course is not narrated by the same narrator used in other MacU courses. It is narrated by Bruce Macbryde, who is Australian. It does take a bit to tune your ear, but 5 minutes in, it sounded normal. Bruce is a professional videographer (check him out) and clearly knows what he is talking about. I really like his approach of “looking over his shoulder” while he does something—I like this approach much better than simply a walkthrough of what the menu items mean—it was goal oriented. Bruce provides his email address in the video and I emailed him with a couple of questions—he responded promptly and answered my questions—you don’t see that often! There is one weakpoint in the tutorial—it doesn’t cover the Trailer function in iMovie. I mentioned this to Bruce and he indicates he intends to update the course to include that. For the price you cannot go wrong with this course.

I have purchased Learn iPhoto 11, Learn Pixelmator, Learn Numbers and others. My latest purchase was based on the excellent experience with the other “Learn” APPS that I bought. This one is not the same as any of the others. It lacks the step-by-step instructions of the other APPS from the MAC U. The instructor seems to jump around. He also has an Austrailian accent, but I did get used to it. I highly recommend any of The Mac U tutorials other than this one. On the plus side, there were some points that I found useful, but only after completing "Tutor for iMovie" from Noteboom Productions. I would suggest getting this one first.