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Portrait ratio imovie

Hi I use imovie 10.3.5 and I would like to make a clip for youtube shorts (portrait ratio).


I looked this up and found a thread in the community stating I can click the crop icon and then set the settings I want, but I don't seem to have the same imovie version or something, anyways, I don't seem to get that option.


Also someone suggested starting off with a portrait clip, imovie would automatically make the project portrait ratio, also that doesn't work. Does anybody have any idea how I can do it?


Thanks in advance!


Marc


MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Mar 7, 2023 4:20 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 7, 2023 8:46 AM

Can you clarify a bit? As I understand your post you have landscape clips that you want to crop and display in vertical mode. Is that correct? Post back if you mean something else.


To crop to any aspect ratio that you want, you must do that in the Project browser view, not in the timeline. So, click on the project's name under the Project Media item at the top of the sidebar. Select a clip in the Project browser pane that appears. Click on the crop tool in the tool bar above and to the right of the timeline (the one that looks like intersecting angles). That will cause a little Crop button to appear just above and to the left of the preview screen. Click on the crop button and an adjustment box will appear in the preciew screen. Drag the handles at the side and corners of the box to get the crop dimensions that you want. Then click on the blue reset button above and to the right on your screen. That will set the crop. Then drag the cropped clip to the timeline. Select the clip in the timeline. Do Edit/Paste Adjustments/Crop. Select one or more clips in the timeline. Do Edit/Paste. That will paste your crop into all the other clips that you selected.





-- Rich

6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 7, 2023 8:46 AM in response to Sticks 2911

Can you clarify a bit? As I understand your post you have landscape clips that you want to crop and display in vertical mode. Is that correct? Post back if you mean something else.


To crop to any aspect ratio that you want, you must do that in the Project browser view, not in the timeline. So, click on the project's name under the Project Media item at the top of the sidebar. Select a clip in the Project browser pane that appears. Click on the crop tool in the tool bar above and to the right of the timeline (the one that looks like intersecting angles). That will cause a little Crop button to appear just above and to the left of the preview screen. Click on the crop button and an adjustment box will appear in the preciew screen. Drag the handles at the side and corners of the box to get the crop dimensions that you want. Then click on the blue reset button above and to the right on your screen. That will set the crop. Then drag the cropped clip to the timeline. Select the clip in the timeline. Do Edit/Paste Adjustments/Crop. Select one or more clips in the timeline. Do Edit/Paste. That will paste your crop into all the other clips that you selected.





-- Rich

Apr 9, 2023 4:23 PM in response to Rich839

Hi Rich,



So I did follow the process and yes I can crop the clips inside the project media. But now the next problem is when I share the whole project to a .mp4 on my hard drive, iMovie adds black blocks left and right so to make it landscape again. (see screenshot of the mp4)



Do you know a trick to get a "portrait" end product?


Greetings,


Marc







Apr 10, 2023 8:58 AM in response to Sticks 2911

Yes, I do know a trick to get a "portrait" end product. There are three ways that you can do this, but the one described below is the easiest.


The procedure involves using the crop tool rotation controls to Rotate the clip so that it is sideways. It will fill the screen with no black bars, but in a sideways configuration. Export it sideways. It will export with no black bars. Then open it in QuickTimePlayer and do an Edit/Rotate Clip to rotate it right side up again so that it is vertical. There will be no black bars. More details below.


Here's the vertical clip selected in the timeline. It has large black bars on each side. If you export it that way the black bars will remain. Click on the clip in the timeline to select it. Then use the crop tool's rotation rectangles to rotate it sideways.



Here's the clip rotated sideways.



Export the sideways clip. Open it in QuickTimePlayer. Do an Edit/Rotate Clip. Save. Your final product will

look like the vertical screen shot below, with no black bars.



-- Rich


Portrait ratio imovie

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