Apple Ramps Up Audio Editing in iMovie 11 [UPDATED]

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled iMovie ‘11 during the company’s “Back to the Mac” special media event on Wednesday. The new version of the consumer movie editing application for the Mac sports improved audio editing, along with a new people finder feature and the ability to make movie trailers.

Users can create special audio and video effects in their movies with a single mouse click. For example, 50 percent speed “Instant Replay” effects can be achieved with a just a few clicks. Users can simply drag the volume up and down for a selected range in a clip. 24 fps video is also supported for the first time.

The movie trailer feature lets users import their own video footage and build a movie trailer video, complete with theater-like logos and a movie score recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra. [UPDATE:] To make it easier to build the trailer-style videos, iMove ‘11 also includes a step-through story board view showing what types of clips to use. The story board includes realtime text editing, professional movie-like credits, and includes the ability to filter clips during editing based on the number of people included using “People Finder,” derived from Apple’s facial recognition technology. Apple’s Randy Ubilos provided an amazing demo of some vacations, and iMovie ‘11 turned routine footage into breathtaking Indiana Jones-like trailers.

iMovie 11New Features in iMovie ‘11 presented by Mr. Jobs

Mr. Jobs said that the goal in iMovie ‘11 was to make technically deep special effects available to casual users who don’t want to learn Final Cut Pro.