Unlocking Pro-Level Video Creation with iMovie, Keynote, and QuickTime on Mac (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: Every Mac comes bundled with three standard applications, iMovie, Keynote, and QuickTime Player. Now, you might think of these apps as consumer-level toys, even bloatware, not for serious content creation work. I've been a professional video creator for more than three decades, spent 20 years in professional television. And to be honest, the vast majority of videos that I see on YouTube could be made using iMovie, Keynote, and QuickTime Player for the Mac. Any great video starts with a high-quality recording, and you can do that quickly and easily using QuickTime Player. You can record your webcam, your mirrorless camera through an HDMI capture card, or even the camera on your iPhone, all in high-quality ProRes, a video format used extensively in professional editing. And speaking of editing, let's talk about iMovie. Are you making your typical YouTube-style videos with a talking head, some B-roll, text, jump cuts, zooms, and the odd shake effect? Well, iMovie's got you covered. You can even throw in an over-the-shoulder graphic, green screen, some color correction, a few transitions, or a video effect or two if you're so inclined. You can even do some vertical video editing in iMovie. No, iMovie is not Final Cut Pro, or Adobe Premiere Pro, or DaVinci Resolve. iMovie does lack certain pro-level features like a flexible titling tool, and its animation system is very, very basic. But what iMovie lacks in titling and animation capabilities is easily made up for with Keynote. Yeah, you may know it as presentation software, but it's so much more. Keynote's slick, easy-to-use animation system is great for making things like motion titles and explainer animations. It has sophisticated text tools for creating video titles, graphic design features for creating things like eye-catching YouTube thumbnails, and everything you create in Keynote can be easily imported into iMovie for further editing, including with transparency for creating sophisticated video overlays. Oh, and did I mention that Keynote is a high-quality video creation tool in its own right? Along with the ability to create slick, cinematic slide presentations, Keynote has audio and video editing and recording tools for creating things like online course lessons and video lectures. You can even use Keynote to repurpose your traditional horizontal videos into square or vertical formats for social media. Looking to make software tutorials? There are a number of great paid apps to choose from out there, and I use a few of them. But if you're looking for a free, simple-to-use, high-quality screen recording tool, there's QuickTime Player and its companion application, Screenshot, both built right into macOS. QuickTime and Screenshot allow you to record your screen along with a voiceover, with helpful little features like animated cursor highlights. And with some ingenuity, you can even add your webcam to the recording. And if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to make some quick edits to your video, and who hasn't? No need to open up iMovie and create a whole project. You can do simple, quick editing right inside of QuickTime Player. Alright, I admit it. You can't make every kind of video with just iMovie, Keynote, and QuickTime Player. Sometimes you need to look to other tools to create the content you want to create. And I cover a few of those other Mac video creation tools on my channel. But I like to start with tools that are readily accessible, simple to use, while at the same time provide great results. And if you can save a little money along the way, all the better. Because I believe that the majority of people creating video content for YouTube or any other social media platform aren't necessarily interested in becoming video professionals. They want to be able to use the video creation tools well enough to execute and share their vision. And the less friction involved in the process, whether that friction be a steep learning curve and or a steep price, the more likely they are to turn their vision into reality. So if you're looking for resourceful and sometimes inventive ways to create great quality video using the apps bundled with a Mac, with a few outside exceptions, have a look at my channel. And I'll see you in the next video. And if you're wondering, yes, this video was created using iMovie, Keynote, and QuickTime Player on the Mac. And I'll show you right here. Here is the timeline, all the different edits. You can see there's also the music down here. And there is sound effects right here. And these animations were created using Keynote. Here is the Keynote file with all the different animation slides.