If I don't click on the downward arrow and choose a different directory, iMovie will create the project in the Multimedia User's Movies folder. That's fine. Just remember what you call the project, so that you can delete it when you are done.
Turn on the video deck. Put in your tape. There is no fast forward and rewind buttons. You rotate the wheel to the left or right as needed. Cue up the tape by pressing play, shuttling left/right, stopping, and then playing. The toggle switch in the lower left part of the screen goest between camera (left) and edit (right). During the transfer it has to be on camera. You should see the image from the video when you play it replacing the blue area of the window. If it doesn't appear you're not in the right part of the tape, or the toggle is not to the left for camera. In rare cases you have to unplug the video deck's firewire cable from the computer and plug it back in, probably before you launch iMovie, after cycling the power off and back on on the deck.
The audio level is adjusted by the slider in the lower right part of the screen, along with the volume up/down buttons on the eMac's typing keyboard. Make the audio just barely audible or off for the transfer so as not to disturb Resource Center users. You may plug in miniphone plugged headphones for your personal enjoyment. Ask the monitor on duty if you need headphones.
Click on the "Import" button a few seconds before the beginning of your tape, so that the transfer process will be rolling and you don't lose anything. If you're want bits of the tape rather than the whole things you can stop and start again after cueing up each section. Click the "Import" button again to stop the transfer process.
Each time you click stop a new clip is created in the squares in the upper right part of the screen. If you let the tape run a new clip will be created automatically after a certain number of minutes have passed.
The clips will appear in the region on the right side of the window:
Once you're finished transfering from the video tape to the hard drive, switch the position of the toggle switch to the scissors (edit) position. Shift click on the clips you want, or select them all (hold down the curleyque key and type "a"), and then drag the clips into the upper part of the timeline.
I now have the various clips from Keith's interview. Take the time now to create chapter markers. It takes a few minutes, but capitalizes on DVD's greater access control. Click on the "iDVD". The area for the clips disappears. Click in the time line to position the triangle at the point where you want to add the marker. There are two in the picture below, I'm talking about the one on the bottom, between "Keith Frank Interview" and the light blue regions. Once you get the playhead in the place where you want a marker, click on "Add Chapter".
Each time time you click on "Add Chapter" a new marker will be created. Name them to make it easier to find things later. iDVD will create a navigation menu later along with the PLAY ALL option, and you'll be able to jump from chapter to chapter with the remote control when you play the disk in a DVD player. Names should be as short as possible, i.e. a couple of words at most.
You can trim the start and end of clips by positionin the cursor at the start or end and dragging. Once you've got all the chapters and all the clips the way you want them, click on "Create iDVD Project". Click on "Customize" to open up the additional settings. You can choose from the different templates. Preview your file to see if you like how it works. When you get it the way you want, click on the "Burn" button and follow the instructions. Click on "Settings" to see how much space your files are taking. A DVD disk will hold about 4.0 Gb after it is formatted.
It may take hours to create the files and burn the DVD. This is a good job to leave running over night. Label your DVD with a Sharpie marker. Use the eject button in the upper right hand corner of the keyboard to open/close the drive.
If you come back later and see the drive open and an error message, it probably worked and just got tired of waiting for you to come back. If the drive is closed you can press the eject key to open it. If you want more copies of the DVD now is the time to do it. Even if you got an error message you'll probably be able to make another disk if you just put in another blank and let it run. You can test your first disk on the DVD player in the back of the Resource Center (ask monitor for help).
Burn as many copies as you want while the image of the project is in memory. When you're done, quit. When either of the programs ask if you want to save changes, say NO. Navigate through the movie folders of Multimedia User (in the Finder) to find your project and drag it into the trash (at the bottom of the dock). Then empty the trash (under the FINDER menu). Please remove as many of your files as possible in order to leave space for the next user. It takes about 10 gigabytes for an hour project, depending on your settings. These get compressed down to fit on the 4.7 Gb disks. Log out (under the Apple menu in the upper left hand corner) when you are done.
Consult the HELP menus in both iMovie and iDVD for more information.
See the eMac page for an overview of the workstation.