Adjusting the Playback Speed of Your Digital Video

One of the coolest yet most unappreciated capabilities of video-editing programs is the ability to change the speed of video clips. Changing the speed of a clip can serve the following purposes:

• Add drama to a scene by slowing the speed to create a "slow-mo" effect.

• Make a scene appear fast-paced and action-oriented (or humorous, depending on the subject matter) by speeding up the video.

• Help a given video clip better fit into a specific time frame by speeding it up or slowing it down slightly. For example, you may be trying to time a video clip to match beats in a musical soundtrack. Sometimes you can match the video and soundtrack by slightly adjusting the playback speed of the video clips.

Of course, you want to carefully preview any speed changes that you make to a video clip. Depending on the software, you may encounter some jittery video images or other problems when you play around with speed adjustments.

Pay special attention to audio clips when you adjust playback speed. Even though you may barely notice a small speed adjustment in a video clip, even the tiniest speed changes have radical effects on the way that audio sounds. Pinnacle Studio automatically discards the audio portion of a clip when you change the speed of that video clip.

Adjusting playback speed in Apple iMovie

Changing playback speed in iMovie couldn't be easier. If you look closely, you can see a slider adjustment for playback speed right on the timeline. To adjust the speed, follow these steps:

1. Switch to the timeline (if you aren't there already) by clicking the Timeline View button.

2. Click the clip that you want to adjust to select it.

The clip should turn blue when you select it.

3. Adjust the speed slider at the bottom of the timeline.

To speed up the clip, move the slider toward the hare. Move the slider toward the tortoise to (surprise) slow down the clip.

4. Play the clip to preview your changes.

If you don't want to include the audio portion of the clip after you make speed changes, choose Advanced --> Extract Audio to extract the audio and then delete the audio clip after you extract it.

Another neat thing that you can do to video clips in iMovie is to reverse the playback direction. To do so, select the clip and choose Advanced --> Reverse Clip Direction. The clip now plays backward in your movie. To change it back to the normal direction, just choose Advanced --> Reverse Clip Direction again.

Adjusting playback speed in Pinnacle Studio

Pinnacle Studio gives you pretty fine control over playback speed. You can also adjust the Strobe to create a stop-motion effect that you may find useful. The only way you can really know is to experiment, which you can do by following these steps:

1. Switch to the timeline (if you're not there already) by clicking the Timeline View button.

2. Double-click a clip on the timeline to open the Clip Properties window.

3. Click the Vary Playback Speed tool on the left side of the Clip Properties window.

The Vary Playback Speed controls appear.

4. Move the Speed slider left to slow down the clip or move it to the right to speed up the clip.

An adjustment factor appears above the slider. Normal speed appears as 1.0 X. Double speed is 2.0 X, and so on. If you slow the playback speed, a fraction appears instead. For example, half speed is indicated as 5/10 X.

5. Move the Strobe slider to add some strobe effect.

6. Click the Play button in the preview window to view your changes.

7. If you don't like your changes and want to revert to the original speed or strobe setting, click one of the Reset buttons.

8. Click the Close button in the upper-right corner of the Clip Properties window when you finish making changes.

The Clip Properties window closes. If you speed up the playback of the clip, the clip now appears narrower on the timeline. If you slow the playback speed, the clip looks wider on the timeline.