Combining effects – creating compound clips

Whether you’re trying to edit footage from three cameras or want multiple PiPs, iMovie’s limit of one connected video layer comes up very regularly as a roadblock. Luckily, there’s a simple – although not ideal – way around this: turning two clips into one compound clip. This is quite a simple process, but there are a few things that can help:

• A new project dedicated to your compound clip
• Plenty of space on your hard drive, or external storage space
• Some time and patience for exporting and reimporting clips

Creating compound clips in iMovie revolves around a few simple steps:

1. Complete a fine cut with two video layers, making sure everything is to your liking.
2. Export that fine cut to a master copy.
3. Reimport the master copy, now one layer, and add a new layer as connected media on top of that.

Here’s the rub: because we’re exporting and reimporting...