Share your iMovie projects from your iPad

29 October, 2012 by Steve Paris

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Once you’re chosen your shots from the library, made the edit as tight as possible, included a soundtrack and a handful of sound effects, and added your titles, it’s time to share your work with others.

You can, of course, pass your iPad around or use the AirPlay feature to enjoy your work in your living room’s largest screen thanks to the Apple TV, but this only caters to friends and family in your immediate vicinity. What about all those that live in different towns, or countries? Or your friends on Facebook, or followers on Twitter?

As you might expect, sharing your work is an integral part of iMovie and you can access many different sites straight from your film’s Share menu. In addition to that, you can also send your project to another iOS device, and we’ll be exploring both these features here.

Vital Info

Device: iPad
Difficulty: Intermediate
Time required: 20 mins

What you need:

iMovie ($5.49, App Store)
iOS 5.1 or later

Step 1: The Share Icon

Go to iMovie’s front page (the one that looks like the outside of a cinema). Swipe left and right on your projects’ posters until you find the one you wish to export. Tap on the Share icon at the bottom of the interface to reveal a menu, offering you numerous options.

Step 2: Social media sites

You can send your film to four different social-media sites: YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo and CNN iReport. Whichever one you choose, the process is the same: log into your account, fill in the required fields, then tap on send and your film will start uploading.

Step 3: To the Camera Roll

If none of these options appeal, you can save the film to your iPad’s Camera Roll. Tapping on this option reveals another choice: the dimensions of your film. You can select anything from 360p up to 1080p (if you shot at that resolution – otherwise the larger options won’t be available).

Step 4: Exporting your project

The Send Project to iTunes option is interesting as its purpose is different from all the others. Rather than exporting your film for others to enjoy, it readies the project so you can edit it on another device. Tapping on it does that, but how do you access your project in iTunes?

Step 5: Connect to a bigger computer

Connect your iPad to your Mac or PC. In that computer’s iTunes app, locate your device, then click on Apps. Scroll down to the bottom of that screen to get to the File Sharing section. Click on iMovie to find your project. Save it somewhere on your computer. Connect another iOS device, and drag the project on to that device’s iMovie spot in its File Sharing section.

Step 6: Importing your project

Next, open up iMovie on your other iOS device. The project you transferred won’t be there yet. To add it, tap on the open rectangle icon with an arrow pointing into it – a menu will appear so you can choose which project to add. Select it and it’ll be copied to iMovie.

Macworld Australia